Coach vs. Fan

Coaching IMO has less to do with knowledge and more to do with inter personal skills - specifically working with young men. And this bears out at ALL levels from youth to NFL. I have seen too many coaches who don't have a clue about working with, teaching and preparing young men for the next level (academics, life skills, relationship skills, team work, ethics etc.) I am not saying we are the end all moral life teachers, but our job has far more to do with football.

Work ethic. Are you willing to put in the hours? Many fans don't realize that coaching doesn't just involve showing up for practice and games. There are many hours of meetings, scouting, and practice planning involved.

That includes the off-season.

Lochness, you made me spit my liquid libation my keyboard, that is funny. You are right, avoid that kind of jerk at all costs.
I actually have had some good experiences with bringing in coaches, just not like you've said though.
We don't' talk like that 'cause we're southern down here y'all

Phantom,
You are so right about the time factor.
Fans like to show up in Sept. at the games and discuss what they just saw with their favorite college or NFL team

The amount of time that is takes to put a product on the field would surprises them.
I've taken several guys over the years that loved football but for a number of reasons were not allowed to play the game.
I've seen these guys become very good coaches because of the love of the game and they would put in the hours to LEARN the game.

Every man that I've taken in to become a coach has been surprised at how difficult and complicated the game actually is.
It doesn't look so detailed from a distance.
The pros make it look easy, which is why they are pros.

Do you know that the worst coaches I've ever been around were very good players. The absolutely worst coaches I've ever had on staff were players who played at a high level. I've never been able to get them to coach worth anything at all.
I have used them to tell stories, but that's about it.

OK,
what makes a good coach from a non player or old player?
Good personality with kids, emotional stability, intelligence, character and availability.

We could talk for days on each of these areas.

I currently have a young man whom we started with in the Spring.
He always wanted to coach, loves the game, but just never knew how to get involved. He also was a young man who was not allowed to play football by his mother (I've met 100's of these guys) because...cue the music...she didn't want him to get hurt.
How many of use have heard that one.

It is too early to tell how good a coach he will become, but he has all the intangibles that you need.
Great with kids as a teacher, time-because he is young,
intelligence-being a science teacher, emotional stability, and character-as a local youth minister.

Because of his physical size, we made him assistant Offensive Line coach and I put him with my brightest and toughest coach who has a knack for mentoring.

I thought the young man was going to hyperventilate at the Spring game, as it was a "dream come true" for him.

I also think that it is important for guys to start at the bottom.
I know I did as an assistant JV defensive back coach back when the ball was round.

OJW

Joe - if you have one of those fans who DOES understand the time commitment, try to give them Specific duties that fall within their skill set. I've recruited a couple of dads/teachers/fans over the years and once we get them organized they do a pretty good job. It's certainly not for everyone though, let them know up front what their duties are and then help them so they can help you!

Close, I was a player who thought I knew more than my coach

I was wrong at the time, but at least it got me into coaching, and now I can admit I was wrong!


My Dad would have been the best coach, "Football is simple...run the ball twice than throw the bomb".

Joe,

Background - I work with a middle school and have been there for ten years. We rely heavily on volunteer coaches to help round out our coaching staff, other wise it is just me and the head coach. The head coach actually gives me the leeway to do whatever I feel is necessary for the good of the team since he has been a coach for a little over two years himself. We have three volunteers this year, one last year, none the year before, and two six years prior. This years staff is all new. One guy was a star in high school, one played offensive line but was not a standout, and the other just played his freshman year.

Pros - These guys are excited about the opportunity. They are extra hands and eyes during practices and games. Most will lose any ego after the first day of practice, as soon as they see that they don't know everything. The latter makes them want to learn. They can champion the cause of the other coaches within the community.

Cons - It has been our experience that you have to realize that most are not as committed as you. They have a job that does not let them be as focused on football as a teacher/coach. We have also seen their wives make them choose between them and football. These women did not marry a football coach and did not want to deal with the committment of time from August to November. Football knowledge can be somewhat limited.

Point - Most will make good coaches if you give them the support they need. Start with old game film then let them borrow books and DVDs that cover the fundamentals. Let them see how different fundamentals are taught from these sources then give them a manual explaining or teach them what you want them to teach. Don't get into anymore scheme than absolutely necessary with a first year volunteer coach. This is where their opinion about how if we were a shotgun, no huddle offense who threw every down how we would win every game.

Story - This year we have a coach that is helping us for the first time (Lineman from background). First day of practice in shorts and t-shirts, I give the coach a copy of the practice plan, explain it to him, and I had already given him a manual with all the drills in it. When we get to our routine period I notice the coach drilling the line with the 10" blocking board with a pad at the end. The plan called for him to practice stance first and then first steps for a on, fire, reach, and pull block. I did not say anything right there (did not want to diminish his status) but the next day I told him that I needed him to follow the plan. After practice he kept asking players which drill they preferred stance and birddog or blocking on the board. This has created a situation that I will have to deal with. Of couse the players preferred his drill and he now thinks that I am not pushing them hard or fast enough. I told him that they needed to be perfect in routine period with those few drills "We are going to crawl before we run" and that period was reserved for only those drills even on the last day of practice. This is not to say that he won't work out but I now know that I will need to spend more time explaining rationale with him. To help him understand I gave him material by Dennis Creehan and some line drill DVDs.

The story is not meant to discourage you but merely illustrate some of the pitfalls that may occur even with a guy who will make a good coach.

What are your guys' opinion on volunteer coaches? Do you hold them to the same expectation as paid guys as far as attendance and hours? Where is the line drawn? Thanks

From a non-coach point of view, one who has an interest in getting in to coaching, I think I could tell you what I'd have to be taught. Or at least some of it. BASICS. Forget schemes. Basics. I haven't played the game in over 25 years. I played OL, DL, and LB for a HS coach that had a philosophy of run 3 plays, punt and play defense. Our offense was an I Option game. The staples were Triple option left and right, crossbucks, FB bellies, and HB leads. TE dump passes, and some hitches and outs. Base D was stack 44. He still runs pretty much the same offense, though he's learned to play more with what he has and will throw more now, and uses more modern defenses. He's the winningest active coach in AL, in the largest division. In 1980 he won the AL 4A state title with with an all white squad and only one Div 1 prospect. His main rival is Hoover HS. When I played we couldnt use our hands to block, and we were in 4 point stances on the O and D line. Cardinal rule on DL was don't get reached. LBs read the FB or Guards and scraped off the DTs butt, and dropped in their curl or flat zones on pass reads. I don't have a clue what the Off or Def skill players did.

Bottom line, I don't have a clue about the latest individual player techniques at any position. I've read scads of books or articles about offensive and defensive schemes, but that doesn't mean I could call plays. I have a pretty good basic understaning of the 4-3 under and over, and the front 7's responsibilities...but I don't know what individual techniques they use to maintain their gap responsibilities or defeat blocks. I can recognize certinan secondary coverages, but woudn't have a clue how to coach a DB in his job.

A guy that played RB on my HS state champ 1980 team played at Furman. He graduated HS with me in '83. He became a lawyer, but hated it, and decided to coach. He worked his way up in a firm to partner, and lived like a 1st year associate until he retired early at age 40 a couple of years back to go back to school and get his teaching certificate so he can coach. Every friday night for the last 10 years or so while he was a lawyer by day he was in our alma mater's press box charting the other team's offensive plays for our DC. Soon the old HC will retire, and the DC is in line for the HC job...he's been on that staff with him since the state championship game in 1980. My buddy is due to take the DC job. That's a lot of dues to pay. And that school is blessed with resourses that they aren't begging for coaches, coaches are begging them. Still...coaching aint like watching or playing. Make sure you don't overwhelm a new "wanna be" that has some potential if you think he's out there for the right reasons.

A little more from my perspective. If I were to get on a pee wee team as a coach...I think the HC could tell me what he wanted and I could ad lib it from there, but hopefully under his experienced and watchful eye, and at a position I couldn't screw up too badly. If I were to start fresh, no experience, at the middle school level, I'd hope to be in a place where I could contribute, but not be directly coaching the kids but instead close enough to watch the seasoned coaches. If you got a fan/wanna be coach, I'd ease him in to having direct contact with the kids in so far as coaching techniques. If I had to go in green at any level as a position coach...I'd hope to have a good deal of time with the HC to know what he expected me to be coaching. And hopefully some drills film to study or at least reading materials to study too.

I think in working with kids, you have to feel your way through the interpersonal stuff, and find what works for you, and hone it through trial and error. And, not everybody is cut out for it.

I should clarify...by ad libbing I mean acting like I know what the hell I'm doing. Not ad libbing techniques. Yes, your points are what I was trying to say. I'd want to know EXACTLY what the coach wanted accomplished in the drill, and the 2 or 3 most important things to focus on, and what to let go.

joe--just an interesting aside...coaches tend to become less "fan-like" in the respective levels they coach. When I was coaching college ball, being on the inside REALLY took away all of the pageantry and excitement of the game. It was just a job...a grind...like an accountant sees a huge global corporation as a collection of transactions, or a doctor sees the wonders of human body as simply connected tissues and organs. You lose the appreciation of the very thing you do.

Also, because of the career paths of many coaches, the "fan" disappears because they work for/with several different organizations. For example, being down here in bayou country, I am "supposed" to be all excited by LSU football. Actually, I could care less, i do not receive a pay check from them, so I really don't care how they do.

I find that the longer that I'm in this business the less of a fan I become, especially at live games. I prefer to watch games alone at home on TV. There I feel more free to jump up and down and yell at the TV.

At live games I feel more than like a coach and I find that I can't think like a fan. "Ta-da-da-ta-da-da" "Umm, yeah. Charge. Whatever. What's the down and distance?".

At the last few college games I've attended, while everybody else was tailgating, I was watching video on my laptop. The concept of eating, drinking, throwing frisbees, and such is completely foreign to me. I really don't know how to do it.

Far too many people think that coaching is all about scheme knowledge.... COACHING IS TEACHING; and there's no way around it.

You can draw up a Tampa Bay Cover 2 with "Mike going down the pipe" against Trips right 36 Sluggo all you want; if you can't teach the kids how to play it, you're no coach.

I have told this story before in another section, but it is SO appropriate here.... I used to work with a kid who was a DIE HARD FOOTBALL FAN. He wasn't an athlete in HS by any stretch of the imagination, so he made up for it by memorizing SI and ESPN Magazine.

He was a student in psychology and had a brother in law play D1AA football. These facts, coupled with his multitude of subscriptions to various magazine, turned him into Joe Pa JR, at least in his mind.

This fellow was an obnoxious fan; he liked to argue about EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING:

"Cover 2 is the biggest piece of sh-t defense out there."

"The hell with that four wide stuff, everyone knows that five wide is the best formation for HS football"

"Option is a joke, I can't believe anyone actually runs that anymore.." (in response to an SI column on Pat White)

The list goes on and on; I was dumb enough to get into it with this kid a few times; bad move. I almost popped him several times.

Anyway, I always used to ask him why he wouldn't coach. Figured he knew so much, he might as well get a clip board. He always responded that HS football coaching was a joke, that he was holding out for a GA position. Mind you, he hadn't even started for his HS football team, a team that won 4 games in the 4 years he was there.

Well, when the time came for him to get his GA position, things went hay wire... Apparently, his daddy was a tenured professor at the school (University of Montana- TOP D1AA) where he wanted to become a GA. He and his father went in and asked the HC for the GA position. He was laughed out of the office; literally.

It was fantastic when I got my hands on that tid-bit of information. I think I abused the leverage I had, just a little. Every other sentence out my mouth was a reference to the GA position and more importantly, his daddy's inability to get him the job. Everytime he opened his mouth about football in front of me, I'd snicker and make a rude comment.

It was worth it; after while, when I was in the room he never mentioned anything about sports again.

i think the GA recruit should've got the job......

it would have been nice to see his SI commentary on the option being used while he's in some dungeon somewhere counting cleats and washing jocks.....