|
Post by fshamrock on Mar 10, 2016 13:55:27 GMT -6
I saw a guy do a thing with his freshman where every day before workout they threw a football around a classroom and whatever guys he threw it do had to "share" something, typically something that his teammates don't know about him. I was just sitting in but I was amazed how much of their personal lives these kids were willing to share. Typically they talked about things like their parents divorces or the deaths of parents/grandparents. I'm normally not much on this kind of stuff, but I think this one in particular had some merit. It's easy to assume that these kids know each other but often times they really don't. The compulsion to in-group/outgroup is strong in young people, especially those with rough family situations to begin with. This helped me to understand that the more these kids know each other the more commonality they will recognize and they will be more likely to treat each other like family instead of acquaintances I also liked the fact that is was just kids talking to each other and not adults lecturing them about "integrity" or whatever, typically kids just roll their eyes and check mentally out when that stuff starts, just my opinion
|
|
|
Post by lions23 on Mar 10, 2016 22:18:30 GMT -6
We have a home room period. 25 mins. I am taking the focus3 Above the Line stuff and Whistle to Snap and running a month long leadership training with 10 Unit Leaders from each position group.
We are going to dig into focus mental toughness and leadership. I want to teach them the language we are going to use.
Every Monday this summer they are going to be my "TA's" when we do a briefer version over our 5 week summer practice program. The HC is giving me 30 mins of practice on Mondays. The Unit Leaders and position coaches will be charged with speaking and reinforcing the cultural messages and behaviors during practice that week.
I saw Pat Ivy at St Louis glazier and this is how they teach their culture and leadership during summer workouts at Mizzou.
Urban Meyer talks about the intentional training of leaders to lead. That's where Ingot the idea to train the unit leaders first. AD HC principal are all on board.
Getting t shirts and helmet stickers for unit leaders to encourage buy in. Ill probably buy pizza on Fridays.
|
|
|
Post by Coach Vint on Mar 13, 2016 21:45:59 GMT -6
This is a major issue at our school..we have talent..but the lack the character traits to be a successful team. My question is should this be addressed/initiated by the HC or can a coordinator like myself try to install these traits via character building activities/excercises? Everyone one staff must be bought in and involved if you want to maximize the success of anything you do. If half your coaches believe in this and half don't, then you will not have the same level of success. I don't look at any of this as taking time from practice or workouts. This is an investment that will make your program better. Period. Character, Culture, and Leadership must be taught with intent. You are teaching it whether you intend to or not. You are either building your culture by design, or you are building culture by chance. Character and leadership programs can be implemented in 8 to 10 minutes a day. It then must be reinforced all day, every day. I wrote a blog post that can be found here: coachvint.blogspot.com/2016/03/developing-culture-character-and.html Culture starts with character and leadership. Teams with great culture often beat teams that are more talented. If you have poor culture you will lose to teams with less talent. Your players will make poor decisions and you will not be mentally tough.
|
|
|
Post by raymul313 on Mar 13, 2016 22:16:10 GMT -6
I have used Habitudes by Tim Elmore and am in our fourth season...This is the first year it has been a struggle. Lots of reasons but till battling. What kind of issues were you dealing with that made it a struggle?
|
|
|
Post by nltdiego on Mar 15, 2016 21:12:24 GMT -6
Do you guys do this at all three levels? or just Varsity?
|
|
|
Post by CoachMikeJudy on Mar 16, 2016 10:14:34 GMT -6
This is a major issue at our school..we have talent..but the lack the character traits to be a successful team. My question is should this be addressed/initiated by the HC or can a coordinator like myself try to install these traits via character building activities/excercises? I know people who have successfully used these character building plans to help change the culture. It's too cutesy for me...not my deal but to each their own. I prefer to teach character through expectations and relationships. We have got our kids to LOVE: 1) eachother 2) the program 3) the process it takes to be a winner (grinding) If they are doing something that will hurt any of these then it is wrong and they need to change. Really simple and easy to keep them accountable. Example: "Hey bud, heard you were late to class today? Is that what a champion does? Is that what your teammates need you to do? If it happens again you're suspended...so fix it. If you need help just ask..." Problems take care of themselves. Those who can't buy into the team aspect end up fading away. Do kids have hiccups? sure- had to boot a 6'5 WR when we needed him most- was 100% sure it would hurt us...it didn't- the kid behind him, who had been playing football for 2 months his entire life, stepped in and thrived. Everyone on the staff needs to be like this though- can't be afraid to follow through and actually bench kids.
|
|
|
Post by **** on Mar 16, 2016 12:27:16 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by CanyonCoach on Mar 17, 2016 9:25:40 GMT -6
I have used Habitudes by Tim Elmore and am in our fourth season...This is the first year it has been a struggle. Lots of reasons but till battling. What kind of issues were you dealing with that made it a struggle? We don't have very high participation levels in any sport. The athletes are generally 3 sport kids. That means that we struggle to find time outside of football season to meet with athletes as a group because of the various schedules that are kept by winter sports. Additionally the junior class as a unit is very unmotivated to anything more than the bare min. and even more so if it isn't all about them individually.
|
|
|
Post by blb on Mar 20, 2016 13:16:40 GMT -6
His reputation took a huge hit for how his coaching career ended, and therefore some might infer there is no worth - but,
those of you who are contemplating doing "character building programs" might still benefit from reading
The Winners Manual by Jim Tressel.
There is a LOT of GREAT stuff in there.
|
|
|
Post by Coach Vint on Mar 20, 2016 13:42:10 GMT -6
What kind of issues were you dealing with that made it a struggle? We don't have very high participation levels in any sport. The athletes are generally 3 sport kids. That means that we struggle to find time outside of football season to meet with athletes as a group because of the various schedules that are kept by winter sports. Additionally the junior class as a unit is very unmotivated to anything more than the bare min. and even more so if it isn't all about them individually. You can do it before school for 10 minutes or possibly during lunch. Sit down with your coaches and kids and figure out a creative time to get something done. It will be worth it.
|
|
|
Post by nltdiego on Mar 20, 2016 13:55:20 GMT -6
Do you do all players or just leaders???
|
|
|
Post by Coach Vint on Mar 20, 2016 18:57:44 GMT -6
Do you do all players or just leaders??? Everyone. Every single person in the program. I have always done a separate leadership training program for unity council members.
|
|
|
Post by nltdiego on Mar 20, 2016 19:01:43 GMT -6
Do you do all players or just leaders??? Everyone. Every single person in the program. I have always done a separate leadership training program for unity council members. Yes .Ok I pm you about questions I had.
|
|
|
Post by lions23 on Mar 20, 2016 20:06:06 GMT -6
We don't have very high participation levels in any sport. The athletes are generally 3 sport kids. That means that we struggle to find time outside of football season to meet with athletes as a group because of the various schedules that are kept by winter sports. Additionally the junior class as a unit is very unmotivated to anything more than the bare min. and even more so if it isn't all about them individually. You can do it before school for 10 minutes or possibly during lunch. Sit down with your coaches and kids and figure out a creative time to get something done. It will be worth it. Among staff we keep coming up with ways to be INTENTIONAL about character and leadership. After 2 weeks of leadership class there is an amazing difference in buy in. As to those who are coordinators like me you have to sell your vision to HC. Show him your plan. Most HCs want to do this sort of thing if they are any good. Get him on board he will get the rest of staff on board. Likely he has established some sort of vision. Tap into that and sell it. Good leaders listen and allow their leaders to grow as well.
|
|
|
Post by nltdiego on Mar 20, 2016 20:11:12 GMT -6
You can do it before school for 10 minutes or possibly during lunch. Sit down with your coaches and kids and figure out a creative time to get something done. It will be worth it. Among staff we keep coming up with ways to be INTENTIONAL about character and leadership. After 2 weeks of leadership class there is an amazing difference in buy in. As to those who are coordinators like me you have to sell your vision to HC. Show him your plan. Most HCs want to do this sort of thing if they are any good. Get him on board he will get the rest of staff on board. Likely he has established some sort of vision. Tap into that and sell it. Good leaders listen and allow their leaders to grow as well. When is two week class? Summer? Can you PLEASE EXPLAIN?
|
|
|
Post by lions23 on Mar 21, 2016 13:34:12 GMT -6
We have a homeroom period. It's 25 minutes. I introduce a topic we work on a short exercise. It's intimate enough we can bring up our baggage without anyone getting embarrassed. Plus I'm framing it as a special class just for them and they will go out and spread the message. I pulled the kids out of their normal homeroom. It's not graded so no one gives a heck.
I bring them pizza on Friday and made them T shirts to add some buy in.
I'm trying to teach them a common language and skills of accountability and dealing with stress.
We challenge them to go out and start using the language and practice the skills during class and practice. We challenge them to start using the language with their teammates.
We have to be intentional as Vint has suggested. We are in a tough community with lots of socioeconomic issues. The kids need this for personal and football life. We have been quite successful of late but have run into some tough games where it was clear the other team is just mentally tougher.
|
|
|
Post by nltdiego on Mar 21, 2016 21:07:35 GMT -6
We have a homeroom period. It's 25 minutes. I introduce a topic we work on a short exercise. It's intimate enough we can bring up our baggage without anyone getting embarrassed. Plus I'm framing it as a special class just for them and they will go out and spread the message. I pulled the kids out of their normal homeroom. It's not graded so no one gives a heck. I bring them pizza on Friday and made them T shirts to add some buy in. I'm trying to teach them a common language and skills of accountability and dealing with stress. We challenge them to go out and start using the language and practice the skills during class and practice. We challenge them to start using the language with their teammates. We have to be intentional as Vint has suggested. We are in a tough community with lots of socioeconomic issues. The kids need this for personal and football life. We have been quite successful of late but have run into some tough games where it was clear the other team is just mentally tougher. What do you call this? Leadership class? Character building?
|
|
|
Post by lions23 on Mar 22, 2016 9:50:06 GMT -6
I just call it Leadership Meetings.
For me, it has been interesting noticing all of the coaches from the Glazier circuit and here on Huey talk about this. Maybe the need for this has always been there and now I'm just more aware of it. However, it feels that many coaches are really looking for answers to develop mental toughness, character, leadership.
I don't know if it is a product of society, schools, parenting or a combination, but it has seemed to me at least that this sort of issue has become a bigger topic than x's and o's this off season.
Anyway, yesterday many of the kids were using the language with each other and felt empowered to use the skills we have been working on at practice, so at least right here right now it has been paying off.
I'm sure this will have to be a process and part of the program that we have to continue to teach and develop just like our offense and defensive schemes.
|
|
|
Post by Coach Vint on Mar 22, 2016 11:00:51 GMT -6
Mental Toughness can and must be taught. It must be taught with intent, and can be taught a variety of ways. Most programs I have researched do at least part of it in a classroom setting. I have heard it called many different things. At one school I was at we called it Tiger Pride. At another school we called it Warrior Training. At another place we called it Champions For Life or C4L.
Every successful and failing organization has a culture. Successful organizations build culture with intent. Failing organizations tend to have Culture by Chance. Your character and leadership training should be aligned with your Culture, Vision, and Values. There are many outstanding resources available. There is a reason why Houston went 13-1 and beat Florida State. And guys, it isn't their athletes. Tom Herman has a heck of a vision, and he gets what it takes to build a championship culture. Guys like Hal Wasson at Southlake Carroll, Randy Allen at Highland Park High School, and Todd Dodge at Westlake build culture and character with intent. Randy Jackson had a great year at Grapevine High School playing schools they had no business beating if you went solely on athletic ability. He has a great plan for building culture and character. (Those schools are all in Texas).
This is as important as the time you spend building your offensive and defensive schemes. Culture Trumps Strategy. If it didn't, Nick Saban wouldn't spend time on it. If it didn't, Hugh Freeze wouldn't spend so much time on it.
|
|
|
Post by fshamrock on Mar 22, 2016 12:56:20 GMT -6
You wanna know what even trumps culture!?!!?
Overallness
That's right men, overallness is the grand totality of all things that you do as a program, it includes strategy, implementation, culture, trust falling, x's and o's, jimmy's and joe's, cone drills, weight room, crossfit and music selections. I know it seems overwhelming, but if your program is not focused on dominating the Overallness, you will never truly achieve your full limitless potential and 111% effort (note: this is even more effort than 110%) I have broken Overallness down into a simple acronym O - out for victory V - very commited E - excellence R - REAL men A - Always getting it L - Limitless L - Love N - Nobody comes between us E - even you S - seriously we mean this stuff S = seriously bro
The overallness program is just what you need to propel you to the next level of greatness, the 7-8 yr. old all star baseball team in Yakema Washington was just average until they decided to use my program and start DOMINATING the overallness, now they are sectional champs (probably would have been anyway if terry didn't show up late since his dad slept in)
see my blog for details on how you can get into the ground floor of the overallness program for 19.99 a month and get one on one life coaching from me or some of my trusted affiliates
(if you are interested in becoming an affiliate the compensation works in a pyramid structure where you get a few guys to sign up, then if they get a few guys to sign up...etc)
Okay seriously not trying to be a d!ck and I know this character building stuff matters but so much of it just reeks of shameless hucksterism to me. It reminds me of corporate "team building" exercises or "self-help" guru's in JC penny suits rehashing the "7 habits of highly effective people" and separating morons from their money. Do we really need a program to teach us how to interact with kids and give a crap about them? To teach them right from wrong? To urge them to care about each other?...seems to me that the game was teaching these lessons long before any of us put on a whistle, let's not start taking ourselves too seriously.
|
|
osceola
Sophomore Member
Posts: 148
|
Post by osceola on Mar 22, 2016 13:13:04 GMT -6
Mic drop by fshamrock
|
|
|
Post by Coach Vint on Mar 22, 2016 13:36:42 GMT -6
I just snorted some coffee out through my nose. I actually thought you were serious for two paragraphs.
|
|
|
Post by fshamrock on Mar 23, 2016 8:08:57 GMT -6
Just want to say publicly here that I wasn't trying to poke fun at anybody in particular on this board with my previous post. The point I was trying (poorly) to make is that I think character building programs that you buy from somebody are a complete scam, very similar to buying somebody's offensive or defensive system. You know your kids and what they need, you should be able to figure it out for your team. One man's opinion anyway.
|
|
|
Post by CanyonCoach on Mar 23, 2016 19:04:24 GMT -6
We don't have very high participation levels in any sport. The athletes are generally 3 sport kids. That means that we struggle to find time outside of football season to meet with athletes as a group because of the various schedules that are kept by winter sports. Additionally the junior class as a unit is very unmotivated to anything more than the bare min. and even more so if it isn't all about them individually. You can do it before school for 10 minutes or possibly during lunch. Sit down with your coaches and kids and figure out a creative time to get something done. It will be worth it. We have a screwy schedule, kids are lifting from 6:30 to 7:15am or at practices out of season and/or during our 8th period and after school. We don't have athletic periods and we have a split lunch. I am the before school and 8th period weight room guy so that creates some issues. I do truly wish that the assistant coaches would buy in more in the off season but 1. is off campus 2. is a basketball coach 3. is working his part time job to make ends meet 4. is working for a family member and 5. we just hired and he doesn't have day care before or after school yet. That leaves me. I have been able to get 5-6 kids involved but that doesn't scratch the surface.
|
|
|
Post by CanyonCoach on Mar 23, 2016 19:16:40 GMT -6
Just want to say publicly here that I wasn't trying to poke fun at anybody in particular on this board with my previous post. The point I was trying (poorly) to make is that I think character building programs that you buy from somebody are a complete scam, very similar to buying somebody's offensive or defensive system. You know your kids and what they need, you should be able to figure it out for your team. One man's opinion anyway. I think you make a valid point about boxed programs. I won't buy one of those so why did I go for the Habitudes stuff? It is a simple answer: I want to have some control over who gets thrown the football (your previous example) and what routes are being run. But we use it as a guide to be able to address each area we think is important but we don't follow the script word for word. Lots of discussion mostly player to player...
|
|
|
Post by Coach Vint on Mar 25, 2016 10:18:12 GMT -6
Here is the way I look at it. I am not very smart. I wanted a point of reference. When I first started coaching I thought the sport kind of taught character itself. But while we won a lot of games we were missing something. We started with Coaching to Change Lives by Dennis Parker and DW Rutledge. It gave us a great point of reference. It helped improve our program. That's where I have evolved. The game itself doesn't teach character, but it gives coaches a great opportunity to. There are a lot of guys a lot smarter than me, and that's why I bought character resources. Now I use the Real Man Program. I love it. It has a lot to it. Do I use other stuff? Yes. But it gave me a great foundation, and that's what I needed. It is far from a scam. The guy who wrote it passed away a few years ago. I feel strongly enough I speak on it at clinics. I don't make a dime if you buy it. But I believe it helps our kids, and that is why I advocate it's use.
When I was first hired as an OC I didn't know where to start. I didn't buy an out of the box offense, but I did seek knowledge. I paid some coaches to come in and clinic me and our offensive staff. I then fit that to our system. I visited schools that did things I wanted to do, and then I fit it to our system. I felt it was value. That's just my opinion for what it's worth. If I am lacking in an area, I am going to pay for information. There are some good character programs out there, and they are worth the investment. My thought is, if football taught character then every football player would be making great life decisions. We all know this isn't the case. Football is the greatest game for teaching great lessons, but it takes coaches to teach those lessons. They don't get taught on their own. How you teach those lessons is up to you. Me, I am not very smart so I went out and found some resources. There are many who are far smarter than I that already have the answers. They may not need the resources.
|
|
|
Post by tigeroption on Mar 25, 2016 16:44:59 GMT -6
Honestly if your looking to save $ I would buy 1 of each book and then taper it to your school and situation and make your own books for your team.
|
|
|
Post by tigeroption on Mar 25, 2016 16:57:22 GMT -6
Just want to say publicly here that I wasn't trying to poke fun at anybody in particular on this board with my previous post. The point I was trying (poorly) to make is that I think character building programs that you buy from somebody are a complete scam, very similar to buying somebody's offensive or defensive system. You know your kids and what they need, you should be able to figure it out for your team. One man's opinion anyway. I agree to a point, I think this stuff is important and I feel it has benefited the young men in our program a lot. I agree however that just like anything if you try to just buy someone else's system without learning it, understanding it, making it your own and adapting it to your situation then your probably getting ripped off and not going to get the results you are hoping for. I don't think kids today understand all the lessons that football teaches anymore because too often they are either hearing conflicting messages and images in the professional ranks or they quit before they can experience some of the lessons because they don't have immediate success. The character education allows the reflection and ability to actually link what goes onto the field to the greater purpose. Allows us as coaches to tie the examples to something tangible for kids to understand.
|
|
twdawg
Probationary Member
Posts: 10
|
Post by twdawg on Mar 28, 2016 21:01:16 GMT -6
We meet on Wednesday mornings at 7 am.
The R.E.A.L. Man Program is great, we have received a lot of compliments from our administration and parents.
|
|
|
Post by lions23 on Mar 28, 2016 21:28:57 GMT -6
Football doesn't teach character it exposes character. If you believe that then you must teach people how to respond to tough situations.
|
|