How to get kids to buy in and not be selfish

1. You have to prove to them that playing other positions is just as gratifying.

2. If they don't want to follow your rules, then they aren't going to play

3. Show them Barry Sanders and Earl Campbell videos. Show college teams' (OREGON) players doing core workouts

4. Don't let them take bad reps during regular workouts. Again, show them college teams' (OREGON) players doing workouts correctly.

Points 3 and 4 may seem lazy, but we used to have a major problem with getting kids to do core lifts and squat properly.  A kid on our team put on our team Facebook page a video of South Carolina players squatting and doing core lifts.  The next day, every player who saw the video was fighting over who would squat next.  We were kind of surprised at how simple it was.  Sometimes just letting the kids figure it out on their own is the best way.  

5. If they don't deserve to start, don't start them.

If kids want to whine and complain, let them do that all they want.  Once you concede to a pouter, they've gotten you in their hands and not the other way around.

We have plenty of selfish kids in our program with massive egos, but if they do their jobs better than everyone else, they'll get all the playing time.

You also have to figure out how each and every individual kid ticks. What gets under their skin? What motivates them? What motivational or coaching tactics will they respond negatively too? As our O-line coach calls it: You gotta play "Dr. Phil," to get buy-in from all of your kids.

The best team building activities that have worked for us our team dinners. We've seen coaches try to force team bonding and team building events on kids, and it just hasn't worked here in our community. Our team has become very close recently because the good apples have risen to the top, and rather than us coaches over-working ourselves on the bad-apples, the good apples eventually replace them, then the younger kids start wanting to be like the good apples.  What do they do to bond?  They organize events on their own.  Weekend bowling, movie nights, etc.  All without coaches advice/input.  Find the winners on your team and put them in position to lead their peers.  

DO NOT MICROMANAGE. Do not concentrate too much on the bad apples. Focus your time on the good ones. We try to stay as hands-off as possible with the kids, especially off the field. Then when we find the good kids, we encourage them to lead the team, then the problem usually takes care of itself within the players. Players, we've noticed, fixing problems within the team infrastructure can do a lot more good than us coaches doing it.

Faced the same issue when I got here 5 years ago...tons of great athletes who thought about themselves in the weight room...I was told this advice-Graduate your seniors and develop your underclassmen. You have less guys being cancers right now but the fact of the matter is that they are cancers-and older cancers can spread-They either need to change or get out-I promise it will be better in the long run.

Here is something practical that we did that helped that culture and changed some of our cancers. We broke into groups for workouts-I made sure I took 3 good guys to 1 "cancer" type of kid. We were on a whistle system in the weight room...so they stayed on their racks and was all given numbers-1 through 4. Blew the whistle for each guy to squat, power clean or whatever lift we had. The three guys began to correct the one guy who was an issue. But there are some you just can't change-you gotta let them weed themselves out as long as you keep the bar high.

Keep on working-everybody wants the quick fix...it takes time to develop a program!

If you want your garden to flourish, you gotta pull some weeds!

If you only have a few bad apples and can afford to live without them, do so. Let those who want to be a part of a team and buy in to the team concept run the roost. Run the others off and be better for it.

1. They don't get to decide what position they play.
2. Punishing the team isn't working so stop. Punish those who are breaking the rules. Just out of curiosity, what is this protocol and why is it so important? 
3. In the weight room they do our workout, period. When they're done, on their own time, they can curl as much as they want to.
4. They don't have to like it, they just have to do it. Whine away but get your a$$ lower.
5. This ain't a union shop. Seniority doesn't matter here. Best players play. 

In my experience the lack of buy in will usually be seniors with a "loser syndrome" meaning they are fine with being losers and resent the positive changes you have made to the culture and expectations. They are testing and fighting to be unchanged and remain in control.

You might have to make an example out of one or two - it happens.

Coach,
For our kids I took what the current Seahawks and forme USC strength coach (Carlisle) calls the Apple Pie effect. We end every workout with something they want to do. It lets them leave with the idea that the workout was fun and they got to do the cool lifts that they like.
For us one day we end with Biceps and Back, on another day we end with triceps and shoulders. We also finish any speed and agility session with games. His idea was that he always remembers his mothers cooking no matter what she cooked. It was because after dinner he always got a dessert and that is all he ever remembered.

We do this too.

One team building thing we did in the offseason was trash can football. It's competitive and the kids love it.
Each team has a trash can to defend.
You can run with the ball until you are touched.
You can pitch or throw the ball at anytime.
Do anything possible to score.

I feel like this also gives the coaches an idea of who can do what. You will notice the kids who could return kicks or throw for a trick play right away.