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Post by paydirt18 on Sept 14, 2006 21:18:18 GMT -6
Coaches, what are some things and ideas you have done to motivate a winless team?
A little background: I am a new head coach who has taken over a traditional lossing program. This mentality has been going on for 20+ years. Upon my hire, the interview team warned me of this and stated that this was my biggest obstacle.
They were telling the truth, summer workouts went fine, even the 2 weeks prior to our first game. But when the losses came you could see the "fired up" looks the kids give you begin to fade.
How do you beat this? As a coaching staff, I feel we are doing the right things with them. From basic fundamentals to film, to overall preparation. But what am I missing?
Any help is appreciated. I would love to hear what you guys do for pre-game locker room talk and in-week practice.
Thanks in advance.
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Post by stone65 on Sept 14, 2006 21:56:38 GMT -6
We are in the same boat as you are. I wish you all the luck in the world. We are just trying to take it one week at a time, and focus on us.
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Post by los on Sept 14, 2006 22:25:44 GMT -6
First, take the pressure off yourself, the other coaches and the team. Have fun! Its a game to have fun knocking people down and running over them without getting in trouble but with a plan in mind lol! You beat negativity by being the constant positive! In the pre-game, I figured the kids were scared sh-tless already, so tried to have a sense of humor. If we're not prepared by this point, no added pressure or things to think about will do much good anyhow. During practice is when I did my serious work ethic stuff/pushing for excellence/ hollering if necessary, like a job where we all have to do our part with no slacking or excuses. Come game time, its the kids time to take over and show their friends and parents what they learned all week, with us coaches supporting them, but ultimately, they're playing this game! We all do the best we can, have fun, and if its good enough to win, great! If not, then more work is required! I still believe the old adage that "you can be as good as you wanna be" Thats how I always felt about it and expressed the same to the players. los
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Post by coachjd on Sept 14, 2006 22:36:44 GMT -6
Winning cures all, but until that happens focus on fundamentals and getting your team better each day. Focus on what you need to do to improve. blocking, tackling, weight lifting, speed, mental toughness, etc.... I would spend more time getting your team better than spending too much time on your opponents. I know you need to prepare the kids for each week, but right now they need to work on ways to get themselves better to improve on a daily basis.
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Post by Coach Huey on Sept 14, 2006 23:23:22 GMT -6
We are snake-bit (understatement) ... just got to keep the troops believing in what you are doing.
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Post by brophy on Sept 15, 2006 6:11:40 GMT -6
10+ years of losing doesn't change overnight. If you really hope to improve the culture of the campus, all the "hard work" is going to be done in the off season, building trust and dedication.
Games are won in the off-season, at least they are around here. Play calls are overrated in winning games.
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Post by stone65 on Sept 15, 2006 8:39:22 GMT -6
I agree with Brophy on his statement. Games are won in the offseason. Those first couple of years at a losing program are tough until you get your system in and the bad apples out.
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Post by sls on Sept 15, 2006 9:17:01 GMT -6
Make some small measurable goals and make a big deal when they meet them.
so many rushing yds...
don;t give up more than...
so forth
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Post by fbcoach33 on Sept 15, 2006 9:56:32 GMT -6
I always liked what Lou holtz said about losing, "go back to the fundamentals"...keep working at getting better and blocking and tackling and the wins will come in time, and I think you have to find every positive you can and hammer those home. Im guessing these kids take enough of a verbal beating from everyone else.
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coachf
Freshmen Member
Posts: 15
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Post by coachf on Sept 15, 2006 11:00:17 GMT -6
We are in a bit of a different situation, but I definitely feel for you. I am HC at a school that used to be in the cellar every year. Pretty poor football. Over the last 3 years, we have made the playoffs and even extended our way into the Semi-finals. We lost every starter but 1 from last years team. We are really struggling this year and playing in a conference that is unforgiving. 0-3 is a tough pill for me to swallow, but we are trying to keep the kids focused and prepared. I am trying to keep the game fun for them. We are planning on opening things up quite a bit tonight. It may not lead to a win, but I told the guys we aren't going to play with regrets.
I am struggling most with trying to avoid looking ahead to next year. We will return 17 of 22 starters and the guys leaving will be replaced with potentially better players. I am hoping we can steal a couple of games for the seniors. But, I am spending a lot of time getting these young guys some valuable experience.
For Example...we had a kid the other night who had to play safety. He was pretty bad in coverage and struggled in Cover 2. The team we played threw deep down the sidelines, quite a bit. He was beat the first couple of times, but the ball was incomplete. Finally, the 3rd time he started to recognize it and made a great play on the ball. The receiver made one heck of a catch, but you could see it finally clicked for him. They threw his side 4 or 5 more times in that game and never completed a single one after that. He even batted two down. Great experience for a kid , that can really contribute down the road, that he will never get in practice.
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Post by paydirt18 on Sept 15, 2006 23:07:24 GMT -6
Thanks coaches, keep it coming, this stuff is good medicine for me to hear/read. Tonight we lost again to drop to 0-4. We played a bit better tonight and we saw some good things happen agaisnt one of our conference powers. I used the "football is fun" approach and stayed positive on the sideline the entire time. The good news is that the (what I term) tough part of the schedule is behind us and I believe we will be more competitive in the remaining five weeks. As a competitor naturally I want to win every game, but I aslo must be realistic and look at the baby steps in terms of success. I have to realize that it will not happen overnight.
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Post by phantom on Sept 16, 2006 12:16:22 GMT -6
There's a balancing act in a situation like this. You certainly want to be positive but you also have to establish the fact that you'll be demanding. You can't rip them all the time but you don't want to be saying, "Hey, Johnny, you blocked the wrong guy but he only hurt the QB. He didn't kill him".
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Post by los on Sept 17, 2006 9:04:32 GMT -6
Phantoms right on there! Be a hard ass perfectionist during practice and the off season and you won't have to during games lol. los
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Post by goldenbear76 on Sept 17, 2006 15:49:03 GMT -6
I agree totally with the above statements of fundamentals. Football is about blocking and tackling. If you can do those things consistantly well, you will win games. Continue to stress hard work and execution. Show them during film sessions what they did wrong without talking "down " to them. We were in the same boat 3 years ago, losing tradition, etc. We got the players to trust in each other. Everyday, even now that we are successful, we work blocking (steps, handplacement), and form tackling drills. When we get into team we even watch to make sure they are doing things fundamentally right, and if they don't..we do it again.
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Post by los on Sept 18, 2006 12:49:33 GMT -6
Just thought of an interesting situation we had year before last, paydirt! At the small high school I was helping coach at, we finished our first varsity football season 2-9, later the same guys won the state in their classification in basketball, and in the spring went deep into the baseball playoffs. So in retrospect, it wasn't that they didn't know how to "win" but rather just didn't know how to play football! So knowing this, made me realize how important the off season stuff and fundamentals were and weekly signs of progress during the season. los
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Post by coachcb on Sept 18, 2006 17:02:40 GMT -6
Just don't panic. Get back to fundamentals and keep plugging away. Scrutinize the film of the 4 games, see what went well and what didn't go so well. Emphasize those positives with the kids(so they know you're looking for bright spots) and fix the stuff that went badly. Always emphasize improvement with the kids- get better each and every practice. Even after losses, point out how the team improved and keep going.
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Post by coachcalande on Sept 19, 2006 9:24:07 GMT -6
without reading the above posts (no disrespect mean, just no time here) id say that focusing on peformance is the key. wins and losses take care of themselves when you perform well. Id definately make a big deal about playing hard and being more physical than the other guy as well as eliminating penalties, fumbles, interceptions, alignment errors adn that sort of thing. id also do everything i could to make the weight room performance more important than anything else initially. its huge.
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