Coaching Knowledge Project #10 John Madden & Joe Gibbs

Over the last few summers, I have started taking notes on some of the coaching biographies and books that I have read. One problem that I have had over the years is that I read so much and look at so much different info that I don't ever retain the knowledge for future use. I will read about a drill or a philosophy and I will think "Hey, that fits pretty good with my guys. I wanna use that this year." Then I will lay the book or the info to the side and forget all about it.
Earlier this year, I began to compile & organize these notes & axioms into a single document. Ideally I would like to eventually have a notebook that I could add to each offseason and look at again each pre-season as I reevaluate my program. I thought that as part of this blog and my compilation efforts, I would share some of the things that I've found.
These are quotes about coaches, quotes from coaches about their influences, and outside observations on coaches and their programs. Some of these are Hall of Fame coaches, some have losing records, and some are career assistants; all have good things to offer.
How about some nuggets from Joe Gibbs & John Madden:

JOHN MADDEN

·         From Don Coryell: Successful coaches are able to take everything they must teach and grind it down to a common denominator where it is understood by the most intelligent and the least intelligent.

·         In preparing for a class, a teacher has to be organized. Once in the classroom, a teacher has to get the students to settle down, to pay attention, to understand. After you teach, you discuss and then you test. Coaching football is basically the same thing. You teach in the meetings. You discuss on the practice field. You test in the game.

·         I learned that one of the most important tenets of teaching is repetition. Tell the class over and over what you want it to learn. As a coach, I applied that same principle. Show the players the play on paper. Show it to them on film. And show it to them on the field.

·         No matter how quick a cornerback was, I never wanted him to line up more than 7 yards off the wide receiver. In training camp, I never let them line up more than 5 yards off their man. That way, it forced them to cover tight & short. When a corner was more than 7 yards off his man, I always felt that he tended to sit back and wait for something to happen, rather than reacting to something that was happening.

·         If it’s something that they don’t know, they can’t teach it. If it’s something that’s been stuffed down their throats, they really can’t teach it either.

·         If you throw on the break or before the break, you get interceptions. We throw after the break, two steps after the receiver has made his cut. That receiver usually has an option between 12 and 18 yards on the cut and we want to make sure he has somebody beat before our quarterbacks release that ball.

·         You’ve got to start by being able to do things the hard way. That means being able to cover man to man, to take on blocks and defeat them. Then you move on to the more sophisticated movements – the stunts, zones, multiplicity of pass coverage, situation substitution and so on. But all of those are no good unless you can whip someone one on one.

JOE GIBBS

·         I believe that picking the right people is the single most important thing a coach can do. If you pick sharp, highly motivated people, you’re going to be successful.

·         We run the same play from 30 different formations, because I believe that repetition is the key to success, and because I am convinced that defense is based on recognition of formations.

·         A winning effort begins with preparation. The game may be played on Sunday, but it’s won on the practice field during the week, in the meeting rooms (where the coaches and players prepare the game plan) and in the weight room, where the best players do a few extra repetitions.

·         To be a good coach, you must be a good teacher. You not only have to possess the knowledge, but you must also be able to get it across. You give it to the players visually, on film, written on the board, and on the field.

Coaching Knowledge Project #9 Paul Brown

         Over the last few summers, I have started taking notes on some of the coaching biographies and books that I have read. One problem that I have had over the years is that I read so much and look at so much different info that I don't ever retain the knowledge for future use. I will read about a drill or a philosophy and I will think "Hey, that fits pretty good with my guys. I wanna use that this year." Then I will lay the book or the info to the side and forget all about it.
        Earlier this year, I began to compile & organize these notes & axioms into a single document. Ideally I would like to eventually have a notebook that I could add to each offseason and look at again each pre-season as I reevaluate my program. I thought that as part of this blog and my compilation efforts, I would share some of the things that I've found.
        These are quotes about coaches, quotes from coaches about their influences, and outside observations on coaches and their programs. Some of these are Hall of Fame coaches, some have losing records, and some are career assistants; all have good things to offer.
       Today I am sharing some quotes and information about NFL Legend Paul Brown. Brown is considered the "father of the modern offense", and one of the greatest football coaches of all time, achieving success at every major level—high school, college, and professional—and introducing numerous innovative coaching methods still in use today. He is also credited with founding both the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals franchises, with the former named after him and the latter naming their stadium in his honor.

PAUL BROWN

·         Everything worked to complement everything else.

·         First it is taught, then it is learned, then it is groomed. If all else fails, go back to fundamentals.

·         You’ve got to be able to get along with them and have them be at their best. You do this by organizing things well enough so that they believe in what you are doing.

·         Going to the movie, for instance, made you realize that something important is going to happen the next day and that it isn’t going to be just another Sunday. And those written exams on the plane take your mind of silly things and make you think about the job ahead.

·         Getting into football is a state of heart & mind as well as physical…don’t ever get the idea this stuff isn’t important.

·         You must invest yourself fully. If it’s worth something, it’s worth everything.

·         You must sacrifice to get to the top. That is why we ask you to train.

·         In training camp the players wrote in their own plays, the defenses against them and the various breakdowns that made up each element. He checked the books to make sure each player was doing the same thing.

·         If you placed the best individuals (not necessarily the most talented football players) in the most advantageous positions, winning would come almost naturally.

·         In every training camp, I applied the basic laws of learning – seeing, hearing, writing, then doing, again and again.

·         On defense, Brown stressed the fundamentals of tackling more than any other phase of the game.

·         Win or lose, they expected the same things for next weeks game.

·         On his criticism: I would much rather he had gotten up there and screamed and ranted and called me names. But he didn’t. Each slice got deeper. It was nothing vicious, and he never raised his voice. But he really got to you with that needle.

·         I attached more importance to a team’s respect than to any other phase of my relationship with them, including blocking & tackling.

·         You begin by building up the middle because you’ve got to start an offense with a good ground game.

·         He takes pains to tell his players to forget about things said during the heat of a game or to take them with a grain of salt and to consider the circumstances under which they were said. “I may say things to you I don’t really mean and you must understand that at all times and take it just that way.”

Coaching Knowledge Project #8 Tom Landry

Over the last few summers, I have started taking notes on some of the coaching biographies and books that I have read. One problem that I have had over the years is that I read so much and look at so much different info that I don't ever retain the knowledge for future use. I will read about a drill or a philosophy and I will think "Hey, that fits pretty good with my guys. I wanna use that this year." Then I will lay the book or the info to the side and forget all about it.
Earlier this year, I began to compile & organize these notes & axioms into a single document. Ideally I would like to eventually have a notebook that I could add to each offseason and look at again each pre-season as I reevaluate my program. I thought that as part of this blog and my compilation efforts, I would share some of the things that I've found.
These are quotes about coaches, quotes from coaches about their influences, and outside observations on coaches and their programs. Some of these are Hall of Fame coaches, some have losing records, and some are career assistants; all have good things to offer.
       Tom Landry coached the Dallas Cowboys from 1960 to 1988, posting 20 consecutive winning seasons, winning 5 NFC Championships, and 2 Super Bowls.

TOM LANDRY

·         As a general rule, a coach needs to be more demanding when his team is doing well, because there is a human tendency to ease up when you’re winning. When things are going poorly, especially when the effort is there, that’s when a team needs encouragement & affirmation more than it needs pressure from the coach. That’s the time to back off.

·         Faith gives a man hope and hope is what life is all about.

·         He learned the limited effect that emotions had on the outcome of football games.

·         If I lose, I’m going to lose. If I win, I’m going to win. That doesn’t mean that I don’t work as hard as anyone else or that I don’t try to win as hard as everyone else. I do because God expects us to be the best we can be.

·         The idea was to show a defense one formation and, when it was adjusting its defense to it, shift into another formation and run the play.

·         The key is discipline. Without it there is no morale.

·         There must be a great feeling between players to have a great team, to have good morale. A team must have the ability to believe in each other.

·         You can’t be emotional and concentrate.

·         You’ve got to have a clear-cut philosophy to be successful and it must be transmitted to your players. They must thoroughly understand everything you are trying to do so that, eventually, it becomes instinctive to them.

·         Achieving goals, which really means winning in some form, is the ultimate in a man’s life. Being the best at what you do stimulates life. God gave us a talent to do it and He expects us to do the best we can. Once we win we must give glory to God. As long as I maintain that approach, I’ll keep a level head in winning & losing. It won’t become the be-all but it’s a crime to not want to be the best you can be within the rules you operate under.

·         Achievement builds character. People striving, getting knocked down and coming back…that’s what builds character in a man. And character is the ability of a person to see a positive end to things.

Human Computer Post of the Week

FAITH:
Sometimes I go out in great pity for myself and, all the while, a great wind is bearing me across the sky.
        Native American Saying (Ojibwa)

FAMILY:
 The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. 
                         Thomas Jefferson

PHILOSOPHY:
The block of granite that was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.
                     Thomas Carlyle

FOOTBALL:
Two things to motivate kids: They have to know you care and they have to be getting better at what they are doing.

    

Coaching Knowledge Project #7 Don Shula

            Over the last few summers, I have started taking notes on some of the coaching biographies and books that I have read. One problem that I have had over the years is that I read so much and look at so much different info that I don't ever retain the knowledge for future use. I will read about a drill or a philosophy and I will think "Hey, that fits pretty good with my guys. I wanna use that this year." Then I will lay the book or the info to the side and forget all about it.
                 Earlier this year, I began to compile & organize these notes & axioms into a single document. Ideally I would like to eventually have a notebook that I could add to each offseason and look at again each pre-season as I reevaluate my program. I thought that as part of this blog and my compilation efforts, I would share some of the things that I've found.
             These are quotes about coaches, quotes from coaches about their influences, and outside observations on coaches and their programs. Some of these are Hall of Fame coaches, some have losing records, and some are career assistants; all have good things to offer.
                With the Miami Dolphins in the news as a possible landing spot for Peyton Manning, I figured let's go with a classic and pull out some Don Shula notes.

DON SHULA

·         I try to get the edge with mental preparation, and physical preparation, and in general, with overall preparation to accomplish the ultimate.

·         Don always wanted to know why we did what we did.

·         He always gives the “why” to everything that is put into his playbook.

·         He studied the opposition and always wanted to know “why” if something wasn’t working. When he dealt with a player, he’d always ask, “Are we asking too much of this guy?”

·         That is what coaching is….the ability to transmit information.

·         Everything is laid out to the minute. There are four and a half minutes here, eighteen minutes there. He has taken the coaches out on the field and put us through warm-up exercises just the way he wanted players to do them.

·         The team sees him working so hard and that feeling rubs off.

·         In the end, winning & losing doesn’t depend on trick plays or using new systems each week. It comes down to a matter of motivating people to work hard and prepare as a team. That’s what really counts. In a word, it’s called coaching.

·         The relationship I want to establish with my football team is one of mutual respect. I want my players to respect me for giving them everything that I have to prepare them to play their best. My respect for them has to come from knowing they are willing to give me all that they have to prepare themselves to be ready to play.

·         Determine your players’ talents and give them every weapon to get the most out of those talents.

·         Preparation means everything to me. I’m passionate about my players being ready for anything. If our players are worrying about their assignments, they have a tendency to hold back. They should be so familiar with their assignments that when the game starts they’re operating on auto pilot – not thinking, just doing.

·         He gives not only the Xs and Os, but the theory of why the play has been designed, why it is run and what it was designed to do with other plays to be used in a game.

·         Winning early helped because I was asking them to do so much. It made them think the work was worthwhile. They saw it pay off.

·         Each player, regardless of his position, must be taught to innovate & deal with situations he hasn’t practiced against.

·         One of the big things I’ve learned is to become more understanding of others in this regard. There might be a better way to teach a guy than to blow your stack on the sidelines, depending on the player’s personality.

·         On appearance: The key word is moderation. But I’ll draw the line the minute a player begins to think more about the way he looks that the way he plays.

·         When we win we know it’s not final. We know we’ve got to line up next week and prove ourselves all over again. If we lose, we also know we’re not dead and we must get off the floor and have a chance to change the score the next time we play.

·         The fact that you, as a coach, are asking performers to go beyond themselves, to push their limits, will automatically mean that you’ll be doing unpopular things. If what you’re after is being liked, that is going to dictate how hard you push; you won’t want to offend anybody or get them mad at you. As soon as that happens, there goes your effectiveness – and respect as well.

·         He rationalizes that if you come up short in your attempt for perfection, you’ll still be a formidable team. But if you strive to be just good and come up short, you’ll likely wind up an average club.

San Antonio Bound....

Heaing out to Texas for the AFCA Convention Sat am.......will be there til Wed am.....always like to meet coaches from other places and talk ball, so if you're interested e-mail me at wmitchell473@gmail.com      Have A Great Weekend!

Human Computer Post Of The Week

Time to get more diligent about what I spend my time thinking about....These are what I will think about this week:

FAITH
  "Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence."

     Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him.
                                                                                       Daniel 6:3

FAMILY
You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
                                                                                                     Desmond Tutu

PHILOSOPHY
         By now you ought to realize what cosmos you are a part of, and what divine administrator you owe your existence to, and that an end to your time here has been marked out, and if you do not use this time for clearing the clouds from your mind, it will be gone, and so will you.
                                                                                           Marcus Aurelius

FOOTBALL
   Coaching is giving your players a good design and getting them to play hard.
                                                                                             Bill Parcells