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Post by coachhads on Jan 3, 2017 12:15:09 GMT -6
Route Running.....its such an art form. Some kids pick it up with ease, others look like a baby horse trying to take their first steps. Mental Toughness is one of those that you can teach and teach but if a kid doesnt have IT then its hard to get it. Agreed! Route Running truly is an art. Especially getting a clean release and creating separation. Catching the ball should be the easy part!
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Post by coachhads on Jan 2, 2017 12:54:41 GMT -6
Curious to learn what concepts other coaches have the most trouble teaching during the season. Spacial Awareness, the Geometry of football, and Angles of Pursuit. no matter how much i drill it into their heads...they never seem to grasp it. This is Interesting. I teach my guys the basic fundamentals of field dimensions but they have a hard time using it in the game. It's more of a "feel" knowing the numbers, hashes, midfield are.
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Post by coachhads on Dec 22, 2016 13:08:15 GMT -6
Counter for us is the same way. We had the hardest time getting our guys to make one cut and get North and South. They wanted to run outside and then would get mad at the OL for "not blocking." We watched a ton of film to show the RBs who was in the wrong. A Wing T team from a previous coaching stint used this drill. Nothing like a cinder block wall to give immediate feedback on bouncing the ball outside. This is pretty cool/creative.
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Post by coachhads on Dec 20, 2016 14:03:51 GMT -6
Mental Toughness is an interesting concept to teach. I feel like kids either have it growing up or they dont. Experience and on-field play is the only way to measure how far an athlete has come.
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Post by coachhads on Dec 16, 2016 12:27:39 GMT -6
Defense: Teaching young DB's sound man coverage & keeping their eyes out of the backfield. It still boggles my mind how many kids get this wrong, even in a 1 on 1 drill where there is NO other receiver on the field We have the same issue. The kids always want to do too much. I always relay to my guys "Stop looking in the backfield, the QB isn't going to stare right at you and throw the ball right to you." Matching break points and angles and knowing the timing of a QB 3 step and 5 step drop also proved useful for our DB's
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Post by coachhads on Dec 15, 2016 14:10:20 GMT -6
Curious to learn what concepts other coaches have the most trouble teaching during the season.
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Post by coachhads on Dec 7, 2016 10:10:42 GMT -6
Thats tough tothehouse. You'd hate to think that the old cliche of "winning cures everything" is true, but it really is. But it all starts with the coach and kids wanting to get better. I've always focused on off-season and pre-season mental work by telling our kids individually that they're the best in the league, and nobody can stop them. Once they make a big play in pre-season or week 1 they start to truly believe it and it spreads.
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Post by coachhads on Dec 5, 2016 8:38:34 GMT -6
And we get paid nickels for this. My kids are in HS now...I'm on my 25 season. I'm done after my freshman gets out. A lot because of the reasons stated here. It seems like...gone are the days where a kid showed up and kicked ass. And if he didn't kick ass...his dad/mom would make him kick some ass. Seems like the mommies and daddies want instant gratification...just like their child. This isn't all cases...but they are the loudest. Back to the OP. Run fits, full speed, and aggression. I think if we can take care of those things we'd be pretty good. And since it's a coaching pain...it comes down to us to fix it. Can't have excuses. Great point! What's been your best tactic, in the 25 years of coaching, to get kids to play with aggression?
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Post by coachhads on Dec 5, 2016 8:34:28 GMT -6
It was hard to take time out to teach the basics of what they should have learned at Jr High/JV level ball. It's my fault because I assumed too much about their knowledge of the game. They had never even had position specific individual period during practice (under their old HC). They just came to football an scrimmaged the whole time (team). This spring I am going to focus on going back to basic football (hand placement, first step, eyes). I had a 2 year starter at DE this year, All-Conference player. I asked him one day to play DE on the right side instead of the left. So he did, after the first play his question (he as dead serious) was, "Coach, on the left side I have C-Gap, is it still called the same thing on the right or do I do something different?" Now, it's not that we hadn't gone over the gap lettering before, and our entire defensive structure, we do that every year. It floored me, but at the same time I thought it was hilarious because you just never can under estimate what they know! He had been playing since youth football btw. We've all been there! It's amazing to see the thought process. But it's also great to see how these kids are thinking when they are out of their element (Moving from the right instead of left), it's like the world got flipped upside down.
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Post by coachhads on Nov 29, 2016 16:17:24 GMT -6
Have any coaches had issues with teaching kids the rules of the game, specifically "in-depth" rules? We used classroom time after and before practice but didn't know if anyone used a more efficient way?
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Post by coachhads on Nov 29, 2016 16:09:26 GMT -6
Well played indeed!
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Post by coachhads on Nov 29, 2016 13:09:04 GMT -6
One of the pain points I haven't seen mentioned is parents undermining the coaching staff. It's hard to coach kids up when their dad tells them to do something different as soon as practice is over or the moms are making big scenes on social media to undercut what we're trying to accomplish. Yeah that's tough. Is that from a youth standpoint or from a high school?
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Post by coachhads on Nov 27, 2016 11:24:05 GMT -6
Parents. Unrealistic expectations for their son's playing time, hurt feelings because of what their son comes home and says he heard someone say, in general a lack of wanting to help make changes, etc. Yeah that's tough. Coaches play the players that give them the best chance of winning the game. No coach likes to lose!
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Post by coachhads on Nov 18, 2016 13:24:29 GMT -6
Finishing. And that is the hardest thing to teach too. Finishing tackles, finishing runs, finishing blocks. Just finishing... Exactly, very hard to teach. The kids I've seen "finish" the best are the kids who want it the most. Want that extra yard, to make the tackle, to pancake a defender, etc. It mostly comes from aggression which is tough to teach.
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Post by coachhads on Nov 18, 2016 12:10:45 GMT -6
Yeah for sure. That's one thing I learned the hard way as well when we took over a program was automatically assuming kids knew the very raw basics of the game. Which I learned never to assume because it ultimately wastes practice time. Always teach it Day 1.
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Post by coachhads on Nov 17, 2016 19:06:48 GMT -6
Now you say kids didnt know what the flats were, runs fits, etc. Was this harder for you because you had to take time out of your typical practice? Or was it hard from them to learn and grasp the terminology?
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Post by coachhads on Nov 17, 2016 9:43:15 GMT -6
A fellow coach and I took over a program that has never won... thought it would be a fun experience (wow, I was so wrong). They had never actually been coached before. But, here are thing that I had trouble with defensively. 1. Run fits, kids didn't understand why they couldn't just follow the ball. 2. Understanding zones... most couldn't tell you where the flats were 3. Blitz path... 2 yards outside the nearest back. They improved a lot during the season but it was definitely a growing pain. I wish them luck next year. Love the kids but their parents here are nuts, time to move on. Interesting! Was this at a High School level? Were the kids disinterested as they continued to lose?
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Post by coachhads on Nov 16, 2016 20:36:08 GMT -6
As the season is starting to wind down, I'm curious to learn about pain points other coaches are having. It can be anything from dealing with players, to educating players, to having too few players.
Coach Hads
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