Challenge accepted! My guide to coach's challenges in major team sports

Every sport is a struggle. Always, you fight yourself. Your fear, your weakness, your fatigue, your ego. Sometimes, you also fight the opposition.

And since every fight is a conflict, this is a rich soil for controversy, disputes, and disagreements. The higher the stakes, the more heated the arguments. So it's no surprise that sports leagues and bodies are constantly looking for ways to ease the pressure on the referees and give the teams a channel to let off some steam as John Matrix put it.

let off some steam, Bennett #commando pic.twitter.com/WsVCSJENPN

— miss waiching liu (@mswaichingliu81) July 6, 2018

Why do we seldom resort to his methods in our everyday lives? Perhaps because we have more civilized ways to object, among other reasons. This is exactly why we need coach or player challenges in sports. Having a legal way to appeal against the referees' decision has spared a lot of nerves and at least several noses.

Only with the advancements in technology, the idea of reviewing a play came to reality. Video checks and reviews, like VAR in football, were one step in this direction. But it was the introduction of coach's or player's challenge that broke the ground.

Most team sports now offer this tool to the competing sides with football being one of the few exceptions. The idea is simple. A team (or a tennis player) can appeal against the initial referee's decision hoping to overturn it if the video review gives clear and irrefutable evidence that the original call was incorrect.

With details and subtleties varying from sport to sport, I decided to draft a guide on the main features of a challenge in major sports. Here, I will focus on basketball (NBA and FIBA), ice hockey (NHL and IIHF), baseball (MLB), American football (NFL), and tennis (ATP/WTA).

I will not delve into full lists of challengeable events as it would render this article too long and too unreadable. But I left the links to the official rules for those who wish to get deeper on the subject.

How does coach's challenge work in basketball

How does coach's challenge work in ice hockey

The video review mechanism triggered by the Coach’s Challenge can only be utilized in GOAL/NO GOAL situations and is intended to be extremely narrow in scope.

How does manager challenge work in baseball

How does coach's challenge work in American football

How does player challenge work in tennis