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Post by coachcb on Oct 28, 2010 7:16:28 GMT -6
So, the psychology and chemistry of my team just keeps getting more and more interesting.
Two weeks ago, we played a team that we out-matched and should have just friggin throttled; we lost 40-28. We fumbled into the end zone twice, had several very costly penalties along with terrible snaps (we live in the gun). It was the worst game we've played all year long; if we had played our SECOND worst game, we come out with a win. We'd spent a lot of time cleaning that stuff up and I thought we were prepared for that game..
But, here's the catch. The next week, we played the top team in our conference; very salty, tough unit that's always a powerhouse. We lost, 54-14, but we played our best game all year; no turnovers, penalties, and one iffy snap that we recovered, took off with and gained 15 yards. The very next friggin week... We looked like a completely different unit. We play like that against the previous team and we smoke them.
I just can't figure it out. If we're playing a tough team that no one expects us to beat, we play a clean ball game. But, conversely, if it's obvious we can not only beat the team but win easily, the kids just fall apart.
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Post by Send_the_House on Oct 28, 2010 7:55:52 GMT -6
Trust me, I'm not pointing a finger... Just examine your preperation both with, and without the kids, the week you played well, and the week you played poorly, and make sure they were the same. Hopefully they were.
Also, I've seen teams that when they feel they can handle an opponent, add too much offense, or try to be too complicated on defense, and when they play a strong opponent, they simplify a lot.
I know your probably just venting, but those are some outside opinions.
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Post by jlenwood on Oct 28, 2010 7:58:37 GMT -6
Find a way to get the kids to focus on the task at hand, not on the end result. If they are sure they are going to beat a team, it easy to loose focus and think ahead to the final score without doing the little things to get there.
Break it down to the smallest detail: If I am a QB, my job is to get the ball in the hands of my teammates. If I am a o-lineman, I have to block and beat the guy over me etc. Once they get in the mindset of doing "their" job, the end result isn't the focus.
We have had the same issues early in this season, but for whatever reason our players have been very good as the season has gone on at focusing one game, one play at a time.
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Post by coachcb on Oct 28, 2010 8:23:12 GMT -6
Trust me, I'm not pointing a finger... Just examine your preperation both with, and without the kids, the week you played well, and the week you played poorly, and make sure they were the same. Hopefully they were. Also, I've seen teams that when they feel they can handle an opponent, add too much offense, or try to be too complicated on defense, and when they play a strong opponent, they simplify a lot. I know your probably just venting, but those are some outside opinions. I understand where you're coming from and we've evaluated that; we've been hammering them about the snaps and ball security and, up until that game, we were improving every week. Our turnovers have been dropping dramatically throughout the season. But, we hit that game (second to last of the season) and just fell apart. We've had numbers issues this year so it's been a constant struggle to find quality drills to spur that competitiveness in them. We didn't have enough for a scout team/second team, which, IMO, is key. We would have been better if we could have split between two even teams this year and banged away at each other in situational drills Goal line and short yardage, in particular. |
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Post by coachcb on Oct 28, 2010 8:27:13 GMT -6
Find a way to get the kids to focus on the task at hand, not on the end result. If they are sure they are going to beat a team, it easy to loose focus and think ahead to the final score without doing the little things to get there. Break it down to the smallest detail: If I am a QB, my job is to get the ball in the hands of my teammates. If I am a o-lineman, I have to block and beat the guy over me etc. Once they get in the mindset of doing "their" job, the end result isn't the focus. We have had the same issues early in this season, but for whatever reason our players have been very good as the season has gone on at focusing one game, one play at a time. We didn't address Ws and Ls this year, at all. We tried after we lost our first game by two points and it really froze them up. This group needs to have a very relaxed environment (still up tempo and hard working) if we're going to get the most out of them. Very, very high anxiety level. We emphasized working and playing hard. We told them that if they focused on getting better every day and pushing themselves, everything else would fall into place. |
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