|
Post by coachplaa on Mar 21, 2009 9:32:34 GMT -6
This is what we do for 2009. We have added a "Champions Club" this year, which is new. We were inspired by Coach Meyer's same-name idea. Hope this helps. www.tdfootball.com/pridepoints
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Mar 4, 2009 7:59:29 GMT -6
I convinced our assistant principal to buy 25 paperback copies for our bookroom. I encourage our kids to read it by giving them off-season points. I also tell them to get a book report out of the deal with their English teacher, since its a lengthy book. We are trying to build our program, and the kids enjoy the book and the way De La Salle kids work together and care about one another as teammates. It is a great read for all coaches, especially a new head coach or someone aspiring to be.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Feb 25, 2009 8:33:11 GMT -6
I flew there from CA just to hear the Pass Pro stuff from Tech and Ok State. I was very surprised to hear that their philosophies are totally different, but yielded the same results. Tech is a Vertical Set pass pro team, with no zone read. Ok State is a Set the front wall and kick step the tackles back, similar to what the pros do; and they do run Zone Read. Both coaches were outstanding at the clinic. Had the chance to hear Coach Teaff speak for the first time, and he was amazing. He is filled with experience and extremely positive. I enjoyed his advice and stories. The Southlake guys provided some great info. Coach LJ from Penn State was also good with his DL/Goalline presentations. It was one of the best clinics I've ever been to.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Feb 7, 2009 18:01:54 GMT -6
The one that was hard when I was younger, is still tempting to this day...Do not play players that do not come to practice. Excused or not. It sends the message to the rest of the team that your motivation is to only win. It will spread a cancer through your team like wild fire. My approach is, "if you miss practice, for any reason, you will be the last one in at your position" and "I'm going to play the kids that deserve to play." (The ones that go to practice everyday). I've worked for coaches that would let a kid miss practice, and they'd still play that kid on game night. If a kid misses a practice for an unexcused reason, they do not dress that week. I also follow a "three strikes and your out" policy to get rid of the flaky kids. Kids that miss practice are highly unlikely to make it through the season, or they usually are the ones that end up getting in trouble. One other piece of advice for a new head coach...don't let a situation like a kid missing practice bring negative emotion on display. Stick to whatever policy you have, and coach up the next kid in line.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Jan 29, 2009 20:59:15 GMT -6
I do it and there aren't any problems. The plus is we have taught many of the same kids and can sometimes find ways to help the ones that need it the most. It's also nice when she is at the game, she knows the kids who are on the field and enjoys rooting for them more. The biggest con is there is some jeolosy amongst other teachers. Many teachers don't think its a good idea, for whatever reason that isn't their business I guess. But it works for us. Our kids are big fans of our school. We can go to the school and get a few hours of work done on the weekend, etc. Our classrooms are about 50 yards apart. During football season, I might see her once a day...to say hi at lunch or on a passing period. Out of football season, we'll have lunch together about once a week, and that is it. I'm busy most of the time, and so is she. So it works for us, but I can understand how it wouldn't for many people.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Jan 17, 2009 14:27:50 GMT -6
One thing I have learned is it is most important to focus on the 9th grade class this time of year- assuming you are a 9-12 high school. You are going to get very little out of recruiting out a Junior that has NEVER played football before unless he is a phenominal athlete. You are not going to get too much out of a Sophomore, who will be playing as a Junior and has never played before. I'm not saying don't recruit those grades, but I am saying don't spend the majority of your time on it. But if you can get focus 75% of your attention on talking to 9th graders, that is key. Get them out for Sophomore football, have a sophomore coaching staff who has two goals: Every kid says "I enjoyed playing football this year" and "I want to play again next year." Then you will have a Varsity kid who has played at least a year before they play Varsity football. We all know that is where the biggest improvement is, after there first year of playing going into their second year. This is how I recruit 9th graders...I talk to them in this rough order... "Do you watch football on TV?" (a no answer, and you can move on in my opinion) "Who is your favorite team?" "Do you have a favorite player?" "Have you ever thought about playing football for our school?" "Why didn't you play this year?" "If you join the football team, I and our assistant coaches will do everything we can to help you excel as a student and an athlete." I think the key is to LISTEN to his answers, and modify your approach with each kid.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Jan 7, 2009 18:18:39 GMT -6
The University of Texas has a Telecampus system. It is an online program that you take courses from different schools in the UT system. I thought it was great. I think it ended up costing me around 10k, but that was 4 years ago. The courses were good and I learned quite a bit.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Dec 13, 2008 9:17:05 GMT -6
www.prolook.comIt looks like there are contact reps on the East coast, according to the website. Not only could they make any look, but the kids really like the fit of the jersey samples we looked at. The best way to desribe them is they have the stretch of the expensive russell jerseys, the comfort of the UA jerseys, and can be customized however you want.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Dec 12, 2008 17:40:28 GMT -6
I'm not repping these guys, but we're going through "pro look sports" this year. Great product for less money than name brand. They can make any look you want, and the fit is great. I let our kids decide on paying more money for name-brand or these jerseys, and it was unanimous for Pro Look.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Dec 10, 2008 15:50:31 GMT -6
Make sure you attend a webinar. Dang this thing is sweet. After I buy one, I hope the price doubles so my opponents don't get their own.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Oct 2, 2008 23:03:56 GMT -6
Coach- This is my 14th year in coaching, and I've wanted a segment timer since starting out. We spent 1000 (actually our Boosters did) on this model this year, and it is one of the best pieces of equipment I've ever bought. It keeps everything on time, it forces coaches to move quickly, it trains the kids where they have to be, and we hustle to stay on time. I don't know if I'd recommend this company, but this specific piece of equipment is good. I wish the horn was a bit louder, but you can hear it from about 80 yards away, and see it from at least that much. www.tomark.com/FootballStore/detail.cfm?Product=6188
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Sept 21, 2008 12:36:35 GMT -6
Best advice I was given:
Two goals for your Frosh & JV Football teams, at the end of the season: 1) I had fun playing this year. 2) I want to play again next year.
If those two goals were met, that is all that is REALLY important. They will get blocking & tackling technique along the way. If they play both Frosh & JV ball, they are going to contribute to the Varsity football team.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Sept 18, 2008 20:31:50 GMT -6
I had one really bad principal, and I resigned because I thought I would make a great statement. I was wrong. Everyone is replaceable. I learned that principals come and go. I was lucky to get another head job the next year.
My advice is to setup a non-profit organization. It takes a small bit of legwork, but you can do it through AAU. Let me tell you...it is worth it. You purchase the $300 per year membership, and they give you "affiliated organization" status that you can take to the IRS to get a tax ID number. You setup a small biz account at your local bank, and keep records/receipts of everything in case you are ever called on it, or audited.
Then, you can probably finance your entire program through a game program or media guide. We have each kid sell one page in the media guide. This generates quite a bit of money. All of the checks are made out to the non-profit organization, and your donors can get tax deductions for their donation.
It works for us. When we want things that take the school forever to approve, we use our off-season account to get it done.
This will get your principal out of your finances. If it is too much work for you, I would suggest a group of dads or assistant coaches do this for you as a "Touchdown Club" so you don't have to keep track all the money.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Sept 14, 2008 10:11:13 GMT -6
I've been in a small program before, and there is ONLY one answer. You miss practice, you don't play that week. It is the only thing that works. You may have to bite the bullet, but the peer pressure will become immense to not miss practice.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Aug 16, 2008 16:33:27 GMT -6
Same with us. Skinny kids wear them on their belts because as the wristband gets old it loses its "stretch" and they slide up and down their forearms otherwise.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Aug 13, 2008 15:10:55 GMT -6
On our wristband, we have three columns of plays. The first column of plays is all on Set. The second column is all on "one." The third column is all on "two." The kids get used to it very quickly. We run our motions on the cadence, so the plays on Set are no motion. The ones on "one" and "two" usually have motion.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Aug 7, 2008 11:39:14 GMT -6
I agree. The biggest advantage with the no-huddle, is it doubles the amount of reps you get in practice.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Jul 26, 2008 21:55:37 GMT -6
In terms of inspiring your coaching approach, and how to build a team; I'd go with the DeLaSalle story.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Jul 1, 2008 12:07:58 GMT -6
I love the tab idea, that is great! Don't buy the manual scoreboard like in the picture above. I did last year, and any little breeze/wind pushes those poly-numbers all over and they're hard to keep down.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Jun 15, 2008 11:37:27 GMT -6
We have one and we use it. I like it because it takes the human error out of our timings. The kids have confidence in it, and its a valuable tool for us.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Jun 9, 2008 8:13:06 GMT -6
Keep it as real as possible, especially the scoring. Only award points for TD's and extra points. Some 7 on 7's award points every play, depending on how much yardage is gained, and that is not very realistic.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Jun 1, 2008 18:05:44 GMT -6
I've started from scratch a couple of times, and I think Power Clean equipment is the most important thing (the first thing) that should be bought.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Apr 25, 2008 11:56:14 GMT -6
Th DeLaSalle Story is great. So is Season of Life.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Apr 25, 2008 11:54:14 GMT -6
One thing I've heard at a clinic was USC pumps up music, not to simuate crowd, but rather to create some chaos during practice.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Apr 18, 2008 20:40:43 GMT -6
Any coach that is concerned about what his pay will be is a coach that won't be with you for the long term.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Apr 17, 2008 14:47:15 GMT -6
We thought about it. You can go to Sportdecals.com or ProTuffdecals.com and if you negotiate the deals on your own, they'll print cards for 20 or 30 cents per card. Pretty good profit.
We used to do Varsity Gold but found another company that did a better job personalizing the card, and gave us more of a percentage in return. PM me if you want more info about it. We've been very happy with them.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Mar 28, 2008 18:26:08 GMT -6
We are a 100% Spread Gun Wing-T team. That means we have a "tailback" next to our gun QB. But, if we want to move the Tailback out, we can just by tagging him with a letter. Any single letter call for us turns the spread formation into an empty formation. I agree and disagree with the need to have a power running attack. I still think there is a time you need it, but I LOVE running from the five wide with my spread wing-t attack. We are researching the Rocket from the gun, and it would be VERY difficult to defend the Rocket and any type of fake rocket and give or counter play inside.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Mar 5, 2008 21:56:40 GMT -6
When we use to go with a silent gun cadence, we would wiggle the thumbs, signalling the center to snap the ball on his own (rather than a leg kick). Worked well...
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Mar 14, 2008 18:42:41 GMT -6
This is great stuff for head coaches. I will say I've had every type of staff as a head coach, both at big schools and small schools. I will say that at a small school, the importance of the staff getting along is not as vital as at a big school. At a big school, with more kids to supervise, and more programs to offer within your football program, it is important to have assistant coaches you can trust and rely on when delegating. I have tried being a dictator, peer, authoritarian, you name it. But nothing works as well as mutual respect. If an assistant coach can't give it, he's not good for the program. If the head coach can't respect the jobs his assistants do for the program, than his program will never fully develop. Communication is the #1 factor in good staff cohesion and poor cohesion. I'm LUCKY to have a great mix of guys- young and experienced, in-house and walk-ons, spiritual guys, alums, you name it and I'm blessed to have it.
|
|
|
Post by coachplaa on Feb 29, 2008 7:52:34 GMT -6
If you're a student of the game, those manuals are worth every penny. You can order them right now at nikecoyfootball.com for only 22 each, and they arrive the first couple of weeks in May. I have to say I have the last eight years of manuals, and its like a kid at Christmas when I get my copy. I always pull 2-3 ideas that improve what we do, and that is worth every penny of 22 dollars.
|
|