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Post by coachplaa on Feb 14, 2014 10:42:47 GMT -6
If you are already on Hudl, go the route of Hudl Campaigns. Its just like eTeamfundraising but it ties in directly to your kids on Hudl. We raised $2,000 this year with it and only had about 30 of our 150 kids REALLY participate. This year we will really push it. Very easy to do, very positive feedback from kids and parents.
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Post by coachplaa on Feb 12, 2014 22:49:06 GMT -6
Attachment DeletedI give this to all coaches every year, and review it with my new coaches when I agree to bring them on. Its a good starting point.
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Post by coachplaa on Feb 11, 2014 15:00:43 GMT -6
I also think "coaching your coaches" is very key. I don't so much do that as much as I try to communicate my expectations as much as possible. Communication gets the staff pulling the rope in the same direction, and its the Head Coach's responsibility to keep those goals clear and understood by the entire staff.
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Post by coachplaa on Feb 11, 2014 14:59:23 GMT -6
I totally agree with same scheme at all three levels. It takes hiring the right people that are loyal to the goals of the program. I've seen some football programs in our area that run totally different schemes at each level, and those are the programs that historically struggle every year.
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Post by coachplaa on Feb 8, 2014 16:49:20 GMT -6
We do the exact same thing and will NEVER go back to practice pants. We include the knee pads as part of their spirit pack their sophomore year, and they usually last them until they graduate. Plus, there is never a "are we full pads or shells today" question. We always wear the pull-up knee pads with girdles and shorts to practice. Then we issue regular knee pads with their game pants right before the first game.
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Post by coachplaa on Feb 7, 2014 10:32:39 GMT -6
We have been transitioning to them for about 7 years now. I haven't bought a hip/butt pad in a long time. We really encourage our Frosh & Sophs to go out and "invest" in a good one because it will sometimes last them 2-3 seasons, and they are way more comfortable. And if you sell them on the fact that you "may not want to wear what another kid wore on his butt" all of last season, its a pretty easy sell.
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Post by coachplaa on Feb 7, 2014 10:29:43 GMT -6
Off-Season: One thing I did YEARS ago when we were in the exact same situation, is I bought 4-5 dozen flag football belts, some cones, and had five footballs in a bag. My classroom is by the football field. So at lunch time (we have two seperate lunches), I would let some of my football players know the equipment was out there, and no surprise that we generated a LOT of football buzz on campus and all the flags were being used on a daily basis.
In-Season: The biggest killer of excitement is BORING practices. Anything that involves stretching, running laps, killing time, long practices, etc., will turn kids off. Pack a 2 1/2 hour practice into 1 3/4 hour practice, make kids move constantly, involve as many kids as possible with some practice planning, add music, and it will help kids enjoy the process. Its very hard work to get practice to be tolerable, because most youth & high school kids play for the excitement of Friday nights.
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Post by coachplaa on Jan 29, 2014 23:53:55 GMT -6
Agree about water breaks too. We've cut them out and have two water carts, one on each side of our field, and make our "injured" kids fill water bottles and walk them around during practice.
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Post by coachplaa on Jan 29, 2014 15:37:06 GMT -6
Anything that will not show up in game film on Friday night.
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Post by coachplaa on Jan 28, 2014 20:47:28 GMT -6
Don't get me wrong. This type of stuff ticks are kids off too, but there is also something to the psychology of being in control of the pre-game. Like if we KNOW the other team is going to come into the stadium a certain way, we prep for it and defuse it. But if its something that gets the kids and crowd going, and our kids can't help but look over their shoulder; than it can have an impact on the start of the game. Especially if things don't go well, and we have a hard time getting back momentum.
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Post by coachplaa on Jan 28, 2014 15:18:39 GMT -6
Agreed with each season having its own theme.
To kinda go along with this, two years ago my captains came to me and said they wanted to come out of our (inflatable) tunnel and have the front guys in line where big heavy chains around their neck; and do some sort of chant that they rehearsed. I think they copied the idea from YouTube or some college program. I kind of laughed it off and was against it, but I had the entire team begging me to let them do it and that it would get them pumped up.
I'm glad I did. Not only did it get our guys pumped up, but we ended up beating a team that would go on to when a state title later in the season; and I definitely noticed our opponent watching our kids enter the field with their little gimmick of the chains. I think it had a definite impact as we jumped out to a 24-0 lead and were able to hold onto the lead in a very close game.
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Post by coachplaa on Jan 28, 2014 15:13:27 GMT -6
I think if you coach them up in the pre-game warmup, its not going to have much effect. The kids' adrenaline is so amped in pre-game that they will have a hard time listening, let alone processing. Any coaching commands should be stuff the kids hear everyday and cause an automatic reaction or result. However, once the game starts, and kids start to settle in, I think that they are able to process and listen a little more. We try to make practice fast and frantic, as much as we possibly can, to try to slow down game night.
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Post by coachplaa on Jan 25, 2014 12:56:41 GMT -6
I've been in this situation. The best I can recommend is focus most of your attention on loving up the kids that are coming everyday. Enjoy them and make it a great experience for those kids that ARE committed. The more fun and positive you make it, the better. Also, don't sacrifice the rigor out of fear that kids will quit or that it will keep kids away. I used to do that. Kids ask "why are we doing this" now more than ever. So the better you can make the weight room- through competition, music, tshirts, results, etc., the more kids will want to be a part of it. One other thing I did was I rewarded the committed kids that brought a friend with them. Your committed kids are your best recruiters.
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Post by coachplaa on Nov 21, 2013 12:44:32 GMT -6
At the end of every Summer workout we had a 10-minute Summer Games tourney. I would let our coaches come up with ANYTHING they could think of and do it tourney-elimination style. We would take a picture of the daily champion, put it on twitter, and hype up each day's champion. We went from ZERO leadership at the beginning of summer, to "enough" leadership to win a co-championship and we did it through our daily summer competition.
Also, we score EVERYTHING in practice- drills, 7v7, 11v11, and we have a kid on a clipboard and another on a megaphone yelling out the score after every rep. At the end of the practice, we have the losing team (Offense or Defense) do pushups for every point they lost by. We try to reinforce winning and losing as much as possible.
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Post by coachplaa on Nov 21, 2013 12:34:46 GMT -6
Nothing kills a team more than a serious blowout, and nothing helps a team like a win.
When I schedule, I like to have 1-2 non-league opponents I have confidence that we can win, and 1-2 that I know we are evenly matched with or will challenge us.
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Post by coachplaa on Apr 14, 2013 15:33:53 GMT -6
Creating a buzz is the biggest way to improve your program. It is hard when you are losing, but easy when you are winning.
It could be a lot of different things to create a buzz: a new coach, new uniforms, exciting offense or defense, off-season compeitions, pride points, using twitter to constantly keep football in their minds, new weight room or locker room remodel. We've done it all, but not all at once. It takes time. My advice is to find 1-2 things that would have the most drastic impact, and go for it.
As far as recruiting the halls, we rely on PE teachers and current players to let us know who the athletes are that AREN"T in football. In my experience, if a kid doesn't show the initial interest, they may never fully buy-in. So if I'm going to recruit that type of player, I want to at least recruit someone with athletic ability. Also, we only recruit freshmen on-campus. We are a big school, and a NEW junior or senior very rarely sees the field, and at least we'd have three years with a recruited freshman.
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Post by coachplaa on Apr 6, 2013 13:11:13 GMT -6
The manuals you get are good (3 per year), but they are always slow to send them out. The Nike COY manuals are better and more affordable though.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 17, 2013 14:16:54 GMT -6
We have the P.I.E wheel. "Personal improvement exercise." For all of those minor irritants, they spin the wheel after practice. Tardies, teacher complaints, forgotten equipment, F-bombs, etc. It is a 18" piece of plywood. We paint 8 spaces on it and fix a spinner on it. Seven spaces are for the fun stuff- bear crawls, crab walks, leap frogs, etc. One space is a free space- kinda like a get out of jail free call. It works great and the kids love to watch it so it polices itself. If we have a major issue, I'll usually address it individually, plus make the kid spin. I've also had repeat offenders. If it gets bad, I will make the offender spin while his group does the exercise. I've also threatened to have the whole team to the PIE but I've never had to follow through.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 16, 2013 10:33:11 GMT -6
I just don't want to see them react by closing practice. It's great to have Cal finally be so open.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 15, 2013 15:36:40 GMT -6
Agreed, and you're not a bad guy but my only thought is I wouldn't mind coaches coming to watch my team practice but I might get annoyed if they put film of my drills online.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 10, 2013 18:13:51 GMT -6
Thank you for your concern. Our foods teacher talks to our kids and their parents about it.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 10, 2013 17:54:26 GMT -6
We use a muscle milk chocolate protein mix, so I think we are OK.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 10, 2013 17:29:11 GMT -6
I'll live in the gray area of helping kids.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 10, 2013 17:18:19 GMT -6
We are going to keep doing it. I work at a school that has an 80% free or reduced lunch rate. I have boys that live on cup of noodle and Mac and cheese. They get no type of protein in their normal diet except what they get from free meals at school. So if we can help these kids with peanut butter, milk, and chocolate milk protein powder; than we are going to do it. We don't make it mandatory, and we don't push it; we just have it available for kids that really need it.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 10, 2013 14:56:12 GMT -6
We are fortunate to have a coach on staff that is a foods teacher. He always keeps milk and protein powder on hand. Our poor kids come in before school and down a big glass. They do this throughout the year. He also has peanut butter and jelly, and bread on hand. Our teacher used to fund it himself, but then our booster club stepped up and funded it. I think there are at least 5-10 boys in our program that take advantage of it daily.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 3, 2013 11:50:42 GMT -6
I'm curious to hear more about the 4-man Stick route.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 1, 2013 11:33:58 GMT -6
I totally agree with that.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 1, 2013 0:45:19 GMT -6
Haven't seen the Cal flyer for their coaches clinic yet. What is the date?
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Post by coachplaa on Feb 23, 2013 20:04:39 GMT -6
I'm lucky to be at a school that has a good football tradition. We have a few things that are unique and rather than list them, its easier to look here: tdfootball.com/Tradition.htmlWe also do a Pride Point system that is explained here: tdfootball.com/Pride_Points.htmlI get asked alot about what it is, and its just a way to measure your kids committment to the football program. The more they are committed, the more they get rewarded.
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Post by coachplaa on Feb 10, 2013 21:11:57 GMT -6
Go into iMovie, click on New Project, and you will see the Movie Trailer options on the bottom-left.
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