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Post by CoachJohnsonMN on Nov 25, 2018 11:20:19 GMT -6
Has anyone uncovered reasons for poor performance in road games (including neutral site games) & use that information to effectively improve their road performance? What have you evaluated & did you improve your road results with this information?
We have hit a wall in turning around a very poor program & most of it involves performing well on the road. In the last five years, we're 20-3 at home & 11-15 on the road (including neutral site games). Over that span, we're averaging 42.3 points/game at home & 29.4 on the road. Defensively, we have given up 11.4 points/game at home & 21.25 on the road. Our young team was terrible on the road this past season (0-5 & outscored by 11 pts/game) & good at home (4-0 & outscored opponents by 34.75 pts/game).
We keep the same routine on the road as we do at home:
5:00 - 5:20 Walkthrough on the game field
5:30 - 6:10 Dressing time in locker room & athletic training services
6:10 - 6:15 Head coach addresses team in locker room
6:15 - 6:55 Game warm-up (dynamic stretch, special team skills, off/def position skills, team offense, & final coaching points)
6:55 - 7:00 Starting line-ups & national anthem
7:00 Kick-off
Is it an advantage to cut down your routine on the road due to travel time? For example, our kids are not in "absolute" football mode until 5:00 for home games but may feel the need to get in "absolute" football mode when we load the bus at 4:00 & will have an extra hour to focus on the game. If we cut 15-20 minutes out of our routine for road games, do we gain less burn out? Just grabbing straws at this point.
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Post by carookie on Nov 25, 2018 11:50:56 GMT -6
I think you will have a hard time isolating any given variable here if you want tangible evidence.
Just some questions, how long are you, on average, on the bud for road games? Are you constantly making hour long trips or are most of your games nearby?
Have you by chance played a dis-proportionally tough road schedule relative to home? Sometimes realignment and things of that nature can put you on the road against the top teams and home against the weaker teams more often than not.
Do you, or your opponents, draw a lot of fans? There have been studies at higher levels of competition that show that the biggest cause for home field advantages are that refs are swayed by the crowd (people naturally seek approval). If there are big crowds showing up I imagine HS refs can easily be swayed.
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Post by nstanley on Nov 25, 2018 15:25:04 GMT -6
Has anyone uncovered reasons for poor performance in road games (including neutral site games) & use that information to effectively improve their road performance? What have you evaluated & did you improve your road results with this information? We have hit a wall in turning around a very poor program & most of it involves performing well on the road. In the last five years, we're 20-3 at home & 11-15 on the road (including neutral site games). Over that span, we're averaging 42.3 points/game at home & 29.4 on the road. Defensively, we have given up 11.4 points/game at home & 21.25 on the road. Our young team was terrible on the road this past season (0-5 & outscored by 11 pts/game) & good at home (4-0 & outscored opponents by 34.75 pts/game). We keep the same routine on the road as we do at home: 5:00 - 5:20 Walkthrough on the game field 5:30 - 6:10 Dressing time in locker room & athletic training services 6:10 - 6:15 Head coach addresses team in locker room 6:15 - 6:55 Game warm-up (dynamic stretch, special team skills, off/def position skills, team offense, & final coaching points) 6:55 - 7:00 Starting line-ups & national anthem 7:00 Kick-off Is it an advantage to cut down your routine on the road due to travel time? For example, our kids are not in "absolute" football mode until 5:00 for home games but may feel the need to get in "absolute" football mode when we load the bus at 4:00 & will have an extra hour to focus on the game. If we cut 15-20 minutes out of our routine for road games, do we gain less burn out? Just grabbing straws at this point. This is very similar to what we did for a long time. When I became the head coach, I cut this down for any games that were nearby. We tried to dress at home if our trip with around 30 minutes or so and wouldn't walk through at the game field but rather at home before we got on the bus. My goal was to start pregame at 6:10 for special teams/early groups, etc. We'd head back in to the locker room at 6:45 and come back out at 6:55. For long distance games which we played quite a few of, we would try to arrive at the site 2 hours before. I would have loved to done the Kevin Kelley thing and just show up right before the game and roll straight out to the game field but with all the variables such as bus troubles, etc., I like to plan for an arrival 2 hours before kick-off. For these long games, we always would try and find a place along the way to eat pregame meal and have a walkthrough. |
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Post by coachwoodall on Nov 27, 2018 11:25:11 GMT -6
I think you will have a hard time isolating any given variable here if you want tangible evidence. Just some questions, how long are you, on average, on the bud for road games? Are you constantly making hour long trips or are most of your games nearby? Have you by chance played a dis-proportionally tough road schedule relative to home? Sometimes realignment and things of that nature can put you on the road against the top teams and home against the weaker teams more often than not. Do you, or your opponents, draw a lot of fans? There have been studies at higher levels of competition that show that the biggest cause for home field advantages are that refs are swayed by the crowd (people naturally seek approval). If there are big crowds showing up I imagine HS refs can easily be swayed. I think I found the problem... |
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Post by newhope on Nov 27, 2018 11:30:54 GMT -6
I'm actually doing the opposite--going through what we are doing on game days to figure out why we're very successful on the road and are having problems at home.
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Post by carookie on Nov 27, 2018 11:35:46 GMT -6
I think you will have a hard time isolating any given variable here if you want tangible evidence. Just some questions, how long are you, on average, on the bud for road games? Are you constantly making hour long trips or are most of your games nearby? Have you by chance played a dis-proportionally tough road schedule relative to home? Sometimes realignment and things of that nature can put you on the road against the top teams and home against the weaker teams more often than not. Do you, or your opponents, draw a lot of fans? There have been studies at higher levels of competition that show that the biggest cause for home field advantages are that refs are swayed by the crowd (people naturally seek approval). If there are big crowds showing up I imagine HS refs can easily be swayed. I think I found the problem... Yeah I saw that but thought...hey what the heck. Its legal in this state now anyways. Hahaha |
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Post by canesfan on Nov 27, 2018 11:47:46 GMT -6
Seems like too much to me. We don’t do a Friday walkthrough. I like to get to the stadium at 5:30. Warmup at 6:25. I will make any coaching points I have before the game.
Really tried as the year went on to keep kids loose and keep football enjoyable. But Friday kids know the gameplan.
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Post by PSS on Nov 27, 2018 13:51:10 GMT -6
Has anyone uncovered reasons for poor performance in road games (including neutral site games) & use that information to effectively improve their road performance? What have you evaluated & did you improve your road results with this information? We have hit a wall in turning around a very poor program & most of it involves performing well on the road. In the last five years, we're 20-3 at home & 11-15 on the road (including neutral site games). Over that span, we're averaging 42.3 points/game at home & 29.4 on the road. Defensively, we have given up 11.4 points/game at home & 21.25 on the road. Our young team was terrible on the road this past season (0-5 & outscored by 11 pts/game) & good at home (4-0 & outscored opponents by 34.75 pts/game). We keep the same routine on the road as we do at home: 5:00 - 5:20 Walkthrough on the game field 5:30 - 6:10 Dressing time in locker room & athletic training services 6:10 - 6:15 Head coach addresses team in locker room 6:15 - 6:55 Game warm-up (dynamic stretch, special team skills, off/def position skills, team offense, & final coaching points) 6:55 - 7:00 Starting line-ups & national anthem 7:00 Kick-off Is it an advantage to cut down your routine on the road due to travel time? For example, our kids are not in "absolute" football mode until 5:00 for home games but may feel the need to get in "absolute" football mode when we load the bus at 4:00 & will have an extra hour to focus on the game. If we cut 15-20 minutes out of our routine for road games, do we gain less burn out? Just grabbing straws at this point. Do you have pre-game meals at home or are players allowed to get something to eat? Is this different from your road routine? Do you have a pre-game meal or snack when you travel? Our games are at 7:00. At home they are fed a pre-game meal. When traveling we eat a light snack, turkey sandwich, etc. I may not be the routine but rather what they don't get when traveling. We travel anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours for our road games. Fortunately, we have a good record on the road. The last 3 years we are 34-7. |
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Post by freezeoption on Nov 27, 2018 17:55:22 GMT -6
Road games are tough on young teams. We didn't win a road game this year, not that we were very good. We fought good for the first half but second half we failed.
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Post by wingtol on Nov 27, 2018 18:04:23 GMT -6
I like getting to road games as late as possible. It is close and we dress and wear our pads there little after six for a seven game is good. If we need to change then maybe quarter to six. Hit field for warms up around 6:20 or so. I like the hair on fire approach. Get there and get going why sit around for an hour or more before you have anything to do. We had a team show up before 5 for a game this year. They are like 25 mins away. I would go insane with that much time before a game.
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Post by 33coach on Nov 27, 2018 18:05:47 GMT -6
I think you will have a hard time isolating any given variable here if you want tangible evidence. Just some questions, how long are you, on average, on the bud for road games? Are you constantly making hour long trips or are most of your games nearby? Have you by chance played a dis-proportionally tough road schedule relative to home? Sometimes realignment and things of that nature can put you on the road against the top teams and home against the weaker teams more often than not. Do you, or your opponents, draw a lot of fans? There have been studies at higher levels of competition that show that the biggest cause for home field advantages are that refs are swayed by the crowd (people naturally seek approval). If there are big crowds showing up I imagine HS refs can easily be swayed. I think I found the problem... what... you guys dont hotbox the bus? must be a california thing... |
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