Having fun....every day

For a lot of my kids, it is the best "family" to which they belong. A family that has fun.

Fun?

Slippery slope coach... don't become responsible for your kids fun... its a no-win situation.

I talk to my kids at the beginning of the season, about their responsibility to the team... and their #1 responsibility, is to remember to find the fun in the game.

Its not my job to make this game fun... its a game... its fun by its mere existence... everyday, in every way, I will provide you with the opportunity to play football... Forget about Friday nights... Monday thru thursday, we are going to play football... the greatest game invented... and if you can't find fun in that... then what are you doing?

Yup... there's going to be some work involved... but we're only working at having fun...

Shame on you, if you aren't having fun!

One of our mantras has been "Football is Fun! Winning is MORE Fun!"

Much like khalifie stated, we preach that the daily practices, the sprints, the hitting, the updowns, the drills, the gassers ... THAT is football and it is FUN!

Now we also preach that we are going to do all of those things to put our team in a position where we can Win!

Football is FUN, but Winning is MORE FUN!

I'd say if you're really doing things right. (Practices are organized and productive, focus is in the right place). Then every day should be fun.

Anything can be fun so long as its not "work".

The more prepared and organized you are, the more zestful/creative/loose you will be we you execute it. From a player perspective, if I know exactly what it is you want out of me, if you have explained how you want me to do it - chances are, I'll have a better/more confident time doing it. If it becomes "work" for me to read your mind, or guess what you want or what's coming next...I will be uncertain and reserved in the effort expended.

Also, if the intensity level is high, I will be visually/audio stimulated...loud shiny object captures my attention - projecting energy/enthusiasm. The more stimulated I am, the less bored, unattentive I will be (more fun/less work)

Well, seeing as how probably 80% of the time I'm grinning, laughing, and/or making lots of noise, it's pretty easy for the kids to see I'm having fun and respond to it.

I do try to incorporate fun/energy drills into the daily routine, though. Turnover circuits, pursuit drills, etc, anything where I can run around, shout, and make sarcastic remarks about them. Somedays during Indy I can see they're dragging and I toss out part of the plan for 'fun' time. Probably the best coaching up my RBs to dive over the mess to the goal line by having them leap onto the high jump mat and nailing them with a heavy bag at the apex. Applicable? Not really. Fun? Yup, and the energy went up up up for the rest of the offensive portion of the day.

I always tell my players that football is the fun. If you have to goof off to have fun then you are playing the wrong sport. Now I expect them to josh around but the moment that their "fun" starts interfering with football we got a problem.

Genuine Enthusiasm ans Passion.

I'd like to echo what byuwolverine said. Competition makes practice fun everyday. Also, high-energy coaches energize the players and make practice fun.

I think their statement is accurate. Football isn't for everyone and neither is skating.

To all of you who said you can't have some fun with your kids, HOGWASH I say.

We all have 5 minutes of practice time a day, a week, or whatever where you can allow kids to have some fun. Sometimes we take ourselves way too seriously. It is a GAME, not world domination. Hell I am at a residential juvenile facility and even we schedule time in for fun (so we can all have a laugh). The most fun these kids have all day here is being AT football practice (without that time scheduled in). Wow, can't believe someone can honestly say they have no time, nor are they willing to make time for fun.

Simple....run fade routes with OL/DL against skill kids for 5 minutes and keep score....run relay races, etc etc.

Amen! Amen! Amen!

I take coaching very seriously. But if I can't walk on to the field and crack a smile or make a player or coach crack a smile on a daily basis then I don't think it's worth it. It's hard sometimes to remember that it is just a game. I would hate to not be able to have some fun at practice every time I step on the field. Life comes at you fast, trust me I have been to the lowest of lows, so if you can't step back and have a little fun during a practice every now and then it might not be for you.

I dont know who is more passionate and excited than me...nobody around here. Id say that I have some kids who Id like to turn onto the game of football and turn onto team sports in general. baseball had low numbers, boys tennis was cut this year...I hear some kids are dropping out of basketball too, there is no soccer team, no lacrosse, kids quit everything it seems... sports are poorly attended by parents, sports are suffering in general.

I make a big deal about total investement and program participatin and thats fine for the kids who live, breathe, sleep football....but what about the 10-15 kids that we need who arent quite there yet? they have to have fun or its just not worth it. some dont care too much about winning or losing (and thats why the lifting and running isnt for them) but they like to have a good time. We need more kids out over the next couple of years or its going to be hard to field a team. the school is "shrinking". In any case, we need to find some creative ways to get the skateboarders to shelve the boards for 3 months so they can play football. (even if its just for jv and scout team)

We need to find ways to get kids whod otherwise just stock shelves and play video games to come out and sweat with their teammates and be part of us.

maybe if football isnt fun, then nothing will be fun to these kids? I dunno, any ideas??? I am not going to do hacky sack in pregame or anything...maybe let them do skate tricks at half tiem or something lol.