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Coach to Coach: Making Your Off-Season Count, Part II

by: Bryon Hamilton
Head Coach, Foothill High School, Palo Cedro (CA)
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Last month, I wrote about some simple steps in evaluating a season that does not meet expectations. I touched on a few of the areas that I feel are critical in assessing these types of seasons. The areas include communication, off season training programs and evaluating returning players’ strengths and weaknesses and adjusting schemes accordingly. But what about the seasons that exceed our expectations? The seasons when things went right. Seasons when players and coaches came together to produce excellent results. 

    As coaches, we must dissect and evaluate the reasons for success with the same vigor and resolve as we did the unsuccessful season. When success is achieved, it is easy to fall into the trap of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. To some extent that is true, but I like the following quote by Robert Collier “The great successful men of the world have used their imagination. They think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building - steadily building.” Even after success, we must continue to build, adjust and strive to do things better. 

    The only difference between evaluating the reasons that we are successful as opposed to when we are not is the removal of the critic’s voice echoing in our ear. Upon the completion of a season of success, I ask the following questions of myself. Were the results simply a case of an improvement in talent? Or were there factors not as obvious that made the difference? My experience leads me to believe that even though talent plays a huge role in success, it is certainly only one of the many factors that produce seasons that exceed expectations. 

    In my coaching tenure, I have had teams loaded with talent that have achieved less than what they were capable of  and others that lacked great talent but achieved great things. In evaluating exceptional seasons, I find that several underlying ingredients are always present. These ingredients are numerous but I want to share the four that I think are the most vital. 

Work Ethic  

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”   - Vince Lombardi

    Every coach stresses the fact that success requires hard work. Even though all players and coaches would agree with this premise, for better or for worse, teams develop their own personality and identity in this area.

    At Foothill High School, we are fortunate to have a very good strength coach. His work in the weight room allows me to observe our players in the early months of each new season. I can tell within a few days what our team’s natural identity will be in the area of their work ethic. Without fail, my teams who achieve the greatest success on the field have a great work ethic off the field. 

    One of the strategies that I utilize to set the standard in this area each year is to put our hardest working players in charge of lifting and conditioning groups regardless of their status on the playing field. Hard work is contagious and unfortunately so is laziness. As a coach, it is vital to our success that I identify the hard workers early on and allow them to mold the identity of our team in this area. 

    If you are looking to improve your team’s success on the field, identify players on your roster who best model the work ethic you would like your team to possess. Allow those players to set the tone and to lead by example. Let the other players around them catch their enthusiasm and reward those who do with prominent roles on your team. 
 
Highly Competitive Players  

“Besides winning, [the most fun thing is] getting out there and mixing it up with friends; it’s the competition.”  - Al Unser Jr. 

    What if I locked you and your friends in a gym, threw you a couple of basketballs, said I would be back in an hour to let you out but gave the instruction that you could not play any games and that no competition would be allowed? I have a feeling that you would be counting down the minutes until the door was opened and you could leave. But if I instructed you to choose teams, play any game you want but keep score and upon my return a “champion”  would be crowned, I would be willing to bet that you and your friends would ask me to extend the time, to allow just “one more game” or “one  more shot”  to determine the champions for that day. Why? Because successful people love to compete! 

    Competition is fun. Teams that exceed expectations are full of players and coaches who love to compete and hate to lose. As a head coach, I try to build competition into every aspect of our team’s preparation. We compete when we lift weights. We race when we run. We keep score during 7-on-7 drills, during goal line challenge periods, during 3rd down periods, etc. We end practice by playing crazy games where the winners get out of conditioning and the losers pay a price. The kids love it and it keeps things exciting. No one wants to just “shoot”. They want to play and compete. 

    Teams that win consistently are teams that compete and try to win on every play. On successful teams, the coaches and players understand that the game of football is made up of 60-70 individual games and competitions and they strive to win every one of them. Successful teams are filled with competitive people and as coaches we can help develop a competitive attitude among our players by incorporating competition into their daily lives.   
 
Intelligent Players

 “Ambition without Intelligence is a bird without wings. “
- Salvador Dali

    Great teams are filled with smart players. As a coach, you have undoubtedly been witness to players who have possessed less talent than their peers but achieved greater success due to their intelligence.  As I write this article, the best team in the NFL is the New England Patriots. There is no doubt that they have talented players. But would you say that they are the most talented team? An evaluation of their roster would say otherwise. Many football experts agree that they have the most intelligent coach and one of the most intelligent quarterbacks. As a matter of fact, the Belichick and Brady combination are second in all-time wins achieved by a player-coach combo in football history.

    It’s just not the coach and the quarterback who possess great mental skills. Many of the Patriot players (take Wes Welker, for example) would be listed as over-achievers who employ brains over brawn. The Patriots are a great example of what role intelligence can have in making a good team great. I constantly strive to increase the football knowledge of our entire team. I think it’s important that we take the time to do that. As I often say (and write), the fastest way to become a better player (and team) is to become a smarter player.
 
Great Team Leadership 

“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”  - Vince Lombardi 

    The key ingredient that has been present without fail in all of my successful teams is the presence of great team leaders. As the head coach, being a good leader is vitally important, but having players who lead in positive ways is equally important. I am convinced that excellent leadership can be developed. As coaches, we spend countless hours in efforts to improve our schemes and physically build our players. However, I would suggest that we should spend a good amount of time developing leaders on our team and within our entire program. There is a ton of material available as well as football and sports clinics that deal primarily in this area. There are also countless books on the subject. One of my favorites is “The Winners Manual for the Game of Life” by Jim Tressel, Head Coach at Ohio State University. It has been my experience that teams that achieve great success always have great team leadership. 

    2010 was one of those seasons where my team exceeded my expectations. We finished with a 10-2 record, won a conference title, beat both of our cross-town rivals, won in the playoffs and eventually made it to the NSCIF Championship game. Not only did we win, but our young players on offense increased our scoring average by 17 points per game and our inexperienced secondary set a school record with 21 INTs in a single season.  

    If you, too, had a great season, take the time to evaluate the reasons behind your success. Take inventory of the crucial components and keep them close by. If you coach long enough, you will undoubtedly experience seasons of great success and others that don’t meet your expectations. You can learn a great deal from each and both circumstances will make you a better coach if you allow them to.  






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