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Post by mariner42 on Feb 17, 2011 12:34:03 GMT -6
I think of being contrarian in a very similar manner to saintrad. Do something different from your league whilst doing what you know how to do. Looking at our league, I would want to run proper triple option football because no one does it. SBV/Flexbone/Wishbone would give them fits. If teams started folding in more option, I'd progress to more double-dive oriented stuff.
I think zero punting, etc isn't contrarian, it's egotism.
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 12, 2011 17:25:37 GMT -6
Great thread! Mariner: when you do your timed plays, is it against your 3 cone fronts (air) or against scouts? If it is against scouts how do you ensure execution or is the purpose simply tempo? Thanks! And thanks to everyone else who has shared. With lower attention spans, I am always looking to be more efficient! Cones.
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 11, 2011 23:40:23 GMT -6
I love this stuff. Eating it up.... I have two, both for our defensive team time: 1) Anytime the ball hits the ground- incomplete pass or fumble, the entire defense treats it like a turnover and scores/escorts to the endzone. Also, as soon as the ball touches the ground, they all must start yelling, getting excited. Also, if the ball stops (and a kid falls on it), the rest of the team is pointing in the direction like its our ball. This may sound annoying, but we've stripped the ball in games as the whistle blows, and the referrees get sold on our enthusiasm. Happened twice last year that I remember. 2) When we are running our scout team offense vs our 1st team defense, we have an A scout huddle, and a B scout huddle. One is on the left hash, the other is on the right hash. They switch hashes each day for defensive time. Group A runs plays that are a little more challenging, like maybe 5-step drop, option, read plays, etc. Group B runs simpler stuff, like 3-step drop pass, dive, toss, etc. We have one scout team coach for each huddle. While one scout team is running the play versus our first defense, the other scout team is getting the play from a card, and ready to break as soon as the current play is over. This forces our defense to align quickly and get ready to defend next play. Great for our mental approach, alignment, assignment, conditioning, etc. Edit: to contribute something that I know Groundchuck liked: We are up-tempo Wing-T (huddle, but we get in/get out as fast as possible), so we like to condition via reps. We line up an even front D with cones, an odd front D with cones, and a bear front D with cones, all about 25 yards apart. QB is a play to call and they run it vs one front, sprint to the next, run it vs that front, sprint to the last, run it vs that front, then the offense jogs back around. Do this with as many offensive huddles as you can. We'll also time our guys running 4 plays in a row, as fast as possible from a huddle. So we'll do buck sweep, trap, wb counter, and waggle consecutively, hurrying into and out of the huddle. Best we did this year for 4 plays was like, 50 something seconds I wanna say. As they get better, we increase the total # of plays. The goal is to be able to run 8 plays by the end of the season without our guys crapping out. It's game-specific conditioning, assignment review, develops 'mental toughness', good, good drill. I think we best we did this year was 6 plays in a row. Now, when we want to hurry up at the end of the half, it's really not that big of a deal, plus the bad guys get SPENT.
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 10, 2011 16:20:28 GMT -6
OJW, do you know of any direct-source stuff from/by him? I'd love to read up on him, I got a fun read a while back on Bobby Dodd of GT fame, which happened to have some neat x's and o's as well, something by Bellard would be sweet!
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 7, 2011 14:54:10 GMT -6
( I'll take PeeWee Herman seriously before i give any credence to that self-serving hack Peter King) Sometimes I feel like Brophy is my Tyler Durden. I was amazed at how far Rodgers has come. He's truly an ELITE quarterback, he showed some INCREDIBLE throws, poise and ability. Reminded me of when he completed 26 straight vs USC his senior year. When he's truly on, he's scary, and recently and for the next few years, I'll wager he's on far more than he's off. Happy time to be a cheesehead.
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 6, 2011 11:37:23 GMT -6
Saw Nick Rapone from Delaware at SJ Glazier. Really, really good. If he's speaking at any others, get someone from your staff to sit in.
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 4, 2011 14:28:51 GMT -6
A typical practice for us would have about 20% more offensive time than defensive. This is in part because of the philosophy of the HC, who wants his defense dumb as dirt simple and his offense high scoring/productive.
I'm of the opinion that if your offense needs an extra 40-50 minutes of work each week, you might want to have a small re-examination of what you're doing. I'm not saying it's inexcusable or anything, just... An area of concern, imo.
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 3, 2011 11:51:36 GMT -6
I attended Burlingame All Sports Clinic last week, and will be going to Glazier in San Jose tomorrow and Glazier Clinic in Reno March 10-12. It's good to get out with the staff and just hear some other perspectives on things. Disappointed that one of Boise's speakers isn't going to make it, I wanted to hear pretty much everything that he was going to talk about.
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 1, 2011 20:49:33 GMT -6
Here's to having perspective and class! Kudos.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 28, 2011 14:35:39 GMT -6
OK, here we go! I didn't know the guy from Mythbusters used to coach football... (Far right)
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 28, 2011 9:41:47 GMT -6
Our practice attire is a mix of team gear/colors, college alma maters (UC Davis, Berkeley, SJSU, etc), and work attire (we have a professional musician, a contractor, a PO, and a plastics salesman on staff, amongst others). But all of our coaches 'get it' and you won't see anyone inadvertently wearing rival colors (yellow/black or black/red).
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 27, 2011 12:36:38 GMT -6
Yeah, excellent planning on my part, as per usual...
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 27, 2011 12:30:12 GMT -6
Maybe wings and things in Fresno Thanks for the reminder, I am actually pretty jazzed about perhaps attending this one. edit: f***, was last weekend...
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 27, 2011 8:43:45 GMT -6
I'm probably going to be at the San Jose Glazier clinic. Ordinarily our staff goes to the Burlingame All Sports clinic, but this year the line up is a giant joke. There's maybe two presentations that I'm interested in hearing over the whole Th-Sun weekend. I might do Nike COY in Concord, but I'm doubtful on that because I don't want to pay that fee, hotel fare, etc.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 25, 2011 14:37:11 GMT -6
I work pretty hard to stay fit as best I can because I like to be able to physically move around and perform the things I'm trying to coach. That's not to say I couldn't do it if I weighed a bit more, but I can do things much easier if I've been lifting/training.
I like looking like I could still play a few downs, I like feeling strong and well-conditioned, but I don't think it affects me all that much as a coach. I think I get a little bit of respect/credibility from my athletes because I'm in good shape and I still look the bit, but I'm not going to say that it's vital.
Almost all of our coaches on our staff are in good to decent shape for the age they are (I'm 26, eldest is like 62 ish). I've coached with a man who was so obese (400 lbs, easy) and out of shape that he smelled bad, couldn't get around without a talking pole (stick doesn't do the thing justice), and he couldn't demonstrate much at all. I don't want guys like that because he had serious respect/credibility issues with the kids. He was a great guy with a wonderful heart, but it just wasn't a good situation to coach with him.
At the end of the day, be in healthy shape and capable physique, but don't stress being Mr. Universe.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 23, 2011 14:56:49 GMT -6
Our HC prefers to have assistants and players 'recruit the halls' so that if/when those kids do come out, he doesn't really owe them anything.
As far as worrying about whether a kid will quit or not if they're asked to play a position, I personally think **** 'em. What if two of your 200lb OL blow their knees and the next two kids to step up are 145lb former equipment managers? Would your TE and LB keep refusing to play OL when it is clearly the best option for keeping your team competitive? If so, then **** 'em. If not, play them where you want to play them.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 21, 2011 13:23:18 GMT -6
In-Season: Stickers are only awarded when we win. Everyone earns a sticker for the "W". Then we hand them out for individual and team accomplishments. But only when we win. This is almost exactly how we did it in college. I would probably want to do something like that if I was calling the shots. The first school I coached at had a coach at every level that was designated the "Star" coach. If a player got a sack or caused/recovered a turnover, the whole sidelines would gather around them and start chanting "star, star, star, star" while the Star coach would get out a star sticker and smack him on the head, like a battlefield commission almost. Fun tradition, there was an end of the year award for the player with the most stars, too. There were other award stickers like hammers and whatnot, but the star was unique and special for it's little ceremony that came with it.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 21, 2011 9:58:34 GMT -6
Seems like he hasn't matured to the point of shift key mastery, but life's a journey Awesome letter, I'd be extremely proud to hear that in 10-15 years.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 20, 2011 12:29:02 GMT -6
I don't think there's anything wrong with telling the kid he's not there yet, but you're going to find somewhere for him to contribute because he deserves it. He should absolutely get 1st group reps until someone unseats him, but if/when it happens, acknowledge what it means for both players and move on.
Regardless, he's only a Jr and maybe something funny happens between Jr and Sr year and he becomes a player.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 14, 2011 23:18:02 GMT -6
IMO, branching off of Tog's advice, go in this order: 1-running game section. Order the threads by # of replies and read through the first two pages or so. ALL of the threads 2-general offense section. Same thing. 3-general defense section. Ditto. 4-passing game section. ditto. 5-secondary section. ditto. By the end of this all, you'll have questions and thoughts and ideas. Now go back and order the threads alphabetically and see what you can find about the stuff you're interested about. Read all of those. After that, repeat with the new stuff you're interested in. This should occupy your time from here to August
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 13, 2011 10:27:28 GMT -6
Thought that I knew it all. Came to find out, I did not know anything. "Any Expert was once a beginner." Not that I am an expert, but I know so much more now then I did 17 years ago, and I am still learning. This is what gives me hope for myself and makes me feel better for being pretty lousy early on in my career. It's not where you start, it's where you finish.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 13, 2011 10:25:16 GMT -6
Oh my goodness was I an {censored} my first year...
(coaching frosh OL in a bad program) Kids would miss an assignment and I'd scream at them for not being able to get the block. Kids would go offsides and I'd ask them if they could count to one. Had one kid that just couldn't avoid holding and I swear he's part of the reason my hair is thinning. Had kids that were lazy or weak, so I tried to 'toughen them up' with stupid drills and punishment.
I was just that typical bad, {censored} coach. Kinda scares me when I look back because it was honestly only like 6 years ago. Basically, I was too much Bobby Knight and not enough John Wooden, too much fire and brimstone and not enough Season of Life. I was young...
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 13, 2011 10:03:17 GMT -6
Competition also means you cannot have a fixed idea of a 'starter' in your head. If the kid who's the most talented isn't being the most productive, you've got to put someone else in there. That's HARD for some coaches (was for me in the beginning) because we can have 'our guys' that we shine on a bit. If the starter sees that he'll get replaced for not producing, he'll either roll over and take it (which is fine because that shows we didn't really want him at crunch time anyways) or he'll start COMPETING for his spot.
It's kind of a cold approach to things, but it definitely breeds competition.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 11, 2011 4:08:54 GMT -6
A guy like Fairley or Suh gives a numbers advantage vs a spread team, or at least shifts the numbers advantage back into the favor of the defense, as God intended. Having a beastly 3 tech lets your LB on that side play a bit looser in coverage because he doesn't have to be so much of a run presence.
I really think part of the next evolution of stopping the spread offenses out there won't be doing too much different with the DBs or alignments as much as a re-emphasizing of the DL. If your DL whips their butts, you'll probably win, yeah?
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 10, 2011 14:35:09 GMT -6
I believe mariner must be a CCS guy, where their sectional playoffs actually have an open division too. Our playoff divisions in NCS are purely (with a couple exceptions) enrollment based. If we're having this much trouble I can only imagine how confusing it is for a non-CA person to figure out our playoff system... Guilty. Yeah, I forgot that most sections don't do like we do. I really like the open division option for sectional playoffs because it's much more reasonable for the large-school publics. I tried explaining it all to my roommate from Ohio and it took at least half an hour.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 10, 2011 10:29:16 GMT -6
Like Norcaldiaz and Bdub said, CA more or less works around the issue with the idea of the "Open" division come playoff time. The theory is that those looking for real accomplishment/challenge/danger/whatever will opt for the open if they have the power points to do so. My uncle (public school) recently won a section title because his team managed to avoid the open division and having to play against Palo Alto (CA D-1 state champs), Bellarmine (CA D-I state runner-up '09), and Valley Christian (loaded private school with 2 ex-49ers on staff).
There was an incident a few years ago where Valley Christian qualified for playoffs, but without the points needed to get into the Open, so they played at their enrollment, which was the second smallest. They averaged 65 points a game all the way through to tournament. Quite a joke, really.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 5, 2011 14:06:43 GMT -6
I like my FB page, but I might kill it. It just seems like somebody could turn something around on you....even if you are completely doing nothing wrong. I'm at this point, too. I mostly use it when chatting up/meeting a new girl, so I'm not entirely sure why I even need it in the first place anymore... I don't add students or athletes until they graduate, I limit my cell phone exposure to kids that I know to have good heads on their shoulders, and NO ONE knows where my house is.
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Post by mariner42 on Jan 4, 2011 15:59:03 GMT -6
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Post by mariner42 on Dec 24, 2010 10:50:04 GMT -6
We have some ego issues and some selfishness over the past few years. Most of the main issues have graduated, but there are still some younger brothers coming up, so we are thinking ..."Band of Brothers" " Big Team, little me" has been a favorite of mine.
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Post by mariner42 on Dec 22, 2010 11:42:52 GMT -6
We've used Sports Chalet the last two years and, frankly, they've been horrid. Numerous botched orders, bad billing practices, it's been a severe headache.
So, who do you go to for spirit pack type stuff (shirts, shorts, general swag) and equipment orders (girdles, pads, helmets, etc)? We are at the point now where we're looking for the best service and product at the most reasonable price, rather than lowest bidder.
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