For officials looking to gain that communication edge, the Rapid Responses series will be a great way to accelerate that process. In episode 1, I interact with a few great people from the Crown Refs MENTOR Tier as we talk about everything from how to respond when a coach questions the foul count, how to evoke empathy in the mind of a coach, and fully utilizing the \"I would never\" approach for many different situations.
We also discuss what to say when a coach asks you about your partner's call and being more comfortable knowing that you're going to disappoint the coach at some point and not to fear it. Another great point that the group made was to start thinking bigger and going more macro with your responses because sometimes coaches are so caught up in the moment that a reality-checking response might be highly effective.
Towards the end of this communications training we spoke about why we should stop providing explanations of why we gave the coach a technical foul, and we covered the relationship dynamics between the ref and an assistant coach. We hope this episode helps you add another layer to your communications package!
Here is the Google Drive link that we created from our rapid responses discord channel
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-2nqaujfwBLFOkezx_kyreqWZTlWYI5EQq7t6Ii0xTc/edit