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Rick sent the following question:
Right now I am the president of our league and have been since 1994.This past season I stepped down from coaching after 19 years.
My question is how can you be sure that all coaches read the rules of play? We do not want them to memorize them, but just have some basic knowledge of them.
When the season starts and if there is a complaint about something, you can tell right away that the coaches did not familiarize themselves with the rules.
Would it be proper to give some type of quiz or questions we can ask to see how familiar the coaches are with the rules? We don't want to treat them like kids, but we do want some type of uniformity among the coaches. Most of all, we want all the coaches to be on the same page.
What would be the best way to handle or deal with this? Thank you for reading this and for your time.
Hi Rick,
This is an area that should be of importance to all coaches. My feeling would be that it might be good to have a basic clinic, conducted by a member of your officials association that would be required for all head football coaches.
In this clinic, the basic rules of the game could be covered and discussed so that everyone ends up on the same page. The depth and detail of the clinic could vary with the age level of the teams' players. A short quiz could be given at the conclusion of the clinic.
This clinic could also provide an opportune time to plan a short session on important safety and hydration issues during practices and games.
It also might be good to prepare a short written question and answer pamphlet along with the rules of play for distribution to every coach at the start of the season that highlights some of the most misunderstood and questioned rules and penalties concerning the playing of the game.
Sorry to hear you are leaving the sideline as a coach but devoting all of your time and energy as president of the league may provide a way to have a greater positive influence and impact on a much greater number of coaches and players.
I congratulate you for your work and for seeing and wanting to address a constant problem that we find of coaches really not taking the time to learn and understand the rules of the game.
While we should not expect coaches to have the same understanding of rules required by officials, we do need to encourage and aid them to know the basic rules of the game, thus helping them to instruct their players to play the game correctly, and in order to avoid needless confrontations, on and off the field, between officials and members of the coaching staff.
Coach Tom Bass
Coach Tom Bass, the technical writer and advisor for USA Football, is a 30-year NFL coach who has also authored several books, including "Play Football the NFL Way" - the first "how to" book ever authorized and published by the NFL. Coach Bass is happy to personally autograph his books to you. Book ordering information can be found athttp://www.coachbass.com/.
