Special Teams

It seems that all too often in football we spend 3 or 4 days a week practicing offense and defense and then the day before our game we spend 1 hour on covering kick off, kick off return, punt, punt return, PAT, PAT block, and feild goals. The reason why we don't spend enough time on special teams is that we do not understand their importance.

Let me break it down real simple:
When you control special teams you control field position.
When you control field position you win the game.

One of the difficulties we face when coaching special teams is a lack of player interest unless they get to touch the ball. There are different ways to adress this, of which 2 are:

1. It must be important to you as a coach before it will ever become important for the player. Show a special interest in your special teams perhaps by allocating more time to them. (For example University of Hawaii starts and finishes every practice with a special teams drill)
   
2. Provide an incentive. Come up with a rewards system or special recognitions for those who don't get the spotlight of touching the ball.

Here are some sights to learn more on the special teams coaching techniques:

• Rewards System
  
  



• Special Teams Clinics
  
  



• Drills and Plays
  
  



• University of Hawaii

Fitzgerald-ism

More and more today we see players trying to outdo each other not with level of skill but with end zone dances, trash talk, and show boatin'. Its tainting the image of our American sport. Take Terrell Owens for example, a great receiver and competitor but he can not let a game pass with out making headlines in an obnoxious way. Then there's Chad Johnson who has recently changed his name to Chad "Ocho- Cinco" in honor of his glorious number, who is also a great receiver.
In contrast one of the best players in the league Larry Fitzgerald does his talking with his undeniably reliable play. I can remember when I first watched Fitzgerald play when he was at the University of Pittsburgh. Initially I was impressed with his ability to catch anything that came near him but what struck me the most and has stayed with me through out the years was his conduct in between plays. I noticed that he would run quickly to and from the huddle. Upon finishing a play, no matter how big or small, he would promptly run to the nearest official and hand him the ball. There was never any talking or dancing, just classy, professional, competition.
Let us promote and exemplify this Fitzgerald-ism to our players that we may restore class through the old saying "Do your talking with your actions".

Coaching Philosophy

Recently I have been taking a look at my own coaching philosophy and I found it interesting to compare it with philosophies of other coaches that I could find online. First of all there seems to be some confusion between the deffinition of philosophy and strategy.

Philosophy: The rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct. (Dictionary.com)

Strategy: A plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result. (Dictionary.com)

Too many times while I was researching "philosophies" did I find something that resembled a strategy. I am convinced that to be successful in coaching it will take more than strategy, it will require an understanding of how to influence our players. I found it well put by Mike Singletary in this article on Suite 101.com when he said "If anyone would ask me what coaching really means, it's not really about winning. It's not really about Xs and Os. All of those things go into it, but it's about influence." Another quote from the article is "And the truly great coaches know how to influence not only the plays that are called on the field, but the minds and hearts of the players executing those plays."

Take a look at your coaching "philosophy" (if you have one, if you don't, work on one!) and make sure it doesn't get lost in strategy.

Here are some links that offer good advice on coaching philosophies:

• Suite 101.com
  
• University of Texas of the Permian Basin
  
• Sports Performance Coaching

"If you don’t have a distinct philosophy, then you haven’t decided what’s important to you. And if you don’t know what’s important then you won’t be able to tell your coaches or athletes what’s important. If they don’t know what your philosophy is, then they can’t be held accountable when they screw it up."- Pete Carroll (Sports Performance Coaching)

Touchdown Tuesday

An ode to one of the greatest offensive players of our generation, Reggie Bush.

Assistant Coaches

So we don't jump straight to head coach we have to work our way up right? How much are we going to get paid along the way? Here's a few numbers from Market Power:

• In 2000, N.C. State got a lot of attention for building one of the first $1 million staffs, and remember that's spread over nine men.


• The nine Missouri assistant coaches will earn a collective $1,451,396 this year.


• The average Big 12 coaching staff, not including the head coach, earned $1,394,491 in base salary last year.


• The league average ranked second only to the Southeastern Conference ($1,425,130) among the six major conferences.

Incentive

As if doing what you love and coaching the sport you live for wasn't incentive enough how about the fact that "Head coaches at the NCAA's top-level schools are making an average of $950,000 this year, not counting benefits, incentives, subsidized housing or any of the perks they routinely receive. At least 42 of the 119 Division I-A coaches are earning $1 million or more this year, up from five in 1999." That's a quote from USA Today's article tittled "Million-Dollar Coaches Move into Mainstream."

The article covers the pros and cons of this growing pay scale for head coaches. As far as I can see, there are only pros for those of us who have this as our goal in life. As I have mentioned in past posts the road ahead of each one of us is a road of hard work and sacrifice. But as we see in this article, if we gamble and head down this road with all our might the pay off will be worth it.

Read the article and see what you think:

Here's a related article: The Money Game

Football Drills

As you prepare this summer you will want to fill your practice plans with the most current and effecient drills. Here are some links to football drills on video for each position:


1. Defense:

• Defensive line

• Linebackers

• Defensive backs
  

2. Offense:

• Offensive line

• Running backs

• Quaterbacks

• Receivers

Coaching Clinics

It is important to know that clinics are not free. Most clinics will last 1 to 3 days and will range from $50 to $200 dollars depending on who is putting it on and the caliber of guest speakers on the agenda. You can usually receive group rates when you attend with your coaching staff.

Generally clinics run between the months of January and April. So plan ahead because many offer discounts for registering early. We also need to understand that there are clinics that may cover nearly all aspects of coaching while others are extremely specific and focus on one facet like running backs, line backers, lineman, or offensive strategies. So plan your clinic attendance based on what your weaknesses are and what clinics will address them most specifically.

Here are some clinic providers and there rates:
(Click on them to see their individual websites)

• Frank Glazier Clinics 2 -3 days $200
  


• USA Football Schools 1 day $50
  


• Nike Coach of the Year Clinics 1 day $60-$95
  


• Coaching Clinic international 3 days $65-$85

Advancements in Coaching

Today my Father-in-law was inducted into the Coaching Hall of Fame at the Highschool where he has coached various sports for the past 25-30 years. Obviously he has had great success in his career and as I've been coming to know him better one of the things I have enjoyed most is sitting and picking his brain on coaching and sports in general. There is one piece of advice that he has offered me that I consider very valuable in advancing in coaching. He said "The coaches that I have seen continue to higher levels are the coaches that attend as many clinics as possible. First" he added " you learn more and grow as a coach by learning from other successful coaches. Second you are networking with them also; a lot of this business is who you know"

I recently read a testimonial from a Professional Coach in a career advising journal that said "Sometimes I went to 15 or 20 clinics a year. The hard work paid off... If you think you might like to coach professionally some day, you must be willing to pay your dues. I would recommend that coaches in high school go to as many clinics and training camps as they possibly can."