Coming off a 68 point drubbing.......

What do you hope to accomplish by running them?

Just move on as quickly as possible. Honestly, if it was as bad as you descirbed, I wouldn't even show them film of it. Just focus on getting better, emphasize a fresh start, etc. The problem with running them Monday is that enough time has passed that they won't think of it as being punished because of effort, they'll think they are being punished for not being good enough and getting blown out, no matter how well you explain it to them. If you punish for effort, make it on the spot and based on effort in practice so the message sinks in more immediately.

I have the same question. Seems to me there's better use for the limited practice time you have.

Coach my team had a scrimmage this weekend but didnt show much intensity. Kind of what your describing. Here is what we are gonna do monday. Everything, and I mean everything is gonna be fast paced. High intensity from all the coaches, No standing around, no lazily jogging to groups. All indies high intensity. Will go through techniques and then we will do best on best.We are gonna focus on the good things they did. Basically we are gonna raise our intensity ten fold at practice. We already where focused but as coaches I think we have lacked intensity and I think its showing through our kids.

WE stay focused on the week ahead. We talk to the kids about being "1-0 this week". Last week is last week. Tell them what you saw, what you think happened. They went in defeated. That's tough. I was a HC in a program like that. I was also an assistant in a program where we showed up and you spotted us 14 points because of who we are. Currently I am a HC in a program that experienced a little bit of being unsure. Last year we broke through with a bunch of close wins on our way to being 6-3. I think (hope) the kids believe they can win now provided they are poor hungry and driven on a weekly basis.

Small steps, man. Keep them moving in the right direction. As for running them, it reminds me of something I heard once "The floggings will continue until morale improves." In others words, don't beat the dead horse. Keep them putting one foot in front of the other and getting better.

I have a friend with whom I now coach. He was 0-10 his first year as a head coach. He stressed to his kids how important it is to do things the right way. He asked them to practice and play like he coached, which is to say he asked them play hard, be disciplined, and never give up. Persistent to this and getting rid of poor, negative coaches and replacing them with loyal hard working coaches has paid off. In the last 8 years we have won an average of 8 games per year. We still have not won a state championship, but we are working in that direction. Keep fighting the good fight.

I like to run a few days a week but we do it to get in shape and fight through tough times. The other day I was going to give them conditioning off because it was hot and it was the first day of school. The seniors refused. If you are doing it to get in better shape and build mental toughness I am for it. If you are doing it because you are mad, I think it is for the wrong reasons. You could run with them and tell them you were just as bad as they were...could go a long way.

Second and I think very important. I think it was Bob Stoops...but I read an article once and the coach said never tell your kids how bad they are because eventually they will believe it. Tell them how good they can be and that they just have to keep striving to get better.

We got killed this week 41-17 but my kids are anxious to get back to work. When I am really upset the only thing I will tell my team is that we have to get better and we have to stick to our plan because I don't want to say something that can hurt the group just because I am upset.

One last thing you could do is take the list from your first paragraph and any excuses you have heard from your kids and print out a copy of them for each kid. Tell them excuses are unacceptable and if they want to get better they better throw them away by the time practice starts.

Reiterate that you are not upset with getting beat by a team that was simply farther along and better than us, but that you are concerned with their lack of effort, because you know that they are better than that. Challenge them to dig down and face adversity in practice this week and Fri. nite. Also, Bill Walsh would mentally prepare his teams for game adversity by asking them what would happen in different circumstances: if they were down by 14 points in the first five minutes of the game or if your best player got hurt. He would remind them that they had to play to their standard of performance, no matter the situation, good or bad. Also, competition in practice, which has been mentioned earlier, is great and will help them to fight through adversity.

Stick is a good play, hard to cover. ;D

Coach,

Paoli is going to do that to a ton of teams this season.

I would move on and focus on Perry Central.



You have to crawl before you walk, and while the quitting is something you have to fight against, asking them to go from where you all were last season to taking a team of that caliber.......well, you gotta expect the doubties to creep in there.

Find another way to get them to fight.

I suggest you find ways to build adversity and promote competition in your practices. Something where there is a winner and loser.........you need to build that desire.

You're real job starts in the off-season........don't beat them down right now. Build them up AND stay demanding.........railing on them for quitting will get you no where.

-Coach Burks

Coaches,

All great points. I think a lot of my original post was frustration and dissapointment. What we did was like a lot of you said....we moved on. We watched 5 minutes of film, which consisted of our opening kickoff and first drive, 3 plays, 86 yards and a touchdown. After that, we popped in film of our next opponent. We went out back, dug a hole, buried the game ball and burned the film. I told the boys I didn't want to hear anything more about the game Friday. I related a lot of history moments about overcoming adversity and defeating great odds. So far this week, our practices have been more competitive and upbeat. Hopefully we have moved on and will continue to grow as a Program.

It's hard to accept, but the fact is that kids will bail on you fairly early in a blowout. The whole pride and honor thing just doesn't resonate with them at that age like you hope it might. What's worse, once they have mentally checked out there is no way to get them back. At that point, they just want it to be over. If you scream at them for quitting, and run them ragged, all they learn is that their head coach is a @#$#%. Flush that one, focus on the following week.

Even better, if you can find even one play in that game where a kid hustled and made a good play, praise the heck out of that kid in front of his peers for competing hard and not quitting. Your smarter kids will get the message - if you keep competing, you get some public praise from the coach. Deep down, they all want your approval - give some to a kid who, at least on one play, kept competing.

I think that this --as with many things---"depends" (ooh..the dreaded it depends). But I really do think this depends on the recent performance of the club that got drubbed.

Fantom, if one of your recent teams (state champs/contenters) had this happen... I agree. CRUSH THEM.

In this case though, its a team with ZERO success. All they know is defeat.