How Can You Build Toughness In a Player

you have to put hot sauce in their dog food.

we can be all Billy-Bad-A** with regards to 'toughness', but if we want to look at this as coaches, there is only one way we can teach,train,nurture, and develop this quality and that is by teaching it in the weight room. period

We can 'expect' the players to continually give to us (and if they don't, then you're just screwed) or we can do something about it and give something to them (by training them).

These are all great posts.

My only comment is don't say difference between "hurt or injured."

Say "difference between being in pain or injured."

I know that is just semantics, but I do think it makes the point clearer to players and especially to parents.

I had another coach tell me this years ago and it actually did help make the point better.

Play with pain. Can't play with an injury. Trainer, doctor, or head coach only one who can say injury.

Just a little thing that can help.

Turn up the intensity in the weightroom.

Can you elaborate on what you do to obtain this intensity in the weight room?

Duece

1. make sure they are attending. Don't just harp on kids to show up, talk about togetherness and getting better (and have the upperclassmen mentor the underclassmen.....have them CALL/ TALK to the fresh/sophs)

2. create an enthusiastic environment. Coaches should be showing up to weights (#1), but they also have to do more than sip coffee,bitch about the kids who aren't there, and scribble attendance sheets. Coaches relating to players (develop your relationships) and coaching up lifts and forcing the TEMPO of the lifts. If you can teach a kid how to push themselves each set, each rep....THAT is the toughness we are ultimately after.

3. Track results ~ monitor progress and set goals for the kids. Whether it is a pyramid program, or quarter lift goals, or leader boards.....reward those that attend and those that are breaking plateaus. This sends a message that we are ALL WORKING towards something.

4. Make it competitive. Bust {censored} in the weight room, but break from the norm / program every so often to let the kids see their hard work paying off (feats of strength, quickness, explosiveness). Weight lifting IS drudgery (so is practice) so it is helping them find a way to see the joy in details, that I can make a 'game' of each set to FIND the appreciation for determination ("you can do 9 reps? I'll do 10!"). It is the incremental steps that are taken each day that make champions - Break the Rock (one chip at a time). Whether it is water polo, basketball, soccer, relays, fit tests, bowling,.....whatever, when you guys meet, develop the FUN of competition, that it is okay to dominate or come away as the best at something. Comprise the off-season of a series of 100 'wins' (no matter how simple) that the kids can associate themselves with.




The most powerful trigger and motivator of the athlete is PEER PRESSURE.

Create a POSITIVE peer culture of people building themselves for the good of the program, and you will have the determination (toughness) you are looking for. You can blow off a coach, but when your own teammates disown you and do not respect your toughness, then there really is no point in being on a TEAM/sport.

If Tim Tebow is on your team, would you be worried about letting a teammate like that down? If players see their other players busting tail in the weight room everyday, they will naturally feel guilty if someone else is bearing the brunt of the labor.

Imagine what would happen to your "all-star" prima donna if there are 20 other guys on the team that think he is 'soft'? That guy won't fit in in the locker room.....the 'team' won't accept that type of person. ..........and the COACHES don't have to do a thing about it (in season). Build the TEAM in the off-season.

When you go "all in" (invest everything), you have no recourse. You do not take yourself out or look for excuses because you have given everything for a reason (turning back on that goal is too much of a waste to bear).

Its called the filthy five fellas.
Five lower body lifts, begin with squats... to failure (and I dont mean when the kid says he cant, I mean when you are to tired to spot him anymore!) Move on to leg press.. same thing. Then leg extensions, then leg curls. End it with overhead plate squats. Focus the entire lift on mental toughness and competition.... see who can squat 185 or 225 the most times. I'm telling you, this works... just make sure you have nothing to do for the next week or so, cuz they will be sore... in fact do this the day before Christmas break or something.

Asside from what has already been mentioned wrestling.

When was the last time you had a soft wrestler on your team. I believe that athletes need both a team sport and an individual sport develop the full psyche of the complete athlete. In an individual sport all eyes are on you and you cant lean on your teammates. In my experience those players who complete a full season of wresting are forever changed men. Develop a working relationship with the wrestling team. If the wrestling coach played football offer him an assistant coaching position. Get him familiar with your players and intern get your players failure with him. At the end of the season encourage you players to go out for wrestling. The more players you can get out for wrestling the more peer pressure there is for them to keep with wrestling which is good for both teams. When wrestling season send work on setting up a combined offseason program with the wrestling coach.

Mind you in past years I was not big on players wrestling because of how taxing it was on their bodies. But with the new weight rules wrestling isn't as physically destructive on their bodies as it was in years past. No more players killing themselves, literly, to drop 3 weight classes.

Kinda off topic but if I were you I wouldn't be afraid to pull up JV/freshman guys to play if the varsity kids are disinterested.

If you can lose with your "studs" you can certainly lose without them.

Nevermind. My post was junk after all the other great ones in this thread. I'm just here to learn ;D

Toughness can be developed several ways in my experience.

I think often the attitude of the coaching staff will eventually become that of the team.
Contact, getting used to being hit and living to tell about it is a great place to start. Too often soft kids are part of a soft program. NO conditioning, NO hitting, NO lifting, NO discipline...that stuff can make kids soft.

Expecting to win, confidence in assignments, confidence in technique and confidence in the coaches tends to make players go harder. The will to prepare to win shows as toughness and determination I think.

I like lots of shedding and tackling drills. I like lots of live one on one blocking drills and I like to use a good amount of competition in practice. My teams are not always the most talented but they usually play hard.

We had some kids who were "softer" than others but finished the season much tougher than they or anyone else thought possible.