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Post by ccoomes16 on Mar 8, 2016 8:36:48 GMT -6
I took over a program that has historically been alright (not great but had several good years), but has fallen on hard times in the last decade. Last year was my first year and we won 2 games. It seems that around the community that that type of season was the norm and that our team is not seen as a threat to other area schools.
I obviously would like to change that, but I know it starts in practice and with the culture of the team. What are some little things that you do with your team to foster a winning culture? Does anyone have a story to share about turning a team culture around?
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Post by rosey65 on Mar 8, 2016 8:49:22 GMT -6
I took over a program that has historically been alright (not great but had several good years), but has fallen on hard times in the last decade. Last year was my first year and we won 2 games. It seems that around the community that that type of season was the norm and that our team is not seen as a threat to other area schools. I obviously would like to change that, but I know it starts in practice and with the culture of the team. What are some little things that you do with your team to foster a winning culture? Does anyone have a story to share about turning a team culture around? We went thru this a few years ago. Focus on the little successes that you have control over. Attendance, weight lifting, working hard, personal gains. These are things your kids, im guessing, haven't been exposed to the past few years. Secondly, or maybe 1.B, hold the players accountable to whatever team goals/practices/discipline your staff decides to follow. These kids must learn HOW to be successful. While a few kids might have to be booted, we have found much greater success in not eliminating kids from drills, practices or the program entirely. If kids dont meet your standards, then stop what is going on, and ensure the little things are followed. Teach them all how to be great at crawling, before you introduce walking. Running will simply cause them to fall flat on their face, and it doesnt sound like the "get back up" mentality is there yet with your kids. |
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Post by coachphillip on Mar 8, 2016 9:39:42 GMT -6
Weight room! Begin to a develop a nucleus of players that you can build around. Pour all your energy into those kids and create an atmosphere of marked improvement. Get them so strong and do things so competitive that they recruit for you. Develop those relationships of trust. Once they know you can help them and you care about them, it'll pick up immediately. Change starts from the inside out.
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Post by brophy on Mar 8, 2016 10:10:43 GMT -6
Assistants that show up for all events without excuses (assistant coaches that are not at team events for whatever reason makes a big statement)
Assisants showing up for non football school events
Setting up small competitions or small achievements so kids get in a habit of expecting reward for effort
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barlow
Sophomore Member
Posts: 104 
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Post by barlow on Mar 8, 2016 10:27:19 GMT -6
Ditto to what has been said. Biggest things for us was knowingly loving up the freshman who are untainted by this apathy. They, along with SOME older guys has been the key to making football fun and competitive. We have had fun days doing non football stuff and fundraisers with them helping. Building that outside football relationship as much as we can. We have come from a deep playoff regular and we let them know that and explain "These are the things that teams that are consistently successful do" then it's easy to ask them, do you want to win? Then we are doing ALL of that. Discipline, accountability, trust, brotherhood.
We are entering the second year from a piss poor group we inherited and i can modestly say we are leaps and bounds better already in March. Numbers are up greatly.
At this school sports are super everyone for themself and all do pretty poorly. We are trying to foster connections with the coaches and teaching our kids to love up all of their schools teams instead of hateon eachother.
Funny thing to see these seniors we upset cause we had one kid suspended a game cause he was doing another sport and missed practice to go there and another cause he was doing CLUB and missed practice during the week for them. This team that is so fundamentally behind felt like they could afford to miss weekly practices...
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Post by tothehouse on Mar 8, 2016 10:32:08 GMT -6
Give out stuff. T-shirts for weight room, etc. Put a brand on your program. Focus on a few things that you're "going to be" and preach that stuff. Are you "tough"? Then train for toughness, etc.
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Post by eaglemountie on Mar 8, 2016 12:31:02 GMT -6
I took over a program that has historically been alright (not great but had several good years), but has fallen on hard times in the last decade. Last year was my first year and we won 2 games. It seems that around the community that that type of season was the norm and that our team is not seen as a threat to other area schools. I obviously would like to change that, but I know it starts in practice and with the culture of the team. What are some little things that you do with your team to foster a winning culture? Does anyone have a story to share about turning a team culture around? Start with holding them accountable for being on time and doing their best. Once they do that with regularity the rest will fall into place. Those are two very small things but as soon as they become important the big things become easier to achieve... |
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Post by John Knight on Mar 8, 2016 12:35:18 GMT -6
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Post by John Knight on Mar 8, 2016 12:40:09 GMT -6
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hg5slu
Probationary Member
Posts: 10
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Post by hg5slu on Mar 9, 2016 8:49:07 GMT -6
Ditto to what has been said. Biggest things for us was knowingly loving up the freshman who are untainted by this apathy. They, along with SOME older guys has been the key to making football fun and competitive. We have had fun days doing non football stuff and fundraisers with them helping. Building that outside football relationship as much as we can. We have come from a deep playoff regular and we let them know that and explain "These are the things that teams that are consistently successful do" then it's easy to ask them, do you want to win? Then we are doing ALL of that. Discipline, accountability, trust, brotherhood. We are entering the second year from a piss poor group we inherited and i can modestly say we are leaps and bounds better already in March. Numbers are up greatly. At this school sports are super everyone for themself and all do pretty poorly. We are trying to foster connections with the coaches and teaching our kids to love up all of their schools teams instead of hateon eachother. Funny thing to see these seniors we upset cause we had one kid suspended a game cause he was doing another sport and missed practice to go there and another cause he was doing CLUB and missed practice during the week for them. This team that is so fundamentally behind felt like they could afford to miss weekly practices... I swear I feel like someone on our staff wrote this post. Kids unable to give credit where it is due, would rather hate on each other than lift someone up. Im not sure where this every man for himself mentality comes from in team sports, but we are trying our best to make sure it leaves with our outgoing senior class. |
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barlow
Sophomore Member
Posts: 104
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Post by barlow on Mar 9, 2016 9:55:50 GMT -6
Ditto to what has been said. Biggest things for us was knowingly loving up the freshman who are untainted by this apathy. They, along with SOME older guys has been the key to making football fun and competitive. We have had fun days doing non football stuff and fundraisers with them helping. Building that outside football relationship as much as we can. We have come from a deep playoff regular and we let them know that and explain "These are the things that teams that are consistently successful do" then it's easy to ask them, do you want to win? Then we are doing ALL of that. Discipline, accountability, trust, brotherhood. We are entering the second year from a piss poor group we inherited and i can modestly say we are leaps and bounds better already in March. Numbers are up greatly. At this school sports are super everyone for themself and all do pretty poorly. We are trying to foster connections with the coaches and teaching our kids to love up all of their schools teams instead of hateon eachother. Funny thing to see these seniors we upset cause we had one kid suspended a game cause he was doing another sport and missed practice to go there and another cause he was doing CLUB and missed practice during the week for them. This team that is so fundamentally behind felt like they could afford to miss weekly practices... I swear I feel like someone on our staff wrote this post. Kids unable to give credit where it is due, would rather hate on each other than lift someone up. Im not sure where this every man for himself mentality comes from in team sports, but we are trying our best to make sure it leaves with our outgoing senior class. Exactly the same here, we have had out players attend wrestling as a group, basketball as a group, going to attend baseball as a group. Yesterday we had a friendly exhibition game against the basketball team and from the start the basketball players were getting chippy and complaining cause we were beating them. For us it is a team building exercise and they just got salty and defensive instead of appreciating the other athletes in the school. The big issue is lack of School Pride. My fiance attended a not so competitive school in town and has no feeling of attachment to her old school. For my alma mater i see people all over the city wearing our clothes, the next city over, and once (admittedly astronomically coincidental) the next state over. |
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Post by shocktroop34 on Mar 9, 2016 10:16:38 GMT -6
Changing culture starts with establishing relationships. All other things are important, but they won't hold if certain bonds are not it place. My suggestions:
1) Create meaningful team-building events. Don't just gather for the sake of gathering. Make them look forward to the next event you create for them.
2) Make it mandatory for coaches to reach out to players off the field and form a bond with their position group, or a group designated by the staff or HC. (Lot's of different ways to do this, but don't rely on social media exclusively)
3) Formulate parent involvement. I truly believe that the strongest, perennially winning programs have some base of parent support.
4) Find a way to include the administration. Again, lot's of ways to do this. Personally, I'm not close with my admin, but I threw them all a t-shirt and they were happy as hell. It bought me some good-will and support when an issue arose within my program this past season.
A lot of things stated above are fodder for us to vent/bitch about, but they are also some of the factors that can impact the building or dismantling of a culture.
However you choose to change/challenge the culture in your program, don't forget to develop rapport with your players, and branch out from there.
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barlow
Sophomore Member
Posts: 104
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Post by barlow on Mar 9, 2016 10:30:46 GMT -6
Shock that is a big thing I overlooked. Parents are paramount. Our comminity has low parental involvement with kids in general and that is the next hurdle we need to overcome to keep the growth going and LAST.
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Post by carookie on Mar 9, 2016 10:31:42 GMT -6
Ditto to what has been said. Biggest things for us was knowingly loving up the freshman who are untainted by this apathy. They, along with SOME older guys has been the key to making football fun and competitive. We have had fun days doing non football stuff and fundraisers with them helping. Building that outside football relationship as much as we can. We have come from a deep playoff regular and we let them know that and explain "These are the things that teams that are consistently successful do" then it's easy to ask them, do you want to win? Then we are doing ALL of that. Discipline, accountability, trust, brotherhood. We are entering the second year from a piss poor group we inherited and i can modestly say we are leaps and bounds better already in March. Numbers are up greatly. At this school sports are super everyone for themself and all do pretty poorly. We are trying to foster connections with the coaches and teaching our kids to love up all of their schools teams instead of hateon eachother. Funny thing to see these seniors we upset cause we had one kid suspended a game cause he was doing another sport and missed practice to go there and another cause he was doing CLUB and missed practice during the week for them. This team that is so fundamentally behind felt like they could afford to miss weekly practices... I swear I feel like someone on our staff wrote this post. Kids unable to give credit where it is due, would rather hate on each other than lift someone up. Im not sure where this every man for himself mentality comes from in team sports, but we are trying our best to make sure it leaves with our outgoing senior class. It in many ways is human nature, and how we define manhood. These young men are in a social hierarchy and looking to establish their places in such. You become the Alpha male by being superior to those around you and having more power than they do. Since this power is relative to those around us then there are two ways to attain it: 1) make yourself more powerful or 2) make others around you less. In general our society show males that power is measured in five ways (at least that I can see): physical power, wealth, sexual prowess, popularity, and authority. It may sound ridiculous but look who your head cheerleader (or alpha female) is going after, as they define themselves by landing an alpha male. You want to overcome this mentality which leads others to put down teammates and others around them? Then you need to either change what defines manhood and being an alpha male to them; or convince them that putting others down makes them less of the alpha that they are designed to be. |
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Post by John Knight on Mar 9, 2016 10:52:47 GMT -6
Man, that went primal pretty quickly!
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Post by paydirt18 on Mar 9, 2016 12:27:44 GMT -6
We've used this as our ongoing slogan for years. Every year, our kids get a new piece of the rope for the upcoming season. |
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