instilling discipline into your program

IMO it is to late to try and install discipline at the high school level. if you have not started at middle school preferably youth legs it is to late.

blb,

So how does discipline show up throughout your program?

I know discipline will show up in the form of wins because disciplined football teams win. But outside of communicating discipline and modeling it as a staff...what else do you do?

I know we want discipline to be exemplified by our team as a product of how our program operates. We want our teams to be disciplined on and off the field.

With that in mind, what type of environment do you create to make this happen? I know there's no magic bullet but I do believe a unique combination of several factors could help to mold a disciplined football team.

I haven't been doing this long, (some of you have been coaching for as long as I have been alive...blb LOL) but the key to discipline is consistency. No matter who that player is he needs to be held to the same standard as everyone else.

Two biggest things:

I'm very demanding on attendance-punctuality ("If you're not early, you're late") and effort.

If kids have unexcused absences there are severe consequences. If they are late they make it up after practice.

If they loaf they make it up after practice. If it becomes a habit they get demoted.

We do a "Perfect Play" Drill for conditioning on Mondays and I mean everything from the huddle to alignment, line calls, effort, etc. must be perfect or they repeat play from same yard line.

We stress controlling those things that we can control - effort, attitude, conditioning, knowing assignment, executing fundamentals and techniques.

And also like Bob Knight, we don't assume kids know when they make mistakes - it is our job as coaches to correct them. Not quite in the same manner as Coach Knight was known for, however.

Probably best example of how these maifest themselves on the field came last Fall.

We defeated a team that was heavily favored over us and our school had not beaten since 1989.

We did not turn the ball over, had only one penalty (illegal procedure on a PAT), stopped them four times on 4th Down and turned them over twice in Red Zone. Converted a 4th and 5 that led to winning FG with :52 left.

On their field. On Senior Night.

- demanding on attendance and punctuality...CHECK

- severe consequences for unexcused absences...CHECK

Our players are held accountable to an absence policy that has the following consequences for unexcused absences:

1) Do not start & miss a quarter
2) Do not start & miss a half
3) Do not start & miss a game
4) Obviously an unreliable teammate = DISMISSAL from the team

I'm sure it seemed harsh to our players the first year. But we set the expectation and our players have met every year since.

- consistently address a lack of effort...CHECK

- Perfect Play Drill...NO CHECK (we do not do this with this name)

We've done this in the past but as a periodic challenge as opposed to doing it consistently. We need to do this consistently. How often do you do it? How many plays do you do it for? Does it end up eating up practice time on those days that your guys don't have their heads screwed on straight? If so, how do you adjust or do you just pick up wherever the time has you on the practice schedule?

Thanks in advance blb. Always enlightening conversation.

There is no entitlement in our program. My coaches are expected to fundraise $1000 each in order to get their coaching gear. I take care of them with about $750 worth of gear and the rest goes to pay the extra coaches I have on top of the 5 that the district pays. Each player must also meet the minimum requirements in order to get everything. We have minimum requirements for their fundraisers and those requirements correspond to specific things the players can earn. Our major fundraiser is coming up on May 21st. Each player is required to raise $300 to earn their "spirit pack" which gets them:

1) 1st $40 - Green Practice Jersey (serves as home jersey for JV/Soph teams
2) 2nd $40 - White Practice Jersey (serves as away jersey for JV/Soph teams
3) Next $80 - Sweatshirt & Sweatpants which all teams are required to wear on/off bus for away games
4) $10 - Game Socks
5) $30 - Mesh Shorts (must have to participate in summer 7on7
6) $20 - Dry-Fit Tshirt (must have to participate in summer 7on7
7) Remaining $80 goes to pay for helmet & shoulderpad reconditioning & replacement costs (I will explain this further in the next example I give about attendance)

The 2nd fundraiser that the players do is the $20 discount cards that we do in August. This fundraiser earns them their game-cleats. Each player must sell their minumum amount of cards or they do not get their game-cleats unless they pay the difference. The overhead from the cards goes to pay for team dinners and the banquet at the end of the season. Players who do not meet the requirements are not allowed to participate in the dinners/banquet unless they pay the difference themselves.

Another example is the fact that we take attendance at every single offseason weightroom session and conditioning session. Knowing that I cannot make it "mandatory" for making the team, there are ways you can reward players for coming and punish those who don't. We set the requirement at 75%. The offseason training program is M-F 5:30-7:00 AM. There is absolutely no conflict with doctors, dentists, study sessions, baseball, basketball, track, etc... at that time in the morning. By setting the number at 75% that allows the players to not have to lift on game-days or track meets during other sport seasons, which keeps me in good-graces with the other coaches on campus. During the Summer, the workouts move to 7:00-9:00 AM. Only 1 a day. If you give kids multiple options, that allows them to procrastinate and miss the one they definitely could make it to, then something comes up and they don't attend at all. Plus it is a nightmare getting enough coaches to go to all of the sessions. Again, making it accountable for the coaches and the players. Players are rewarded/punished in the following ways for the offseason workouts:

1) About 1 month prior to our 1st 7on7 passing tournament we give out numbers for the upcoming season. Nobody is guaranteed their number from last year. All players that are above the 75% mark will choose their numbers in order of grade (12, 11, 10, 9). Once all of those players have chosen their numbers the players who have not met the 75% requirement pick in the same order. They only get the left over numbers. You would be amazed how motivating the number on their jersey motivates them. Any arguments over numbers automatically go to the player who has the highest % of attendance. This works as both a reward for those with discipline enough to come to workouts and punish those who don't.

2) When we issue gear in the fall for 2-a-days, the same thing happens. If an incoming senior is at 70% attendance and a sophomore is at 90% attendance, then the sophomore will get his 1st choice of helmet, shoulderpads, and all other gear while the senior will get to choose from the leftovers after the 4 groups go ahead of him (Seniors >75, Juniors >75, Sophs >75, Frosh >75). Again, both rewarding the ones with the discipline to get to workouts and punishing the ones who don't.
.....The kids who raise the $300 get first choice on gear because they have that $80 left over after their spirit pack that pays for the newer helmets and shoulderpads, so they get their 1st choice at it. The players who don't contribute that money get what is left over.

These are just a few of the things we do. I could give more examples, but this thread could be pretty long if I tried to cover everything that we try to do.

I respectfully disagree with this statement. I do agree that the earlier you instill discipline, the more efficient it will be. That being said, sometimes there is no choice but to instill discipline, for the first time, at the high school level. It isn't easy but it certainly can be done.

I coach at an inner city public school where there is no middle school feeder program or youth feeder program. Most of our kids have never played organized football until they get to our program. Add to the fact that we don't have funding for a freshman program either (only JV & VArsity) and we are left to install discipline to high school students, usually for the first time.

We do so by laying out clear cut expectations from day 1 and the resulting consequences & rewards. That last part is important where I coach. Our kids respond better to incentives than to threats. Our main focus is something we got from here...

Catch my D.R.I.F.T.? It is an acronym that stands for Dedication, Respect, Integrity, Family, Trust. We say that we can't be successful until the entire team catches our D.R.I.F.T. Our rules (ie attendance policy, alcohol policy, weapon policy, etc...) then fit into one of those subheadings.

After reading the great responses on here, we will definitely be altering how we do our rules, expectations, & rewards with some of the great ideas in this thread.

The fundamental premise of the above quoted post is wrong. Sure it would be easier to instill discipline sooner but sometimes situations dictate that is not possible. We can't just give up on our high school kids because no one got to them sooner.

AJ

They spend a lot of their weekend picking splinters out of their butt because they ride the pine all game. I don't run them or scream at them; I let them know that if they want to be a player they'd better act like one. Spectators don't play.

This has always been the quickest way for us to fix poor behavior. Those few kids that don't respond just quit, which is fine with me.

We don't discipline kids for school issues - "double jeopardy" and has nothing to do with how they behave for us.

The English teacher doesn't punish my Fullback when he's late to practice or fumbles on the Goal line.

However we do reasonably expect what our players learn in Football to carry over into classroom. And anecdotal evidence based on what I have been told over the years by fellow teachers indicates that to be true.

Bottom line I guess is we tell kids "If it wasn't important, we wouldn't be doing it."

And like I wrote earlier, I don't compromise or play favorites.

It also means we dole out a lot of positive feedback. Kids have a weakness for the old soft sell.

So kids think I see everything and if not me one of other coaches. That reinforces the good things and tends to eliminate the negative.

And Coach AJ - I have never had to establish a "weapon policy." You have my respect, sir.

Discipline is not something you do to someone its something you do for someone. We have a progression discipline program for different offenses. We name the punishments after our opponents because if you are being undisciplined then you are helping the other team because you are being a distraction. Level 1 Bobcat for tardiness, dress code violation, forgetting stuff etc, - We do 5 minutes of grass drills - get ups, switch lunges, seat rolls etc. Level 2 Gator- Punishment for 2nd above offense - 10 minutes of grass drills including sprints. Level 3 Wolf- 15 minutes of grass drills, sprints, stadiums etc. and suspension for a quarter. This is a punishment for disrespect and major school issues. We have detention every day after school so if a player gets a dhall then he misses practice time which is covered in the tardiness policy. We punish everyday after practice and having it timed makes it consistent and it doesnt vary from coach to coach.

Yep, I've been around a program that could learn a few things from this thread...

This is a little old school but there is still some merit to going off the deep end early in the pre-season at the first slight infraction to set the tone. For example we have a policy during all pre-season practices that if you are late it is a one mile run and when you finish it you jump right into practice. We carefully define what "late" is and do not bend one second.

We have had captains late for the first practice of the season due to car trouble and oversleeping and trust me it gets everyone's attention when they see one of the top players in the program running a mile and then jumping right into conditioning.

A lot of guys will tell you that you can't run a program without discipline but our current situation is a PERFECT example of why you need to do it and the example you can set. We're not just running a program here, we are trying to keep football a float. But, we will not have football in this school unless there is discipline.

The kids didn't see just how serious we were about it until we played a game with 8 guys because we booted a kid off of the team because of discipline issues. We also had our best player ditch out on almost three weeks of practice because of a sprained ankle. Long story short; I caught him playing a pick-up basketball game when he was "injured" and we sat his a-- on the bench the week he came back "healthy". It was a shame too; it was a game we could have won pretty easily with him in it. Someone asked me if I would have forfeited the game if we hadn't had enough guys and YES I would have. Thank God it didn't come to that but it's the way it will be.

Bottom line; we will not be held hostage because of low numbers. And, it has paid off; the kids had to sit down and decide exactly what football means to them. They understand that they HAVE to come to practice and they have to be disciplined, respectful individuals. Playing this game is a privilege, NOT A RIGHT.