An orderly house

Sounds like the beginning of a great and fun season.

I dont know if we are yet "amazing" but there is NO DOUBT that there is tremendous progress in terms of players meeting expectations for lifting.

it starts by communicating that expectation obviously. Posters, phone calls, letters, talking in the cafe, library, classes, hallways etc. our expectation is really pretty simple. you will lift weights if you want to play football. We lift all season , we lift all year. (trust me, I had some kids who didnt want to do this, particularly seniors who had never been made to lift- that said, I also had seniors who wished they had been made to lift)

once you lay out the expectations CLEARLY AND LOUDLY (add nauseum) you need a way to motivate, both positive and negative because not all kids will respond to just one. we use material things and status for the positive and we use extra conditioning, lack of privilege and rank and added duties for the negative reinforcement.

We lift 4 days a week right after the final school bell. They get 30 minutes to get their lifts in and I go home. Some kids get lifts in during gym class so that actually helps us prevent over crowding after school.

They get points for completing their workout just as it is prescribed. If they fail to complete it they may or may not get partial credit. we also give points for participation in other sports so that we have some basketball players that earn and help recruit other hoopsters.

They can do extra credit by running hills or sprints or stairs following the workout. I will stick around for that.

Points are a show of investment in the program as I prefer to reward those who participate rather than simply observing grade level for example. The kids with fewer points will be doing the dog work come season and they will have more conditioning at the conclusion of practice. Those with more earnings get choice of gear, jersey choice, tees, sweats, captain status and more. I do not put it all in writing because I want my point system to be flexible for when and where it is needed. For example recently there was some 'battles" between football players and basketball players, I gave points to players who showed up at the basketball games wearing their football weight room shirts. (I have to buy the tees and sweat shirts with my own money or money I raise myself) and our fballers had to be supportive to the hoopsters team.

In any case, I post the monthly earnings where all students can see, reward the top earner for the month and after about 3 months I recognize the top guys again. (more gear that I buy) and the "where did you get that?" comments are priceless. One kid wanted to buy one of our new sweatshirts and I said "you do not have enough money, you have to give me your time, 30 minutes four times a week and if I see you sweat enough You will get one".

one thing I cant stress enough is that coming in here we have not had great leadership at the top. We needed to recognize leadership by actions/deeds and not words. My top "deeds' kids are youngsters, freshmen and a sophomore and more recently two juniors have really taken to me and are blazing a new trail for others. In the past the older guys would just beat the freshmen and sophs down terribly. That is not tolerated and I preech the opposite. I make it clear to my upper classmen that we need production RIGHT NOW from the younger kids so theyd better show them how things are done. (of course they can only do that if they are doing it too). They must understand that we are a brotherhood, liking each other isnt important, respecting each other is.

Another thing I have done is to get my staff to push the wt room- get on the kids about it right now.

I recently handed out those "progress reports" which covered things like a) what they did last year b) what they have done since the season ended c) what I expect to see them working on and d) where they project vs where they could project to if they did what I expected as a member of the program.

not every kid was pleased with my notes to them -one kid telling another "its the off season and Im not doing it" (but he was in the wt room so he must be reconsidering)

In any case, all of this week was just positive, absolutely beautiful..but it ends abruptly now for a week as we have winter break. Will be interesting to see how we pick it up after the break. (we are not lifting over break) At the end of this month I am planning to do a competion with teams made up of jr, sop and freshman and 8th grader. Each 4 man team competes in several events earning points for reps with 165 on bench for instance or 225 in squats. If a player is missing from the event, those reps are forfeited obviously. Ill take the winners out for "all you can eat" or something.

I did notice that this week was the most positive week maybe ever for us here. One of the kids who didnt play last year was overheard telling another "if i have to lift i will lift, i am playing football" and there were two other boys who had quit the team last year who have come to me and said "coach I wanted to let you know I plan to play football" and we had a big new kid show up yesterday with one of the upper classmen. he has worked out two days in a row and is "thinking about it" -his buddy is our top upper classmen earner and one of the nicest kids around.

Back in early November I had 1, 2 or 3 kids show up after school. Sometimes on fridays no body would show up. Lately we have done much much better with 50% of our roster showing up daily. We still have a long way to go before we are "amazing" but it is progress. I feel strongly that the 8th grade class can bring our numbers up and the point system is paramount to getting them to lift now. If they a) do not lift or b) do not play this year, they will be terribly far behind in points coming in as sophomores rather than freshmen. some will learn the hard way.

one of the biggest obstacles for us is competing with the local fitness center (pool, basketball courts, top of the line equipment and of course the clowing around during workouts that goes on) and the point system is important in getting kids to choose us instead.

Finally there is something I bank on called the "coach said this about you" phenomena. I know who my talkers are and I talk in front of them sometimes to make sure word gets back to those kids who are successful in avoiding me for days at a time. I like to use the " the way this 8th grader works he should not have any trouble taking ___________ job from him since he doesnt appear to care about it" ha ha. I also like to say things like "well you guys just saved yourselves a bunch of running in the hot August sun during camp" and add " those other guys are really going to be dragging their humps after all those hills".

Ill let you know how things go over the next couple of months.