Wearing your players out

I totally agree.

Obviously, throw me in this boat........


Now, I think communication is important between staff members and players on gameday.


However, for it to be considered communication, it must be a transfer of something of value for both parties.


Our varsity OC wants to talk to our QB after each possession, but their exchange is "what's working, what do you see, drill that seam a little sooner, etc." (we do that same thing on JV).


In short, as this organic game changes, we are adapting together.


However, the adjustment of fundamentals, or non-important fodder ("buckle up for the 4th quarter, put the seat belt on, sonny, lock and load, hell this feels like 'Nam") is counter-productive.


I will offer one caveat: I will pick one important fundamental we teach at a certain position and yell for a player to do that.


I'm not really trying to correct them, I just want them to focus on X so their muscle memory will take over.


For OL I may say, "Hey, just worry about getting a great punch on your man", the idea being thinking about and executing a great punch will lead his uncouncious muscle memory to take over and he will do the 12 other things he need to do after a great punch.


It's like telling a QB who's struggling: "Just focus on your footwork."


But again, that is a transfer of value.


But when our intent is a vain attempt at exerting control (IE, affect the outcome) over something we cannot control, we actually end up hurting our team.


Gotta find a different way to fight those helpless feelings.

Coached a deaf OLB at the freshman level one year. He taught me a ton about what kind of adjustments I could make and when. You're right, you cannot just shout technique to them because they won't get it or they'll over think it. Just let them play, focus on something important and easy to comprehend (for him it was his stance), and hopefully you've trained them well enough to get good results.

I like that idea with Coach Lad and taking the assistants to the stands. I'm sure the parents would be more well-behaved!

good point about player communication....and I believe tog has made several great stumps over the years on here about verbiage concission / effective use of buzzwords to get your message across.

"Zero" is a perfect example - one word, and you know exactly what the coach is referring to and what needs to change.

Also, further exploring this is, during practice and during games.

In practices, don't we want to control everything to the point where we ARE wearing the kids down? To the point that they are mentally fatigued so they truly have to focus on what exactly is going on?

On Game Night, what really is there left to say? What did you do during the week? All that really needs to be said is reminders of cues you already rehearsed.

Coaches not screaming at their players on game night will likely only upset the people in the stands ("those guys aren't doing anything! They're supposed to be yelling at those kids...they don't care")



I seem to remember Vermeil holding a Master's in Psychology (am I too lazy for Wiki? yes), so do you think he did this on purpose or he was just neurotic?

I couldn't find that on my wiki search......


He has a master's in physical education.


Based off what I saw, he was just a ball of nervous energy.


He even said during the interview that he would sometimes talk into the headset, even though he wasn't on the same line as Mike Martz, just so he could verbalize what he was think aloud....

i read an article recently (if i find it ill post it here) about "why players choke" and the gist of it being because they think too much about what they are doing. they get out of their natural reactions somehow and trigger something in their brain that takes them back to when they first learned a skill (catching a ball for example) and are essentially playing with a brain that hasnt caught said ball since they were 9 (or whenever they learned to do it).