Steady & Ready

When the crowd is booing, coaches are yelling, and players are complaining, how do we officials respond?  Sometimes, coaches try to intimidate, rattle, and pressure us into making decisions before we are ready in hopes we will think and act for their benefit instead of in the best interest of all parties involved.

So as officials responsible for administrating the game, how do we best handle the challenging situations of stress and surprises? In high pressure situations, we officials need to exhibit two key attributes to smoothly transition through the situations—grace and poise resulting in calm, steady nerves.

Grace and poise are defined as follows:

Grace:  disposition to or an act or instance of kindness and courtesy

Poise: a stable balanced state; gracious tact in coping or handling

When we are able to calm our nerves in stressful situations, we exhibit an attitude of kindness while being level-headed in our decision making and communication. This is a win for all parties involved on the field!

Proverbs 19:11 ESV

Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Solomon, the author of Proverbs and noted in Bible as the wisest king, provides the framework to show discretion—the ability to know the right action for any occasion—having good sense and slow to anger. In a state of calm nerves, we exhibit grace and poise which increases our discretion and reaction.  In situations where we throw our flag, the Referee announces the foul, the crowd starts booing, and coaches start questioning the call from the sideline, our grace and our poise allows us to have a better mindset to address the coach and build rapport and respect while moving onto the next play.

You can’t always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” – Wayne Dyer