Mentoring New Coaches

Loch- two seasons ago I did what I thought was best for the program. I got the basketball coach to coach my dbacks and wide recievers. I gave him two dbacks dvds, told him exactly which techniques to master and teach, gave him two dbacks books, told him exactly which areas to read and know and drills to learn and teach. he was fantastic because he was a teacher who was good with the kids. gave up 0 td passes and maybe 15 completions total on the season.

I spent time with him going over football terms, always emailed him, stopped by his classroom to go over the practice plan, ...game day he filmed games from the sideline and was responsible for subbing guys later in the game.

train them to coach what you want them to coach.

I have said this before- make your own videos of your system. Pass it down to your feeder coaches, pass it to each position coach. No reason to have to keep teaching and reteaching. do it once in front of a camera...film drills you want at each level, prepare position coach manuals.

I have talked about doing this for years and have yet to do it. One day I guess

We have an offensive staff and a defensive staff no one on our staff coaches both sides of the ball

Our OL only plays OL, but outside of that almost every other guy on our team practices and plays on both sides of the ball.

Example of our practice-

Varsity Offense practices for 15 periods which means that any varsity player will be with their offensive coaches for indy or team during this time all of the JV players will be with their defensive coach working on indy or general scheme until the JV guys are needed for service squad.

Then we will do special teams and switch our emphasis for another 15 periods. Varsity Defensive players will be with their coach and the JV players will be with their Offensive coach.

Normally by the time we hit league there are more guys who are specially players who only play one side of the ball at the varsity level, but this way our next best player can step in and start for us if we have an injury. Example this year we lost a DL and we had an OL who also played DL stepped right in until the starter was back.

I have found that one of the toughest things for newer coaches (and experienced coaches) to do well is working from the box on game days. I was lucky and learned how to work the box as a young coach from one of the best OC's I have ever met. This coach really broke down his system for me and I still use it today. I am working with a young coach now and we are training him on how to help from the pressbox correctly. Here is what we are doing:

1. We identify a game from this past season and determine what part of the opponent he will be responsible for helping with from the press box. This weeks game is from week 3 of last year and he will be responsible for the opponents def front and LB play. This includes alignment, stunts, blitzes and coverages.

2. I give him the scout films we used to game plan the opponent and have him break down the film per our game plan outline. We use a form to record alignment, techniques, tendencies, personnel, blitz schemes, coverage techniques and coverage schemes as well as other opponent specific information.

3. When he completes the breakdown I review his work and help him with anything that he has missed. I am very detailed oriented and am trying to get the new coach to see the game in great detail. Examples such as how many read steps do the LB's take on average before reading pass and getting into their drops. I also stress to him that he has to run the video back repeatedly for each play in order that he has all the stunts and blitz packages in grained in his mind.

4. When he feels comfortable that he has the game plan and opponents defense pretty well understood, we set him up in the coaches office with the big screen and the projector and run the actual game film from week 3. I am outside the office with the laptop and run the film. We use a set of old head phones and work the game as if he is in the box and I am on the field. I run a play and he gives me the information pre snap and after the play. After the play I stop the film for about 20 seconds and then run the next play. During the 20 seconds before the next play I will ask him a series of questions just like I would during a game. We continue this through the entire video. I also play the defensive part of the film to simulate a game as close as possible. We have the same type of conversations while the defensive sections play that we would have during a game. In addition, I set up a camera in the office to tape him while we are working the film.

5. After the film is complete we are finished for the day and I take the tape of him working the game in the office and review it. The next day we meet and discuss how we did and work on what to improve.

We have only done 2 games this way and he has already really improved! I am usually in the both on game days, but had to move down to the field this year after game 4. The guys that got put in the box were terrible and were of no help to me on the field. I had the phones hanging around my neck the majority of the time for the last 3 games this year!

I know this is a lot of work, but after last year I had to do something to get somebody trained before the 2008 season and this is what we came up with. The young guy really loves it and told me he has learned more in the last 3 weeks than he learned the last 3 years. Hope this gives you some ideas to try. Good Luck!

wccoach,

I am a brand new coach and I would LOVE every minute of that . I think vet coaches have to remember that brand new coaches like my self are very coachable We will absorb everything you veterans say and love every minute of it. Speaking for myself, but I feel like a idiot sometimes when I hear coaches get into a deep X and O conversation so I want to know everything and I want to know it now. so if someone with knowledge is talking my mouth is shut and I am listening to every word coming out of his mouth. I would pay for something like that!!!!!! ;D

That would be something great to do for an "offseason workout" for coaches. I know this much, I need to know a lot, film breakdown, more terminology, crap lots of things. Too bad there isnt classes that can teach this stuff at most colleges that we coaches attend. Maybe someone should start some coaching college classes that are patterned for each sport that will teach them the ins and outs of coaching and knowledge that is needed to be a coach.