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How to Sway Referees written by Chris Curneen |
Just like there are a million different ways to coach or play the game, there are as many different ways to officiate a game. Every ref is an individual and has their own way of officiating a game. The best way to sway a referee is to figure out that officials’ style and get your team to adapt to their style. Refs are never going to change their style to fit your team, they don’t need to, they are not trying to win. Fortunately, most refs are very consistent, if they don’t allow hand-checking one game they are not going to allow it the next. Once you figure out what a specific ref’s style is, it is easy to adapt. If an opposing team has a supreme shot blocker you would not keep sending your smallest player into the middle to try and shoot over him. The same applies here, if a certain official does not allow hand-checking then don’t allow your team to do it for that game. The same holds true when they are dealing with coaches. Some officials like to have discussions with coaches while others would prefer to come in do the game and never say a word. Often, a team will have a disagreement with a certain official on a recurring basis the reason for this is that the team keeps expecting the official to change their style. It never happens. If you wish to sway a ref in your direction the best way to make that happen is to figure out their style and adapt to it.
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