We’ve seen it again and again: A coach rushes onto the field to break up a fight, then somehow gets dragged into the mix. Before you know it, coaches are throwing punches at one another. Coaching careers are over. Worse, horrific examples have been set.
It’s probably not fair to say “it could happen to anyone.” What can be said is that it’s hard to exclude anyone from the group of coaches who — if all the buttons are pushed in just the right way — something like this could happen.
With that in mind, here are three tips for making the right decisions when the time comes.
1) Know the man or woman across the field or court from you
Building relationships with fellow coaches, even if it’s just for a few short minutes as players are arriving, is a good way to calm tensions when players make mistakes or referees make bad calls. It’s simply easier to assume the worst about someone — to the point that in the heat of the moment you might misinterpret something they’re doing as malicious — if you have no idea who they are.
2) Have a plan
We tell our players all the time to be prepared for anything — and we always practice with that goal in mind. Yet all too often, as coaches, we find ourselves surprised by situations that are actually quite common in sports — and that we should be ready for. Just taking a few minutes each year to discuss with assistant coaches what to do in the case of a player fight, bench-clearing brawl, aggressive spectator or other potentially violent situation can go a long way to calming nerves and putting us in the right track if it dos happen.
3) Study tape
Video is a key part of many coaches’ lives. And just as it can help us prepare our players for upcoming games, or give us ideas for new tactics and strategies, it can also help us understand what to do when thing go wrong. Watching videos of coaches making wrong decisions — and evaluating what went wrong, step by step — can help us be ready to take the right steps when tempers flare.