Hello Football Fans,
This is CoachD on behalf of the California Football Coaches Association. Today I am going to give an introduction to coaching football.
Coaches have a deep impact on the lives of our youth. As coaches, we have quite a few responsibilities more than just teaching the X’s & O’s of the sport. We determine the kind of experience our athletes have while participating in sports. We serve as role models and mentors in teaching, not only football, but life skills as well. Of course we want to strive to win, but we also want to the players to learn life lessons and positive character traits from sports. It is a huge responsibility, but serving our youth is also one of the most rewarding as well. Whatever we do, we must do it with class, dignity, poise, respect and always in control. We must all have fun and ensure everyone participates in a physically and psychologically safe environment. But most important, we must teach ways to help them develop as football players, good citizens and productive members of society. To do this, we must create a positive learning environment.
One of the greatest aspects of coaching is the connection and impact we have on the lives of our athletes. What a great opportunity for us to help young people develop and be close to a game that we enjoyed playing. We must find a way for each player on our team to contribute and recognize him for his efforts. We must ensure the last player on the depth chart has a reason to feel pride and experience a sense of accomplishment. It is important that “late maturers” receive the same skill instruction as the more experienced players, because those who mature late will often outgrow the “early maturers” in high school.
As I said earlier, a 6 year old won’t be able to understand or learn the game of football as well as a senior in high school. A freshman who has never played football before won’t have the experience or knowledge of someone who has played youth football for a few years. Unfortunately, some coaches don’t take the time to teach everyone the game, they figure they will teach to the fortunate few who have experience and hope the inexperienced kids come along. They forget that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
I was at a football clinic one weekend and a college coach was talking to a bunch of high school and youth coaches. He said at his college (a Division I team, recently ranked high enough for a BCS berth) their philosophy is to “Hug ‘em up & coach ‘em up”. He went on to explain that even college athletes on scholarship need to be coached up, taught the basics and need to feel like a valuable and contributing member of their team. He added that it was even more so on the high school and youth levels. And finally he told us “INEXPERIENCE DOES NOT MEAN INABILITY”. He explained that we would get kids with different levels of experience. And just because they don’t have as much experience, right now that we are searching for, we shouldn’t give up on them because at some point, if given that experience, they will be able to contribute just like anyone else.
I firmly believe in this concept. As a Physical Education teacher for nearly 20 years, I can’t tell you how many great athletes I have had in my classes that were not playing sports because of coaches. Sometimes they were so physically small, that a coach cut them just because of their size. Some of them may have been too young to play and were never given a chance. It’s a shame to see a 6’4” 230 lb sophomore who tears it up in my PE classes that will not go out for football (or any other sport) because when he was younger a coach didn’t give him a chance. I think what is the biggest shame is that many coaches don’t look at the big picture, they only look at the here and now. By that I mean, kids physically and mentally mature at different rates. Some of the superstars in youth sports are kids who matured earlier and who dominate the undeveloped kids. Their smaller, less skilled backups end up quitting the sport and never returning. But throughout the years, they begin to mature, physically and mentally, and surpass the previous youth superstar. The problem is, nobody will know about it.
When I was in 6th grade, we had a boy in our class who was 5’8” tall and growing facial hair. He was a man amongst boys, athletically. But soon, the rest of us started growing while he was at his peak. In high school, he could no longer compete with our size because he had capped out in 6th grade.
A buddy of mine entered high school at 5’1” 103 lbs. He graduated 6’2” 195 lbs.
I had a boy on my youth team that years earlier was always the dominant player. He was a superior athlete in elementary school, older than others in his class and light weight so he could always play down in youth football. His parents loved his domination even though he was a 6th grader playing against 4th & 5th graders. When I got him as an 8th grader, he and his parents had the superstar mentality, already talking about college scholarships and Pro Bowl appearances. He was 5’6” and 135lbs. By then, the others on the team and league were starting to catch up to him physically. He could no longer outrun or overrun everyone. He started getting injured a lot, running away from the bigger guys. He didn’t finish the last third of our season because of injuries. He tried out for freshman football, but by then everyone had caught up to him and he was no longer the dominant force he used to be. Of course, to this day he is still the same size and the parents still blame the coaches for not making him a star. Sad, sad editorial to say the least.
I had a high school quarterback who had started his entire career in youth football (his dad was his coach). I always thought the backup QB was the better QB, but I wasn’t the QB coach or offensive Coordinator and I always believe as a Head Coach, let the assistants do their job. But after a behavior/attitude problem with the starting QB, we were forced to start the backup QB the next game. To everyone’s surprise except my own, he performed brilliantly. The next week we had a QB controversy. We started the original QB, he put us in a hole, and we went with the backup QB in the 2nd half who pulled us out of a 3-touchdown deficit to win the game. He started the rest of the year. The original starter was never really happy playing Free Safety for us (he and the other QB switched spots) the remainder of the year and his dad tried unsuccessfully to get me fired (my Principal and Superintendent saw through the dad and backed me up).
In my next blog, I will be talking about coaching your own kids.
As always, please let me know what you think about this and any other article. You can contact me at: coachd@calfootballcoaches.com.
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