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Post by texasstyle on Oct 30, 2018 20:00:13 GMT -6
Coaches,
I'm always concerned that our kids just get tired of the grind of the season and lose their sharpness because they are "getting tired of playing". What do you guys do to stave off the mental effects of a long season? We are a winning program that has the potential to play several rounds into the playoffs. Losing is not an issue this season. Thanks in advance for your ideas.
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Post by s73 on Oct 30, 2018 20:14:01 GMT -6
Coaches,
I'm always concerned that our kids just get tired of the grind of the season and lose their sharpness because they are "getting tired of playing". What do you guys do to stave off the mental effects of a long season? We are a winning program that has the potential to play several rounds into the playoffs. Losing is not an issue this season. Thanks in advance for your ideas. IMO, Most of that comes from the "year round" grind that is so prevalent in todays HS game. FOR US, we recognize that a kid can be a valuable and VALUED member of the team and still have other interests or simply just need a break. Hence , we have a dead period in the weight room a month after the season ends to give kids time to decompress and we do it again in March. We also try to avoid conditioning in practice by simply practicing hard. I have found that not only does this seem to not affect us negatively, I believe it actually helps us b/c our kids tend to be excited about playing and feel pretty energized b/c they don't have as much wear and tear. Just my 2 cents.
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Post by texasstyle on Oct 30, 2018 20:24:35 GMT -6
I can respect your two cents. They might be valid points. Probably less for us because most of our kids play 2,3 or sometimes 4 sports. Definitely think you could be spot on for a lot of kids. Do any of you do anything to stave off the "grind" of football season?
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Post by mattharris75 on Oct 30, 2018 20:53:40 GMT -6
Shorten practice late in the season.
Give the backups more reps.
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Post by carookie on Oct 30, 2018 21:05:07 GMT -6
Coaches,
I'm always concerned that our kids just get tired of the grind of the season and lose their sharpness because they are "getting tired of playing". What do you guys do to stave off the mental effects of a long season? We are a winning program that has the potential to play several rounds into the playoffs. Losing is not an issue this season. Thanks in advance for your ideas. I don't think kids get tired of playing, they get tired of working. I think you can keep doing the same things youve always done (assuming you do things right) as long as you don't make it a grind. IE coach em up, keep instructing, and stay positive. If you are berating players constantly, if you spend most of your time giving speeches in between work, if you are doing a lot of football busy work (burdens for the sake of toughening them up) then they will probably get tired of that. |
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Post by fkaboneyard on Oct 31, 2018 0:29:52 GMT -6
I'm at a relatively small school so our JV & varsity practices together. Once we hit playoffs (like now) we release the JV kids that aren't interested in continuing. Those that want to stay with the team have to really work or they get counseled out.
Our practices become more mentally focused on learning opponent's offense/defense and indy time. We do not do a lot of contact and beat the tar out of each other - we can't afford an injury because we are so thin on numbers.
Try to do something fun at the end of each practice - lineman punt return, etc.
Re: multisport kids, in my experience, the kids that check out in one sport are the kids that check out in all sports. I coached a 3 sport kid and before our first playoff game I overheard him in the locker room say "Man, if we win we have another week of practice. I just want to get to basketball." His basketball coach told me the kid said the same thing when basketball was about to make their run and he wanted to get to baseball. I coached him in baseball and he was really good for about 80% of the season, then he lost his will.
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Post by CS on Oct 31, 2018 4:06:24 GMT -6
I'm at a relatively small school so our JV & varsity practices together. Once we hit playoffs (like now) we release the JV kids that aren't interested in continuing. Those that want to stay with the team have to really work or they get counseled out.
Our practices become more mentally focused on learning opponent's offense/defense and indy time. We do not do a lot of contact and beat the tar out of each other - we can't afford an injury because we are so thin on numbers.
Try to do something fun at the end of each practice - lineman punt return, etc.
Re: multisport kids, in my experience, the kids that check out in one sport are the kids that check out in all sports. I coached a 3 sport kid and before our first playoff game I overheard him in the locker room say "Man, if we win we have another week of practice. I just want to get to basketball." His basketball coach told me the kid said the same thing when basketball was about to make their run and he wanted to get to baseball. I coached him in baseball and he was really good for about 80% of the season, then he lost his will.
Truth |
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Post by blb on Oct 31, 2018 6:08:19 GMT -6
Make sure they are excited to play football when the season starts - don't burn them out in Off-Season (especially summer).
Keep practices moving but with frequent breaks. Get as many kids involved as much as possible.
Never practice longer than 2:30. There's always tomorrow.
Consider cutting practice down late in the season, especially if weather is a consideration.
Monitor the amount of full-contact work during the week. Don't beat them up or wear them down.
Play as many kids as possible.
Give them their weekends off. |
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Post by mariner42 on Oct 31, 2018 6:16:06 GMT -6
We try to make sure that we live "more is not better" and that our kids are always excited to play football. To that end, a few things we do:
No football activities of any kind in our football PE classes until after spring break.
We won't practice the first monday of playoffs.
We'll take monday off during the season if we think it'll keep the kids fresh.
We will have padless practices on Mondays or Tuesdays fairly frequently to keep their bodies fresh.
No practice on Labor Day.
It really helps and makes a difference.
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Post by texasstyle on Oct 31, 2018 6:39:04 GMT -6
Make sure they are excited to play football when the season starts - don't burn them out in Off-Season (especially summer).
Keep practices moving but with frequent breaks. Get as many kids involved as much as possible.
Never practice longer than 2:30. There's always tomorrow.
Consider cutting practice down late in the season, especially if weather is a consideration.
Monitor the amount of full-contact work during the week. Don't beat them up or wear them down.
Play as many kids as possible.
Give them their weekends off. We practice 2 hours on Monday, 2 hours on Tuesday and 1 hour 20 minutes on Wednesday and not at all on Thursday for a Friday game. That is actually something we feel like we can cut a little bit on Mon/Tues. maybe. |
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Post by coachcb on Oct 31, 2018 7:07:32 GMT -6
I can respect your two cents. They might be valid points. Probably less for us because most of our kids play 2,3 or sometimes 4 sports. Definitely think you could be spot on for a lot of kids. Do any of you do anything to stave off the "grind" of football season? We change up our practice schedule and shorten up practices as the season winds down. Practices get knocked down to an hour and a half and we do less full contact and little-no conditioning. A typical Tuesday practice would look something like this: Warm up Kick Off/KOR Indy O Indy D Offensive Pass Skelly/Inside run (the kids use handshields on defense, reps are at 50% and the kids are showing their assignments) Team O (limited reps, full speed without handshields and just getting a look at their base front, coverages) |
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coachriley
Junior Member
"Tough times don't last; Tough people do."
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Post by coachriley on Oct 31, 2018 9:27:56 GMT -6
Re: multisport kids, in my experience, the kids that check out in one sport are the kids that check out in all sports. I coached a 3 sport kid and before our first playoff game I overheard him in the locker room say "Man, if we win we have another week of practice. I just want to get to basketball." His basketball coach told me the kid said the same thing when basketball was about to make their run and he wanted to get to baseball. I coached him in baseball and he was really good for about 80% of the season, then he lost his will.
I had a senior in my advisory class this year, during the 1st or 2nd game week tell his friend "I can't wait for the season to be over". He didn't even want to get through the season to mentally check out. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2018 9:46:42 GMT -6
At the better programs I've coached at, what we'd do:
1. Shorten practices over the last few weeks, as has been said repeatedly. At that point, they should know how to run every play in the book about as well as they're going to. A 2.5 hour can then often become a 1:45-2:00 hour practice. Giving them a day off during bye week or on holidays is also nice.
2. Dismiss any JV/Freshmen players who we didn't feel we needed. They could stick around if they chose. Usually only a few would. A "playoff roster" really only needs to be about 30+ kids on a 1 platoon team. Maybe 45 or so on a 2 platoon team.
3. Eliminate time-sucking "team building" activities. At one place our HC was awesome, but he was also a grinder and wanted team movie nights and stuff during the season. Do that stuff early in the year, not late.
4. No practice on the weekends. I don't see how anyone pulls that off.
5. The less contact, the better. Monday was film and shells for us at those places. Tues-Wed. were the longer contact days. Thursday was a walk-through in shirts for only 1-1.5 hours. At the end of the year, we may just put everyone in shells all week and never go past "thud" tempo in practice.
6. Practice on the game field daily the last week or two if you have only 1 home game scheduled. We'd turn the lights on in the evening since it was getting dark by 5:00. It made it feel more like a novel experience for the kids.
7. Haven't done this personally, but I've seen coaches on here give their teams the rest of the year off after the season's over in late October or November. Players just turn in their gear and aren't expected in the weightroom (outside of a lifting class) until after New Year's to give them a break. I like this idea.
8. One thing a lot of schools near me have been doing this year is moving late season games to Thursday nights if the weather looks bad. I could see that helping a lot with keeping morale higher.
9. Do more "novelty" fun stuff to keep it interesting. Lineman punt returns, "opposite drill" where the linemen and backs switch places for a few minutes of team, "Trick play Tuesday" where players draw up trick plays on manilla folders with sharpies and you run them on air to the goal line as conditioning drills for 5-10 minutes, etc.
10. Relax and just enjoy football as coaches and players. Back off the butt chewings. Laugh a little at practice. Have fun with what, for a lot of these boys, will be their final games ever.
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Post by aceback76 on Oct 31, 2018 10:10:16 GMT -6
Coaches,
I'm always concerned that our kids just get tired of the grind of the season and lose their sharpness because they are "getting tired of playing". What do you guys do to stave off the mental effects of a long season? We are a winning program that has the potential to play several rounds into the playoffs. Losing is not an issue this season. Thanks in advance for your ideas. Coaches of today's athletes have to be SALESMEN! There are as ways to do it, as there are differing personalities of the coaches involved. An entire book can be written on the subject. Keeping FOCUSED on an objective is important (winning as a team, improvement of each individual, or just plain PRIDE, ETC.). I once published an article entitled "SELLING YOUR PROGRAM TO THE PUBLIC". If I come across it, I'll try to put it on here. |
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Post by sweep26 on Oct 31, 2018 10:10:45 GMT -6
Coaches,
I'm always concerned that our kids just get tired of the grind of the season and lose their sharpness because they are "getting tired of playing". What do you guys do to stave off the mental effects of a long season? We are a winning program that has the potential to play several rounds into the playoffs. Losing is not an issue this season. Thanks in advance for your ideas. From an outsiders perspective, it appears as though the parameters of Texas High School Football is so much different than most other states that the suggestions offered in most of the previous posts, although good, are somewhat irrelevant. The fact that you are posing this question is a positive reflection on the quality of your football program and is indicative of why you project your team's ability to make a deep play-off run. You guys obviously have a terrific program. Details, details, details...Coaching success is about more than just X's & O's. This is an outstanding post...it will be interesting to read everyone's suggestions, especially those from some of your Texas football coaching colleagues. I have always been a fan of Coach John Gagliardi and the success that he had at Saint John's Univ. in MN. His book "No-How Coaching" presents some interesting ideas regarding deviating from the norm in football coaching principles. |
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Post by coachorm on Oct 31, 2018 11:05:26 GMT -6
Do simple fun stuff.... For instance yesterday I had them have a Fortnite dance contest with the winning team getting some conditioning taken off. They loved it. I think today we may do a lineman punt return contest. Kids want to enjoy what they do and the more fun we can infuse into the practice grind the more likely they are to stay excited.
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Post by dubber on Oct 31, 2018 12:47:54 GMT -6
Cutting practice is number one.......
Guess what, if little Jimmy is your starting 3 technique and the last of the season is still spinning out of down blocks (even though you've been working on a different technique for 3 months), guess what? He is going to spin out of down blocks come Friday night.
Try again next season.
Practices need to become more mental......know your assignment and get it done. The best executing teams (in close matchups) get to move on.
We spend very little time "game planning" the first half of the season. We are more inwardly focused on technique, steps, execution.
By the second half of the season we either got it or we don't, and we start focusing more on what we can do well and how to protect that.
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Post by carookie on Oct 31, 2018 12:59:55 GMT -6
Cutting practice is number one....... Guess what, if little Jimmy is your starting 3 technique and the last of the season is still spinning out of down blocks (even though you've been working on a different technique for 3 months), guess what? He is going to spin out of down blocks come Friday night. Try again next season. Practices need to become more mental......know your assignment and get it done. The best executing teams (in close matchups) get to move on. We spend very little time "game planning" the first half of the season. We are more inwardly focused on technique, steps, execution. By the second half of the season we either got it or we don't, and we start focusing more on what we can do well and how to protect that. Ha, thats why I like this site; two people do the opposite thing for roughly the same reason. I don't cut practice much, but when we do we cut out the game planning stuff but keep the working on fundamentals. I'd like to think that little Jimmy isn't spinning out of down blocks because we have focused on and repped the small stuff in indy time for the past 3 months. And if we stop working on it now then maybe his technique begins to slip and he starts doing it wrong. I like to think that Steph Curry still works on his free throws, and Dustin Johnson still works on 3 foot putts; so yeah direct focus on fundamental movements is something we still should rep. Conversely, we spend little to no time on install this late in the year. We aren't putting anything new in, we just do what we do; and I doubt they are showing us anything new. Although to be fair practice time stays roughly the same. |
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Post by chi5hi on Oct 31, 2018 13:54:35 GMT -6
By this time in the season there's not much more you can do to improve their technique. Shorten practice to essentials. VERY short INDY.
We practice 1:30 MAX! Usually less. Lots of competitive stuff like relay races, and the winning team gets a popsicle, or pizza.
After 8 months they are ready to play Basketball. Frankly...me too.
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Post by dubber on Oct 31, 2018 15:47:59 GMT -6
Cutting practice is number one....... Guess what, if little Jimmy is your starting 3 technique and the last of the season is still spinning out of down blocks (even though you've been working on a different technique for 3 months), guess what? He is going to spin out of down blocks come Friday night. Try again next season. Practices need to become more mental......know your assignment and get it done. The best executing teams (in close matchups) get to move on. We spend very little time "game planning" the first half of the season. We are more inwardly focused on technique, steps, execution. By the second half of the season we either got it or we don't, and we start focusing more on what we can do well and how to protect that. Ha, thats why I like this site; two people do the opposite thing for roughly the same reason. I don't cut practice much, but when we do we cut out the game planning stuff but keep the working on fundamentals. I'd like to think that little Jimmy isn't spinning out of down blocks because we have focused on and repped the small stuff in indy time for the past 3 months. And if we stop working on it now then maybe his technique begins to slip and he starts doing it wrong. I like to think that Steph Curry still works on his free throws, and Dustin Johnson still works on 3 foot putts; so yeah direct focus on fundamental movements is something we still should rep. Conversely, we spend little to no time on install this late in the year. We aren't putting anything new in, we just do what we do; and I doubt they are showing us anything new. Although to be fair practice time stays roughly the same. Maybe clear some things up here: By this point in the season, we aren’t adding plays......we’ve probably cut half the playbook. We are going deeper into each play.....especially in light of what the opponent likes to do. Also, we work initial movements (Steps, get offs, etc( every day, but the “what to do after contact/fight leverage” stuff is already in grained, or its not. In our opinion at least...... I just think there are diminishing returns on trying to correct the same flaw in week 9 that you were in week 1.......either you found someone better by now, or you live with it....... By accepting what you are, you can game plan to get your strength against their weakness, while hiding your weaknesses from their strengths |
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Post by carookie on Oct 31, 2018 16:27:55 GMT -6
Ha, thats why I like this site; two people do the opposite thing for roughly the same reason. I don't cut practice much, but when we do we cut out the game planning stuff but keep the working on fundamentals. I'd like to think that little Jimmy isn't spinning out of down blocks because we have focused on and repped the small stuff in indy time for the past 3 months. And if we stop working on it now then maybe his technique begins to slip and he starts doing it wrong. I like to think that Steph Curry still works on his free throws, and Dustin Johnson still works on 3 foot putts; so yeah direct focus on fundamental movements is something we still should rep. Conversely, we spend little to no time on install this late in the year. We aren't putting anything new in, we just do what we do; and I doubt they are showing us anything new. Although to be fair practice time stays roughly the same. Maybe clear some things up here: By this point in the season, we aren’t adding plays......we’ve probably cut half the playbook. We are going deeper into each play.....especially in light of what the opponent likes to do. Also, we work initial movements (Steps, get offs, etc( every day, but the “what to do after contact/fight leverage” stuff is already in grained, or its not. In our opinion at least...... I just think there are diminishing returns on trying to correct the same flaw in week 9 that you were in week 1.......either you found someone better by now, or you live with it.......By accepting what you are, you can game plan to get your strength against their weakness, while hiding your weaknesses from their strengths I agree, but I also feel that constantly repeating small simple tasks keep us sharp. One whole team EDD we do is addressing the block- simple two step procedure of using the near foot taking on half a man. We are, to a man, proficient at this drill across the board; but we still do it everyday even late in the season. Why? To maintain that proficiency. Its not contact intensive or violent, and we can get the whole team done in about 2 and a half minutes. But we keep doing it just to keep the technique up. Almost like a warm up |
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Post by The Lunch Pail on Oct 31, 2018 21:40:03 GMT -6
Check out Brad Dixon on Twitter. He coaches at a small farming school outside of Quincy, IL and his practices (he posts them) are very different. From what I remember, he takes Monday’s off and treats Tuesday’s like what most do for Monday (film review, walk through).
He puts a huge emphasis on building speed and keeping guys fresh in-season. It’s amazing
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Post by rsmith627 on Nov 1, 2018 3:05:43 GMT -6
Haven't read all the responses here, but this is what should be expected when we get kids rolling in January and they can't enjoy being teenagers.
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Post by coachdubyah on Nov 1, 2018 7:27:15 GMT -6
The title of the thread should be: When #Grind Season fails you.
I decided to take the pads off yesterday and practice in just Helmets. Didn’t really cut any time down, but it went really smooth. Really found out if players were paying attention, reading keys, taking correct steps, etc...
I thought it was helpful.
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Post by fshamrock on Nov 1, 2018 9:37:01 GMT -6
Haven't read all the responses here, but this is what should be expected when we get kids rolling in January and they can't enjoy being teenagers. it's practice man, there's way to freaking much of it I'd love to hear about somebody who maybe makes the playoffs and then just goes into Gagliardi mode with the team and comes out in shorts and t-shirts just running through team for an hour the rest of the year, I bet you could gain a serious advantage doing that, I'm not a sports scientist but after 11-12 weeks of this stuff I figure the guy who can tackle can tackle and the guys who can't probably aren't about to learn all of the sudden. Let's get the game plan in, rep the plays against the looks and gtfo. Problem with that is, as soon as you lose your playoff game the rail riders and daddy ball coaches in the stands will be showing their behind all over the community talking about how "the boys got beat 'cuz they jus' ain't got no toughness! and coach ain't even got 'em hittin' in practice, ooh boy in my day we did bullntharang every dang wednesday and whooooweee we wuz tuff!" |
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Post by texasstyle on Nov 1, 2018 9:55:52 GMT -6
Coaches,
I'm always concerned that our kids just get tired of the grind of the season and lose their sharpness because they are "getting tired of playing". What do you guys do to stave off the mental effects of a long season? We are a winning program that has the potential to play several rounds into the playoffs. Losing is not an issue this season. Thanks in advance for your ideas. From an outsiders perspective, it appears as though the parameters of Texas High School Football is so much different than most other states that the suggestions offered in most of the previous posts, although good, are somewhat irrelevant. The fact that you are posing this question is a positive reflection on the quality of your football program and is indicative of why you project your team's ability to make a deep play-off run. You guys obviously have a terrific program. Details, details, details...Coaching success is about more than just X's & O's. This is an outstanding post...it will be interesting to read everyone's suggestions, especially those from some of your Texas football coaching colleagues. I have always been a fan of Coach John Gagliardi and the success that he had at Saint John's Univ. in MN. His book "No-How Coaching" presents some interesting ideas regarding deviating from the norm in football coaching principles. Thanks man. Football is important here. It is a vehicle for character building with our HC. We do things the right way and he's raising better young coaches and young men. Don't really know why some of the kids are "getting tired" of. Just need to to see if there is something I'm not seeing. |
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Post by dubber on Nov 1, 2018 10:56:12 GMT -6
Sometimes just breaking the monotony can be good.
You'll find kids don't need that long of a break from the routine before they are good again.
Sometimes one day is all it takes.....
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Post by mattman2 on Nov 1, 2018 19:59:19 GMT -6
Shorten practice by 5 minutes every other week. By the end of the year, practice will be 30 minutes shorter. It makes it easy only finding 5 minutes to take out instead of finding 25 minutes in week 8.
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Post by texasstyle on Nov 2, 2018 6:56:38 GMT -6
Shorten practice by 5 minutes every other week. By the end of the year, practice will be 30 minutes shorter. It makes it easy only finding 5 minutes to take out instead of finding 25 minutes in week 8. You're right that does sting. Thanks |
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Post by CS on Nov 4, 2018 15:37:36 GMT -6
Shorten practice by 5 minutes every other week. By the end of the year, practice will be 30 minutes shorter. It makes it easy only finding 5 minutes to take out instead of finding 25 minutes in week 8. This is a really good idea |
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