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Post by brophy on Sept 21, 2011 21:14:46 GMT -6
that's kind of the thing, though (IMO). No one is foolish enough to believe that super coach can turn Limpdick McNerdles into Ray Freaking Lewis. The interesting part of coaching is not exacting obedient robots, but using personal triggers of each kid's motivations. It isn't an easy thing and it can't really be done without a deeper relationship with your players. Sometimes you can't directly address an issue. Every teen struggles with finding their own identity and none of them have any answers. As coaches, sometimes the biggest skill we can teach is getting them to identify themselves with actually being a "football player" and not just a young boy doing what this old man is telling me to do.
Could it be that its not so much the kids but US? In that we're always led to believe that we can have one-size fits all lesson plan and that every kid needs to adhere to this metric or its not gonna work. There isn't one drill that is going to teach a skill, but likely video, walk-thru, practice, peer-to-peer feedback, etc.
If you were coaching/teaching weight lifters, your job really wouldn't be spotting them or showing them how to squat. It would primarily be changing their perceptions of weight training (seeing the activity as something more than it really is) and how they would mentally prepare for being seriously challenged by the weight (it isn't natural to willingly put yourself in a perilous position where loads of 45lbs plates will smash you).
You could teach a person to shoot a gun and run around, but that really isn't the job of a military DI, is it? Its fully indoctrinating and changing a person's outlook (motivations) on who they are and what they can do. It takes all kinds and what works on one kid won't work on another kid. You can't "save" them all, but you can certainly increase your odds of improving overall performance if you are coaching 3-deep on the roster (coaching enough to improve that guy that likely won't see the field).
This is why its so important to cultivate those relationships outside of football, talking about stuff not even relating to the game BECAUSE it is so easy for kids to tune out BS from people (they're not gonna do stuff just because someone told them to do it).
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jonnyjon
Sophomore Member
cOUrage
Posts: 141
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Post by jonnyjon on Sept 22, 2011 0:52:08 GMT -6
Lou Holtz pussed out on his first ever tackle. The guilt he felt for letting his teammates down was the motivation for sticking his nose in on the next one.
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Post by IronmanFootball on Sept 22, 2011 4:36:41 GMT -6
Brophy, great great great speech man. I had a player almost quit on me this season that I knew loved being out there. The issue was, his pitching elbow (legit baseball kid) was getting beat up between playing OL and doing 150 updowns a practice (we have some "interesting" coaches that think kids turn from Little Giants into Ray Freakin Lewis by doing updowns)...
when he approached me, said "look coach, I'm sorry, I quit" and walked off the field I asked him to sit in the shade for a few then I went to talk to him. I didnt give him a rah rah speech, all I did was explain that the only people I still talk to from high school a dozen years later are the guys I played OL with. Period. Who did I go on double dates with? OL. Who did I go out to eat with? OL. Who did I watch film with on Sat mornings? OL. Who did I lift with? OL. We stick together. A large group of us are still really close. When I explained that, I left him. He came back to practice and has been doing much better ever since.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2011 4:37:28 GMT -6
that's kind of the thing, though (IMO). No one is foolish enough to believe that super coach can turn Limpdick McNerdles into Ray Freaking Lewis. The interesting part of coaching is not exacting obedient robots, but using personal triggers of each kid's motivations. It isn't an easy thing and it can't really be done without a deeper relationship with your players. Sometimes you can't directly address an issue. Every teen struggles with finding their own identity and none of them have any answers. As coaches, sometimes the biggest skill we can teach is getting them to identify themselves with actually being a "football player" and not just a young boy doing what this old man is telling me to do. Could it be that its not so much the kids but US? In that we're always led to believe that we can have one-size fits all lesson plan and that every kid needs to adhere to this metric or its not gonna work. There isn't one drill that is going to teach a skill, but likely video, walk-thru, practice, peer-to-peer feedback, etc. If you were coaching/teaching weight lifters, your job really wouldn't be spotting them or showing them how to squat. It would primarily be changing their perceptions of weight training (seeing the activity as something more than it really is) and how they would mentally prepare for being seriously challenged by the weight (it isn't natural to willingly put yourself in a perilous position where loads of 45lbs plates will smash you). You could teach a person to shoot a gun and run around, but that really isn't the job of a military DI, is it? Its fully indoctrinating and changing a person's outlook (motivations) on who they are and what they can do. It takes all kinds and what works on one kid won't work on another kid. You can't "save" them all, but you can certainly increase your odds of improving overall performance if you are coaching 3-deep on the roster (coaching enough to improve that guy that likely won't see the field). This is why its so important to cultivate those relationships outside of football, talking about stuff not even relating to the game BECAUSE it is so easy for kids to tune out BS from people (they're not gonna do stuff just because someone told them to do it). Sometimes you need posts like these to reassure yourself you're on the right track...thanks bro... Duece
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Post by CoachMikeJudy on Sept 22, 2011 7:20:54 GMT -6
Gents-
Brophy's post is well put. Take some time to talk with your team about values, morals, being a man, self-discipline, true toughness etc. I have stated in recent posts that we (as a program) have stopped trying to out scheme people and are concentrating on out "manning" people by improving the substance of our athletes. We spend 20-30mins daily meeting with our team in small groups, focusing on our team's core values, providing examples of good and bad representation of these values, and readings that reinforce these concepts.
Hopefully our HC clloyd will take a moment to post further about the process of officially developing these values. I'll just say that we, as a staff, realized that we can't take the next step without fixing these issues in our players (and community for that matter)- we are maxed out in teachign schemes/techniques...we have to address the intangibles.
I think many of us talk about addressing these things, but rarely do I see a practice schedule with time blocked out for it. The kids know that at 2:50 every day they will either be lifting or meeting with a coach in regards to these values.
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Post by brophy on Sept 24, 2011 8:27:03 GMT -6
just for clarity, my points above about a relationship and controlling identity are 1) take interest in your guys outside of football. Let them talk to you about their interests and ask for their perspective on things they are interested in. Let them have control of the conversation (change up the communication stream we try to enforce on them everyday)
2) Manipulate their self-identity. If you had zero control in your program, had no input, and didn't even have to show up to practice, would you really feel like a "coach"? Conversely, what do you do, how passionate are you about practice when you see yourself as "the coach"? This same perspective is what we're trying to influence in all the guys on the field, is to get them to IDENTIFY their self-perception as a "football player". In their mind, they know a "football player" is the ultimate badass (otherwise they would never have gone out for the sport). Much of the problem is they cannot identify themselves with that image. Reinforce the positive decisions they've made to be a "football player", how all the other kids wish they were them, and how all the girls want a "football player" (or whatever).
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Post by ajreaper on Sept 26, 2011 12:25:30 GMT -6
Don't let parents be the barometer of where you are at as a program or if you are doing things right. That is the absolute worst mistake any coaching staff can make- In our pre-season meeting I would ask parents what they would think if when their son complained to us about them (and they do) if we as coaches bad mouthed their decisions as parents? If we said that's crap my parents never did anything like that or no other parent does that are your folks idiots? I love the look on the parents faces, I'd get phone calls, the AD would get phone calls as would the principle- why? Because I am intruding where I do not belong, because it's not my job to comment on how you choose to raise your child- I would be grossly out of line. Why is it some of you believe doing that to us is acceptable? How can your son be positive when you choose not to be? What you will get from us is 100% complete support for decisions you make as a parent- that support will not hinge on if that is how we were raised or if that is how we'd do it. We'd appreciate the same from you. If you cannot do that then you can expect us to think and act as you would if the roles were reversed.
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