The great thing about college
football is that you get to choose your own players through recruiting. A team
can add players up to the 14th day of school; at that point the
roster is set. It is a coach’s job to prepare the athletes to be confident in
what they are trying to accomplish on the field. Preparation equals confidence;
athletes prepare during the off-season in strength, speed and agility work. At
the end of 8-10 week off-season cycle, the athletes are tested in the areas of
strength and speed. Every player wants
to know how much bigger, faster, and stronger they have gotten during the
off-season grind. For athletes who do not reach their conditioning goals the
coaches have two options – build them up or tear them down. My coaching philosophy is that athletes
should be ‘coached up’.
Assume a great defensive back
runs a 40-yard dash in the 4.3 to 4.5 range.
If this same athlete is tested at the end of an off-season cycle at a
4.6 he is going to feel slow
intrinsically. This is where confidence comes into play, if he feels slow he’s
going to play slow.
Numbers don’t
always tell the truth, there are great skill position players that don’t
necessarily have the fastest 40 dash times – yet they are great players. If the
athlete has great hips, balance and a dedication to his trade nothing will stop
him for performing on the field except lack of confidence. A coach must ‘coach
up’ a player otherwise he has failed to prepare that player through practice
and motivation. Recruit good players and then coach them to believe in themself
as well as believe in the coach in driving them to achieve greatness.
I believe this is a great topic because it shows that athletes don’t have to be the fastest or strongest to get the job done. Many coaches, when recruiting, choose those athletes that are high performers in every area all they need is a little help to be great. The best athletes in my opinion are the ones that are coachable and can be coached to any position on the playing field. It is the coaches job to teach or “coach up” this player to know and learn all there is about the position they will be playing and as always the fundamentals so that it is done right from the beginning. Coaches should be able to break the game down into pieces so that it is understandable how the position should be played, and be able to provide that motivation for the athlete to get where they should be at the end of the day, week, month, or season.
ReplyDeleteI believe that as a coach your main goals should be to teach players how to play the game and to create an environment where every player has an opportunity to succeed. Players see his or her coach as “the expert”, thus, they are going to listen and do whatever the coach says, hoping to get better and help the team out. Therefore, coaches should believe in those players that may not have the best skills or “numbers” but are the most dedicated and consistent on what they do; because more than often they are also the ones who care the most about the team and will do anything to be a “game-changer”.
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