Coach to Coach

* Getting more done in less time is always a great model for success.

Be organized and get the most out of your time with your players and staff. Wasted time is one thing that you can never get back. I have worked with coaches that must have had a different watch than I did. 3:30 meant 4:00 and a one-hour meeting always meant two hours. The one thing that all of us have in common is that we each have 24 hours in each day.
I read recently that 25% of American workers spend up to two hours a day, while on the clock, engaged in personal business online. The estimated cost is 200 billion to American corporations. In short, American workers are costing our economy billions of dollars by wasting time. The estimate is only considering internet use. No extended lunches, cell phone talks or text messaging time was calculated. Can you imagine what we could do if we managed our time better? The same goes for coaching.

One of my pet peeves is watching players stand around. I want our kids getting reps, I want them engaged in what we are doing. Take a look at your typical practice plan (I hope that you have organized practice plans for your coaching staff every practice) and see if there are areas that can be better managed. The attention span of an average teenage boy is around 30 minutes. Add a helmet, shoulder pads, humidity and heat and that span is about ten minutes. Capture your players’ attention, find a creative way to teach and then drill – but don’t kill it! Players know when we are not organized or when our practices or meetings lack specific direction.

Our staff plans each session for the week during our Sunday meetings. Every drill and team period is organized with our 3T’s motto in mind: technique, tempo, tenacity. We concentrate on driving home one or two main points. Team time is organized by scripting plays that simulate game situations, drill periods have a specific technique that we focus on and then we move on. I want our kids and staff to move, stay active and be interested in what we are doing. Make a commitment to being a great time manager. Be prompt and use your time together wisely. You will find that your staff and players will get more out of each session if they know that you are organized and that you value their time.

* Coaching is a lot like golf. There is always room for improvement.

I love the quote by the late John Wooden, “It’s the stuff we learn after we know it all that really matters.” Study other coaches who have been successful, and those who have not, and learn from their path. I would suggest that you find a football mentor. Talk with them openly and honestly and be able to receive their feedback and constructive criticism without getting defensive. Read a book by a great coach and apply what you learn to your life. Study great leaders outside of football and see what is applicable to your style of coaching. Being a great coach is so much more than knowing X’s and O’s. Learn from others who have been there and done it and you will be a better coach.

I recently spent some time with a friend who is also a high school coach. I asked him how things were going with his new team and new head coach. The report was not very good. One of the things that he was struggling with was that the new head coach at his school “knew everything, or at least he thought he did.” Knowing everything is a sign of a coach who is headed for trouble.

Coaching is a great profession filled with some great people. All of us are ultra-competitive but most of us are willing to share everything we have and know with complete strangers. The fact that every year thousands of coaches attend clinics and buy educational material is a testament to our quest to know more. A few years ago I spent three thousand dollars to fly my staff and I to San Diego for a week to attend a clinic. I sat in several great sessions and took a lot of notes. When I got home and evaluated what fit into our plans, I realized that most of what I learned would have to be applied at a later time. I did, however, install one run concept that I liked. Over the course of the following 11-1 season, we used that concept to score eleven touchdowns and average over nine yards per carry on that play. After the season, I told one of my assistants that the three thousand I spent was a real bargain and I meant it. If you love the game of football and love coaching, you will never get tired of being a student. Sometimes you will be the professor, but being a great coach means never being satisfied with what you know.

* Never forget why you coach.

I recently read a quote by a well-known football coach who made this statement at his retirement news conference.”My best days were when we won and my second best days were when we lost.” No, he did not like to lose, but he sure loved to coach. With the extreme pressure that all of us coaches are under it is easy to forget why we first started coaching.
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to coach in a local high school all-star football game. Thirty players from different schools and our football staff moved into dorm rooms for two weeks to prepare for an August game. One of the young men on our team had enlisted in the military and would ship out to boot camp shortly after the game. He was an undersized defensive lineman who was the type of person that you knew, immediately after meeting, was a special person. Over the next two weeks, he formed a close bond with the coaches and players on our squad. The head coach rewarded his efforts by making him a team captain and he rewarded us by playing a big role in a great win. Our coaching staff had no idea what kind of impact that we had made in just two weeks. Several months later, however, a horrible event would bring to light just how special our team and our head coach had become.

Shortly after being deployed overseas, our all-star captain was killed by a terrorist attack in his barracks. The news was devastating to all of us. There were only a handful of people asked to speak at the emotional funeral and a football coach who coached him in one game and knew him for only a few months was one of them.

In a short amount of time both the coach and this gifted young man had impacted each other in a dramatic way. Remember that we make a difference in the lives of our players. We should never take one day on the gridiron for granted. Wins and losses will come and go, but the love of the game and for our players trumps all of that. The world needs great men to mold and lead future great men. Hopefully we never forget that’s why we coach.