As anyone who has ever coached knows, finding the right buttons to push with each group of kids to get them to a high level mentally, is just as important as X and O's. Along that vein, you sometimes need to know when you are pushing certain buttons too much and recognizing when it is you and not the kids that need to do something different.
After our solid showing in the scrimmage, three of the first four practices this week were mediocre at best. We really stressed staying humble and focused after a good showing against the JV and hammering into them that there is still a lot to do. There is nothing wrong with that approach, but I think we were getting too wrapped up in it.
After a poor practice Monday we were a little hard on the kids and stressed that they needed to remain focused to reach their potential, push themselves harder etc, etc. They do have the potential to be one of our best Freshmen classes ever and the initial mistake was probably telling them that. That mistake was probably compounded with repeating the message about focus, effort, potential, in various forms ad nauseum after lackluster practices Tuesday and Wednesday and a better, but still not consistent practice Thursday.
I thought about things a lot Thursday night and realized that we as coaches had gotten too wrapped up in how good this group can be and as a consequence had gotten feeling pressure they should not be feeling. We have bonded well with these kids, they still are trying hard and still have a great attitude......Despite all that, there were times they looked slow, confused and on a couple of occasions just plain flat. Sure it is hot (102 - 110 degrees during most of our practice) and there are lots of kids so the reps are not as frequent (Which helps keep tempo up) but those were not sole culprits.
I realized this because our scout teams were flying around just fine, making life miserable at times for our 1's and 2's on offense and occasionally busting a big play on our defense. We can put some pretty talented kids on scout due to our depth and that is part of it, but more than that our scout kids were just playing Football and having fun. They weren't feeling pressure to be precise, we merely lined them up in our first opponents schemes and turned them loose. I was a little upset with myself that after 20+ years of doing this, I hadn't realized sooner that we had needlessly burdened the kids with too many expectations. More than the heat, scout teams and boredom that sets in after 3 weeks of hitting each other, it was we as coaches that were making the kids slow and sloppy at times because they wre thinking too much and trying too hard to live up to expectations they should never have been aware of.
Over the years I have rarely talked about winning and records and all the end result stuff. I have always been heavy on effort, passion and love of the game. If you have talent, teach good technique and implement sound schemes the results take care of themselves. Why the hell would we change a good formula that has always worked well for us just because we have a special feeling about this group? Because sometimes as coaches we are stupid!
Today I talked to the kids before practice and told them to forget all about 9-0, about how good they could be and about potential. I explained Football is simple. You play with a fire, you run, block, tackle and most of all have fun. The only game that matters is the next one and when that game comes all that matters is that you play with paasion and leave it all on field.....for nobody but yourselves and your teammates. After meetings, instead of letting the kids walk to the field as they got ready in small clusters, we made them wait and took the field 2 by 2 as a team, the same way we do on game day.
Once practice started we were upbeat, energetic and made it a point to keep the kids loose. Big shocker that we had our best practice in over a week!! The line was quick off the ball, the backs decisive and the defense aggressive. Our scout team still busted their butts, but their big plays were few and far between as we consistently moved the ball well and were lights out on defense, especially during our goaline period.
The difference after practice was noticeable as well. Kids wanted to go more, they were more excited than they had been all week and all of them left the field with smiles.....the heat, pain and exhaustion suddenly didn't seem to matter at all.
We gave them the week end off and will have one full pads practice Monday, a light contact walkthrough Tuesday and then it is game time. I finally have complete confidence we will be ready to get after it and the Kids feel it too and it showed in their body language.
Sometimes the buttons you don't push make all the difference. I can't wait for Wednesday!
