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Post by bird0660 on Dec 2, 2014 13:24:26 GMT -6
I am at a small school. Approx 50 kids frosh-seniors on the roster. At each position we are lucky if we are two deep, and many times wind up playing frosh on varsity (which I hate).
Anyway, I think competition amongst kids is the strongest incentive for them to get better, however we have a severe lack of it. Many players are smart enough to understand the tremendous drop off in talent from them to the next guy. We are not in a situation where we can do a rebuild and start a bunch of young guys and work them through. We need to win a little.
Guys, do any of you have some advice on how to foster competition? Im thinking position battle wise? Or is that just not something possible at such a small school? If not, how do you small school coaches find success outside of talent?
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Post by mhyland on Dec 2, 2014 15:35:15 GMT -6
Im in the same boat. We have 45 kids in the whole program, most are 8-soph. So what my goal is this year is keep practice intense and avoid too much talking. I am going to emphasize physicality in a lot of drills, and rep my offense in scrimmage form with keepin down and distance/score. That way we practice a lot of situations and keep the look squad competing hard. On days when look squad wins they can skip a portion of conditioning.
Boards is something that always works for me. I get 3 groups up and go one at a time. Emphasize firing off low, getting the hands on the chest plate andd drive. Nobody likes getting pushed around just man vs man in front of everyone and the coaches. They will have high effort.
Winning and recognition from peers is what matters to kids at this age. Putting them in drills that not only develop fundamental motor skills but allow them to beat someone with high reward or recognition then they will compete hard.
Im looking into this myself this offseason and am curious how to make more competition, maybe one or two good drills would make a difference
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Post by bird0660 on Dec 3, 2014 9:46:02 GMT -6
We have had similar success with boards, one on ones (WR v DB), and Oklahoma. Im looking for more then that though...primarily competition in team periods and situation drills. My corner can take a play off, or not push himself as hard as possible, because he knows that the frosh that cant tie his shoes isnt replacing him.
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Post by coachmonkey on Dec 3, 2014 9:58:12 GMT -6
I am at a small school. Approx 50 kids frosh-seniors on the roster. At each position we are lucky if we are two deep, and many times wind up playing frosh on varsity (which I hate). Anyway, I think competition amongst kids is the strongest incentive for them to get better, however we have a severe lack of it. Many players are smart enough to understand the tremendous drop off in talent from them to the next guy. We are not in a situation where we can do a rebuild and start a bunch of young guys and work them through. We need to win a little. Guys, do any of you have some advice on how to foster competition? Im thinking position battle wise? Or is that just not something possible at such a small school? If not, how do you small school coaches find success outside of talent? I actually tend to think you need to go a different route. You need to create a stronger bond among the team so they want to work harder and play harder because they love their teammates. For proof of this I would recommend 3-D Coaching, or anything by Joe Ehrmann. If it sounds to lovey dovey, try reading Damn Few - it's about why the Navy Seals are so successful when others are not. Basically it's the same brotherhood principles. Think about the people you truly love in your life. How much hell would you endure for them? What about those you are neutral to not liking - how much would you give for them??? For the record, I am at a small school that's had a lot of success. We were 11-1 this past season and I started 2 freshmen and 2 sophomores on defense. Due to injuries we also ended up starting a 3rd freshmen for 3 games. |
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Post by fantom on Dec 3, 2014 10:48:09 GMT -6
I am at a small school. Approx 50 kids frosh-seniors on the roster. At each position we are lucky if we are two deep, and many times wind up playing frosh on varsity (which I hate). Anyway, I think competition amongst kids is the strongest incentive for them to get better, however we have a severe lack of it. Many players are smart enough to understand the tremendous drop off in talent from them to the next guy. We are not in a situation where we can do a rebuild and start a bunch of young guys and work them through. We need to win a little. Guys, do any of you have some advice on how to foster competition? Im thinking position battle wise? Or is that just not something possible at such a small school? If not, how do you small school coaches find success outside of talent? I actually tend to think you need to go a different route. You need to create a stronger bond among the team so they want to work harder and play harder because they love their teammates. For proof of this I would recommend 3-D Coaching, or anything by Joe Ehrmann. If it sounds to lovey dovey, try reading Damn Few - it's about why the Navy Seals are so successful when others are not. Basically it's the same brotherhood principles. Think about the people you truly love in your life. How much hell would you endure for them? What about those you are neutral to not liking - how much would you give for them??? For the record, I am at a small school that's had a lot of success. We were 11-1 this past season and I started 2 freshmen and 2 sophomores on defense. Due to injuries we also ended up starting a 3rd freshmen for 3 games. I'll add that the kids need to understand that really they need to compete with the guys on the other teams, not each other. We're working in the offseason to win games, not a position. |
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Post by s73 on Dec 3, 2014 11:08:18 GMT -6
I am a huge believer of the old adage that you win in the off season. I'm also in a smaller school. Not nearly as small as your but small compared to our competition, which means we struggle with depth comparatively.
So we have taken the approach of creating weight training teams in the off season. We figure we can't always leverage a kid with competition in season but hopefully we can push them all to be the best they can be in the off season.
We also try to talk up competition by position with our opponents. Telling them things like we don't need you to be just the best at your position on our team. We need you to be the best at your position on our whole schedule. Then you can truly impact your team and your season.
None of it works 100% of the time but we hope it can work enough to make some difference.
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