|
Post by jg78 on Aug 3, 2014 14:55:25 GMT -6
While I think talent is the most significant factor, I believe coaching matters more in football than it does basketball and baseball.
To a reasonable extent, maybe. But coaches aren't miracle workers.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Aug 2, 2014 12:06:00 GMT -6
One of our players the other day asked me if he could see the practice plan before every practice, in order to prepare better. I honestly hadn't considered it, but I can see benefits doing so. Do coaches on here share their practice plans with their players? What do they include/exclude? What to watch out for? I have always posted a practice schedule on the bulletin board. I think it's good for players to know what they're going to do beforehand. If the practice schedule says we start at 2:30, they know it starts at 2:30 on the dot and if they're not on the practice field when I blow the whistle they will be doing grass drills. All of our periods also last the listed amount of time. No more than a minute or two off either way. A 20 minute period doesn't end up being a 30-40 minute period.
I have always been a big believer in time efficiency. Do things right and thoroughly and don't cut any corners, but if the work to be done should take two hours, then get it done in two hours. I hate wasted time. Players knowing what to expect throughout practice can only help your efficiency.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Aug 1, 2014 10:58:33 GMT -6
It never ceases to amaze me how as a nation and people in the same profession we love to promote the idea of success, but whenever someone actually achieves it we do whatever we can to marginalize it or excuse it away. I have coached 12 years, won two state titles as DC, state runner-up as an HC, and we were 10-3 last year (losing twice to the eventual undefeated state champion) with pretty much the whole team coming back this year. We are one of the favorites to win it all and will have a good chance against everyone we play. I have had plenty of success too. I'm certainly not sitting here with a 2-8 team every year and trying to make excuses for it. I am proud of what the teams I have coached have accomplished.
But I have also been 4-6 and 5-5 as a DC. I have been 3-7 as a HC. I have been all across the coaching spectrum and back and I know that in the years we have been highly successful we had much better players than in the years we weren't. When I went 12-1 as DC one year and 4-6 as DC at the same school the next year, I didn't forget how to coach. We lost 20+ seniors and almost all of our starters. That's the reason we struggled. When I went 3-7 as an HC one year and 10-3 and state runner-up (losing twice to schools in larger classifications) the next year, I didn't learn anything revolutionary. What mattered most was that we dropped a class and had all of our key players back, plus we picked up a good LB/OG. That was what really made the difference. Our talent (relative to our competition) was much better the next year.
In my opinion, each team has an approximate number of games that it should probably win. A great coach may turn 8-2 talent into 9-1 or 10-0. A bad coach may turn 8-2 talent into 7-3 or 6-4. On average, there's probably a variance of a couple of games each year based on good and bad coaching. But for a program like DLS to put together 150 game winning streak, there's a helluva lot more to that than just great coaching. Maybe they maximized their resources (probably so and good for them) but you could take that same staff and put them at many different schools in the country and they would have hard time even mustering a winning season, much less huge winning streaks.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Aug 1, 2014 6:32:07 GMT -6
That is the big secret. You coach long enough and see the game from every perspective - bad teams, average teams, great teams - you realize that winning is mostly about the players. I'm sure DLS has as fine a coaching staff and general program as there is, but they aren't making chicken salad out of chicken manure over there. No one who wins like they do is hurting for players. Nick Saban is treated like a genius by everyone in the coaching fraternity, and he is a great coach. I'm not saying he isn't. But how many of us have walked on the field with the favored team every game for 4+ years? Coaching makes a difference. All of us believe that or we wouldn't be here trying to learn. But you can't win the Kentucky Derby with a mule. Do you remember the first year He was at Bama? They struggled going 9-6 (some very close wins in that win column) and barely won the independence bowl against Colorado. But Saban (and Steele, you can't forget that guy) installed the method and discipline and turned that program Into what it is. Sent from my VS980 4G using proboards Bama went 7-6 in 2007 and lost to La. Monroe, which should never happen. He definitely turned the program around from there and has had a great run since. However, bringing in players like Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, Dante Hightower, etc. the next year quickly upgraded the talent level and helped a lot. Saban deserves a ton of credit for that because, as silkyice pointed out, recruiting is a major, major part of college coaching. But I'm separating that aspect of it from on-field coaching.
What Saban has done at Bama is phenomenal. But if he were at Iowa State, would he get within binocular range of a national championship trophy? No. And if the DLS guys were at any of the landlocked bottom feeder programs that we all face each year, would they run off 100+ game winning streaks? Hell no.
The DLS coaches may be the best at what they do, and I'm sure we all could learn a lot from the way they do things. However, I bet we could put a staff together from the coaches posting on this thread and give us the most talented team in a given league and give the DLS guys an average team from that same league and we would win - probably easily.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jul 31, 2014 15:27:33 GMT -6
That is the big secret. You coach long enough and see the game from every perspective - bad teams, average teams, great teams - you realize that winning is mostly about the players. I'm sure DLS has as fine a coaching staff and general program as there is, but they aren't making chicken salad out of chicken manure over there. No one who wins like they do is hurting for players.
Nick Saban is treated like a genius by everyone in the coaching fraternity, and he is a great coach. I'm not saying he isn't. But how many of us have walked on the field with the favored team every game for 4+ years?
Coaching makes a difference. All of us believe that or we wouldn't be here trying to learn. But you can't win the Kentucky Derby with a mule.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jul 28, 2014 11:36:56 GMT -6
Yes, I have been spoiled with a turf field in the past. I need to line our practice field from scratch. How do I go about that and maintain perfect angles and distance? You're only painting straight lines and right angles. Not hard to do. The dimensions are 360' x 160'. String it and paint it and there's your outline of the field. And then fill it in from there.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jul 23, 2014 17:37:54 GMT -6
When me and the head coach sat down to make the August calendar, I was able to convince him that we should not do two-a-days this year. My reasoning was that hopefully, it will keep us fresh down the stretch when it's time to make a playoff run. (Coach Pop of the Spurs did the same thing during the season last year for a prime time game against the Heat, resting his star players, hoping to keep them fresh, he unfortunately was fined). I also pointed out that we have a talented, mostly veteran team, and that we may be better served in the long run by not going through the grueling two-a-days. In my state, we do have the ability to do two-a-days, but it comes with the 2-1-2 practice format. We also are allowed to pretty much do whatever we want in the Summer, as long as we aren't using pads and football equipment (blocking sleds, dummies, etc). I guess my questions are, do you still use two-a-days? Do you think they are/are not beneficial? Reasoning? My approach is to do everything thoroughly but take no longer than necessary to do it. I have never been one to put in more time just for the sake of doing so. If you feel good about your team's overall preparation and don't feel like it's necessary to have two-a-days, then I wouldn't have them.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jul 18, 2014 16:01:19 GMT -6
In short, I would say four key things:
1) The ability to instill discipline and organization throughout a program. 2) The ability to make players better people. 3) The ability to inspire players to give maximum effort. 4) The ability to outscheme many other coaches and win some games you shouldn't.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jul 16, 2014 15:39:08 GMT -6
To answer my own question: I prefer to keep things as routine as possible, especially concerning the players. I think they'll all sleep better alone in their own rooms than they will with 3-4 friends in the same room the night before a game. Plus, staying the night means there's more logistical work that has to be done to get it all organized and that takes away from other things.
If it's a really long trip, I would rather leave earlier than necessary and break up it. We played a school a few years ago that was over four hours away. We had to beat them to make the playoffs. We left very early and stopped after an hour to eat breakfast. Stopped a couple hours later at a Bass Pro Shop for about 30 minutes and then ate a light lunch afterwards. We got to the city the school was in about 3:00-3:30 and ate our pregame meal. And then drove over to the school afterwards and had about an hour more than usual to sit around and relax. We played very well that night and won.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jul 16, 2014 11:12:10 GMT -6
A long road game is definitely a distraction. There's making arrangements for eating pregame out of town (if necessary), loading the bus, sitting on the bus for a few hours, a locker room that may be inadequate and too far from the field to return to at halftime, etc.
None of that is fun to deal with, but I don't know that any of it has cost us a game. What carookie said about referees having a natural tendency to favor the home team makes sense. I would rather deal with all the other hassles of a road trip than have a questionable call cost us field position, or even points.
If I may ask this question: If money for hotel rooms (and other expenses) were not a factor, how many of you would rather leave the night before a game?
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jul 8, 2014 10:49:53 GMT -6
I have always told mine to get predominately black cleats (don't care what brand) and wear white socks.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jul 8, 2014 10:18:07 GMT -6
I like going as a staff to a good coaching clinic during the January-March months. However, I personally would not want to go on a staff retreat somewhere during the summer and stay 1-2 nights. I would rather meet at the school (or somewhere nearby) and do the work that needs to be done and pretty much leave it at that. We all know how little free time we have from August-November and I wouldn't want to spend one of my last remaining summer weekends doing non-football activities with the staff that I may not really like. If the HC invited us all over to his house to grill steaks and shoot the breeze on a Thursday night to kinda kickoff the season with a little camaraderie, I'm good with that. But going out and staying a night or two at a lake house somewhere, that's not really something I would want to do.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jun 23, 2014 13:41:33 GMT -6
i was under the impression that hand start laser finish was no different than a stop watch with a laser finish. But I am more concerned with consistency than the most accurate way to time. If they get faster I want it to be because of the training program and their effort and not because Im having a good thumb day.
Exactly.
The 40 yard dash time is perhaps the most inaccurate and exaggerated measurement in all of sports, even among people with honest intentions. How many times have you heard of a high school kid running a 4.4-4.5 40 only to watch the NFL Combine (where they are electronically timed) and see the fastest RB's, WR's and DB's coming out of college struggle to run times that low? The 40 definitely has its place, but there's a pretty significant margin for error even among two people timing the same kid in the same run.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jun 20, 2014 16:54:46 GMT -6
Workouts aren't mandatory, and neither is your playing time. Forget where I stole that. I like that a lot.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jun 20, 2014 16:32:25 GMT -6
1. Yes.
2. I would say a "more successful" fall. If you have 2-8 talent that works hard and makes all the sacrifices and wins a couple of games they shouldn't and finishes 4-6, is that successful or unsuccessful? If a team with 9-1 talent slacks off all summer and finishes 7-3, is that successful or unsuccessful?
3. To an extent.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jun 3, 2014 13:47:07 GMT -6
We started summer practices last night. We generally have a few parents who watch from the stands, particularly those who have to drive their kids. No big deal, we've got a lot of really great parents. But last night, I saw a first. Halfway through practice, as we were transitioning from offense to defense, a dad came out onto the field, walked up to the head coach, and asked him if we were 'getting anything' out of his son. What is the thought process there, that you would interrupt a practice of 50 people in order to discuss the productivity of your son? Some people are just unreal... Nothing really surprises me anymore when it comes to parents.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jun 3, 2014 9:00:59 GMT -6
I don't ban parents from practice, but at the Parents Meeting I address it and make it clear that they are not to be on the field or interact with the team in any way. They have to keep their distance.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jun 1, 2014 10:33:34 GMT -6
We all play to win the game, of course, but I think our postgame thoughts and feelings should be on how well the team played relative to its capabilities. I have coached a lot of games that we wouldn't have won on our best day, and I have coached a lot of games where we wouldn't have lost on our worst day. I can recall losses in which I did a better of job of coaching than I did in wins. With all that being the case, I think it's key to keep everything in perspective and to take a realistic approach to things.
As others have said, the games you lose that you can and/or should win hurt the most. And they need to hurt or you're not a very competitive person. But on the flip side, having mental toughness is an important part of coaching as well. Unproductive sulking the morning after a loss doesn't do anything a bit of good. And life in general is too short and precious to spend too much time agonizing over something that is over and done and can't be changed. You have to get over it and go back to the drawing board (like every week, win or lose) and see what you can do to get better for the next game.
As a coach, all you can ever do with your team is improve them. You may not be able to make them great or even average. But you can always make them better and that is where I like to keep my focus. If you do that, you tend to win the games you should and steal one you shouldn't every once in a while.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Jun 1, 2014 7:43:02 GMT -6
Being a little old-school, all this being able to have you music on your cell phone has made it difficult on game day. You want them to have their individual music, but how do you keep them from texting and all that other stuff? Any ideas?
I haven't read all the responses to your question, but (in my opinion) it isn't a battle worth fighting. As long as they are not getting loud or disruptive, I don't care if they listen to music, text, talk among themselves about whatever, etc. between the time school is out and when they start getting dressed for the game. As long as they start getting mentally prepared about an hour before game time, I don't think it's going to matter if your QB sent his GF a text message at 4:30.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on May 26, 2014 19:12:25 GMT -6
Definitely have a parents meeting as soon as possible to communicate your expectations clearly and eliminate as many potential problems and excuses as you can right from the start. Beyond that, do the best you can and always keep your cool no matter what any parent says to you.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on May 1, 2014 12:37:10 GMT -6
Fear might not be the right word in general, but unless you have a group of Boy Scouts you better have their respect. They had better at least fear the consequences of breaking your rules and getting out of line.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on May 1, 2014 12:33:20 GMT -6
I have never been at a place where we had a bunch of football managers, but this spring we have found 12 kids wanting to come and help the team. I want a few to film practice and get some equipment set up but I was wondering what yall have your managers do during practice. Thanks for the help. One suggestion that I'd add here is to rotate the managers if you keep anywhere near the same numbers. It would take the time burden off of them and make the job more attractive. You could have different crews for different gays or a pre-practice and a post-practice crew, etc. What I did with my watergirls was have them all work together during 7th period to fill up the coolers, get the stuff out, etc. And then just one stay for the whole practice. That way they only had to spend one day a week out there helping.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on May 1, 2014 5:40:26 GMT -6
When I was a HC, I had 4-5 watergirls. In my experience, there aren't many high school (or even middle school) boys who are going to want to be managers. And with the elementary kids, they're usually not very dependable. So we used high school girls. They took it very seriously. Some even gave up cheerleading to be watergirls. We were smart about it and made sure everything the girls needed to do was well away from the locker room.
Never had any problems.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Apr 14, 2014 12:33:50 GMT -6
Seems pretty simple to me at this point. Suspend him from the team pending a police investigation. If the police find no evidence that he was framed, he's gone for good. If they do and the ex-g/f set him up, then (at least according to your rules) I would let him back on the team.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Apr 4, 2014 6:10:46 GMT -6
I am currently the DC at my current school. A head coaching job just came open that I am going to look into and see where it goes. It is a school with a lot of football tradition but has been down the last several years and really just doesn't have the talent in the pipeline to compete for state titles. My current school, however, is loaded with talent and has a great chance to win a state championship next year.
So let me ask you this: All else being equal, would you rather be a coordinator of a 9-1/10-0 type team or the head coach of 4-6 type team but make 50-60% more money?
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Mar 31, 2014 12:27:57 GMT -6
Why not? And do you meet on Saturday instead?
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Mar 30, 2014 12:41:33 GMT -6
Yeah, all schools are different. Sometimes there are things you want to do that you just can't do because of circumstances.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Mar 30, 2014 12:20:54 GMT -6
I have held weight lifting sessions before school and there are positives and negatives to it like most everything else.
Some positives:
1) You can get straight to working on your sport in the afternoon and that saves you about an hour in the evening.
2) Because you worked out several hours prior to practice, your players are usually a little bit fresher than immediately after workouts.
Some negatives:
1) Not every player is a junior who has a drivers license and is an only child. Some players need a parent to drive them to school. Some players have younger brothers and sisters who ride to school with them and have to get up really early for something that has nothing to do with them. Things like that can be problematic for a player's family and may lead to some griping from parents.
2) Teenagers aren't usually enthusiastic about doing anything at 6:00 in the morning, and you don't want kids sleepwalking through workouts.
3) When they show up for workouts, most kids haven't eaten since the night before, haven't taken a shower, and slept as long as they could before jumping out of bed at the last minute and rushing to workouts. Depending on how far away they live, some kids probably haven't been awake 15-20 minutes before they walk in the weight room. This is especially true during basketball season when players may not get home from a road game until 11:00 at night - or later.
I think lifting in the afternoon is definitely more conducive to a productive workout. The players have obviously been up a while, they have eaten a couple of times during the day, their blood is flowing because they have been moving around at school, and they are generally more upbeat. This whole thing about "We're hardcore and more dedicated because we workout at 6:00" doesn't cut it with me. I have been down that road. Heck, I have held weight lifting sessions at 5:00 before. It doesn't matter what time in the day you get your work done as long as it gets done. Getting out of bed unreasonably early doesn't make you any tougher, stronger, or more dedicated.
In my opinion, the best way to do it is hold afternoon workouts and get those kids in the weight room as soon as you can. If they get out of class at 2:00, then have a 2:15-2:20 start time (depending on how quick they should be able to get to the locker room and weight room) and punish them if they are a minute late. Get the ball rolling ASAP and start getting things done. Be organized and efficient with your time and it won't take until the evening to get everything done.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Mar 22, 2014 10:13:22 GMT -6
In my opinion, every coach should watch film (both our Friday game and 2-3 opponent films) over the weekend and come to the meeting prepared and ready for discussion. Ready to discuss some things we can do to make our team better and some things we can do to help us beat our upcoming opponent. Everyone discusses and compares notes and we formulate a game plan and practice schedule for the week based on the things we agree upon in that meeting. And then when the real work is done, keep the small talk to a minimum and go home.
If everyone shows up on time and has studied film on their own like they should and you don't get off on irrelevant tangents, coaches meetings shouldn't last that long.
What I personally like to do on the weekends is sit on my couch with my computer on Saturday and watch film while also watching college football on my TV and cooking some good food. I get a lot work done that way without feeling like I'm locked in a bunker somewhere grinding away without any enjoyment to my weekend. I'm a single guy, so I don't have any other distractions or obligations. I have all day to get my work done at my own pace. And then I'm well-prepared for Sunday meetings.
|
|
|
Post by jg78 on Mar 20, 2014 21:02:36 GMT -6
This thread really should be titled "law of diminishing returns" because less is not more, less is less. More is more however adding more doesn't mean more benefit in all cases. It could mean far more expensive benefit that could do damage in the long run (burnout) for kids and coaches.
I think you hit on the proper wording with the "law of diminishing returns" remark. Weight lifting is a perfect example. You can't work the same muscles extremely hard every day because you will never give them time to rest, recover and grow. You won't get stronger and probably will get hurt. So while you may technically be working harder than someone lifting 2-3 days a week, the extra work is counterproductive.
One thing I believe in (regardless of how much you do) is to just try to be efficient with your time and how you do things. If you have three hours of work to do and the earliest you can get started is 2:30, then start at 2:30 and get done at 5:30. Don't fumble around before, during and after practice and stretch things out longer than necessary. There's no virtue in taking four hours to do a three hour job, although some coaches seem to think the amount of time you spend means you work harder. Not necessarily true.
|
|