MOST COACHES HAVE been there at one time or another. We’ve all coached a team that just couldn’t get the job done. In my coaching career, I’ve had losing seasons, rollercoaster seasons, winning seasons and even terrific seasons where we’ve captured the big prize — a state championship.
The very first team that I took over as head coach had finished 0-9 the previous year and I somehow managed to lead them to a resounding 1-7 the next season. Sarcasm and humor aside, I didn’t let that season’s failure dissuade me or change my philosophy. Two years later, that same squad made the state playoffs.
I’ve been fortunate enough to coach teams that led our district or league four different times in total defense (yards allowed) as the defensive coordinator of two teams. Yet, at another school, after coaching all of those great defensive teams and using the same defensive schemes, I’ve coached teams that finished dead last in total defense.
Common Characteristics Of Losing Teams
There are many characteristics that you’ll find commonplace on teams that are consistently losing programs. In some instances, these may be factors that are beyond the coach’s control — yet they’re still common among losing programs.
Î Lack of Talent, Athleticism. A losing program often has little or no “real” athletic talent. There is no confidence among teams that consistently lose. Players and coaches often quit when faced with adversity.
Î No Personal Accountability. You’ll often find that excuses run rampant on losing teams — there is little, if any, personal responsibility. Finger pointing and blaming others happens often.
Î The Best Players Try To Overcompensate. The better players on losing teams often try to do too much (or, in some cases, everything) and cover up the mistakes of others, which ultimately reinforce the team’s inability to get it done.
Î Lack Of Dedication. Players often are late to practices or do not come every day.
Î Lack Of Patience By The Coaching Staff. As the losses begin to mount, the coaches lose their patience with their athletes.
Î Players Improve Little As The Year Goes On. Even though the program seems well organized, players do not improve much. Most of the team leaders have the least athletic ability.
Î Losing Becomes Commonplace. Players expect to lose and feel it really makes no difference if they raise their level of play.
Common Characteristics Of Winning Teams
Just as you’ll find common threads and themes throughout losing teams, you’ll also notice that programs that win consistently have certain traits in common.
- Great Chemistry. There are some good athletes, a couple of great athletes and a lot of young men who are hard workers. They all believe — in the system, the schemes, the coaches and each other. All have a role and responsibility. Winning to these players is important — and they will make sacrifices to reach their goals.
- Players Hustle, Make The Big Play. They can back up their winning attitude with great effort. They make plays on the big downs.
- Rock-Solid Coaching. Coaches on winning teams are usually great teachers. They inspire their players to achieve more than they thought possible.
- Team Unity, Desire To Learn. There is great unity among players on winning teams. The players on these types of teams are eager to learn and accept criticism.
Fixing A Losing Program
So what building blocks are necessary to fix a losing program? I certainly do not have all the answers, but I’ve learned a lot about change in the football world. The most important item is to build your program on principles that will not change regardless of wins and losses. Coaches must instill these principles in the players.
Almost without exception, you’ll find that every losing team has a lack of focus and set goals. To overcome this obstacle, you should set player goals and focus on matters that are short term. There are 8 short-term goals that will help you build a winning program.
GOAL 1: Get Players To Practice. This may sound simple, but a common trend in bad programs is that players often miss practice. Get them to practice and get them there on time.
GOAL 2: Teach Players How To Focus. Be patient, stay true to your coaching philosophy and teach your players how to focus so that they can finish a practice properly.
GOAL 3: Keep Your Best Players On The Field. Your best players must be on the field as much as possible — use freshmen on the varsity in high school if you have to.
GOAL 4: Execute Just A Few Things Well. Keep the scope of you goals narrow and help facilitate success in small steps.
GOAL 5: Improve Slightly Each Day. Focus your team on improving a little bit each day and each week. Try setting a goal of 1-percent improvement each day. Coach effort. What a player may lack in athletic talent can often be overcome by cultivating a burning desire to succeed.
GOAL 6: Stay Positive. No matter the outcome, stay positive and stay in control. Coaches must be leaders and an iron-will and courage in your convictions are necessary every day to overcome obstacles.
GOAL 7: Measure Success Incrementally. Measure success by the improvement of individual players, then as a group and then on team improvement as a whole.
GOAL 8: Never Lose Your Sense Of Humor. Once in my first season, during a long losing streak, I simply divided the team up and let them play. The coaches just acted as referees. Amazingly, the kids started to use our plays after their ideas did not work as well as they thought they would. Leaders started to emerge. We won our first and only game of that season the very next week. From that moment forward, the players got better each week. Prior to this impromptu experiment, I was trying so hard to improve the team, that I forgot to make it fun.
Use Innovative Tactics
Another example comes from my first team. I implemented a “run-and-shoot” offense in a program and coaching staff that had never seen this type of system. My school was a private military boarding academy. The previous year they had lost all their games. We had only 23 varsity players and most had little or no self confidence.
In one of the first practices, I was teaching a counter-trey blocking scheme. I knew we had to be able to run these types of deception plays to be successful, as we were not physical enough up front to drive most teams off the line of scrimmage. During the practice, one of my assistant coaches told me that our big sophomore offensive tackle simply couldn’t pull and make his critical block — that he was just too slow and clumsy to execute the play. Not only did my players doubt the wisdom of our scheme, but now it seemed as though the assistant coaches didn’t believe in it either.
I told the players to run the play again. This time, I positioned myself directly behind the “big, clumsy OT,” and at the snap of the ball, I pulled my young player — while on the run — to the correct position, dragging him by his pants. I then told my startled assistant coach that he would help guide this player until we could make this play 100-percent of the time. Over time, not only did this become our best running play, but that player went on to earn a college scholarship after his senior season. The message is simple: there should be no excuses from players or coaches.
On your journey to success, the coaching staff must develop a long-term plan. Build a solid foundation and concentrate on fundamentals. You must develop a good plan and stick to it and you must teach players how to win. They must expect to win and learn the mental and physical preparation necessary to win. During the transition phase, things are tough at first, but become easier over time. Tight control of every aspect of the team will not be as necessary as you begin to turn things around.
Coaching A Winning Team
So how do you handle the great team? There are, obviously, already inherent elements in place (superior athletes, great attitudes, excellent facilities) that can make success with this team inevitable. But how do you guide this type of team to the next level?
STEP 1: Set The Goals And Get Everyone To Buy Into Them. On a superior team, once you’ve set the goals, the players often take it from there. Let the players use their talents to help make the team better.
STEP 2: Emphasize Leadership, Responsibility. Make players accountable — on and off the field. On a great team, these types of things have a big impact.
STEP 3: Don’t Lose Your Focus. With a winning team, it’s OK to think about long-term goals — such as a state championship — but do not let the players lose sight of the fact that this goal is ultimately achieved one game at a time. Remember to set other goals for your players to shoot for — break the season down into “small units” such as winning your district, beating a rival team, etc.
STEP 4: Emphasize Perfection. In our championship season, I watched with awe how our players performed in our second-to-last session of practice every day. In this session, the offense had to run 10 perfect plays without any errors against air or else start over and stay on the field until it got it right. The awesome thing was not the concept, it was watching this particular group of players react to whatever challenge they faced. It was important to these kids. Every aspect of the 10 plays had to be just right. They would often start over on their own without a word from the head coach. You can not believe the joy and pride the entire team, coaches included, felt when he would say “10,” signifying they had achieved what was expected.
STEP 5: Expand Your Coaching Boundaries. Coaches must be better prepared when they’re coaching a team with high expectations — they must take the player talent to new levels. They must be personally responsible for their area of responsibility and creatively try to resolve any problem within the program.
STEP 6: Do Not Over-Coach. Teach your players, but do not kill their instinct. With a superior team, trust is critical. The players expect the best possible plan and coaches expect players to execute the plan. My experience with teams of this caliber is that players are often harder on themselves than the coaches are. Many times, coaches will have to de-emphasize isolated mistakes. Even pro players, who make their living playing football, still make mistakes. On a good team, you need to teach the players to shake off minor errors and move on.
STEP 7: Do The Right Thing For The Long Haul. If you have soundly defeated an opponent early, get your second- and third-team players in for game experience. Don’t worry about defensive “shut-outs” and racking up big-time statistics — worry about making your team better and prevent injuries to the starters. When I used this approach with my dominant defensive teams, I surprisingly discovered that the starters would enthusiastically “coach” the younger kids when they came off the field. The starters encouraged the backups to keep fighting and maintain the defensive stats they had accumulated. As a result, we became better as a team since the reserve players knew they had a definitive role to play on this great team.