5 Idiotic Statements Football Coaches and Parents Make

by Coach Curtis Peterson
Strong Football.com

Yep, I said it. These statements are idiotic. Not that you’re an idiot if you’ve said them at some point.  I know I have from time to time, but there is most definitely a clearer way to get the point across to the players. Usually that way tells the player the solution too, where as these statements do not.

1) “Block Somebody!”

The most dreaded statement every offensive line coach can hear. I’ve heard defensive coaches say this before and I want to literally kick them in the face. Block who? How do you know the back didn’t go the wrong way or the QB didn’t boot the wrong way.  This actually happened.  Everyone went one way, the QB went the opposite, and the OL still got boo’d. Couldn’t be anymore obvious who was in the wrong too!

Saying “block somebody” doesn’t tell the kids anything. It frustrates and confuses them. Thoughts could include, “Block who?” or “Well, they must be talking about him b/c I blocked somebody”.

Here’s the problem, the guy who was wrong probably did block somebody, the wrong somebody, or he used bad technique. Instead, when the kid is on the sidelines, tell him details.

For instance, if the center didn’t block back on Power, you could say, “You’ve got to block down, not out b/c the guard is pulling. You’re also standing up, you need more bend in your legs.”

Instead of simply yelling because you’re frustrated, use your eyes and know the scheme. If you can’t or don’t have the ability to do both of those statements, please shut up.

What’s The Most Important Thing You Teach (Part 3)

You see it all the time: offensive linemen watching the play instead of finishing their blocks.  The result is generally unfavorable for the offense.

As an O-line coach, I cringe at the sight, especially if the o-linemen in question are kids I coach.  I don’t expect to see it with my kids because I spend so much time teaching them to finish their blocks.  For me, after 3-point stance and form tackling, it is the third most important thing I teach and the first most
important thing I want my linemen to learn.

In my approach to teaching O-line play, there are three phases to a drive block:

— the initial contact
— the stalemate
— and the finish

I know of other line coaches who break it down even further but for my purposes and at the level I’m coaching, three phases makes it understandable to my kids.

What’s The Most Important Thing You Teach? (Part 2)

Lead with the shoulder.

I recently read an article in which the author asked if form tackling is overrated.  His question piqued my interest because how many times do you really see a perfect form tackle performed in a youth football game?  Heck, how many times do you see it in any game, regardless of level?

Most tackles are made in the heat of the moment by grabbing any part of the ball carrier to bring him down.  It’s rare that you see a kid break down into a perfect stance before making a perfect form tackle.  Everything is moving too fast and furious while the basic geometry of the game creates too many angles for that to happen.

So why spend an inordinate amount of time at practice perfecting it if we don’t see it on game day?  We have four reasons why we choose to spend extra time each day at practice on the science of tackling even though it is hit-or-miss come Saturday.

When Kids Quit – Part 2

Everything can change with a phone call.

Five minutes of conversation and beliefs I held to be true for years were unraveled.   Probably forever.

The phone call in question came from the President of our association.  He told me that he had reinstated the two players who quit during last Saturday’s game.

His reason, he said, was that they were kids.   12 and 13 year old kids who made a mistake.   A big mistake, for sure, but dismissing them from the team was, in his opinion, an even bigger mistake.

When Kids Quit…

We lost big time this past Saturday and to a team we should have beaten.

We lost because we played like we practiced: poorly.  We practiced poorly because we were full of ourselves.  The previous Saturday we had
upset a top team in our conference – a team much more talented than us — so that when we came up against our next opponent – a team that hadn’t won a game — we didn’t think we had to work hard.  It would be, we thought, an easy win.

We thought wrong.

Getting beaten is one thing.  That’s when you give your best effort but your opponent is simply a better team or more lucky.  In either case, there is no shame; just disappointment.  Losing badly, though, is something else entirely.  That’s when you don’t prepare to win and you don’t give your best effort and, as a consequence, you’re an embarrassment to yourselves.

What’s the Most Important Thing You Teach? (Part 1)

In terms of technique, what do you think are the most important things you teach your kids?  I’ll pause to give you time to consider your answer.

Time’s up.

For me, it’s a simple question to answer when I consider that I’m not only preparing my kids for game day but for competition at the next level.  The next level for my kids is high school.  So, in this context, the most important things I teach are the 3-point stance and form tackling.   And, as an O-line coach, I would add one more thing that’s position specific: to finish their blocks.

Why you may ask would I rank the 3-point among my Top 3 things to perfect?  It’s simple:  everything starts with the 3-point.  If it’s wrong, then chances are that everything that follows will be as well.

Traits of a Good Offensive Lineman

Effective offensive linemen in our program have the following characteristics:

1. Attitude:

A good attitude in an offensive lineman can’t be over-emphasized. A player with a good attitude can be taught what he needs to be successful. A player with a bad attitude will have a negative impact on the entire offense. A player has to be selfless before we can develop unity on the offensive line. Once we develop unity we can create an identity. Once we create an identity, then we can establish tradition. It all starts with attitude. “We work the hardest; we’re known the least. But who cares? For we are the reason.”

The Five Foundations of Coaching

By Steve Nichols
Mile High University

What we need in a coach are what I’ll call the “five foundations”.  Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Technical proficiency
2. Teaching
3. Motivational
4. Role Modeling
5. Managerial

Technical Proficiency

What separates most football fans from coaching is the knowledge required to coach.  Not only must a coach “know” about the game in great detail, he must also have experience.

To this day, my favorite commentary on coaching experience comes from Coach Gruden.  Not long before Gruden’s Super Bowl victory over the Raiders (with the Bucs), Gruden granted an amazing interview where he discussed how a young guy like him could be an NFL head coach.  The most memorable part of the interview was when Gruden talked about all of the letters he receives from the hundreds of folks that want to come coach for him.

Gruden didn’t cover up his amusement at some of the letters.  Many of them were from people who had played a lot of Madden NFL games, and (because they were undefeated or had won gaming Super Bowls) felt that they were ready for the fame and glory of NFL level coaching.

Zone Block or Not?

So you just watched some college or pro team run crazy through an opponent using a Zone scheme and you’re thinking you want to do that.  Why not, it sure looks simple with everybody stepping to the playside.  But before you do, consider this: it isn’t simple!

Zone Blocking is sophisticated.  It requires two things that are scarce at the youth level: time and skill.  Time to teach it and rep it and the kind of skill that comes from experience with and hopefully mastery of basic blocking technique.

If a kid can’t Drive Block, he can’t Zone either.

Best Taught Subject…

By Coach Parker
Coaching Youth Football Zone
   
I was reading over Twitter this morning and came across a Tweet by Coach Dave Cisar ”Football may be the best-taught subject in American high schools because it may be the only subject that we haven’t tried to make easy.”
    

I like Coach Cisar and his Winning Youth Football program, probably because we both believe in Single Wing formations and good practice organization.  Perfect practice will lead to a successful game.
       
Coach Cisar’s quote about football as the  best taught High School subject reminded me of a story in Hall of Fame football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s autobiography, Bear, about what Hall of Fame basketball coach Adolf Rupp told a Kentucky faculty group investigating his basketball program.