Fall has rushed through the east coast and the season is over for many high school and college teams. For the first time in nearly twenty years I was not a part of it. That’s not totally true – I was not on the field or the sideline, but I have been in the academic trenches, so to speak. I’m spending this year at Harvard, studying Human Development and Psychology, with a heavy concentration on educational neuroscience. My aim is to learn and share as much as possible about the moral imperative we have as coaches. If you are a reader of American Football Monthly, it’s safe to say you have taken steps to prepare your players. Keep learning, keep trying to find an edge, but remember that nothing takes the place of hard work and disciplined preparation. So, as we begin planning our offseason, it’s important to keep a few things in mind…
Filter Expectations
Coaching Point: In addition to staying current on scientifically endorsed training techniques, try to accurately reflect on what it was like to be a young athlete. What were your concerns? What would have motivated you? Filter the expectations you create through the lens of your own experience.
I remember my first day of practice fondly, now that I’m about twenty years removed. My family had recently relocated from the city of Chicago to one of its northern suburbs. I was dressing in the basement – a cumbersome process of fitting pads into pockets, threading belts and laces, and trying to maneuver my first “cup” into a comfortable position (no luck there) – by the time I was ready, I had already worked up a fine sheen of sweat. I remember my dad driving me to practice. He was a star player in high school and took his talents to Memphis University – I fed off his excitement, eager to continue the family tradition (though I had absolutely no idea what that meant).
I was shy and kept to myself for most of the pre-practice mingling. Then two quick drills of a whistle, the standard command “take a lap,” and we were off – I followed a herd of well-padded 8-11 year olds across two fields, down around the backstop of the nearby baseball diamond, and back. I kept up with the pack for about two hundred feet before slowing down. By the time I reached the backstop, the group was a cool fifty feet ahead (and I thought I might actually be dying), and by the time I caught up (barely more than walking at that point), the team was already divided into rows and beginning their second static stretch. I was embarrassed, I was experiencing pain like I had never felt (not in terms of intensity, necessarily, but in that it came from deep inside my lungs and gut and legs – this was different than scraping a knee or stepping on a nail), and I was confused.
I now know that there was no reason to be confused – for the first nine years of my life I did zero preparation. I was not ready to play football, I wasn’t ready to run around the block. And I know why. My parents were necessarily cautious when we lived in the city. Though they encouraged their two children to be active, there were limits. We rode our bikes but only to the corner and back, never out of sight of the front porch. We went on walks. We played tag in the playground. I played touch football with my classmates on Hawthorne Academy’s hot concrete, until it snowed enough of a cushion for us to tackle. But that wasn’t true ‘preparation.’ It was existing. It was city-living, and it wasn’t enough.
Important: I do not mean to complain or point blame, only acknowledge a gap in my training at the time. It sounds silly to refer to the ‘training’ of a nine-year-old, but I will soon explain. As the season progressed, I made my way around the backstop routinely, eventually making my way into the top half of the pack and into the starting lineup (my first trophy, given at the end of that season, was for “Most Improved”).
The anecdote could end there. I doubt I could ever have such clear-cut firsthand experience with benefits and limits of the preparative element of athletics. It’s the first in a number of conditional scenarios I will describe in a series of articles: if one prepares with intent, then their probability of success increases. If a boy does not train his cardiovascular and respiratory systems, then he will be embarrassed and feel like he has a campfire in his chest on the first day of practice. Inclusion is at the core of our preparation; that is, we strive to train every young athlete their best self.
Coaching Point: be sure to explain your expectations in the conditional format as often as possible. “Because I said so” is never a convincing explanation – but if you do X, then you’ll improve your chances of achieving Y makes a lot of sense. You can use this approach in assignments as well: if the guard blocks down, then run through the gap – conditional statements make your expectations clear and eliminate the “but what if…” questions from confused athletes. Your confident explanation will increase their confidence.
I took my (extremely) humbling moments and used them as fuel. Later, those who lapped me that first day of practice elected me captain of our high school team. I was a captain twice more in college, and when I went on to play professional football I ran a 4.83 40 at 276 pounds (and was upset I didn’t clock in the 4.7s at my tryout). By that point I had one powerlifting state championship and was working on another.
This sounds like bragging (and it is, to a point), but it is meant to illustrate an idea: I had learned to prepare. Frequently, I will use versions of this story with the teams I train, and it always begins with the fact that I have accomplished plenty as an athlete (to establish credibility), I have collected enough awards and championships to fill shelves and walls, but the only thing I know for certain is that I was never – not once – the most talented person on any field I stepped on. I mean that sincerely.
However, I think it is possible that I prepared as well as anyone I played with or against. There was a time when I was the MVP of a nationwide league, but there were probably five or six players more naturally gifted in my own locker room and dozens more throughout the league. But I was reaping the benefit of this simple condition: if I out-trained my opponents, then I could beat them, despite a talent gap. If my team was the most prepared, then we gave ourselves the best chance of winning, and when that was the case we often did.
Work Together
The winning teams I was part of made the old adage a mantra: ‘do today what others won’t, so you can do tomorrow what others can’t.’ Preparation. There’s no fudging it. These days, I explain the idea to my athletes with Train like a Champion – we prepare like champions, or we have no right to consider ourselves as such. There are no guarantees in life or sports. But there is one guarantee – opportunities can and must be seized. Preparing does not preclude victory – but failing to prepare almost certainly leads to failure.
There are obvious physical benefits to preparation, but the mental aspect is equally, if not more, powerful. My embarrassment and confusion stemmed mostly from my feeling of helplessness. When good coaches guided me through proper preparatory techniques and exercises, another element of the value of preparation began to take hold: I felt like I had some say in the matter, I had control. The repetition of this extra work gave me confidence in my ability, and confidence in the ability to improve my current state – ownership – a powerful tool for the shy new kid. Before too long, my new teammates noticed my effort and pushed me even farther – we pushed each other, we worked with each, for each other, moving together toward a common goal.
Coaching Point: convincing as many members of a team to adhere to the process of solid preparation will give you the greatest opportunity to be successful, and it allows athletes to police each other – the more voices echoing the same sentiment, the better. Positive peer pressure can be a powerful force!
In most states, there are strict rules regarding the amount of time a coach can spend with his players in the offseason. Attendance is generally a result of clearly articulated and universally adopted common goals.
Demonstrate Confidence
A friend in the field, Jacob Flint, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Notre Dame, trains and competes in Olympic Weightlifting when he is not busy strengthening the Irish. In college, Jake was a walk-on running back for Central Michigan University before eventually earning a scholarship. Currently, he competes in Olympic Weightlifting where he has qualified for national-level competition in the 85kg weight class. After all he has accomplished, Coach Flint shares a similar and straightforward recipe for success with those he trains, “confidence comes through the repetition of properly executed methods.” Preparation is the process, physical while mental confidence is the product.
When coaches “walk the walk,” they are frequently able to demonstrate their confidence – the very specific sort of confidence that is not given, but born out of hard work – and the value of that confidence when they are called to action. In football, weightlifting, or coaching, there’s simply no replacing strong preparation and adherence to a well-considered process. And the confidence which comes from such adherence is immeasurable.
Coaching Point: Practice what you preach. I’m not suggesting you run stairs alongside your players or put pass rush moves on your left tackle, but be aware of your own adherence to the process you suggest. If you live by your own standards, then you can ask others to follow.
Heed the Call
The more we learn in the areas of biology and psychology, the more seriously we are obliged to take our charge. We have the opportunity to greatly affect hundreds of thousands of young men each year – we are the leaders, the motivators, the behavioral and moral models. We have a privileged platform where all the good things you hear about team sports can and should be taught. We are the catalyst for attitudes and the dispensers of life lessons. Take this seriously. Because, if we do not go beyond teaching playbooks and skill sets, we will have missed a tremendous opportunity.
One lesson we can teach every day: the value of preparation. The idea is that the process matters more than the product, but solid procedures often lead to success. It’s the time-tested method of not putting the cart before the horse. An athlete would never take the field without first learning the plays (we hope), and as coaches we should never let our players take the field without proper physical and mental preparation.
We all want long, successful, healthy seasons. Of course there are elements we cannot control as coaches, but there are certain things we can control, and we need to, we must. We have to keep our players safe. Proper preparation is on us.
About the Author:
Jim Davis is an assistant football coach and the strength and conditioning coach at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. He is currently attending Harvard University as a Master’s Degree candidate. Davis previously studied at both Knox College and Northwestern University. This article is the first of a three-part series.