Use your timeouts!

I was recently conversing with someone about coaching soccer. No big surprise there, right?  This person, whom we shall call Bob, asked me about my relationships with administrators and to describe the most difficult situation I had with an administrator.

I know I smiled and I heard myself chuckle.

These were probably not the first reactions Bob was expecting from me when he asked this question. What immediately came to mind was a past athletic director calling me into his office to scold me about not using my timeouts to address players and make adjustments.

A little background.

We were playing an away game. The opponents pitch was located along a busy interstate highway. The winds that day were blowing in excess of 30 mph with gusts stronger than that. The pitch was 120 by 75.  Communication from the technical area / bench to players even 50 feet away was near impossible because of the location and wind conditions.  I had 14 players total that day.

How I solved the issues on game day.

I used substitutes to carry information about adjustments to their teammates on the field. I spoke with the players substituted for as well, of course.  It wasn't a great solution, but I would still maintain it was the best available that game day. And it worked well. We gained a good result on the pitch despite the difficulties in communicating effectively. And "effective" communication is what we did end up achieving to a decent degree.

Evidently a player and / or parent took exception to the methods used to communicate that day and complained to the athletic director.  "Don" called me to his office to discuss the situation. With Don this meant a lecture.  I listened to Don go on for several minutes about the necessity of using my timeouts and how to properly communicate with players. He provided a lot of advice on coach / player relationships and how timeouts were a part of building these. I'm not sure I could have gotten a word in edge wise if I had tried so I let Don blow himself out. I then replied calmly with six simple words, "There are no timeouts in soccer"

The look on "Don's" face was priceless.

As was the look on "Bob's" face when I finished relating this story to him.