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Post by 3rdandlong on Feb 7, 2017 22:03:26 GMT -6
One thing I thought to be very interesting during bowl season was when broadcasters discussed the different philosophies of Urban and Dabo.
They talked about how Urban tries to make practice as uncomfortable as possible so that no matter what the game throws at them, they'll be prepared because they went through it at practice.
Dabo on the other hand, says he wants his players to enjoy practice and have lots of fun.
While I think the media always portrays things a certain way and believe that Urban will make practice fun and that Dabo sets high expectations, it made me realize the importance of a coach knowing what his true beliefs and values are. If you're not a fun loving, dancing type of guy, then you shouldn't portray that as a coach. And if you're not an in your face kind of guy, then you shouldn't portray that either.
It takes a lot of different qualities for a coach to be good, but it is vital to know who you are and what things you stand for.
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Post by Chris Clement on Feb 9, 2017 0:07:05 GMT -6
Kind of a meta-point, I really stand for identifying what actually matters. I have a finite and measurable number of manhours across an entire staff, so I also need to identify what matters more.
Worrying if practice is hard enough or fun enough and how that might be perceived by outsiders vis-a-vis my personality is all mental masturbation, to quote Alvy Singer.
All I'm trying to do is optimize my team's performance using the best real evidence available.
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Post by fantom on Feb 9, 2017 0:10:26 GMT -6
Kind of a meta-point, I really stand for identifying what actually matters. I have a finite and measurable number of manhours across an entire staff, so I also need to identify what matters more. Worrying if practice is hard enough or fun enough and how that might be perceived by outsiders vis-a-vis my personality is all mental masturbation, to quote Alvy Singer. All I'm trying to do is optimize my team's performance using the best real evidence available. You have to coach according to your personality but there are times that you may need to vary the tone of practice. |
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Post by Chris Clement on Feb 9, 2017 0:14:50 GMT -6
Sure, just don't make a religion of it. If you're loud be loud, unless the situation calls for you to be quiet, then be quiet.
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Post by 3rdandlong on Feb 9, 2017 0:30:20 GMT -6
Yes, there are definitely times where a coach will need to adapt. But straying too far away can be a bad thing.
I'll give an example. When prepping for an opponent, I typically give the players all of the names of who they'll be going against, and give our guys a true us against them mentality. I let our kids know the opponents are the bad guys and for all intents and purposes, screw them. I know many coaches have a different philosophy. Pete Carroll says that he doesn't talk that way about the opponent to his team but other programs do and it may work out just fine. Well we kind of fall under those "other programs." Whether any of you agree or disagree with doing things this way is not really the point of the following story.
A few years back I coached in a game against a big rival. . Our kids were already very hyped for this game so I didn't want to talk about the guys from rival HS. I down played the rivalry and I downplayed the fact that this was a team our guys really wanted to beat. I told them that we will treat this game just like any other. Problem was that all other games, we hyped up who our opponent is and in this one we didn't. Our kids came out really flat and although we won, we did not perform as well as I thought we could have and I thought we lacked some passion. To this day I think it's because I went away from what we did in other weeks.
While I think coaches need to adapt to certain situations and use common sense, it can be problematic if you completely change the way you do things and let the situation control you.
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Post by funkfriss on Feb 9, 2017 7:59:06 GMT -6
Yes, there are definitely times where a coach will need to adapt. But straying too far away can be a bad thing. I'll give an example. When prepping for an opponent, I typically give the players all of the names of who they'll be going against, and give our guys a true us against them mentality. I let our kids know the opponents are the bad guys and for all intents and purposes, screw them. I know many coaches have a different philosophy. Pete Carroll says that he doesn't talk that way about the opponent to his team but other programs do and it may work out just fine. Well we kind of fall under those "other programs." Whether any of you agree or disagree with doing things this way is not really the point of the following story. A few years back I coached in a game against a big rival. . Our kids were already very hyped for this game so I didn't want to talk about the guys from rival HS. I down played the rivalry and I downplayed the fact that this was a team our guys really wanted to beat. I told them that we will treat this game just like any other. Problem was that all other games, we hyped up who our opponent is and in this one we didn't. Our kids came out really flat and although we won, we did not perform as well as I thought we could have and I thought we lacked some passion. To this day I think it's because I went away from what we did in other weeks. While I think coaches need to adapt to certain situations and use common sense, it can be problematic if you completely change the way you do things and let the situation control you. I'm glad you shared that story. I used to hang a lot of weight my weekly message, demeanor, or pregame speech and how it affected our performance on Friday nights. Then I started to realize that there was no correlation. Now, I don't do any ra-ra pregame. Why? Because it's not me. If it's you, that's great, but I know for a fact the only reason I did ra-ra speeches before was because I was "supposed" to. I heard a coach speak on sports psychology and he talked about how every player has his own optimum hype level. Some are at a 10. They're the ones that are rabid beasts who will chew the bumper off a car on the walk to the stadium. Some are at a 1. They are the cool, calm and collected type. Everybody else is somewhere in between. So why as a coach would we want them all to be at a 10? |
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Post by Chris Clement on Feb 9, 2017 8:17:16 GMT -6
There's also the statistical likelihood that for the most part doing it one way or another is just an incredibly tiny factor, and that the biggest influence on things is random crap.
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