Starting Slow

I like being business like and even keeled and build emotion on the rise.

Maybe your team needs to have a pre-game speech or amped music.

Other thoughts:
how are warmups? I like short and sweet. Maybe they need longer or shorter.

Are they getting enough film work of the opposition?

Throw a blitz in there early on defense. A trick play in early on offense. Script plays so they know what is coming. Run a fake punt or onside kick early.

To start fast-come out aggressively kids have to be confident, which comes from preparation during the week and positive reinforcement from coaches.

"Don't coach caution into good players."

My first thought was to raise the intensity of practice.

One thing we've done to raise the intensity of effort was to take an Inglorious Basterds approach to defensive team time. Scout defense had a sprint taken off for every turnover/TFL forced. They could also force the ball carrier to do push ups if they took the ball away even after the whistle. Starting defense had the same approach but the number was higher and it was all or nothing, either they hit the goal for the period or they did all their prescribed sprints. Scout offense could add to the defense's sprints by scoring TDs.

My second thought was that our best group ever were slow starters for the first 4 games of their freshman year and then became a wrecking crew for the next 3.5 years. They just needed to figure out the feeling of what it was supposed to be like.

I would like to introduce a more analytical point of view. When you say "start slow" what exactly do you mean? It is one thing to start slow. Being down 31-0 doesn't qualify in my book as a slow start though.

Break it down. Do you grade players and evaluate film? If so, how are those grades in the beginning of the game vs other parts? When you say they are "starting slow" are they playing with poor fundamentals, high pad level, no hustle, bad technique, committing mental errors in the beginning but then later on you see good fundamentals, low pad level, high hustle grades, good technique grades and no mental errors?

We do grade players.  When I say slow start, it is almost like they are going through the motions.  The 31-0 game, we couldn't move the ball on offense due to lack of execution and defense was not aggressive at all.  They did put scrubs in for 1 series but our execution and therefore our intensity picked up.  We also had a game in which we were losing 25-6 with 6 minutes to play in the game and won 28-25.  We were very young (mostly 9/10 graders) with only 9 seniors.  All of our games were very similar.  Even teams we handled were games that were slow starts and close at halftime and then we would play differently in the second half.

Their grades do improve later in the game.

. Interesting- I am curious why things like alignment assignment pad level hustle hand placement footwork etc. start out poorly in the beginning and yet meet your expectations at the end

Coaching may have something to do with it too.

If you come out waiting to see what opponents are going to do against you rather than taking the fight to them initially, that could contribute to "slow starts."

Other than just plain ole 'this is what it is... is'..... let's look at it from the coaching expectation.  What does the staff consider as 'starting fast' or 'starthing slow'?

If the staff wants to get out of the gate fast, then what does the practice plan/philosophy look like?  

I was at a program that both offensively and defensively the plan was 'all gas, no brakes' and the mantra was to go into the game and "shock 'em" from the opening kickoff.  And that was how we practiced.  After warm up we went good on good for 10 minutes and there was no holds barred.  After indy/group/inside/skelly we finished with another full good on good consequence team period for 10-15 minutes.