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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 21, 2023 20:23:29 GMT -6
Couple times. I guess it's always bound to happen. Sophomores see the seniors before them not be so successful. They decide to work like maniacs for two years and by the time they are seniors they will run through walls for you to win. The juniors see this and continue it for a year or two but eventually teams just figure that they are owed success because they are seniors now. They don't have success. And so on.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 8, 2023 4:25:52 GMT -6
This was back in the day where they didn't constantly look to the sideline to give a 15 yard penalty! Anyway, we are on offense. The QB fakes to a RB. Then he drops back. He throws a simple flat route. We gain 4 yards. Good deal. Anyway, scrthe DE that was rushing didn't realize it was a screen and decided to hit the QB late. Definitely a late hit. Our Head Coach starts yelling "Come on, Sir. You can't let him get away with that. Sir, I'm sleeping with the his mom."
The official gave him the strangest look. Well, the QB was the coach's son, so he was, in fact, sleeping with his Mom!
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 28, 2020 17:51:23 GMT -6
You ever just realize you have been playing/coaching for a long time and you just never knew/totally understood a rule that you thought you did. To start the 2019 season, we had our scrimmage to start the season. We had an official who I believe is fairly "high up" who I have had a couple times in these scenarios, who likes to bring both teams together before the game starts to give a speech and tell the boys of the different rule changes from the year before to this year that they may need to know. Either way, last year, one of the rules he said, (I will say I never went back to him to make sure that I heard him correctly because I was just dumbfounded), was that this year there was no more tripping on defense. I think he even said like "you know, it used to be you just do whatever you gotta do to get a guy down, but there is no tripping now." Could have heard him wrong, but don't think I did. Either way, I must say the biggest reason I didn't go to him and ask was because I was just thinking to myself about how many tackles I missed where I could have been tripping someone. I mean I set a record at my school for career tackles, and I'm thinking I should have set a world record because if I had known I could trip, I would have been hell on wheels for any ball carrier. Like I say, it is totally possible I heard something wrong, but I swear that is what I and other coaches on my staff took from what he said. I'm still mad about that. Haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 18, 2019 10:28:45 GMT -6
For a first offense with nothing else attached to it, I don't think so. I know a guy who was suspended for a year from coaching for one, and the head coach had to fight pretty hard to keep it at just a year. Seemed like the school really missed an opportunity. He should have received some sort of punishment to show kids that when you do wrong, there are consequences. No problem with that at all. But don't try to blackball him. It's an opportunity. This was a guy who had about 10 years of working with these kids as a full time assistant coach, even though he never took a dime in pay. He had a much different type of rapport with the young men on the football team, and as such would be listened to in a much different way, than any of those special convocation speakers who get paid the big bucks to come in and speak and nobody remembers them three days later.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jan 12, 2018 22:39:52 GMT -6
I talked to a defensive coordinator that I really like a whole lot a while back and he talked about a team that about about 20 years ago did something similar to the drawing you put up, at least in theory. They switched it around a bit more than what you have drawn. Anyway, they were an OPTION TEAM. By that, I don't mean that they ran option every now and then, but instead regardless of any formation they aligned in, from Double Tight Bone, to having only a center and two guards with a QB and FB, with the other six spread evenly with three way far left and three way far right, they tried their absolute best to run some sort of an OPTION play every time. He said they went through a kick where they ran a bunch of the last formation I talked about. Remind you this was twenty years ago or so, so that the idea of running a crazy formation was way out there as far as how people planned for it. They put a center with two guards and a QB/FB. Then, they had trips each way, with two of them being on the L.O.S. HOWEVER, they would not throw the ball. They were just begging for teams to spread themselves out way too thin so that they could run a bastardized form of option against only a few players aligned over the center and two guards. He said that he just called their bluff and aligned almost an entire 4-4 against those few players with definitely not enough defenders to stop the wide "trips" each way. They didn't feel confident enough to throw the ball with any regularity, and definitely not with any efficiency, so they eventually just stopped doing it.
Anyway, just saying that you gotta make sure crazy actually takes advantage of everything that it is. They didn't, and it backfired against a team that called them out.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Dec 15, 2017 23:54:28 GMT -6
As hard as it is for coaches to say this, I think in the first year or two, unless you have some mandate about how many games you win, I think you should try to not worry about winning. Create some rules for what you think a perennially winning team would do, and go from there. This is, of course, if you are going into a program that has been losing recently. You've gotta "change the culture," as people say, and this doesn't happen while you are trying to win every game. For instance, if you're trying to win, you are going to play the guys who give you the best chance to win and you will inevitably be in a situation where you'll start to think that it's okay to let this and that go rather than really doing the things that you need to do to change how every kid who comes through your program behaves. When you do this, you are trying to win right this second rather than thinking about what you need to do to the program to win in 5 years or 8 years or 15 years. This is tough when you have an athletic director and overall administration as clueless as the ones I've come into contact with, but if you want to win in 5,6, and 7 years, I don't really think it matters whether you win today.
For example, a coach came into the our conference a few years ago, and I knew the first time we played them that they were going to be great inside a few years. They didn't win a game that first year, but I still could see where they were going in the right direction. Two years later, they were undefeated in the regular season and in the playoffs they lost a close game to the eventual state champion who happens to be a private school team who has like 80 boys in the entire school, 60 of which are division one athletes. A bit weird I'd say, haha. This coach had his guys running only a few plays in a system. At halftime, they didn't just wander off the field. They walked off 2X2 knowing that they were in the 15th row of players and their partner was Fred. They behaved in a certain way after a flag was on the field, rather than trying to talk to the officials (WHICH I HATE). They were terrible and everyone beat them. Just two years later, that structure led them to an undefeated regular season.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Dec 8, 2017 0:04:24 GMT -6
The best place to start is talking to these kids and creating a relationship. When I was at the end of my 8th grade year, I had no intentions on playing football. I had tried it before and I wasn't any good at it. However, the head coach and DC saw me one day and talked to me and convinced me that there was no crime in coming out and giving it a good effort and that if I decided I still didn't like it, there was no crime in figuring out that it wasn't for me. They never did anything special to get me to play, but they just talked to me and developed a relationship. Here I am almost twenty years later still coaching, haha.
That was a little different time than now, I will say. I may be wrong, but I honestly feel that a lot of the reason some kids don't go out for football is that in many circles it is seen as barbaric, and they don't want to be involved with that, etc. And there's a lot of people saying constantly that it is just so "HARD" to be on the football team--mostly people who would have no idea because they haven't been there.
I'm not a HC myself, but I feel it is important to develop a set of rules and consequences, and then as hard as it is you gotta be willing to live by them. Even if a kid is a great athlete, if he breaks this or that rule, you gotta be willing to suspend him or tell him to never come back. What I've been trying to tell my current HC is that if you are trying to change the culture, you can't worry so much about winning, as crazy as that seems to hear.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Nov 23, 2017 23:48:51 GMT -6
I wouldn't mind if 40 people had one to listen, but to actually be able to talk? I think that can't be more than 4- can it? 2 up top and 2 on the field? This is a GREAT point. I would like everyone to have one to listen. We have what I'd call a fairly large staff, so relaying stuff gets tough sometimes. There's times I won't hear the play and I can't watch what I need to very well because I'm trying to read guards to figure out what's being run, haha. Had an OC for a while that had what I thought was a great idea. He wore a double ear headset down on the field. He turned the volume all the way down so when people talked he didn't hear anything. But, when he said the play, everyone could hear it. Also, having the headset on kept people from trying to give him damn suggestions haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Nov 23, 2017 23:44:50 GMT -6
We have a 7 man set, got them before we were hired would have gotten hme 5 man not the crap-a-phone but I digress, small school small staff so everyone has them. 2 up and 5 down all same channel since we play both ways and coach both ways. Lucky that our guys know their role and who talks and who doesn't. The guys who don't need to talk usually leave their mics up until myself, hc, or other guy in box needs something from them. Gets crazy every now and then but a good shut the phuk up!!!! Usually clams it dow. Again we are fortunate that our HC wants input and asks for it but also that guys know when to talk and not to talk. Nice to have guys on the headsets too who we can give adjustments to and also everyone is in the loop and can contribute right away if something is needed, don't have to hunt guys down and all that. You make good points. I say you can have as many on headsets as you want as long as they allow for it. We all know guys who talk a bit more than they should on game night. As long as you can keep people talking when they are needed, instead of just eating up air time, then you can have a lot of guys on radio. Also, guys have to learn how to either take their set off or at very least turn the mic up if they are just talking to one other person about something that not everybody needs to hear. Seems like there's a fight every year when someone is telling an OL kid how to make a block and nobody else can communicate during this teaching session, haha. But this is just a problem with our set because you don't have to push a button to talk. But I think I'd go back to pushing a button, or get better with different channels, etc. the next time we buy headsets.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Nov 23, 2017 23:23:28 GMT -6
Send the helmets in to be reconditioned. I second this. In fact, I thought it was required that you send them in every year just to be checked out, etc., and they cleaned the stickers as part of the whole process. Maybe just our school requires it. Anyway, I want to say the cost is very reasonable considering what they do for you.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Nov 17, 2017 9:27:36 GMT -6
I've told this story before, but I'll tell it here just to show that I think it's important to note that parenting has drastically changed the number of excuses that are appropriate as reasons to miss a practice, and I totally believe that this has happened in the last 15 years. I wasn't that tough. My mom just gave me no choice in the matter.
When I was a senior, we actually had 2-a-days, where we practiced twice a day, six days a week, for two or sometimes three weeks, depending on how August 1 and the start date of school aligned that year. With about three days left in camp my senior, I was in a car accident at about 11 PM. (Just to be clear, not telling this story to sound cool, just wish there were more parents like my mother around today now that I'm coaching). By car accident, I mean that I rolled my truck, and I was ejected through the rolled-up window on driver's side and thrown between two large trees that were in someone's yard and nearly all the way across their 1 acre yard. I was bleeding to an extent most would call profusely. I remember crawling back towards my truck, which had stopped rolling upright on its wheels, thinking that I was hurt and needed to get into that truck and drive myself to get help. By the time I got near the truck, I was shaking pretty badly (from fear mixed with blood loss, I imagine) and the farmer and his daughter came out to check out the commotion. I recognized her because she was just a little older than me in school. I said hello to her by name. She nearly fainted, she told me later, because I was talking almost normally, while on all fours crawling through her lawn, but my entire face was covered in blood so that the words sprayed blood from my mouth, etc. as she figured out who I was. She gave me towels to clean my eyes, etc. and quickly the ambulance came. They worked on the bruises that I had internally while I kept telling them that I felt it was pretty important that they fix my left arm, just above the elbow, because it was, you know, cut to THE BONE!! haha. Anyway, between the local hospital and my transfer 90 minutes away, I received well over 100 stitches and staples all over the place, literally from head to toe. Mix that with the internal bruising they were worried so much about, and i was feeling pretty terrible when I was discharged the following afternoon from that hospital wearing scrubs because they cut my clothes off. I was on just enough of their drugs to be semi comfortable while talking a bit out of nowhere. Before arriving home, my mother made it a point to drive me by the school to make sure that I caught the second 2-a-day practice, walked out to the field, and talked to coaches about what new plays I might need to be learning while I was injured, and what I needed to do to be ready when cleared by doctors. Not saying that I was just that tough. But my mom's thoughts were that I better just say thanks for not being dead, and part of that was to go out and do everything I could almost as a way of saying thanks.
15 years later, I don't know of any parent that would bring their child out to a practice in that condition. Don't doubt that she loved me. But there were very few excuses that she would allow for missing a practice that I had signed on for, and that morning edition of the 2-a-day that I missed was the only one I missed from the 3rd week of my Freshman year until I graduated, for ANY reason. Seems too much like parents these days want to help their kids by telling them that they don't have to do this or that rather than telling them that they should do it because they made a commitment.
It's changed that fast, and it definitely IS NOT getting better as we speak.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 28, 2017 23:09:48 GMT -6
I'll say this. I hope I'm not judged for it, but it's where I'm at. I'm not a head coach, so all I can do is give opinions to the HC, so don't worry. This approach is not yet implemented anywhere. I don't worry if a kid curses in front of me. I just don't care. Maybe it's because I once heard the phrase, "When it's 4th and goal on the one, you take the milk drinkers, I'll take the whiskey drinkers," haha. Now, that being said, all players understand that if they curse AT me, there is a totally different story that leads to extra running that they will hate me for, and they learn this very soon in their career, and also learn that it will lead to turning in their pads and being done. Along with it, they understand that anything that would cause a penalty in a game, such as saying a curse word loud enough for an official to hear and penalize, will be punished similarly. The same goes for in the classroom, as far as I am concerned. Right or wrong, I can cuss a blue streak in front of friends, but I would never, ever, ever, ever say a bad word in front of my 86 year old, Southern-raised Granny. Learn to control yourself, it's pretty simple.
I always said that if I was head coach, I would demand that my players use Sir and Ma'am in class and in the community, because I honestly feel that this sort of action creates a lot more manners just by repetition. I'd have a list of other manners to provide, as well. Who wouldn't be supportive of a guy wearing a football t-shirt who opens a door at the gas station and waits 15 seconds for an old woman to get there, and let her in, before entering himself?
I grew up with some cousins, in South Mississippi, and my Uncle (who was their uncle by marriage) one time described why he liked them. He said that they might get in fights here and there and they might get busted at drinking parties, etc., but they NEVER miss a Sir or Ma'am and they call every elderly person Mr. or Mrs., etc. So a kid can say a curse word, and I won't personally act like it's the end of the world, but outside of football, he'd better be on his best behavior.
I think that's a very simple way to show kids that you are going to give them a little leeway while at the same time showing them that you are going to hold them accountable for what they do.
Beyond that, just make a rule and make it very clear to kids what the rule is. The vast majority of kids won't be mad at you for enforcing what you have told them 15 times is a violation. They will, however, toe that line if you allow them.
Just make your rules and live by them. Also, know that every coach has favorites. While I was a position coach, I had a kid named "Smith" that I really liked that was ALWAYS great when in my drills and during scrimmage when I was watching, for that matter. A coach who dealt with him in other drills said that he was disrespectful and that other players had claimed he was allowed to do anything he wanted and wouldn't be reprimanded. I told him not to threaten me with a good time, because I will definitely, equal opportunity, jump on him like any other player. I did that the very next day. He apologized and did the extra up-downs that I told him to do. Ten minutes later, we were joking around, and there was never a problem with this other coach again. He didn't start hating me because I punished him. He did it, learned his lesson, and started behaving in a way that I approve of. I don't know of a situation where that has not happened. It's just a fact.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 11, 2017 22:22:04 GMT -6
Anyone noticed sickness related absences getting crazy the last 10 years? I literally missed two practices in my high school career. And this is not something I tell to make people think that I'm a total bad ass, because that's not the case. It's actually just that my mom didn't care if I was on death's door, haha, my @$$ was going to school and I wasn't going to miss practice. That's how all my teammates parents were about 13 years ago. Yes. And it gets worse every year. I always have several students who, for whatever reason, just can't make a full week of school. Guaranteed that they will miss at least one day. Can't make a full week. I'm sure they will be very successful adults... My two years of varsity football, I didn't miss a single practice. Actually got hit by a car one day. Was walking down to the practice field from the locker room through the parking lot when another student backed her car up without looking and ran right into me. I went up and over the trunk and landed on the parking lot on the other side of the car. Fortunately was not hurt as I was wearing shoulder pads and practice pants. Anyway, a bunch of other players ran up to me and another went to get a coach. Coach wanted to call my mom and tell her what happened but I talked him out of it (this was 1991...no way a coach or teacher would do that today). I really wanted to go practice for a couple reasons. First, at the end of the season, the guys who didn't miss a practice got a cool "Ironman" t-shirt that was really prestigious. You couldn't miss a single practice for any reason at all. So, not a lot of guys got one. I made the Ironman club as a junior and I was damned if I was going to miss out on it as a senior because of some woman driver. The second reason was that I really wasn't that good. And if I missed practice, there was 2-3 guys just as good as me who would have taken my reps that day and there was a good chance I would never get my spot back. I think you nailed the issue we are having right now by saying that you had a bunch of guys behind you. I coach with a bunch of guys who played 10-12 years before me. That's the main reason they cite for being present at practice and for going so hard that coaches had to get onto them for going way too hard in drills that were supposed to be 3/4 speed. If they didn't show up every second doing things that made the coaches realize that they were playing for keeps, there's no way that they could have kept their jobs. For us right now, numbers are just so incredibly down. It's like -- starting OT, then varsity guy who can move from Center to OT, then freshman OT, haha. It's crazy.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 9, 2017 23:35:30 GMT -6
Thanks for the advice, all of it is appreciated and taken to heart. I don't think you can avoid getting out of balance this time of year, but I do think I can do a better job controlling how far it goes. Someone asked me about the 5 hours of sleep thing....I'm a small school coach who has to gameplan both offense and defense. I also teach 6 classes a day. If I get home at 7:30, I'm going to hang out with my wife and kids till they go to bed at 10:00. Then I usually take an hour just to do nothing, by myself. After that I start in on whatever has to be done for the next day (film, scout cards, script, wristbands, etc). I usually finish up and am asleep by 1:30. Last night I cut the wife and kids time a little shorter, didn't waste time just unwinding, and got to bed much earlier. Still have a small headache today, but I feel much better, much more rested. I'd go back to what someone said about delegating some of this stuff. I'm a DC now, but I spent a lot of years being the guy who punched the film and drew up the scout team plays for the defensive scrimmage, for instance. I'm a guy who knows that I'll have trouble delegating if I ever become a HC, but as such I already have planned that I will really get to know and, when necessary, flat out teach coaches what I want during the summer, so that during the season I can delegate some stuff that I know I'll have a hard time delegating, just to make sure that I keep my sanity. Also, I don't know your situation and what you run, etc., but I'd try to keep things like wristbands as simple as possible. Not saying this is your situation, but I've seen coaches who are paranoid about wristbands changing three time a week and having crazy signals to communicate what they want guys to look at on those wristbands. Call me stupid, but I've been a part of a lot of teams that just flashed with hands or by yelling, play 27, etc. and we didn't need to have big cards that that showed a picture of J-Lo opposite Mike Tyson to get some point across that 27 actually meant 72 because J-Lo was higher on the card. Don't think anybody noticed. At very least, I say have your cards be your verbage so that even if they had one of your wristbands, they wouldn't be able to figure it out. Don't want to say the guy was immoral, but one year I knew a DC who ended up with a wristband sheet from an opposing team. He said he spent the first quarter trying to figure {censored} out based on what they yelled from the opposing sideline, but he gave up on it quickly because it would take a heck of a lot more time to figure out what squiggle in the left column meant vs. squiggle in the right column, and apparently it meant something different to the team in question, so he just called his defense without trying to guess these code words and he was much better off as a result. I wouldn't want to look at this type of information myself, but I'm just saying that we tell our guys to create calls on their own to say what we are telling them do, amongst themselves, and I consistently have to ask them what their calls mean.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 9, 2017 23:10:27 GMT -6
I'm almost to the point of telling kids that they need to start drinking a lot of Beam and Coke. They get too sick to be ordered to go to school by their mothers like once a week, and I haven't been to a doctor in 15 years. Not saying it would be my best advice as a coach, but according to known evidence, it would at least stop the sickness problem.
Anyone noticed sickness related absences getting crazy the last 10 years? I literally missed two practices in my high school career. And this is not something I tell to make people think that I'm a total bad ass, because that's not the case. It's actually just that my mom didn't care if I was on death's door, haha, my @$$ was going to school and I wasn't going to miss practice. That's how all my teammates parents were about 13 years ago.
I missed only two practices that I remember. One of those was when I was a senior and it was during two-a-days. The first practice was at 3 pm - ish, and the second around 7 PM - ish. I made it to the second practice to show my face and watch what was going on, at least. I had rolled my truck at 11:30 PM the night before and flew out of the rolled up window. I had around 100 stitches and staples all over my body. I wound up in a girls's yard who was two years older than me and she freaked out upon finding me because I had so much blood rolling over my face that I couldn't see through it. I was actually thrown threw an opening between two trees that was only a few feet wide, so I must admit I had a little bit of euphoria going to help me move, thinking that God wanted me to live forever, having given me such good luck on the "toss." haha. I probably would have took the whole day off or more.
However, my mom forced me to stop by practice and talk to coaches and watch, wearing some nurse's scrubs that I stole because they had cut my clothes off, and I was still more than a little bit loopy from a concussion and like 12 hours of morphine drips and whatever pills I was given, and my mom made sure to run me by the school before going home to talk to coaches and see what new stuff was being introduced in practice that day. HAHA. And, like I say, I think most of the guys I played with had parents that would have done something very similar. Today, I don't know more than a couple kids on our team whose parents would demand or even suggest this type of commitment to something.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 9, 2017 22:47:20 GMT -6
It's not only players who make excuses. We had a coach have to leave a summer camp program after receiving a text message from his wife. The coach shared the message with us: "Come home now, I'm ovulating!" Nine months later he was a daddy. Hey, I'd give him a thumbs up on that one, haha. But I also had a HC one time that I absolutely despised. I have very good reasons that I could explain for about a week's worth of typing. Anyway, I resigned. Heard the next year they lost by like 60 one game. The next day at the typical Saturday morning coach's meeting, the DC (HC's really good friend) just couldn't be there to discuss the "water-through-sieve" defense. And the HC left after only one hour because he had to go be with his family because that was the day that they were going to adopt a dog.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 9, 2017 22:42:31 GMT -6
I've got a few. and I hate to be the downer of the bunch because I do have plenty of funny ones. But, the most heartbreaking excuse I ever heard was from a Freshman kid. We usually didn't dress Freshmen for varsity games, but because this kid had really worked hard and had been showing that he could do some stuff on special teams for us so that we could get a break for a couple guys who were playing thin varsity positions, he was going to dress and start on, I believe, kickoff and punt. He came to us Thursday and said that there was no way he could be at the game on Friday. We're thinking what the hell and expecting a lame ass excuse. Instead, he tells us that his mom has plans to go out partying with her friends, and he has to stay home to watch his younger brother and sister. I've said it many times, but it's crazy how often people don't realize that as coaches we have to be social workers. It's wild.
Obviously, I've got others like this like I'm sure all of you do.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Oct 9, 2017 22:28:04 GMT -6
For instance, we try to hand out our detailed defensive scouting and gameplan packets early in the week. We have notes for each position. LB's make sure to read this key and be this low taking on that block, and know this play comes toward motion and this one away and make sure to make contact waist high with so and so on this play, etc. Try to detail what guys should be doing against the other team's favorite offensive plays. Not gonna detail the way to step by step stop a play that they ran one time in three games for two yards. Then, I always tell the story that my former head coach told me. There's a lot to be said for mental visualization. He may have told all of us a totally {censored} story, but there is a story about a man who was stuck for (I believe) 7-ish years in a prison camp during Vietnam. So that he didn't go crazy, he spent hours and days on end playing golf IN HIS MIND at his favorite course near his home back in the U.S.
He would close his eyes, and see himself looking down, approaching the ball, setting his feet, doing his normal waggle and whatever else he did. He'd see himself swinging and keeping his arm straight and doing this and that and so on. He'd be realistic. Sometimes, he would slice the ball. To fix it, he had to know what to do to get the ball out of the rough but not get it so high as to hit the tree limb that was hanging out in his way since he was now off the fairway, etc. Can't remember exact numbers, but let's say when he left for the war, he was a 20 handicap, and he came back and played again, having never ACTUALLY played over the years and was a 5 handicap, or the improvement may have even been better than that. If you know the story, don't call me out on the details, haha. But because he had done it so many times in his brain, his body actually learned it. He made it real in his mind. He played the course in October and in May, all in his brain. He would stop and notice that apparently a drunk had messed up the tee box on hole 15. ETC ETC ETC ETC
As an LB, I used to do this to prepare for games because of this story. I'd sit and see a guard and tackle in front of me. They'd block down and out, making a hole for blast play in B gap. I'd come up fast, take on the lead back in the proper manner, and the result of the play would be XYZ. It really helped me, I truly believe.
So I try to get guys to watch film like this. Look at your assignments in the packet on various formations/plays. See this play happening, take on blocks like this, be this low, take this angle, etc. I don't know how many actually sit and do this, but whether it's real or not I actually believe in the power of visualizing things like this.
Anyway, it's way better to try to get a guy to do this than to just tell him to watch film and he ends up just watching a football game and sees what the DT did on such and such play rather than seeing how he could overcome a DE's mistake by doing this or that as an OLB. ETC.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 30, 2017 22:52:55 GMT -6
How do you develop strong chemistry with this personality. On my team, I have 3 very good players with this trait. In addition, they are very vocal. They are me first and finger pointers causing strife. Are there any team building exercises that could overcome this "condition." Only thing I've noticed that seems to help a bit is to have film sessions and make sure that you show these guys what they did wrong. You have to tell them in front of the whole team that they aren't perfect, etc. Now, I'm not a HC, but I'd jiust bench or cut these type of guys. Addition by subtraction. I can't stand that attitude of narcissism and I'd rather lose with guys who would die for the team than when with guys who only care about themselves. That is no sustainable, so I shouldn't get used to it year by year.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 30, 2017 22:47:54 GMT -6
69 is usually a popular number. Though ironically it's usually taken by a Chris Farley look-alike. Moved a guy from TE to OT this season. We were hoping that he'd have a good attitude about it. He was glad to help the team in any way possible. His first thought was, "Now that I have to change numbers, is #69 available" haha. He's doing a good job with it.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 30, 2017 0:13:01 GMT -6
How do you develop strong chemistry with this personality. On my team, I have 3 very good players with this trait. In addition, they are very vocal. They are me first and finger pointers causing strife. Are there any team building exercises that could overcome this "condition." This is my explanation, having never been a head coach. I know there are other ways to do it, but this is who I'd do it if I was HC. Are these guys perfect? I mean, they never mess up their assignments? We have guys do this, but then when I show them on film how they messed up such and such, it always recedes. I'd be hard on these finger pointers to make them know that they are not perfect. As an assistant I've always hated when players would try to get on other players. None of them are ever even CLOSE to perfect so how do they become so narcissistic that they think that they are in a position to call out these players? It's wild.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 24, 2017 0:50:26 GMT -6
Gentelmen, We are fortunate this year in that we are a loaded team. Even our back-ups are better than a lot of the the teams we play starters. Last week we were attempting to speed the end of the game and prevent injuries at the same time and even our JV kept scoring on basic trap plays. What strategies/tactics do you coaches employ to keep the score from becoming ridiculous Madden scores? Don't get me wrong we still wanna beat teams thoroughly but we don't want to embarrass them with an 80 point game and a 70 point spread. As usual, thanks ahead of time for your advice. I'll just say this is a great problem to have.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 24, 2017 0:48:34 GMT -6
We were up 35-7 going into the 4th. We went into overtime 35-35. We get d first. We stop them one the 1. We score on our first offensive play and avoid crisis. If we don't pull this out it would have taken the cake. But, The actual worst was up 23 going into 4th and losing on a field goal as time expired. As a player, I was up 21-0 at half and lost 22-21. JUST LAST WEEK, as a coach, we were up 20-0 at half, just flat out handling them in every scenario. We had to get a sack in 4th quarter to stop them from marching it down our throat yet again for the win. The only thing that saved us in the second half was that the stuff that they figured out to hurt us was on the ground and we made them get a few yards at a time so that the clock betrayed them.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 20, 2017 22:13:39 GMT -6
I think our crews have been pretty good this year. Not perfect, had one admit a mistake, but at least for the most part they are explaining their reason if we ask nicely. I can't stand the guy with a hard on to yell at you for asking, "can I ask the reason for x?". I understand the sideline warning rules, but some guys I think are pretty much looking to get a quota of giving it out once a game. This year though I feel like we have had at least guys we can talk to. Yeah we get fired up if something doesn't go our way, but we've been good at reacting on the sideline and then asking politely for an answer. We've been getting the answers and just taking them even if we don't fully agree. I probably just jinxed it and it will be terrible this week. I have no problem with a guy who will just flat out say that he missed something. It happens. I miss things as a coach. But don't tell me it didn't happen if I saw it, haha. As far as sideline warning and penalty rules, there's a couple instances with it that bother me. First, if the ball is on the 1 yd. line, perhaps, as an official, you should be looking at the play that's happening rather than looking back to the 30 yd. line to see if a coach is "over the line". Just saying.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 19, 2017 21:23:56 GMT -6
Last Friday, we had a crazy scenario play out. We were up by 30 (in the first half with a couple minutes left so don't say we were running the score up) and dominating, so my blood pressure stayed pretty low as I chose to be surprised by the officials' decision rather than angry. haha. Anyway, we ran a sprint out pass to the right. Our RT is supposed to hook the DE outside out him so our QB can get outside him and have a pass/run option. He didn't get a good reach on the DE and the DE fought it so that it got strung out straight down the L.O.S. wide for several yards. The QB threw the ball and we gained approximately 40 yards. At the end of the play, they tacked on 15 yards for a personal foul on the defense at the original L.O.S. area. At this point, up on the Press Box, I still didn't know what the actual action that caused the flag was, and they haven't told our coaching staff on the sideline. Doesn't matter since it is good for us.
Before the ball can be snapped, the opposing coach calls the official who threw the flag over to his sideline, talks to him, makes a motion like a head slap, and convinces him that the flag should go the other way. At this point, the officials get together and take all our yards away from us and go back to put the chains where they were when the play began -- they are 100 percent just guessing at this point because they already moved the chains, and we don't have video review to help us get them back in place. They're a couple yards off. Then they mark off 15 yards against this.
Our Head Coach isn't even screaming, just saying, "Sir, can you just explain to me what's going on so that I'm aware? This is a wild turn of events. etc. etc. " They motion, now, to the press box, 15 yards on us for a personal foul. Our coach once again gets past being angry and just tries to get them to tell him which one of our guys did it so that we can talk to him and tell him to be smart. Still nothing. I'm talking just crazy like they won't respond to him. He's ten yards out on the field as they're trying to start the next play. Nothing.
I watch it on film Saturday morning. Their DE, apparently tired of not being able to get off our OT's block, head slaps him. The official is staring directly at it, and throws a flag. Between then, and where our receiver was brought down, he apparently forgot what he had seen to the point that the opposing coach putting a little pressure on him to change the call was enough to make him change his mind 100% in the other direction.
Anyway, I know a guy who is involved in basketball. He says that same thing (poor officials) is happening there. Nobody wants to do it. He says once the older generation of guys who does it retires, we simply won't be able to find officials. Didn't know if anyone else was seeing this. This was a CRAZY situation. I mean I've seen my share of bad calls, but this whole scenario takes the cake.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 16, 2017 22:41:03 GMT -6
Not saying it is impossible, but to me it feels like that number is outrageous. As long as you aren't telling guys to go helmet to helmet on every play, I would say that your guys are a little too scared about anything that could be called "resembling" a concussion, but also, whoever is doing the official diagnosis, is making it a point to excessively cover their @$$, in my opinion. That number just doesn't seem mathematically possible or realistic unless you are hitting them with baseball bats across the head regularly throughout the week. That's just me.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 14, 2017 21:35:52 GMT -6
Our head coach and assistant head coach recently had a problem with a kid. Long story short, the kid's ankle was tweaked and, while he is cleared to go (just soreness), because of it, he's not quite able to do what he needs to do. As such, when we called for starting D-line, the D-line coach did not put him in there, even though he has been a starter all season. I was not there, but was told by the head coach that he noticed the kid was having a bad attitude so he talked to him after practice just to see what was going on, along with the assistant head coach. They said he was crying actual tears. They explained that it was not because they didn't think that he was a good player or that he wasn't working hard, but just because he was dinged up they weren't sure whether or not he'd be ready to go full speed on Friday so they needed to be ready for in case he wasn't. Still, he could not be consoled and be made to believe that we weren't benching him for the rest of his life because of whatever, and that we weren't punishing him arbitrarily just to be jerks. We've all had those kids who just always say that coaches aren't noticing them, even though we are, because they think they should be starting instead of so and so, but you would have thought that the explanation about the status of his ankle and an assurance that if he's able to play, he will, would be enough to squash any bad feelings.
Where does this come from? I mean, this is a kid who has had a good attitude and has been working hard, but now because he is injured and might have to play less because of an injury, it's like we have betrayed him and are just terrible people who woke up this day and decided to strip him of a future, regardless of the hard work that he has put in to this point. How do you coach players like this? We talk constantly about being team players and doing what's best for the team as a whole, etc.
I guess I'm just wondering how you get a guy out of the victim mentality? I understand that some of our guys have home lives that just suck! So how do you prove to a kid that you care about him? I once joked with a kid that I only coach for the money. He actually believed it!!!, and I had to explain to him that I make about 60 cents an hour, or whatever it is, haha.
Seems like the last few years we have kids who are all at once acting like they are a dog who has been beat too much, but also they have parents who tell them 20 times a day that they are the greatest thing ever and better than everybody. I don't know what creates kids like this. It's truly a weird mentality to try to work with. Don't know if anyone ever sees it. But it's like you try to correct something, and they want to start with excuses about stuff, etc. You have to tell them, in a normal voice, "Hey, I'm not mad or yelling, I'm just trying to help you out to do it better next time," and they still act like you just crawled in their helmet. But then if you try to tell them "great job" when they do something, they want to crawl in their own helmets and put themselves down because it wasn't absolutely perfect, and you have to stop them from beating themselves up.
Anyway, I'm just having a tough time figuring kids out the last couple years. I want to do a good job with them, but these days it seems more about being a good psychologist than about teaching fundamentals, etc. Just looking for opinions, or anybody that wants to vent, or whatever, haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 14, 2017 21:05:41 GMT -6
We walk the field before each game and just have a little meeting to talk to the team. Usually, the conversation is about how it's perfect weather for football (regardless of the weather, haha) and how it should be a fine night if we take care of our business. Come out disciplined and fired up from the start, etc. etc. Then we pray at the end of this. It is in "public" (not in the locker room), but there is nobody there except for maybe somebody preparing the concession stand, etc.
We have prayed a few times with other teams when they asked if our guys wanted to. Usually, these are private schools, and they just ask our guys if they want to and we let our guys decide if they want to go out there or not.
I don't have a problem with it. I think people should find better things to be offended by than the sight of someone praying. Now, I would never force a kid to be involved, that goes without saying.
Really, it all breaks down to the type of community you live in as to whether any of this will be a big deal or not. I am in a community where most everyone is of the same religion, race, etc. And those that aren't so homogeneous are not offended by these sorts of things, in and of themselves.
I will say, though, that I'm not really a fan of it being done in front of entire crowds at midfield, etc. because I don't want a prayer I'm involved in to be a spectacle.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 12, 2017 19:56:14 GMT -6
For our conference, the rule is that we do not trade any film to anyone out of the conference. Outside that, we've traded non-conference films with other teams and usually trade. They'll usually have some film that we're interested in.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Sept 11, 2017 21:20:04 GMT -6
With the kneeling and sitting happening all over professional sports it really has made me wonder what I would do if a player just decided to do one of these things during the anthem. I have always preached unity as a team (helmet under the left arm in a single file line). Has anyone had a player unexpectedly kneel? How did you handle it? How would you handle it? I'm just curious about other coaches opinion about their/the situation, not what I should do (to clarify). We are not typically on the field during the national anthem, but the way I've seen it from the first time that Kaepernich (SP?) kneeled was this. I don't mind someone making a statement, but there has to be a better way to do it than that, knowing that it would so terribly offend so many people. That's just my opinion. I would tell my guys to find a different way, but I guess a lot of it would have to do with the type of community you live in.
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