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Post by joeyjojojuno on Feb 9, 2009 20:24:08 GMT -6
Any creative thoughts/ideas/stories on motivating a high school varsity defense? I have seen coaches use things like shirts and hats as rewards.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2009 21:40:20 GMT -6
Motivation is simple. Eliminate those who aren't motivated.
Seriously, they need to get an identity. You can't give it to them. You can lay the foundation, you can give them expectations to chase, but they have to discover their own identity.
In truth, I started our foundation about 4 years ago and the other coaches bought in and they know the expectation, but every year they have to determine that identity. If they don't, then the tshirts, hats, and slogans are just hollow.
See, our guys buy into the shirts we give them because they believe that the shirt is something they earned and helped create. They know they get it from hard work, but it's not a given. They get more praise than they can handle, but only when it is earned.
Example: When I ask a DB or LB in the middle of a workout in the weightroom in February, "what is the #1 goal of our defense?" Then he knows the answer is "to score." We know to score we have to get the ball away from the offense. We know that when we do we have to have a method to get to the endzone. We know to force those turnovers we have to be creative and force bad passes, to hit hard, to run to the pile, and to jump on the ball and fight for it. We have to take passes at the high point on a pass. We have to strip the ball.
Those are things that our kids know--but they aren't born knowing it. They have to hear it and hear it and practice it and see it and then believe it.
When they're willing to do those things, when they're willing to believe that the defensive unit is more important than the defensive player, then they're on their way. When a DB praises the DL in the newspaper for getting pressure on the QB to allow them to grab picks, when a DL tells the TV "we know if we force bad passes our DBs will go get them", when our LB says in the newspaper "our goal is to not give up a single yard and anything more than that is less than perfect--WHEN YOU GET THAT THEN THE PLAYERS GET IT!
And when they get it then that shirt means a whole lot more, because it means that they have to live up to whatever that shirt represents.
In my opinion, if they don't have a reason to wear the shirt then it's just a shirt.
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Post by nohuddlecoach on Feb 10, 2009 9:31:41 GMT -6
We use the black shirt theme. Our starters on defense wear black jerseys. They are giving and taken away on a daily basis. They also have t shirts for shorts and shirts practices that are black. We stole a line from "highway to hell" to put on back..... "no stop signs, no speed limits."
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Post by coachweav88 on Feb 10, 2009 23:19:59 GMT -6
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