Post by dsqa on Sept 28, 2007 7:06:38 GMT -6
Okay, lots to respond to here...
Thanks coachjerk for taking time to explain.
I believe drills are only superficial when their is no clear understanding of why they are being done, and they serve no larger purpose in the improvement of the athlete under fire.
Drills are tools in a coach's hand, they are not the coaching. I think some do QB drills, hoping they will coach the kid for them. Like a hammer, a drill will drive the nail home, but it takes coaching to know which tool is needed when. You can't hammer a screw.
COACHJERK and COACHM,
If you will indulge me for a moment, you hit on some good stuff...
I didn't really start passionate, for about the first 4 years, I was more interested in demonstrating and being impressive, not coaching. I thought that was how it was done. Man, was I wrong! I was ambitiously upwardly mobile, and just got jazzed by the idea of "being in charge" of kids and they would "listen." BUT when I realized that nothing was really getting better in the camps and workouts, that is when the onion layers had to be peeled back, and my "coaching" had to be retooled. It humbled me, and I am not a humble man.
You know what it was...
I would try to work 3 step drop, 5 step drop, Sprint out...FEET, FEET, FEET, JUST LIKE I WAS TAUGHT... and while they could get from point A to point B, but most of them couldn't consistently throw it in the ocean, if I put their feet in the damp sand on the beach! AND THEY HAD NO EARTHLY IDEA WHY!
Some were baseball players who made 2 great throws and then 2 bad ones, etc. It was simply that I didn't get talented kids. I had to teach them how to throw a ball, and they just didn't know how. Period.
I simply asked the question, "How much do you go out and play in the yard, street, etc. with the football?" What I have found is that kids don't go outside and play in the yard anymore. They specialize way early in baseball, but the ability to throw a football, jump a rope, run a ladder, etc. just isn't there.
So, I HAD to go back to their level, and start over, and I have found a whole new world of ignorance that I did not know existed in the QB culture, until I started doing it!
I assumed most people knew how to throw, just not these kids I had...WRONG AGAIN! I travel the country, over 1,000 kids this year, and you can ask my coaches, and they will attest...The kids are just standing there, no footwork, no drops, just playing catch...
Ask any kid, 15 yards away who misses a target, WHY he missed and what he needs to do next time to fix his miss, and they HAVE NO IDEA! And many had been to 5 or more QB camps. They will guess, say something like, "I came around, and need to get HIGHER," and when they miss again, Their heart deflates. Do that 5 times as pressure increases, and you see why QBs are train wrecks on Friday!
I hear coaches say, Well, they were just thinking too much about the next throw. If they just threw it, they would hit it. They might - a few times, but they are still uninformed. IGNORANT. What if they knew it, cold?
Is that how a SNIPER SCHOOL coach would teach. Oh, hey, don't take into account all these factors, don't think when you shoot. Just shoot from the hip! Now, in battle, under pressure, with all that training they can do it by feel. BUT, it started with good information, thought, and practice.
I know we aren't talking about Snipers, but what if a kid could PROCESS some of those factors, what if they COULD "feel" and understand immediate change...How good could they be! What if you could inform their "feel," so that the thoughts BETWEEN, not during, the throws actually served to control flight and feel, and their misses were small, and they couldn't wait to get the ball back to try again.
The worst part for me in this process, was finding out, that I didn't know how to throw either! I wasn't even doing what I was trying to get them to do... I was icing my arm after camps, and my demos were marginal.
I just did it like the other talented ones, grip it and rip it, and hope for the best. However, if I was going to coach it, I had to reteach myself (Probably shouldn't try to teach, what you cannot do, or do not believe yourself), and what it feels like.
This is where the AGONY comes in, Chris, because I know what even a little input can do now. FOOTWORK IS MISSION CRITICAL, I AM COMMITTED TO FOOTWORK...but when you add the ability to "feel" control and Process flight feedback with it...WOW!
I got a lot of kids who couldn't throw it out of their shadow, and I had to grind it out and learn other ways to achieve what I wanted from them. That is where this passion was forged. Thousands of "wannabes," not "already weres."
I think that working with the more talented can be great, but truly developing players hones your edge as a coach. It takes longer and it isn't flashy, but the reward is greater, because you know you made a difference to the kid.
Now that I am getting more chances to see better players try some things, I am seeing how quickly the talented player improves with even just a little input. That's all. It just gets me pumped at the possibilities.
I want to be clear, I am not suggesting some fountain of youth in the things we are talking about, nor the answer to everything, but I think it would help some of these very frustrated guys I observe, catch up to the ever increasing speed of the game.
CHRIS,
You are so right! I watched Bill Walsh's video with Joe Montana, and it was refreshing to watch the common sense approach to footwork in the West Coast scheme, the commitment to mechanics as a means of success in the offense. He got technical where it mattered, and not where it didn't. No wonder so many coaches are where they are because of him. That is making a difference. GREAT EXAMPLE!
Chow is the SCHEME MEISTER! He is working with Vince for sure, but within the framework of feet as it relates to the scheme. Chow is a feet, feet, feet, guy, and that is great for Vince. Vince is learning to discipline those speedy legs in the pocket, and then use them to get away. Great combo.
TO THE THREAD....
For what it's worth, when you apply a standard, you can compare any two guys to that standard. The other variables while different in look, scheme, and personnel, etc. They are probably constant enough between the Bears and Cowboys, on a level that is stable enough to break REX and ROMO down.
Coachjerk is right though, eventually, like any analogy, the comparison is overcome by these things and breaks down, but I think the exercise BROPHY started, of identifying a "standard" of footwork, isolating the QB's responses to pressure, and delivery time and location with the mechanics, independent of the catch, gives us a chance to have great discussion about two guys' ability to play. I think that would be how we typically decide which QB in our offense plays?
Either way, I know Rex won't be playing this weekend, because he hasn't gotten it done according to Lovie's standard.
And when it all goes the heck...tog is right...RUN THE ISO!
Thanks coachjerk for taking time to explain.
I believe drills are only superficial when their is no clear understanding of why they are being done, and they serve no larger purpose in the improvement of the athlete under fire.
Drills are tools in a coach's hand, they are not the coaching. I think some do QB drills, hoping they will coach the kid for them. Like a hammer, a drill will drive the nail home, but it takes coaching to know which tool is needed when. You can't hammer a screw.
COACHJERK and COACHM,
If you will indulge me for a moment, you hit on some good stuff...
I didn't really start passionate, for about the first 4 years, I was more interested in demonstrating and being impressive, not coaching. I thought that was how it was done. Man, was I wrong! I was ambitiously upwardly mobile, and just got jazzed by the idea of "being in charge" of kids and they would "listen." BUT when I realized that nothing was really getting better in the camps and workouts, that is when the onion layers had to be peeled back, and my "coaching" had to be retooled. It humbled me, and I am not a humble man.
You know what it was...
I would try to work 3 step drop, 5 step drop, Sprint out...FEET, FEET, FEET, JUST LIKE I WAS TAUGHT... and while they could get from point A to point B, but most of them couldn't consistently throw it in the ocean, if I put their feet in the damp sand on the beach! AND THEY HAD NO EARTHLY IDEA WHY!
Some were baseball players who made 2 great throws and then 2 bad ones, etc. It was simply that I didn't get talented kids. I had to teach them how to throw a ball, and they just didn't know how. Period.
I simply asked the question, "How much do you go out and play in the yard, street, etc. with the football?" What I have found is that kids don't go outside and play in the yard anymore. They specialize way early in baseball, but the ability to throw a football, jump a rope, run a ladder, etc. just isn't there.
So, I HAD to go back to their level, and start over, and I have found a whole new world of ignorance that I did not know existed in the QB culture, until I started doing it!
I assumed most people knew how to throw, just not these kids I had...WRONG AGAIN! I travel the country, over 1,000 kids this year, and you can ask my coaches, and they will attest...The kids are just standing there, no footwork, no drops, just playing catch...
Ask any kid, 15 yards away who misses a target, WHY he missed and what he needs to do next time to fix his miss, and they HAVE NO IDEA! And many had been to 5 or more QB camps. They will guess, say something like, "I came around, and need to get HIGHER," and when they miss again, Their heart deflates. Do that 5 times as pressure increases, and you see why QBs are train wrecks on Friday!
I hear coaches say, Well, they were just thinking too much about the next throw. If they just threw it, they would hit it. They might - a few times, but they are still uninformed. IGNORANT. What if they knew it, cold?
Is that how a SNIPER SCHOOL coach would teach. Oh, hey, don't take into account all these factors, don't think when you shoot. Just shoot from the hip! Now, in battle, under pressure, with all that training they can do it by feel. BUT, it started with good information, thought, and practice.
I know we aren't talking about Snipers, but what if a kid could PROCESS some of those factors, what if they COULD "feel" and understand immediate change...How good could they be! What if you could inform their "feel," so that the thoughts BETWEEN, not during, the throws actually served to control flight and feel, and their misses were small, and they couldn't wait to get the ball back to try again.
The worst part for me in this process, was finding out, that I didn't know how to throw either! I wasn't even doing what I was trying to get them to do... I was icing my arm after camps, and my demos were marginal.
I just did it like the other talented ones, grip it and rip it, and hope for the best. However, if I was going to coach it, I had to reteach myself (Probably shouldn't try to teach, what you cannot do, or do not believe yourself), and what it feels like.
This is where the AGONY comes in, Chris, because I know what even a little input can do now. FOOTWORK IS MISSION CRITICAL, I AM COMMITTED TO FOOTWORK...but when you add the ability to "feel" control and Process flight feedback with it...WOW!
I got a lot of kids who couldn't throw it out of their shadow, and I had to grind it out and learn other ways to achieve what I wanted from them. That is where this passion was forged. Thousands of "wannabes," not "already weres."
I think that working with the more talented can be great, but truly developing players hones your edge as a coach. It takes longer and it isn't flashy, but the reward is greater, because you know you made a difference to the kid.
Now that I am getting more chances to see better players try some things, I am seeing how quickly the talented player improves with even just a little input. That's all. It just gets me pumped at the possibilities.
I want to be clear, I am not suggesting some fountain of youth in the things we are talking about, nor the answer to everything, but I think it would help some of these very frustrated guys I observe, catch up to the ever increasing speed of the game.
CHRIS,
You are so right! I watched Bill Walsh's video with Joe Montana, and it was refreshing to watch the common sense approach to footwork in the West Coast scheme, the commitment to mechanics as a means of success in the offense. He got technical where it mattered, and not where it didn't. No wonder so many coaches are where they are because of him. That is making a difference. GREAT EXAMPLE!
Chow is the SCHEME MEISTER! He is working with Vince for sure, but within the framework of feet as it relates to the scheme. Chow is a feet, feet, feet, guy, and that is great for Vince. Vince is learning to discipline those speedy legs in the pocket, and then use them to get away. Great combo.
TO THE THREAD....
For what it's worth, when you apply a standard, you can compare any two guys to that standard. The other variables while different in look, scheme, and personnel, etc. They are probably constant enough between the Bears and Cowboys, on a level that is stable enough to break REX and ROMO down.
Coachjerk is right though, eventually, like any analogy, the comparison is overcome by these things and breaks down, but I think the exercise BROPHY started, of identifying a "standard" of footwork, isolating the QB's responses to pressure, and delivery time and location with the mechanics, independent of the catch, gives us a chance to have great discussion about two guys' ability to play. I think that would be how we typically decide which QB in our offense plays?
Either way, I know Rex won't be playing this weekend, because he hasn't gotten it done according to Lovie's standard.
And when it all goes the heck...tog is right...RUN THE ISO!