Every call has a judge who is “owning” it. Usually only the owner of the call should have right to pass the ownership to someone else (unless something very nonstandard happens). It is a general best practice, when shadowing a call, to divert any attempt by players to change the owner to the shadowing judge. I usually use some explanation like “I am just watching, this is your judge”.
In case that players try that several times during the call, I will always just redirect them to the owner. I do not want to disrupt the call by going into any long explanations. However, when the call is over, I would probably discuss the matter with the players. If not during the match, definitely after it finishes.
I believe it should not hurt to present the player with some philosophy on the way how judge teams and shadowing work. I would try to explain to them how disrespectful it may look, even if they did not mean it intentionally that way. From that conversation, I would also try to learn what was the original motivation for such behavior - I cannot assume anything just from the fact that the first judge was of a different gender than me…
A completely different story is the case when the players openly present that the reason why they are turning to me is a gender issue. That basically immediately pauses the original call and starts a USC investigation/discussion with the players (together with the HJ).
Edited Milan Majerčík (Jan. 8, 2018 11:54:42 PM)