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Post by Yash on Jan 12, 2011 14:01:44 GMT -6
As an assistant at a struggling program I come to you all for help. I am reading Pete Carroll's book "Win Forever" and he talks about his philosophy when he got to USC was to create competition every day. I want to know what you all do with your programs to create competition. I'm not talking just competition at a position group, but what drills do you do to get the kids competitive, what team building things do you do to get the kids wanting to compete with each other. How do you get your kids to have that competitive edge that makes them want to lay it all on the line for the guy next to them on friday nights.
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Post by Coach Vint on Jan 12, 2011 16:21:32 GMT -6
This is going to be a longer post, but you have touched on an issue that is vital. First off I will say that having that edge is about your team culture, which is developed every second of every day. There is no magic bullet. It starts and ends with hard work. The off-season is a tremendous time to build your team culture.
One Important Concept: Divide your players into teams for the off-season. Do not do this based on position. Mix guys up. Give them points for everything you consider important. Attendance in weight room, improvement, making a max club, academics, school attendance, etc. Pick out the things that you are going to value in your program. Every Friday have a competition in your off-season program. If Friday doesn't work pick another day. Call it Competitive Friday, or Thursday, or whatever day. Your competitions can be anything you want. You can do a pull-up competition, or a crunches competition. The favorite for the kids was a tire tug-of-war where they were on opposite sides of a tire trying to pull the guy across a line. You can do duels or do it tourney style. They also liked free throw competition. You give 10 or 15 points to the team who wins the weekly competition. Give a weekly award to the guy that works the hardest. Make that award worth several points. If academics need to improve give more points for academics.
You MUST post the points each week. This is vital. Put a coach in charge of updating the points. You don't have to be fancy. This is where you can teach the players about being accountable to their team.
On a daily basis remember that you create the competitive atmosphere. Do your coaches dread going in the weight room? Are you going through the motions? If so, that is exactly what you will get from your players.
Be creative and have everyone jacked up every single day. It all starts with your coaches. Your weight room should not be a place where coaches stand around and talk. Your coaches have to lead the way. Then your team leaders have to follow the coaches, and the rest of the team follow the team leaders. Anyone can be a leader in the weight room. The guy that may never start on Friday Night can be a leader in the weight room. You set the tone.
Do the players record what they do in the weight room? If not, make some cards and have them record their progress. Make it a point to reward progress, not simply the amount of weight lifted.
The other thing I will say is don't try to do too much. You want everything you do to have a purpose. Sometimes we have too much going on and we can't be effective.
Kids that are apathetic will not change overnight. This is an on-going process. Just keep going everyday, and coaching them to your expectations. Do not accept anything less.
You are probably already doing a lot of this, but I didn't want to assume anything.I look forward to seeing what coaches have to add.
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Post by Coach.A on Jan 12, 2011 18:25:49 GMT -6
Enjoy!
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Post by phantom on Jan 12, 2011 19:35:59 GMT -6
This is going to be a longer post, but you have touched on an issue that is vital. First off I will say that having that edge is about your team culture, which is developed every second of every day. There is no magic bullet. It starts and ends with hard work. The off-season is a tremendous time to build your team culture. One Important Concept: Divide your players into teams for the off-season. Do not do this based on position. Mix guys up. Give them points for everything you consider important. Attendance in weight room, improvement, making a max club, academics, school attendance, etc. Pick out the things that you are going to value in your program. Every Friday have a competition in your off-season program. If Friday doesn't work pick another day. Call it Competitive Friday, or Thursday, or whatever day. Your competitions can be anything you want. You can do a pull-up competition, or a crunches competition. The favorite for the kids was a tire tug-of-war where they were on opposite sides of a tire trying to pull the guy across a line. You can do duels or do it tourney style. They also liked free throw competition. You give 10 or 15 points to the team who wins the weekly competition. Give a weekly award to the guy that works the hardest. Make that award worth several points. If academics need to improve give more points for academics. You MUST post the points each week. This is vital. Put a coach in charge of updating the points. You don't have to be fancy. This is where you can teach the players about being accountable to their team. On a daily basis remember that you create the competitive atmosphere. Do your coaches dread going in the weight room? Are you going through the motions? If so, that is exactly what you will get from your players. Be creative and have everyone jacked up every single day. It all starts with your coaches. Your weight room should not be a place where coaches stand around and talk. Your coaches have to lead the way. Then your team leaders have to follow the coaches, and the rest of the team follow the team leaders. Anyone can be a leader in the weight room. The guy that may never start on Friday Night can be a leader in the weight room. You set the tone. Do the players record what they do in the weight room? If not, make some cards and have them record their progress. Make it a point to reward progress, not simply the amount of weight lifted. The other thing I will say is don't try to do too much. You want everything you do to have a purpose. Sometimes we have too much going on and we can't be effective. Kids that are apathetic will not change overnight. This is an on-going process. Just keep going everyday, and coaching them to your expectations. Do not accept anything less. You are probably already doing a lot of this, but I didn't want to assume anything.I look forward to seeing what coaches have to add. These are excellent ideas but the dogmatic approach kind of bothers me. The concept of splitting into teams and keeping points works seems to work well for a lot of people. That doesn't mean that it's the only way to go.
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Post by Yash on Jan 12, 2011 22:01:10 GMT -6
We have a point system type thing in place. Unfortunately for me, I am not able to be in the weight room right now. I am still in college (military service put me into school late) so I have class and a job to pay the bills. I am a year away from my degree which is in education. I know that once I am in the school full time I will be able to have a much greater impact in the weight room. I am the kind of guy who really gets the kids to get after it in the weight room.
What about practice and drills, how do you guys get your kids competing at practice?
I know one of our problems last year was we did too much stuff at walk through pace. That USC video really stuck me when he said about doing everything at full speed. We need to implement that. We are probably the best walkthrough paced team in the conference, unfortunately everyone else prefers full speed.
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Post by phantom on Jan 12, 2011 22:05:05 GMT -6
We have a point system type thing in place. Unfortunately for me, I am not able to be in the weight room right now. I am still in college (military service put me into school late) so I have class and a job to pay the bills. I am a year away from my degree which is in education. I know that once I am in the school full time I will be able to have a much greater impact in the weight room. I am the kind of guy who really gets the kids to get after it in the weight room. What about practice and drills, how do you guys get your kids competing at practice? I know one of our problems last year was we did too much stuff at walk through pace. That USC video really stuck me when he said about doing everything at full speed. We need to implement that. We are probably the best walkthrough paced team in the conference, unfortunately everyone else prefers full speed. You answered your own question.
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Post by dacoordinator on Jan 13, 2011 7:54:49 GMT -6
I agree competition is a very key element in atleast attempting to put out max effort every time they are placed in a situation to compete. It's just tough to figure out what makes the team do that. I do agree that it starts with your coaches though. If your coaches display any negativity towards being at practice and getting better, your players will see that and display off of that. But if your coaches show the opposite, your players feed off of that.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 13, 2011 10:03:17 GMT -6
Competition also means you cannot have a fixed idea of a 'starter' in your head. If the kid who's the most talented isn't being the most productive, you've got to put someone else in there. That's HARD for some coaches (was for me in the beginning) because we can have 'our guys' that we shine on a bit. If the starter sees that he'll get replaced for not producing, he'll either roll over and take it (which is fine because that shows we didn't really want him at crunch time anyways) or he'll start COMPETING for his spot.
It's kind of a cold approach to things, but it definitely breeds competition.
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Post by black on Jan 13, 2011 14:55:42 GMT -6
A few ideas that I've thought up (but I'm not a head coach). Awarding #1 jersey to best skill player at the end of camp. Best Leader, Best Athlete, Best whatever Having 1-on-1 competition EVERY practice, DB's vs WR's, DL vs OL, etc, losers pick-up/clean up sleds Awarding a gameday captain spot to the practice player of the week, I'm talking about the guy who busts his ass and gives offense/defense a great look. Spontaneous races, sumo competitions, etc
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Post by coachwoodall on Jan 18, 2011 9:11:40 GMT -6
I know one of our problems last year was we did too much stuff at walk through pace. That USC video really stuck me when he said about doing everything at full speed. We need to implement that. We are probably the best walkthrough paced team in the conference, unfortunately everyone else prefers full speed. Funny you mention that. While it might not equate, our allstar game was a lot like this in December. Our association has a North/South game. Traditionally the low state has more DI type kids than we do here in the up state. Well the North team spent the week just flat getting after it in their practices -- lots of 1 on 1 drills, inside run periods, scrimmages, etc.... The South team spent most of the week just doing walk throughs. Guess who won the game running away?
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Post by coachwoodall on Jan 18, 2011 9:22:04 GMT -6
For us, we do a lot of good on good during the week. We have several segments that put the 1st O vs the 1st D: - Team pass - Team run - 2nd and 8 - Perimeter
How much we do will fluctuate as the season goes by and because of who we play.
We also spend a lot of time doing 1 vs 1 in our drills: - WR/DB in man situations (during insdie run period) - OL/DL in pass pro/pass rush (during perimeter) - LB/RB in coverage/routes and blitz pickups
We do spend time working with scout teams and preparing for the upcoming opponent, but our focus is mainly on us. We will even do the scout segments with the 1s servicing each other: - Perimeter: offense runs 1 opp. passing concept, then the defense will show a coverage/blitz look for 2 plays - Inside run: 5 min of the O running our stuff, 5 minutes of the O running the opponent Mostly we do this in these group segments, not full team.
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Post by mattharris75 on Jan 18, 2011 9:54:56 GMT -6
I am a firm believer in the off-season strength and conditioning program being the #1 factor in teaching kids how to compete.
I see two aspects to this:
#1 - As the season approaches the kids should be doing conditioning drills that make Friday nights seem easy. Things like prowler sprints. So that when they're tired in the 4th quarter they'll be able to have a frame of reference that makes it seem like a walk in the park. This part isn't really about 'competing' every day, at least externally. But in order to be successful with these conditioning drills they are learning how to compete with themselves. How to focus and how to push through pain, how to win mentally. So that when they get in a rough spot on Friday night and experience a little adversity, the first thing they think is not "Here we go again..."
#2 At the end of every workout the kids have some sort of competition among themselves. This may be 1 on 1 or team tug of war, seeing who can hang from the pull-up bar the longest, etc, etc. The possibilities are endless. The loser usually has some small penalty like having to do 10 burpees. The important thing is just to condition them to competition, so that they are used to it and Friday night's are not a new and unique experience for them.
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Post by coachwoodall on Jan 18, 2011 14:09:13 GMT -6
In the weight room, we finish with 'team work': - Everybody has to do 1 perfect pushup. Spread out on the floor, coaches watching every corner of the room. Must execute on command. Somebody doesn't go down on command, don't count. Somebody touches the floor with their knees, don't count. Somebody doesn't have a flat back, don't count. Teammates have to trust/count on everyone else to do their job, while at the same time doing theirs. - Same with situps/crunches/toe touches. - Partner curls. Put 50 pounds on an olympic bar. 1st man does 25 reps, then holds the bar, waiting for the switch command. On command passes the bar to his partner who does the same. Keep alternating back and forth as many times as necessary. Bar can never touch the floor/bench. - Same for military presses, squat thrusts, or what ever kind of lift you desire. - Crunches/toe touches on command. 25 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd quarters, then 40/50 for the 4th.
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riggsbm
Sophomore Member
Posts: 177
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Post by riggsbm on Jan 26, 2011 9:03:30 GMT -6
I am in my first year at a school that does not have much desire to work hard and to get better in the weight room. The school has a history of losing seasons in the majority of their male sports. In the weight training classes it feels like pulling teeth to get the kids to work hard. The attitudes and the willingness to give up and lose ballgames by the seniors is now starting to show up in the attitudes of the younger kids in the weight room. I also have the problem that there are over 40 students in each weight training class and only about 50% of each class are football players. How do you create competition when half of each class doesn't want to take it in the first place? Thank you for any thoughts, ideas, or experiences you may have.
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Post by TMGPG on Jan 26, 2011 9:11:11 GMT -6
I kind of like the jersey idea of giving the jersey to the hardest worker and so on.
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Post by Coach Vint on Jan 26, 2011 16:20:44 GMT -6
I am in my first year at a school that does not have much desire to work hard and to get better in the weight room. The school has a history of losing seasons in the majority of their male sports. In the weight training classes it feels like pulling teeth to get the kids to work hard. The attitudes and the willingness to give up and lose ballgames by the seniors is now starting to show up in the attitudes of the younger kids in the weight room. I also have the problem that there are over 40 students in each weight training class and only about 50% of each class are football players. How do you create competition when half of each class doesn't want to take it in the first place? Thank you for any thoughts, ideas, or experiences you may have. Here are a couple of thoughts: You have to find out what will motivate each individual student. Once you find out what motivates them, make that the goal of the class. I do this in each class I teach and with my team. You can put together a 5 question worksheet. It sounds like the first hurdle your student's need to overcome is themselves. Put together a record card where they record every lift they do. Keep the workouts very manageable, and have everyone start very light in the beginning with perfect technique. Make a big deal whenever they set a new personal best. Give them many small successes. Competition is internal as well as external. The cards help them record their progress and have tangible evidence of success. Have them set two goals each week. For example: I will complete all of my reps in bench. - I will encourage my group on each lift. You can even turn the class into a team. Work to get them to encourage each other. We call it: "Put Up Or Shut Up" You put someone up or you don't say anything. I give bonus points if you are lifting people up. This is a Frosty Westering tool that works well. These are some thoughts that might have an impact. The bottom line is that will take time, and it all starts with your passion and enthusiasm.
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