There is so much more to coaching football than just the x’s and o’s. Football is the ultimate team sport. There is no other sport on the planet that requires all 11 positions to do a job at the same time in order to be successful. There is no other sports that promotes and requires team camaraderie like football. When a team of people grow together, enjoy each other’s company, support each other, and are focus on one collective team goal great things happen! Team develop encompasses so many different aspects such as teamwork, camaraderie development, parent engagement, physical and mental development, and so much more. With that said, here are our 5 Favorite Articles from our Team Building Article Series
Our 5 Favorite Articles from our Team Building Article Series
1. Motivating Athletes
The best coaches that I know aren’t just x’s and o’s savvy, they are excellent motivators. Great coaches are able to motivate their athletes and keep them interested in the sport. The best way to motivate athletes is to make things competitive, be organized, be positive, reward handwork, and make things fun. Just to name a few… Here’s one of my favorite article regarding motivating youth football athletes.
Article: 10 ways to Motivate Athletes as a Youth Football Coach
2. Building Team Culture
The first thing you need to do when you are building a program philosophy and team culture is to create a clear mission statement. It all starts from the head coach and trickles down. The head coach needs to be the example of the culture he is trying to instill. In order to build team culture you need to be consistent with holding players, coaches, and parents accountable when they aren’t aligned with team values and culture. Here’s an excellent article that talks about how to build a program philosophy and team culture.
Article: Building a Program Philosophy and Team Culture
3. Developing a Winning Mentality
When it comes to winning, mindset does play a major roll. It begins with developing a positive mindset. This mindset needs to instilled not just in your players, but with your coaches as well. A lot of times negative outlooks and attitudes by other coaches ruin everything. When you have a winning mindset you are always looking to improve and you are committed to getting better. Every single successful person I know has a positive attitude and they work extremely hard. The 5 Concepts in Developing a Winning Mentality is a fantastic article that is worth the read!
Article: The 5 Concepts in developing a Winning Mentality
4. Developing an Install Plan for Your Team
So many coaches make the mistake of not planning their install schedule. Many coaches just show up and ‘wing it’ or just install plays for the heck of it. It’s important that coaches develop an install plan and get right to work on installing their core plays. Once the core plays are installed, it comes down to repetition. It’s critical that all the coaches are on the same page, this will allow the install process to go smoothly. Limiting the number of plays allow you to master those plays. You’d rather have a couple of plays that your team masters, rather than a ton of plays that aren’t executed fluently. Here’s an article that provides you with an install plan.
Article: Developing an Install Plan for Your Youth Football Team
5. Tricking Players Into Hard Work
Last but surely not least, tricking players into hard work! When you make things competitive the kids will naturally work harder. That’s why it’s imperative to make things competitive. Almost everything we do with our players is competitive. Things like speed and agility are difficult to teach because the kids tend to lose interest or they just flat out execute the speed and agility drills halfheartedly. Here’s how we trick our players into working really hard. Works every time…
Article: Tricking Players into Hard Work
We have team several team development articles lined for the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!