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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jul 6, 2017 20:54:18 GMT -6
Does anyone give the kids a day off during my the week in season? Currently we don't don't have kids do anything on weekends. We have film/lift on Monday for varsity and JV game Monday. Offense Tuesday, Defense Wednesday, Pre game Thursday and game Friday. I was thinking of doing film/lift Saturday morning and either giving them off Monday (varsity only) or Tuesday. Tuesday would give JV kids day to recover and varsity kids a day away from football to relax and do schoolwork. I'm not sure if I'm going to do this but wanted to see if anyone does anything like this. I would think it would be very hard to explain ANY loss if you tell kids not to show up on Tuesday (or any day). Right or wrong, it's just a fact in the community I'm in currently. Besides that, I never feel that we have enough practice time to prepare for a Friday opponent as it is, so I'd REALLY be scrambling with one less day. That being said, we play A LOT of two way players, so I'd assume that if you have a team that is all two platoon it would be a different story as far as whether you reach the point of diminishing return for the amount of reps you put into this or that. Just theorizing, never done it, haha. As for Saturday practices, I've seen it done a couple ways. When I was in school, we always had practice at (I believe) 8 AM on Saturday after games. The main thing was to get guys up and moving around at a normal time (like they were getting up for school in a normal week day) and get them moving around to start healing themselves from a tough game the night before. I always liked it. We did "fun" stuff, like linemen running pass routes etc, and it was all aimed at getting lactic acid worked out--I hope that's a real thing and I haven't just been lied to this whole time haha. Basically just a warm-up that got blood pumping, got guys who were stove up to stretch out, etc. Then we'd watch the previous night's game film and discuss mistakes, high points, etc. That way, when Monday came around, last week was GONE. All that mattered was the next opponent. I know that where I'm at the amount of guys who have jobs during season has changed quite a bit over the last 15 years. So, for a while, we went to not having practice Saturday so that it didn't interfere with guys who had jobs, etc. We've decided lately to go back to Saturday practices. My big thing is that if you are going to do Saturdays and the job thing is a problem at your school, tell the kids in January that they need to get jobs worked out so that they can be at the school a couple hours Saturday morning. There's no excuse for them missing if they have that sort of time to set up their work schedule, in my opinion (that being said, there are certain scenarios that COULD be excused in certain cases). It was nice to do it early Saturday for coaches, as well. This way, they got that practice and film study out of the way, and then they went through the film and game plan of the next week, and barring something strange happening, they were all able to have ALL of Sunday for family, church, etc. etc. If nothing else, Saturday practices keeps guys from being out all night getting in trouble since even though it is a light practice it would still SUCK if you were hungover and only had 3 hours of sleep haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jul 5, 2017 21:37:36 GMT -6
One team in our area went from maybe 1-9 in 2014 to 9-1 in the first ten games of 2016. They honestly didn't get that much better athletically, just MUCH MORE disciplined. (To be fair, I think the competition went down a bit, but not THAT bad). They went to option. And I think bigger than the fact that they went to option is that they run maybe 5 total run plays: Midline, inside veer, toss, belly/counter lead (same play, just one has counter action), and maybe a few times a counter trey. They paired a couple play action passes with this. And I think a rollout for 3rd and long situations. To me, it seems the way to go. Simplify. In their offense, each lineman does only a few different blocks based on the play. It's easy to get good at what you're doing when you are only doing a few different things and don't have to think a whole lot.
One thing I'll say is that I like the OL having a niche even if it means you can't run some of the stuff you'd like to. Think about a Wing-T, which on paper I think looks awesome. But your guards have to be able to trap inside, trap outside, rip to the second level, baseblock a DT (who may be quite a bit bigger since you are wanting the guard to be agile enough to pull so much), pull lead on buck sweep, etc. etc. In this triple option it's pretty much block the guy over you or take a good angle to the second level. Now, there are finer points to it, obviously, based on alignments, but each block can be condensed down to a very simple thing and can be repped a million times since there's only a few categories to work.
I also think the Option choice worked out because the defense wasn't the greatest thing in the world for them, but because they did what your typical option team does, they got some of the same reactions from opposing offenses. They hold the ball for a very long time and then put up points, so the opposing offense feels they have to press a bit more and as the game goes on every time they manage to get stop and then make a long drive for a score, the opposing offense gets more and more predictable, which obviously helps their defense.
Outside of that, I'd say the biggest thing is to be very good about how you use your best athletes. You've gotta get that right. And to do that, you have to decide what you want to do. So, I've seen it happen where a guy is saying "we're going to RUN THE BALL flat out!!" But then look at a player and think wow, he'd be a threat for people to worry about on pass at this or that position. Not saying if you're running the ball you don't want to have passing threats, but to me if I've made up my mind we are going to be good at running the ball, and we're going to spend the vast majority of our time being good at it, the guy that I think is a matchup problem or ANYBODY on their defense is going to be in the backfield and I'm going to be feeding him the ball. That's just my way of looking at it.
On defense, something I've grown accustomed to saying recently (stole it from someone, haha) is that we are going to do the easy things better than everyone else. My thought process is that a large number of the things that you have to do to be successful at doing your job on defense has nothing to do with how strong or fast or athletic you are. Think about it like this. I can't count how many times I've seen a DE get upfield when unblocked and get kicked out by a guard who didn't take a great angle for the kickout. If the guy had pinched hard inside and wrongarmed that guard, the ball would have been forced to bounce out to an unblocked defender. Doesn't matter what the two guys bench press or 40 times, if that DE had taken advantage of the fact that the guard hadn't taken a great angle to the kickout and put himself inside that guard, then things would have been much better for us.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jul 4, 2017 22:14:52 GMT -6
I think if I was a HC I would delegate AT LEAST one side. Just depends on the coaches I have on staff as to whether I'd delegate the other. To me, IDEAL would be that I'm HC and there is a separate DC/OC. That being said, I have an idea of what I want to run on both sides. For instance, on offense, I like triple option in many forms. I REALLY like it. However, I have a couple fears about going all out to be an OPTION TEAM. (Most guys know there are teams that run option and there are option teams.) I see some teams run it in a way that I like and others in a way that I don't (just saying, from defending it for years, I see ways that make me cringe as a Defensive guy and ways that make me glad as a Defensive guy, haha) so if the perspective OC can explain his plan for offense in a way that dispels some of my fears about 'option all the way' offenses, then he'll have a lot of leeway to do what he wants. Same for defense. If a DC can explain to me why his defense works and the ways that he can easily mold his defense to fit all the different things we see week to week in today's game, then he'll have a lot of leeway.
I just mean to say that before I delegate either side of the ball, I'd put the potential coordinator through a lot of conversation and interviewing.
I want to learn their O's and D's completely. And, since I will make sure that I understand them completely, maybe I'm wrong, but I'd have them understand that if I say run instead of pass on 3rd and inches or blitz instead of play 7 man coverage, that they will do what I say, because I WILL make sure that I take the blame if anyone asks questions if I'm wrong. I wouldn't want to be a dictator, but I'd also like to make sure that I can say that I had a place in either destroying or helping my place as a winning or losing coach, haha.
This would be a RARE scenario, because I don't want to overrule them, and I'd hope that I have talked with them enough that I'd understand why they'd run Power instead of Power pass at midfield in 3rd & inches without having to overrule it.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jul 3, 2017 20:32:52 GMT -6
Anybody have a good way to explain that even the greatest athlete in the universe can't get away with playing defense selfishly and still be successful as an individual or as a team on anything resembling a regular basis? In as few words as possible?
Where I'm at, there's been a few years of bad records so the win-loss ratio has started to cause a bit of selfishness, but we are lucky to actually have the players to be great this year and even better the next couple years, so I'm trying to teach guys to not be selfish rather than just telling them to go play offense haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 30, 2017 22:43:55 GMT -6
We do a senior line. It's been done since day 1 of the program over 40 years ago. At the end of the season, after it's over, directly after the last game, whether home or away, once we are back in the locker room, everyone on the team lines up in the locker room to talk with seniors. The seniors go out of the locker room into the adjacent gym. In there, head coach talks with them about how great it's been to have them on the team, hope that they have great lives going forward, that sort of stuff. Then these seniors come in and talk to every player who will be in the program next year and every coach. They have a chance to tell players whatever they want to tell them about well wishes and like make sure you don't waste this opportunity to play football, talk about favorite memories, etc. They talk to coaches, thank you, coaches say it's been a pleasure, what are your plans after high school, etc. Takes maybe a half hour.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 30, 2017 22:35:00 GMT -6
Any programs just do one lower level team? Pros? Cons? Conference we're in only Varsity and C-team--basically freshmen and sophomores and to get a junior to play on it you have to communicate with other coaches (generally guys who, to be frank, don't have much talent). I can't think of any pros of having only 2 teams instead of 3 teams. There are different cons depending on how you want to do it. We notice the problem is that we have almost enough to have 3 teams if we really stretch things, and we have to set up JV games outside the conference, but if one guy gets dinged up, then you run out of quarters for the kid to play who replaces him and have to figure out how you are going to get through a game with someone who's never actually played QB for instance. But then, really it means that we have too many on our "C-team" so we don't get as many reps for every kid as we'd like. So you are stuck with trying to stay competitive and playing the older guys on the team with more experience (so that kids don't get discouraged about losing) but still wanting to make sure that you get enough reps for freshmen that you keep them excited about football and learning like they should. And either way, with 6 ILB's in 2 ILB spots, it's hard to get enough reps to make everyone happy. This year we're really trying to have just a freshmen team (since we have a freshman class that is big enough for it) and then everyone else be on Varsity (pretty young Varsity team). We are thinking that it will help in the future because if you keep that whole freshmen class as sophomores with more experience you'll have a JV team next year full of suphomores already and start keeping numbers up higher through the program and get guys playing football as much as possible through their careers. What hurts us is like you have a sophomore kid who has to play varsity because there's an injury, let's say, and he's the best RB after the injury. He only plays RB as a sophomore because he's not quite there on being in the rotation on Varsity in his defensive spot. So he misses a year where he could have been doing quality reps at defense in games and a lot of times they don't catch up after that year of missing out on it.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 29, 2017 22:10:55 GMT -6
Always thought I'd do this if I became a head coach. My thinking is that it's just one less thing you have to teach. (I understand some kids can just kick with no teaching, but you get my point). However, I'll say that that percentage is over a long period and each game is different. A while back we had a kicker get hurt (in a non-football situation), and nobody else who could even in a practice situation put them through. We went only 2 pt. for the rest of the season. We went something like 16 for 20 in four games and then 1 for 4 in the next game.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 29, 2017 21:52:31 GMT -6
I guess I just have to ask when you say that the best athletes aren't buying in, do you mean that you've already started talking a lot about character and trying to teach them character and they still won't do it, or you are noticing as soon as you get there that the best athletes don't like to work? I mean to say, without throwing out an accusation, have you tried teaching character to the kids who aren't of high character yet? Just ask because the answer changes my feelings about how to deal with the situation.
I'd say what someone else said, you can win with high character kids, but they have to have talent. I will say that you can win more with a kid who has character versus one that doesn't if they are exactly the same type of athlete, especially in high school. So much of what makes you successful is being this low or at that angle or having your eyes here, etc. and I'm thinking a kid with good character would have the discipline and the team mindset to do his job to the best of his ability rather than being selfish and doing his own thing.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 29, 2017 21:37:49 GMT -6
I would say that in general I would be against this, but the big thing is to know your team. For instance, I was on a team when I was in high school that didn't do a lot of hitting in practice after the first few days. Still wore full pads but just did things to a wrap, etc. However, 99% of guys on that team were hitters and if you put them in a situation where they could go full speed and smack into their best friend, there was going to be a train wreck and who knows how it would turn out. Just that type of team. Coaches then kept us from hitting because they figured they'd save on unnecessary injuries and we'd be a bit blood thirsty come Friday haha.
Since I've started coaching, I've seen some like this, and also teams that just weren't sure about collisions. Those types of teams, I think, need more full contact stuff because it's the only way to teach them that any collision is never as bad as they make it up to be in their own minds. Right now, we've got some linebackers that I think will be a lot better once we are able to go full contact and take on some lead blockers rather than just "meeting" the blocker because they might get dinged a little bit but they'll figure out that it's not so bad.
Maybe I'm not keeping up with the times, but I just think there's certain areas of football that are violent when done correctly and you have to get used to them or else you'll be afraid of them. I mean you don't want injuries, but for teams that are susceptible to the bad habits of avoiding contact, the practices with plenty of contact are worth the risk.
Plus, it's been my experience that the best way to put yourself in a position to get hurt is to be going half speed or be too hesitant and tensed up when something is about to happen.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 29, 2017 21:19:39 GMT -6
Escape from Saigon/Baghdad is my personal favorite. Please explain this. As long as we're doing the same Escape from Baghdad, we also did it. you can make the area as big as you want. For the sake of explanation I'll say you have a total perimeter that is 10 yds by 5 yds. Cut it in half so that you have box A which is 5 yds by 5 yds and box B which is 5X5. You have teams of 3. 2 offensive blockers and a ball carrier and then three defensive players. Only one defensive player is involved in the drill at a time. Your offensive blockers are designated to just one area, so one is blocking in Box A and one is blocking only in Box B. The ball carrier can run back and forth between the two boxes. The defensive player starts outside the perimeter. You tell him he has 10 seconds, for instance, to get a wrap on the ball carrier (we quick whistle on ball carrier for fear of twisting knees etc, with all the mayhem this drill creates). on the first whistle the defensive player gets in the perimeter and goes for the ball carrier. in box A he can only be blocked by one blocker and in box b by the other blocker. He does whatever he needs to do to get off blocks etc and get to the ball carrier. Rules can include no low blocks, if defender is down you allow him to get to his feet, etc. Basically if defender gets to the ball carrier, that's 1 point for the defense, if he doesn't it's a point for the offense. We find it gets guys acting more aggressive. It's good for guys who try to "over-technicalize" some of their technique to the point that it cuts down on their aggression. I hope I helped. I could try to draw something up if I didn't help with this explanation.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 29, 2017 21:02:49 GMT -6
I wouldn't run any 7 on 7 without at least helmets. Maybe it's because I've never done it, but I just think missing teeth is a real issue. Also, seems like guys would be so timid without that helmet that they wouldn't really be a useful practice.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 29, 2017 20:52:57 GMT -6
we just go with a bunch of gatorade coolers and fill them up when we get to where we are going and use them to continue filling individual bottles as needed.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 29, 2017 20:49:55 GMT -6
I'll say some of these phrases can work even though they are those "worthless" phrases. I guess they could serve as attention getters, buzz words, etc. and their worth is based on the how the conversation goes afterward. Even though I also hate "block somebody", it's not terrible as long as the next thing the coach does is explain that when the guy you were aiming to block blitzes away the next place you should look to find a block is here or here, rather than standing around. Not really useful, but not a crime, I guess. Just devil's advocate.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 29, 2017 20:46:26 GMT -6
I'd add guys who say, "if you touch it, you catch it." Coached with a guy that said that for a while. Great coach, just such a grating phrase to hear. You jump to the max of your vertical and are only able to put the very tip of one finger on the ball, I'm not going to act like you had a chance of catching that.
Besides that, it's very unproductive. I have a hard time believing that any player on our team, no matter what I might say to myself at times, doesn't have the sense to know that he should generally catch things that are coming at him when he has the chance.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 28, 2017 22:45:47 GMT -6
From what I've experienced at my school, I can tell you that we have a guy who takes care of equipment like it is a mission from God. He's a guy who's son played at the program just over 20 years ago. The coaches helped and impacted his son in such a way that he was just volunteered his time since then so that he can be a part of the program and community. It's an AMAZING time saving deal. Go see Joe!! haha. need a mouth piece, or air in your helmet, or need a new chin strap, or have a torn up practice jersey? Go see Joe. He also does a GREAT job working with the student managers on the team. If there isn't water bottles in the places they need to be, coaches are like "hey, no big deal, we'll tell guys to run to where the water is." Joe tells the managers that they need to get their stuff together and make sure the boys have water, haha. I can't imagine not having him.
He gets free t-shirts, sweats/sweatshirts, coaching shirts, etc. etc. etc.. He's got the rights to do pretty much what he wants. You had better not be a player who he catches mistreating a helmet. Or any other equipment for that matter. his up-down total often exceeds what I give to players, haha.
And for coaches, don't you dare let him know that you are doing something from his job description. Don't dare size someone up for shoulder pads without him being there to size them and sign out those pads on the list. haha. We have a trouble getting filmers to film the Friday night games. He finds kids to do it. He teaches them what the end-product film should look like and how they accomplish that.
Doesn't know all that much about football other than winning and losing, but he just loves what he does and being around the kids and being a part of something that helped mold his son. Just a great guy to be around.
I guess what I'm saying is don't turn down great help.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 28, 2017 22:26:10 GMT -6
We talk a lot about developing schemes, players, etc. What are you go to points for developing coaches? Do great assistant coaches an innate ability to be great or can it be developed? Thoughts? I've thought about coaching coaches just like I would my players but then I figured they might just become clones of me (which might be a good thing!) I try to avoid the the good ol' "I don't like to be micro-managed", well then my thoughts are "Well what's the alternative then? You do whatever you want with no knowledge of what you're teaching?" I definitely think that assistant coaches can be developed. One of the coaches I respect most in the world is a guy who only played just a few games of high school football and appeared a few times in a Varsity game on special teams. This was because of injuries, etc. But he loved football. When He came to the school I met him at, he told the head coach that he just wanted to be a part of the team and he would coach whatever position he wanted him to coach but he just needed to be taught how DE's should play or LB's or WR's etc. He's now coached nearly every position at that school, and after 8 years in the program, because he was just a sponge for knowledge, he became the defensive coordinator and a few years after he became DC the school had a 4 year stretch where they were within the top 40 in the state (all classes) for points given up average for the season. On the other side, I once knew a guy who was the OC for a state championship football team, and then later in life he became the head coach of the volleyball team at the school when they had a hard time finding someone who wanted the job and led them to some great things. I once asked his son how he was able to know both. He said that he really didn't know volleyball, but he was just great at working with kids and he talked to as many people as possible about techniques, skills, etc. in volleyball, so it worked out.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 28, 2017 22:06:53 GMT -6
Wanted to get an idea of coaches' offices around the country. How big is your school? How big/nice is your coaches office? What rules do you have regarding the office for kids and/or coaches? We are one of the smallest schools in the state,but we got a new field house about 10 years ago. Our office is big enough for 7-8 coaches with our own desks, window into the weight room, huge whiteboard, fridge, hd projector for film, Directv, wifi with google chrome, and our own bathroom with a standup shower and coaches lockers. I think it is pretty nice for as small a school as we are.... Some basic rules: 1). Kids must knock before coming in to ask a question. If they do not knock, they get told to back outside and try again. 2). They do NOT hang out in there. Get your questions answered and bounce. 3). Put the food in the microwave to protect it from mice. We are surrounded by cornfields. 4). Spray after....close door from bathroom to office if you went nuclear. And the BIG ONE: Do not ask us for anything on game day! Usually a freshman loses his life week one because he needs a drawstring 30 minutes before kick off. Are you guys just flat dominating everyone even though that you are a small school? We can be 8-0 and still have trouble getting the damn lines painted on the practice fields, haha. We don't do that often, so I guess we need to always do it. I know some schools are great about it and some aren't. But hearing that you ALL have your own desks makes me a little sad that I don't even have my own chair if I'm the last guy into the coach's office haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 28, 2017 22:01:32 GMT -6
I have recently taken over a program that has a four day camp before the season. They go away and practice and bond as a team. There will be a total of 8 practices (1 practice-day1, 3 practices-day2, 3 practices-day3, 1 practice-day4). Looking for ideas that anyone may have on a schedule of practices, meetings, and free time. One thing I'll suggest because of a terrible experience with a head coach coming in to a program he didn't know (long story that ends with me cussing a lot) is that you need to learn the program you're coming into. I'll explain what I mean. The school I'm at is about 40 years old. And since it started, the job of head coach has just been passed down the line and kept "in the family." Only a few head coaches in the first 40 years. A new guy came in from out of the program a couple years ago and proceeded to change everything. I mean since the program has always been in the family, there are NUMEROUS traditions that kids are doing that their Dad's did when they play there. They love those traditions. They have heard about those traditions for years and have longed to be a part of those so that they can do what their Dad, uncle, etc. did before them. Anyway, I won't get into the long story about this guy, but kids first turned on him and then most other people, too. (it didn't help that he did not know football and wouldn't take any help from assistants -- I'll talk your ear off for a day with examples that prove that I'm not just being a jerk to him cause he was an outsider, haha.) So I'd say that you should try to put yourself into the program and find a way to make your stuff fit any traditions they have at least until you've been around and established yourself in the community/program/etc. There's not a ton of schools like this, so you might not really have anything to worry about in that department. Beyond that, I guess the question is what do you want to accomplish? Are you doing a brand new offense and/or defense? I'd work on introducing some of the new types of principles in those. Are you taking a team that is just totally down because they never win for years? I'd then put a lot of effort into doing things that are difficult but that they can accomplish through teamwork (don't know examples, just talking theory) to see if the attitude can be changed around. I guess I'd just really think of the biggest couple things that I want to accomplish and then put tons of effort into that. Also, obviously, I think you need to find ways to introduce yourself in your coaching style and also just in explaining yourself to kids.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 28, 2017 0:19:32 GMT -6
I think you are onto something about kids being as tough now as they were years ago. And I aplogize to everyone in advance that I'm probably going to make this a long post. haha
I may think about it differently than you are while you say it, though. When I think of it, I think that kids today have every single capability that kids did 15 years ago to soldier through a good screaming, ripping from an authority figure. BUUUUUTTT. Increasingly, every single day, month, year, they are being told more and more that they should never have to deal with such a thing happening to them. As such, they never learn to react in the correct manner to being told that they have done wrong and they never learn how to use TOUGHNESS for anything. This may just be my area of the country, so forgive me if I'm way off for anybody else's area. And when I say toughness, I don't mean a kid's ability to stand tough through constant berating from a parent OR ANYONE, because I'm NOT in any way saying that that is okay. I don't know why I remember this, but once, I was about 12 years old, and I made a smart-@$$ remark to a teacher when I shouldn't have. My mom was NOT worried AT ALL about my explanation of the story. She actually took off work early the day after I told her of this punishment and came to the school and grabbed me from my path towards my bus and took me inside to find the teacher I had offended and told the teacher that this WOULD NOT happen again, forced me to apologize, and was actually in tears as we left because her son had done something so disrespectful.
She could have taken my side. She didn't. haha. Instead, she let me know that I still wasn't too old to worry about my dad getting home and the whipping that would ensue. haha.
She let me know very quickly that that was not accepted.
In fact, when I got old enough to play at my high school (about 15 years ago), she had heard the stories of the coach who started the program back in the 70's grabbing players by the facemask and twisting it around so much that he was screaming at their face while ALSO screaming through their earhole, and her advice when I was heading off for the first day of practice (with a different coach since he had retired already at that point) was that if I had done something bad enough and so many times in a row to make a coach reprimand me in that way, I OUGHT NOT behave in that manner anymore if I didn't want the same thing to happen to me.
A few years ago, I was finishing my degree with my semester of student teaching. I gave a girl a "demerit." It was a very simple thing. It just meant she couldn't be a part of the fun day at the end of the 9 weeks and would instead sit in a "study hall" situation as her punishment. She was furious. I soon found out that her mother was furious, too. I was at the parent/teacher conference and that mother told my supervising teacher that everything would be great for her daughter if I would stop picking on her. I thought at this point I had the upper hand. I told her mother exactly the way that she had acted disrespectfully to me (an authority figure) and I said that I had told her I was 25 years old at the time (not 13, like this girl) and would STILL not talk to an authority figure in that manner. I thought the mother would, at that point, after hearing MY explanation of the events, be on my side and say that her daughter had told her a lie about how the whole thing went down. I WAS WRONG haha. She still was on her daughter's side.
I recently was at a summer practice to prepare for the next football season. Let's say we had 40 kids at the practice. In our state, we are only allowed to have a few practices that involve thud hitting. I had approximately 12-15 kids who were LB's to fill the three LB spots in our scrimmage at the end of practice. This is June and practice starts in August in our state and we won't make decisions about starters until at least August 15. I call all LB's to me, they form a group, I tell three of them randomly to play LB and the rest to get mixed in on offense so we can try to get a "best on best" situation for the scrimmage. IMMEDIATELY, there's a kid that gets pulled into play guard on offense and starts doing every body signal possible to tell me that he's unhappy that he isn't playing LB first, in front of every other LB candidate, ASAP. Because it is supposed to be a "DEFENSIVE" scrimmage, all he has to do at guard is look at a paper being held up in front of him to know which defensive player he's supposed to block, for the offensive play to be run properly. He has choices. He could decide that he would perform so well on offense that I have no choice but see how well he is doing his assignments on offense and then decide to put him in the starting rotation on defense since he acts like a guy who will do his assignment no matter what it takes.
Instead, he waits until we are about 3 plays into scrimmage to see me and say, "Hey Brown, am I gonna play Linebacker today or what?" in exactly as snotty an attitude as you can imagine. I have been making it a point to not snap until August--kids are learning a new program with a new head coach (recently hired), but I want desperately to snap at this terribly inappropriate situation and use it to explain that selfishness on defense drives me to the point of choking people. I'm quite certain that I'll be called in to explain myself in the near future.
So, to get back to the original post, I have found that you can act the same way you did many years ago, but now you have to worry about whether some parent, who doesn't love their child enough to teach them basic manners, will try to go to a school board meeting and act like you are a NAZI just because you punished her son/daughter in the most miniscule way possible.
Now we have an age group of kids who are unable to realize what it means to be a TEAM player and they try to do other things to make it seem like they understand the situation fully!!!
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 25, 2017 1:33:24 GMT -6
For a while I got really furious going to clinics. It was like three clinics in a row I saw some guy drawing an offense, and he was talking about an outside play to the right as he drew it, and as he drew I just realized he wasn't in anyway getting the numbers he needed to run that play.
Then they explained to me how the play worked. The TB ran some ridiculous 40 yd time. So he said we just do this, and "SPEED KILLS, and scribbled a RB route towards the right of the diagram."
Oh Yah? You think I need to pay you to understand if I have a freak of nature kid on my team, all I need to do is go "Billy to the right, billy to the left?" haha I mean if I'm running any offense, I can figure out how to use a 4.4 40 kid to our advantage.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 25, 2017 1:26:19 GMT -6
Best we ever had was about 6-8 years ago, we had a school board member whose best friend's son played on our team. Played QB. Threw a good ball. And if you stayed in his ear constantly, could do alright. Dumb as sin, but the best we had. We ran the ball a lot. Had a pretty good record. Not amazing but not terrible. This school board member came out and watched a couple practices. I guess he didn't think about the fact that he doesn't know anything about football anyway, so watching a practice really won't give him any ammunition since he has no clue what's going on. haha.
Anyway, at one point, he asked our head coach why we pass so much at 7 on 7 tournaments but won't pass during a game. Our head coach, who I think must have 40 million dollars in an account somewhere because he just does not care, said something like no phukkin chit man, they FORCE us to pass the ball in those tournaments since there aren't D-linemen. Beyond that, your friend's son is so damn dumb that we tell him to take three steps and throw it to the #1 WR hitch route to the right or OUT OF BOUNDS if that is covered and he'll throw a pick to the fade route over to the left. Something to that effect. Anyway, it made him shut up. I felt it was a very bold move, but you can't argue with results haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 25, 2017 1:13:36 GMT -6
In my head, lots of expletives. Then, in my head, I say, it's only June, I can't snap every time I see these kids from now to August. That's not helpful. Also in my head, I'd love to challenge this kid "BOBBY" here to a fist fight anyway. HAHA.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 25, 2017 0:59:18 GMT -6
The way I see it, I don't think I'd be too starstruck. If they are the type of guy who wants to treat me like I'm stupid when they explain something to me that they think is obvious since they've done nothing but football for 30 years and I've never learned about yet because I haven't needed to, then heck with them. And, maybe I'm just not as thankful of things as I should be, but someone being willing to talk to me a few hours ain't the same as giving me a kidney. Their time ain't that damn precious, haha This IS NOT TO SAY that I don't appreciate it, because I do appreciate any help. And I do respect the accomplishments that coaches attain, because there are guys that can change a program just because of how they coach. Definitely. But I ain't gonna bow before someone just to talk football with me. I love talking football. So if someone who knew less or different stuff than me wanted to meet up, I'd love it. But I wouldn't expect a pee-wee coach who has never coached to offer to do this or that for me since I talked with them about basic offense/defense.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 25, 2017 0:47:57 GMT -6
Those of you that run 9-12 Varsity programs what do you guys do for your 9th graders to get game experience? Just want to make sure. Are you saying that you have just one team so that your varsity team is the only team and includes all 9-12 grades??
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 25, 2017 0:37:58 GMT -6
We've varied the routine a bit over the years. I guess the time between school being out and the time we started doing things has changed. Over the years, we've ranged from saying Hey, do what you want after school, but be here at 4:45 and we've also done like Meet in the locker room at 3:45, we'll feed you, then we'll do a walk through/watch film, and so on.
It just depends on the team. How focused are they on their own without coaches forcing it on them? Do they benefit from watching tons of film, or do they just have instincts and watching too much film makes them think too much? Do they need the confidence boost of reviewing in a walk through so they are sure what they need to do? Etc.
The way I describe our decision on what we do is kinda like our decision of how much full contact hitting to do during a week in practice. There are periods where we do very little hitting and periods where we do a bunch of it. About then years ago, there was a few years where 99% of guys on the team just genuinely loved violent collisions. Guys who were best friends would hit each other head on a hundred miles an hour if we allowed it. We tended to have practice that involved much less contact because we didn't want anyone killed and we wanted them to be yearning for that type of violence on Friday night. Recently, we had a couple years where kids weren't that type, so we put a lot more contact into practices and risked it because we had to teach these guys that the types of collisions you get into in a game aren't THAT bad. Even being lit up ain't as bad as it looks after about four seconds.
Beyond these types of decisions, we have done the same stuff for many years and always want to allow us to go into the locker room, talk for a second as coaches, let coordinators give last guidance to kids, someone do a fire-up speech, and head outside, that sort of stuff.
Pregame, we like to hit the field with QB's (and enough receivers to warm them up) a little over an hour before the game and then ten minutes or so later specialists come out. Kickers, snappers, punters, returners, etc. Then linemen come out. When these happens, we come together as a team and do a full calisthenics routine. Then we do position drills real quick for O and then D (just a few minutes to remember what it's like to move in that position, haha). Then team Offense playtiming and Defense against a scout team to remind guys of favorite plays and so on. We may discuss with our team, "remember when we see this formation we'll do this adjustment", but we won't do it in pregame to give it away. Then we go back to the locker room.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 23, 2017 23:35:53 GMT -6
We have over the years done a character development teaching our guys what it is to be a MAN. We know ahead of time that we can't just say DAD, because many of our guys have fathers who are {censored} and are involved. And mothers who are the same, for that matter. We didn't start it out as a way to teach guys who didn't have good dads, but instead to say it like if you are a great teammate (do everything you can to help the team, work hard when you aren't forced to, do things to uplift your teammates, take responsibility for the assignments you have in your position, treat people this way), then you are well on your way to learning what it is to be a great MAN, FATHER, HUSBAND, etc.
Through the process, we introduced many examples of great MEN, including some guys who would bring in dads, uncles, grandfathers, coaches, etc.
I'll say to mix this in with specifically how to treat women, as you mentioned, I've always been someone who would institute a few rules and teaching time if I became head coach. First of all, I had a mother raised in the south, so manners were always a huge thing. I'm plenty old enough to be called a grown ass man, and even though I always grew up in the North (where most people didn't need or even specifically told me they didn't want sir, ma'am, etc), my mother/Mama would smack me if I was to forget some of these manners for a second. I'd demand players to call coaches sir, and teachers, lunch ladies, custodians, etc. ma'am/sir, flat out. Beyond that, I'm a firm believer in other "procedural" manners. I'm sure it's just my upbringing, but I can't stand to say "Bless you" to someone who sneezes and not hear a "Thank you" and I can't stand to sneeze and not hear a "Bless you." I can't stand to walk into a business and the person in front of me not hold the door. I'll say that once I got old enough to date, I was different from every guy in my class on dates because my Mom taught me that my date never opens a door (building or car), I pull her chair out for her, I stand when she stands up from the table, when I met a date's parents they were Mr. and Mrs. Smith (or whatever last name), and beyond that, I'm plenty old enough to be called a "grown ass man" but my Mom would still jump on me if I forgot any manners to women or elders and because I'm not married I would not show up to my mom's house with a woman and expect to stay with her in the same bedroom and I DEFINITELY would not expect to do it at my Granny's house HAHAHA.
I'll also say that with this I don't mean that a football player can't be tough, for purposes of how I want football players to behave. By this, I mean that I have, especially, a few cousins who have been to county jail a few times but the cop that takes them there is SIR. I once had an uncle explain one of my cousins to me-- said "he may get in fights and do this or that, but he don't miss a ma'am or sir."
Don't want to tell this to kids at my high school, but fact is sometimes the most manly thing that can be done is to say "let's fight it out". So, right now, I know of a player who has a tendency to try to "bully" other players, and right or wrong I'm just waiting to celebrate the guy that gets in his face, tells him to piss off, and lets him know that he ain't going to be punked out by any intimidation. It will be good for both of them to figure out where they stand and both of them work at it from there.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 23, 2017 22:25:32 GMT -6
We have a pretty small office. Let's say 10X12 to be generous. Then off of it there's a bathroom, locker, shower area that is slightly bigger.
We enforce the knock rule. My preference is to keep the door locked so that kids on the outside can't lock it even if they try because I get tired of telling them to knock on the damn door. Seriously, are we moving so far in society that parents don't teach their kids to knock these days? Drives me nuts (goes with kids wanting to talk to me like we're friends--I think it's cause kids are involved in adult conversations to much--when I was a kid, when the grown folks were talking, I was told to get away and do something else.)
ANYWAY... haha
We don't necessarily have a rule on food protection for varmints, but I'd say we're going to give you {censored} if you decide to leave food around that will begin to smell terrible. It happens.
What we're shooting towards is starting to win enough that we can do what we heard (with lots of evidence) a very quality team in the area used to do when their legendary coach was still there----- they had a vending machine in coach's office, and one of the blank buttons at the bottom was actually (didn't say Dr. Pepper or Coca Cola) was actually a cold beer. And nobody said anything about it, even though most anybody that has anything to football in our area knows that it happened. This is the same school that as of 2012 (last time I was there watching a playoff game) still allowed smoking in the stands. HAHA. I mean, officially, there were signs prohibiting it, but LOTS did it anyway, haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 22, 2017 22:19:11 GMT -6
eating a lemon... just in general... serial killer only a psycho would do that that kid has bodies buried in his backyard I'm with you there. Eating a lemon on a bet--cool. Eating a lemon just for the hell of it when you have everything to lose for it--you don't have feelings and are a sociopath. Criminal Minds is going to have an episode on you.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 22, 2017 22:15:09 GMT -6
Found out yesterday that one of our players used to eat in the huddle during games. I don't mean that he used to sneak a Snickers on the bench, either. He used to tuck a lemon into his shoulder pads, peel it in the huddle, and eat it. Sometimes he didn't even peel it. This was the kid who quit on the day of our last game. Presumably, he was angry because, after he missed two practices because (I'm not making this up) he was acting as a costumed character at a haunted house, we benched him. That reminded me of a kid we had a few years ago. After he graduated we found out that he used to listen to music on the field during games. He'd taped an MP3 player under his thigh pads, ran wires up though his pads, and had ear buds in during games. So, does anybody have stories about kids who were particularly unusual? I thought I had some stories that were worth telling, but I have none like this!! hAHAHAHAHHA. now mine seem unimportant. hahahahaha. I'll only say that I understand running wires. When I was playing in high school we had a kid who always dreamed of being a film director. He made awesome highlight films for our team. One day he wanted to mic me up just to hear the vulgarity that came out of my mouth throughout a game. tried to do it while we were playing a team we beat by 50 every year for like 15 years. Coach didn't find it funny haha. Had quite a bit of extra conditioning to do in practice the next week. Until he died last year, I still told him that it would have been awesome to hear what I had to say while on the way to make a tackle, haha.
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Post by tippecanoe41 on Jun 13, 2017 21:33:27 GMT -6
We have always used pride stickers. I can't say why it started. I do have an opinion why we continue to use them. I'd say as coaches, the tendency is that when we watch a play on film, for instance, we want to correct the bad things, and we sometimes forget to praise the good things. I'm not saying that every coach is this way, but I'll admit that sometimes I come to the realization that I need to be better in this area. We do pride stickers based on basic things-- you make an interception, you pick up a fumble, you score a TD, etc. But we also have pride stickers that our coaches give on discretion, and it really seems to make sure that our coaches look for plays that they really love that are done by players specifically in their position. So, for instance, a coach may give a pride sticker for a guy who took on a block, kept fighting it, worked hard, and forced the RB to hesitate so that a tackle was made at 1 yd instead of 8 yds. (which it would have been if he had given up). The kid doesn't get a tackle, but his effort is as much or more important than the effort of the player making the tackle.
Also, it gives coaches an opportunity to spotlight things that are great for players to do that won't show up in newspaper articles. For instance, I once heard of a kid getting a sticker in front of all his teammates with the explanation spelled out. He dislocated his finger on some play. he came out of the game for the trainer to get it back in place. Within a few plays and a little tape, he was back in the game and made a big tackle. The coach felt that was worth an extra sticker to show that toughness is respected.
If nothing else, it made that kid feel good for a while.
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