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Post by coachorm on Apr 28, 2015 22:27:53 GMT -6
As the OC at our high school, what I do for this process is I offer the playbook to the middle school coach and to help in anyway that he needs. I really don't care if he runs all, part, or none of my offense. Biggest things to me...
1. Fundamentals - I hope he is teaching it. 2. Love of the Game - Middle school should be about this a lot to help them stay interested. 3. Terminology - rather than run all my plays if he just uses some of the same terminology it helps these kids so much. That way I don't have to spend an entire indy period explaining the difference between a pull to trap and a pull to log.
So, just IMO be a resource for that coach if he wants it and make everything you want him to have available.
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Post by coachorm on Apr 15, 2015 22:02:49 GMT -6
GOOD PARENTS... This without a doubt has helped us get through a ton of stuff. We have parents that arrange and take care of pre-game meals. We have parents that take care of team snack after games. We have parents that help with fundraising. The key though is you have to find them and ask. Most of them want to help but aren't gonna ask or impose because they don't want to step on any toes. Find some good parents and life will become easier. We actually have a parent whose kid graduated 2 years ago and she still helps us every year with stuff.
Just a side note, no not all of our parents are in this category. You have to look for these parents, but once you figure out one of them they will usually help lead you to more.
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Post by coachorm on Apr 3, 2015 23:14:05 GMT -6
I agree with most all of the reasoning that's already been said here.... But one thing that I think makes a difference the nature of the sport compared to other sports....I can go out from August to November in 25lbs of gear, the heat and cold, rain and snow, and beat the hell out of my body.... OR I can dribble and shoot a ball in an enclosed gym that may be air conditioned, while wearing shorts and a tank-top. OR I can go hit an throw a little white ball around a diamond only when weather conditions are optimal. For those of us that love football those reasons I listed are part of the reason why.... But for that talented kid who is also just a little lazy or doesn't feel like he should have to work as hard because he is talented those other two sports are a lot more inviting. I know this isn't true of all kids but I have seen it in our school a lot. We had 3 seniors on our football team this season. The basketball team had 5. None of those 5 played football at all. The baseball team has 3 seniors... again none of them play football. All talented enough to be football players and help our team. Ok, but how is that different than other teams you play? I guess it isn't a different problem than what other teams could have. It just happens to be one of the biggest problems I have seen at our school.
I would say for us the disadvantage we have is growth in the town. We have Fred's, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Subway. Everything else is locally owned. Other name brands have asked to come in and build but are always met with old money resistance. Back in the 70s we had some of the best teams in school history. The reason for that was the building of a power plant in the area and employing people there. There was an increase of talent then because of the influx from the building and employing at the plant. Those days are passed now as most employees at the plant are already living in town or drive from neighboring counties. Therefore we don't get many athletes moving in anymore. Also our location is, yes by a plant but, surrounded by cities/towns that have more interest and attractions for people looking to move. Usually we have athletes come in groups every 3-5 years. So we have about 2-3 decent years and then fall off for 3-5years. Success here comes in cycles, but has never been sustainable for a period longer than 2-3 years except for that 70s time period. That feels like it could be a thread of its own... why does success come in cycles for some programs? Anyway hopefully I answered your question in the OP this time but more than likely I am way off topic again.
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Post by coachorm on Apr 3, 2015 21:28:51 GMT -6
I agree with most all of the reasoning that's already been said here.... But one thing that I think makes a difference the nature of the sport compared to other sports....I can go out from August to November in 25lbs of gear, the heat and cold, rain and snow, and beat the hell out of my body.... OR I can dribble and shoot a ball in an enclosed gym that may be air conditioned, while wearing shorts and a tank-top. OR I can go hit an throw a little white ball around a diamond only when weather conditions are optimal.
For those of us that love football those reasons I listed are part of the reason why.... But for that talented kid who is also just a little lazy or doesn't feel like he should have to work as hard because he is talented those other two sports are a lot more inviting.
I know this isn't true of all kids but I have seen it in our school a lot. We had 3 seniors on our football team this season. The basketball team had 5. None of those 5 played football at all. The baseball team has 3 seniors... again none of them play football. All talented enough to be football players and help our team.
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Post by coachorm on Apr 2, 2015 10:30:13 GMT -6
We have been the last 4 years. I agree it is a pain sometimes. Especially hate when you have that kid that wants to nit-pick about stats and just lets you know its all about him and his accomplishments. The reason we have kept doing it is because kids seem to like it. I like the idea I saw suggested in another thread similar to this and that would be to give stickers of the opponents mascot after wins. You could do that right after the game in the lockeroom which could make it mean more. Also, it rewards the only stat that we know really counts and that's winning.
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Post by coachorm on Mar 27, 2015 11:15:53 GMT -6
I agree with Fantom that this may become more common. Especially with Hudl. Kids now have the ability to go on Hudl and make their own highlight video for coaches to see. A college coach really wouldnt need to even talk to the HC at the high school level unless he just had some questions about the players character.
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Post by coachorm on Mar 18, 2015 7:13:01 GMT -6
A thought.... I coach football, played football, love football. Even occasionally watch some football that isn't an opponent or my team. When I heard that Chris Boreland retired my first response was... Who? Point being that I don't think this will effect Youth football as much as some think. This was not Aaron Rodgers, Richard Sherman, Tom Brady, or Payton Manning. This was a guy that although probably very good hadn't reached that elite status of the guys mentioned. I would imagine that parents of youth players for the most part won't pay much attention to this or even realize what happened.
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CYA
Mar 12, 2015 13:22:05 GMT -6
Post by coachorm on Mar 12, 2015 13:22:05 GMT -6
One big thing we have to do especially in May - Aug is worry about the Heat index. So we keep a notebook and every day that is even questionable we check it as often as our state and district policy requires and document the time and what the reading was. It can be a pain but like someone else said it is documentation to prove you are doing all you can should you ever need it.
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Post by coachorm on Dec 23, 2014 10:21:06 GMT -6
All 3 of the Ryan coaches... Buddy, Rex, and Rob.
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Post by coachorm on Dec 18, 2014 8:06:18 GMT -6
Strengths - Dependable and constantly study and hone my craft. Always reading, tweaking, and adjusting our scheme to fit our personnel and give our guys the best chance to win.
Weaknesses - I struggle being that coach that constantly harps and corrects mistakes. Don't get me wrong I fix mistakes but I'm not the coach that every practice play we jump offsides makes the offense do up/downs or some other physical punishment. I need to get better at that because I know it usually leads to a more disciplined team (at least in our case). The HC is great at it and some of the other AC's are too. Its just not my personality.
Also the other thing I am bad about is I hate playing a player that I know has more talent and ability than what he shows. Pisses me off to no end. We have a player right now with college size and strength but he is so freaking lazy and always has an excuse especially during conditioning time.
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Post by coachorm on Nov 23, 2014 19:01:06 GMT -6
Thanks guys... We haven't tried this ourselves and I have never wrestled, heck our school doesn't even have wrestling. But I just wondered if anyone had done the soda thing or not.
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Post by coachorm on Nov 23, 2014 8:40:06 GMT -6
Coaches we had another coach tell us that one thing his training staff uses for in-game cramps is carbonated sodas. We have used pickle juice, water, Gatorade, mustard, and even electrolyte tablets. His trainer worked with the men's olympic wrestling team and says that since the reason for cramps is mainly a low amount of fluids and sugar that sodas get this in the athletes faster cause of the carbonation. Does anyone else use this or can really back this up?
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Post by coachorm on Nov 18, 2014 0:06:58 GMT -6
coachorm, some districts only have 5 teams, meaning that if you get 1 district win, you're in the playoffs at 1-9. My old school, which has won 6 games in 7 years, was excited about the new classifications. Then they saw their district, which is them, plus 6 teams who all made it to the second round this year (3 are still in the playoffs). They have to beat 3 of those to make it, while the next district to the east has 2 good teams and 3 vrwampuffs, but has teams driving 4 hours for games. Yeah I figured that was the case. I haven't spent a ton of time looking at every district but I figured there would be some districts like that. Just IMO its all a ploy by the tssaa to detract everyone from the whole public v private split debate.
In all honesty though its not gonna matter how they organize it I don't see them being able to make all of us happy.
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Post by coachorm on Nov 17, 2014 19:40:03 GMT -6
We have a 6 class system in TN that just changed. It used to be that we only had 3 classes in the regular season, so schools of 1,000 would have to play district games vs. schools of 2000+ in the higher classification and schools of 150ish playing schools up to around 400. The middle class was around 400-1000. Then they'd split these in half for the playoffs with a convoluted BCS-like seeding system being used to fill in the slots with wildcards. It was highly unpopular. What tended to happen was that a couple of good teams (not necessarily the biggest schools, but usually the wealthiest) would dominate each district while the smaller schools would get pummeled by the biggest schools every week. There were several district games that, even with the mercy rule, hit the 80 or 90 point mark. The talent disparities became embarrassing. That's getting thrown out next year in favor of the "Super 32" plan, where the 32 largest schools are pulled out and given their own districts with all 32 teams getting automatic playoff berths. The other 300 or so schools are divided into 5 classes to make things more competitive by reducing the size disparities between schools. The smallest class will still go from 150-400ish, but the others will all be within a few hundred of each other, enrollment-wide. Being that I am from TN too and going through this same change. One thing that is being talked about a lot now is how far teams are having to drive. The new district we are in has at least 2 games that will take 2 plus hours to reach. And we are one of the lucky teams because some are in districts where the closest team is an hour and a half. Something else I noticed the other day because the districts in 1-5a require you to be the top 4 in your district to make playoffs it is possible for us to go 6-4 and miss the playoffs and someone else go 4-6 and make the playoffs in the same district. Roll that around for a while. Some districts you will need only 2 or 3 district wins to make playoffs while in ours you will need 4 minimum. unless its one of those crazy years where everyone in district is beating each other back and forth.
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Post by coachorm on Oct 22, 2014 17:14:25 GMT -6
why do they have to be mean? why not just be competitive? I think this is a big misconception a lot of coaches make and could be its own thread. Competitive is what we want but often we think the answer is being meaner. I think you need kids that want to compete and will not accept losing in any way shape or form. I also think if that kid has a mean streak it doesn't hurt.
One thing we do is constantly preach to our kids about "flipping the switch". We try to make them understand that when you step on the field you have to be a competitor in everything you do from stretching, to indy, to halfline, team, conditioning, etc. As a coach you need to look for those moments when a kid does flip that switch and praise the heck out of it and make him feel good about it. Even if he fails at what he is doing if he showed that competitive fire praise it.
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Post by coachorm on Sept 26, 2014 7:50:14 GMT -6
About 40 Minutes
7:30 Game
6:30 Punters/Kicker/Holder/Returners go out. 6:40 Rest of the team comes out. Team does Dynamic Warm-ups then a small amount of static stretching. 6:50 Defense Indy 6:55 Offense Indy 7:00 Team D 7:03 Team O 7:08 Team Tackle/Towel Fight 7:10 Inside until we take field at 7:25 for coin toss.
It's quick and fast. Just lets them get the blood flowing a little and pop the pads a tad. Like others said the main thing is they can get use to it and it becomes a routine they don't have to think about just do.
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Post by coachorm on Sept 2, 2014 9:26:28 GMT -6
We give stickers out for several of the reasons listed above. However, we have one big rule. If we don't win the game then we don't give out stickers. We want them to understand that doing what is needed to get the win is bigger than their individual stats. Get the win and we celebrate those individual accomplishments. What individual accomplishment? Precious little that happens on the football field is an individual accomplishment I totally agree with you coach. Accomplishment was probably not the best word to use. Individual Stats. I agree things on the field do not happen in a vacuum. However, we have found that the kids like and enjoy it better when they get stickers for things like scoreing, 100yds rushing, pancake blocks, etc... I don't think this is a perfect system nor a system that works for every team. But it is a system that works for OUR team. Like I said the team goal of getting a win is #1. If we don't achieve that then we don't even worry about the other stuff.
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Post by coachorm on Sept 1, 2014 10:22:31 GMT -6
We give stickers out for several of the reasons listed above. However, we have one big rule. If we don't win the game then we don't give out stickers. We want them to understand that doing what is needed to get the win is bigger than their individual stats. Get the win and we celebrate those individual accomplishments.
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Post by coachorm on Aug 17, 2014 11:43:44 GMT -6
Our team this year has about 20 healthy dressed for practice at this point due to injury. Some things we have done to help:
1. Half-line = good on good or as close to it as you can get.
2. Combined Individual Groups = example last week on offense we combined QB/WR/RB and did a Toss drill while the OL/TE worked on blocking schemes. Then we switched and the OT/TE came with RB/WR and worked toss. During that time the Centers, guards, QB, and fullbacks worked trap drill.
3. Trash-Cans these are great for simulating the defensive front or offensive line. No they can't fire off but they allow you to have a full defense or offense and work things like steps or pass drops.
Low numbers is a tough situation and one of the best things you can do is focus on small parts of your scheme and isolate the players that are key in those spots. Last week on the toss drill our wrs got better at stalk blocking, fullbacks and wings got better at leading and setting the edge, and the OL/TE got better at reach blocking. Tailbacks started seeing the lanes better. Bottom line as a team we got better at toss that period which is one of our bread-and-butter plays.
Good Luck Coach low numbers is tough but its a good opportunity to build team unity
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Post by coachorm on Aug 10, 2014 9:42:03 GMT -6
Have to agree with the rest of the board. This HC is not a good coach. I, myself am an OC and played line in HS and College. The OL is the most important offensive group on the field. This guy needs to trim the fat from this collection of plays. We currently have a wedge scheme, reach scheme, trap scheme, and a max protect blocking scheme. Probably gonna add a quick pass blocking scheme this week. The OL we have right now due to injuries is made up of guys we call science projects. Because its amazing that they can even walk and communicate much less play football. BUt guess what we move the ball because it is so freakin simple to play line for us. You need to voice your concerns to this HC and if he doesn't change move on somewhere else even if you take a year off. Besides it sounds like you have some leverage since the staff is small and no one else was willing to take OL. Maybe he is calling your bluff and believes you wont leave no matter what he does. Of course I cant see this HC being smart enough to develop a theory like that.
Good Luck Coach cause you will need it if you stay.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 28, 2014 19:51:16 GMT -6
1. Depth - we have about 23 kids total right now 9-12. 2. OL -we have 3 guys competing for the guard spots and I don't think any of them have the physical toughness to compete tic-tac-toe. 3. Secondary - Due to injuries, starting a freshman as Safety, and have another rotating some at Corner. 4. OLB - Have 2 junior starters and their backups are both freshmen. 5. QB - this should probably be #1. Have a senior that can throw the ball as beautiful as you have ever seen in practice. Come game time though he has less physical toughness than the guys competing at guard. Backing him up is the freshman that also starts at safety. Knock on him is he can't throw the ball with a lot of whip just yet, likes to float it quite a bit.
On a plus side. I think we have guys that absolutely want to be there and that makes my job a lot more fun even with all the potential problems.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 23, 2014 22:26:46 GMT -6
Coach, I don't know the exact number but I would bet if you call the coach or have your son ask he could tell you the amount or find out at least. Would imagine it differs from school and ranges from the team making between 5 and 15 dollars per card.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 23, 2014 10:30:07 GMT -6
I say leave him as your starter for right now. Those kids that you don't trust will either quit because they feel they are better or they will step it up and replace him. Either way he has earned the spot where he is at this point and these other jokers need to work and go through some adversity to show they are willing to stick it out before you trust them. In the end for me if this kid isn't going to hurt my team reaching its goals then I want him on the field because you just can't replace good leadership. If he is going be a crutch though then, you have to do whats best for the team and a Good Leader will understand that concept.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 22, 2014 21:52:08 GMT -6
I agree with the rest of the coaches, except I think you don't just pull this Senior aside and thank him but also point out his selflessness to the entire team without drawing attention to the negative aspect of the situation. Show other players that you notice when guys do things that benefit the team and not the me. How do you do that? How do you publicly thank the senior without singling out the soph s a douche? Your probably right and there isn't a way, at least not an easy one. But I would sure try to think of something. Might have to point out what was done but not why the Sr. made that choice. Just that it was a selfless act by an upperclassman. Maybe I'm just reaching for straws here and being to optimistic.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 22, 2014 21:14:22 GMT -6
I agree with the rest of the coaches, except I think you don't just pull this Senior aside and thank him but also point out his selflessness to the entire team without drawing attention to the negative aspect of the situation. Show other players that you notice when guys do things that benefit the team and not the me.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 22, 2014 21:04:04 GMT -6
I think GOOD Senior Leadership is preferred by everyone. Any leadership is preferred over none. I don't think an In-Your-Face Guy is required but as long as they lead the right way they make it fun to coach. Nothing like having a kid on the team that holds his teammate accountable and gets positive results while doing it. I would bet when it comes to championship teams you are more likely to find this type of kid than you are to find a D1 athlete.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 22, 2014 10:15:46 GMT -6
Praise Leadership when you see it.
Make sure your players understand grade level doesn't matter when it comes to being a leader. Good example of this is last year we had a senior heavy team and not one of them was good at leading. The year before as juniors they did a great job of following the other seniors but as seniors themselves they where horrible at leading. This year our main leader on the team is a junior offensive lineman.
Sometimes you have leaders that don't step up because they have that I will be the leader next year mentality.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 16, 2014 9:10:07 GMT -6
I think distance travelled plays a big role in home field advantage. Especially what all happens on that trip. 2 years ago a team came to play us and got stuck behind a wreck on the interstate for about an hour in the sweltering late august heat. Also Atmosphere can be a big thing. Some teams we play don't uses this at all. We try to use it to an extent. We start warm-ups with kids getting loud and staying loud. Always encouraging the yelling and whooping. during team offense/defense we have the non-participants that are standing in a line behind us constantly clapping loud. We follow that up with circling up and doing a full contact tackling drill. Gets lots of players from the other team looking at us and not focusing on their own warm-up. We play a team that calls their field the dungeon since they are the red devils. For their field entry they have the pick-up trucks backup to the fence beside the field and rev-up right before they run out, also they have a smoke machine running. Every year we have to remind our kids to ignore it because we always have some kids that lose focus and get caught up in that pageantry.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 13, 2014 23:18:36 GMT -6
We do it a lot like coach2013. last year we tried the team goals for stickers thing. the kids hated it and didn't get as hyped about it as they did the year before. Therefore, this year we are going back to the individual stickers. One rule we have though regardless is that stickers only come after a win. NO Win = No stickers.
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Post by coachorm on Jul 2, 2014 11:31:09 GMT -6
Dynamic Stretch in the endzone. Get Loud Run out in stretching lines Do 8 jumping jacks spelling out our mascot name then saying it three times I-R-I-S-H, Irish, Irish, Irish. Jog in and do a breakdown Go to defensive INDY for 5-8min Go to offensive INDY for 5-8min Team D v Air- Coach call a formation does a drop,roll, or primary run play type of action. Defenders react. Team O v Air- Just rep base plays. Team Tackling- 2 guys on their backs everyone else circled around, throw the ball to one and they get up and tackle. Inside Locker room for HC speech until 5 min until game starts.
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