M. B. S.

At Wagner College we encourage our guys to think of football as a total body experience. We teach 3 components of the athlete; The “MIND”, The “BODY and The “SOUL.”

The Mind is just as important to condition as the body. So often as coaches we say, “Be Mentally Strong!” However; we fail at times to condition the mind as we condition our muscles. Our football

program practices techniques to help condition the mind.

“Situation Mental Recall”  - A verbal recall and description of the previous down and distance, formation, and play. This gives the athlete a visual in their mind of what /how the offense is trying to execute. Therefore, allowing the athlete to make the necessary adjustments throughout the game. Another technique, “Clear The Mechanism” - This help athletes clear their minds of any mistakes that may occur during a game. Last but least, “Kick Rocks” - The perfect play with 1 attempt which helps the athlete focus and commit to executing 1 play at a time.

The Body is the one component that is most recognizable. This is also the only component that is tangible. Many players can see when their bodies change for good or bad. Negative attributes, such as strength and speed, are gauges for what needs improvement. If we are bigger, stronger, faster, we can become a better football player. However, improving the body is more then strength and speed. We stretch just as much as we run or lift. This keeps the body and muscles limber and flexible, which will prevent pulls, tears and breaks. Preventing major injuries to an athlete is our primary goal; however, it is naive and irresponsible to think that injuries will not occur.

Your Soul is a extension of your character, and your character is the determining factor on how you handle injures, success, and disappointment. We make a conscious effort to have our student athletes think about what’s their purpose, and what they have to offer the university and the football team. Our program encourages acknowledging spirituality, with a unified belief in a greater good. Spirituality is often connected with “GOD”. However, spirituality is where character begins to take shape and becomes the strength that keeps our athletes productive through adversity on and off the field.

As a program we continue to find ways to increase physical, mental, and spiritual recovery from adversity, pain, and success.

M.B.S

Reset the Mind

SITUATION MENTAL RECALL

Situation Mental Recall: Watching film of your opponent is a major part of college football. Therefore, how players watch film is just as important as what they are watching. Every Thursday during positional meetings, we watch 6 of the opponent’s most successful offensive drives. Every player gets an opportunity to recall the situation of an offensive drive - down and distance, formation and play. It’s important to allow the film to run naturally. This helps with the pressure off their mental clock as well as encouraging them to see more than the defensive call during a game. Also, it helps mentally remind them of the opponent’s tendencies during the game. While recalling formations, I have other players tell me the opponent’s “Run / Pass” tendencies.  If a drive extends more then two first downs, we sub to the next player.

CLEAR THE MECHANISM

Clear The Mechanism: in the movie “For The Love of The Game” Kevin Costner played a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers.  In this particular scène he is pitching in Yankee Stadium amongst 57,000 fans. As he warms up on the mound, several fans start to heckle him, but before he throws his first pitch he says to himself, “Clear The Mechanism”. Afterwards, all of the noise and heckling of 57,000 became silent. The only thing in his eyesite was the batter, umpire and strike zone. We adopted this saying to remind us “Play the Next Play”. However, we incorporated a green / white button to nurture the process of “playing the next play”. Every player takes a green or white button and puts it anywhere on their uniform. The buttons are no bigger than an inch. Some players tape it to their wrist, shoulder pads, pants pads, or even put it in their sock. The only instruction on taking a button is that you tap it whenever you find yourself thinking about anything other then “playing the next play”. This helps players mentally overcome some of their physical mistakes, such as missed tackles, and dropped balls. “Clearing The Mechanism” will also allow you as a coach to not over coach mistakes and help you “coach the next play”. 

KICK ROCKS

Kick Rocks:  This is our last scout team period in practice. We rep 15 plays during this period. Whatever the situation or emphasis during this period, each group has one attempt to out-execute the scout team. During this period every coach is watching for communication, alignment, assignment, and most of all, effort. If one person on the defense doesn’t perform to the standard, the entire group runs half a lap until their next opportunity. This exercise emphasizes how important it is for 11 people all doing their job and giving maximum effort. 75% of our big plays came from lack of communication, alignment, assignment, and effort. Due to offenses creating a fast pace style, it is critical for your defensive guys to understand it only takes one play to become 6 points.

M.B.S

Stretch for Best

STRETCH SETS

Many programs use the off season to improve on physical measurables like the 40 time, bench press, squat, and power clean. These core lifts help the production of a football player. However, there are other components of the body that we also want to enhance. Stretching can help improve flexibility. Better flexibility may improve performance in physical activities while decreasing risk of injuries by helping your joints move through their full range of motion. We lift in mornings in groups of 2 or 3, four times a week -Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We encompass stretching in our off-season program every Wednesday morning before or after breakfast. Each group gets a foam roller and exercise bands (picture below).

R Ham Stretch straight leg up 30 sec hold

R Ham Stretch straight leg out to the side 30sec hold

R Ham Stretch straight leg across the body 30 sec hold

R Ham Stretch knee to arm pit 30sec hold

R Hip Stretch figure 4 30 sec hold

R Hip Stretch Figure 4 Knee across the body 30sec hold

R Leg Traction 5 sec hold

L Ham Stretch straight leg up 30 sec hold

L Ham Stretch straight leg out to the side 30sec hold

L Ham Stretch straight leg across the body 30sec hold

L Ham Stretch knee to arm pit 30 sec hold

L Hip Stretch Figure 4 30 sec hold

L Hip Stretch Figure 4 knee across the body 30 sec hold

L Leg Traction 5 sec hold

Butterfly 12" from body push down the knee 30 sec hold

Butterfly as tight as they can push down knee 30 sec hold

Low back stretch 30 sec hold

R Quad stretch 20 sec hold

R Hip flexer stretch, hold hip on ground and raise knee up 20 sec hold

R Hip ROM 3 rotations moving the knee to same side arm pit

L Quad stretch 20 sec hold

L Hip flexer stretch, hold hip on ground and raise knee up 20 sec hold

L Hip ROM 3 rotations moving the knee to same side arm pit

M.B.S

Spirituality & Success

Faith & Belief:

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see

Hebrew 11:1

In 2012, we accomplished our first ever conference title along with a birth to the NCAA FCS playoffs. However, our season began with tough loses to FAU 7-3, Georgetown 13-10, and a terrible conference lost to Monmouth 38-14. Starting the season 0-3 allows coaches and players to second guess everything you are doing. The most interesting thing about our 0-3 start was our players! They came out the next week and practiced even harder.  

Their faith and belief in each other was the substance of our team’s success. The football team started 0-3 and then isgoing to play Central Connecticut State, a team who won 2 of the last 4 conference titles. Furthermore, Central Conn St also started the season off with an 0-3 record. With both teams looking at an opportunity to win their first game of the season, our defensive bus had an accident on a Brooklyn highway. As we waited in “Chinatown” for another bus to pick the defense up, the offensive bus is 2 ½ hours ahead. During the wait our defensive players never complained, and one could argue they had every reason to complain. Instead, they continued to listen to music and watch their movies. We arrived to the stadium 45 minutes before kick-off.  As the defensive coordinator, I wasn't sure how our guys were going to respond. So I reminded them of the pre-game message, (Hebrew 12) “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, which so easily breaks us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The last words I said to our defense was “Believe in each other and control what you can control - your attitude and effort”. We won the game 31-13 and continued on a 9 game winning streak.