You Are Not "Just" Anything

I was speaking at a clinic a few weeks ago and a coach came up afterward and introduced himself. He said his name and then said, "I am just a middle school coach." No way, you are not "just" a middle school coach. You are the first football coach many of the young men you coach have ever had. You are the MOST important in that young man's life. If you give him a great experience, he will love the game forever. If you coach him like it's all about you, he will quit and never play the game again.

It is vital we all understand that regardless of our title, or level, or location, we are vital to someone. The job of that middle school or youth coach is as important as Jim Harbaugh's job. It may even be more important than Jim Harbaugh's job. Too often we measure our value by our title or position. We measure our value by our wins and losses. Our value is much, much bigger than any scoreboard, record book, or nameplate on a door. 

The value of a coach, or anyone for that matter, comes from the influence you have on others. We have an opportunity to change the lives of those we coach. We have the ability to influence young people to do more than they ever thought possible. We have the opportunity to be the one consistent person in their lives. We can show them the unconditional love that many of them are missing at home.

That middle school coach is a vital link to the success of that young man. I remember several years ago a friend of mine said he had a middle school player who was 5-2, overweight, and very awkward. He wasn't very strong and he couldn't run very fast. My buddy said his middle school coaches gave this kid such a great experience, and were so encouraging, that this young man continued playing into high school. The coaches realized the game is not about them, but about the kids. My buddy said that kid played at least 20 snaps every game. In fact, everyone on that B team played at least 20 plays. The A team played at least 20 snaps He said they lost a few games they might have won, but every kid had a great experience. Every kid practiced hard because they knew they were going to play. And they all got better.

Fast foreward a few years, and that small, overweight, unathletic young man hit two growth spurts. He went from being 5-2 to 6-3. He was 195 pounds. He never missed a workout. He ran a 4.7 in the 40. He was a team captain. He ended up being a 3rd team all-state safety and went on to be an NCAA Division II all-american. He received a scholar athlete award at a huge dinner, and who do you think he invited? Not his college coach. Not his high school coach. He invited his middle school coaches who believed in him when others wouldn't. 

It pains me when a 7th grade B team kid is standing on the sideline every week knowing he will play one or two plays. We are all competitive, but middle school and youth football is not the NFL. When a middle school or youth coach applies for a high school job, no one asks them what the record of the 7th grade B team was. The real test is, "what did you do to build up the spirit of your players?" What did you do to believe in them when no one else would?

My buddy said his middle school staff is the reason they were able to win a state title. His middle school coaches didn't let their ego get in the way of building a love of the game and a love of being coached in those kids. They made EVERY player feel like they could accomplish more than what others might think. They didn't coach the kids where they were. They coached those kids to the level they saw them getting. 

Another interesting story happened with a team I coached several years ago. We had a young man that didn't play a whole lot, but he was one of the best leaders we had. He had a great attitude regardless of circumstance. He was a selfless player who would do anything to help his teammates succeed. We had a really good receiver with a rough home life. He struggled to get to school for workouts. He often wanted to skip practice. This player didn't miss a workout as a senior. He blossomed into a leader and star player. At our awards banquet he got up and talked. While fighting back tears he thanked the young man who wasn't a great player for giving him a ride everyday, and being a rock that he could lean on. This kid wasn't "just" a third team player. He was the most valuable teammate we had. 

If you are a middle school coach and you are coaching the defensive line, be the best defensive line coach you can be. Be the best role model you can be. Be the best encourager of your players. Love them unconditionally and teach them to love the game. Don't coach with a negative attitude because you think you should be the defensive coordinator, or the head coach. It's not about you and your ego. It is solely about the kids you coach. If you dog cuss them and break their spirit, you are not making them tough. Coach them FOR them, and with their best interests in mind. Coach them to be their very best, whatever that might be. Give them a love of the game and a love of being coached. 

Regardless of what level you are on, or what your title is, work hard to improve your craft. Go to clinics, talk to coaches, and soak in as much information as you can. Coach everyday with the purpose of helping the young men you coach to be the best they can be. Some of the best coaches I have been around are at the middle school and youth level. Your level has no bearing on the quality of coach you are! 

You are not "just" anything. You are the most important coach in the lives of your players right now. Coach with enthusiasm and passion knowing you are going to help them achieve more than they thought possible. 

A few months back I published a couple of iBooks that can help your program with X's and O's. The first is on Installing RPO's into any offense. Here is a link to the iBooks version: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1078061959. The ibooks version includes explanations, diagrams, and video clips on multiple RPO Concepts. It will give you a simple process for implementing them into your offense.

If you don't have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you can order the Amazon version for the Kindle. It has everything except the embedded video. You can order it here: http://www.amazon.com/Installing-Explosive-Concepts-Into-Offense-ebook/dp/B01B12YSCG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I also wrote a book on Tempo. It will greatly help you build a multiple tempo system with simple communication that will allow your kids to play with confidence. It also had over an hour of video clips! You can order the ibooks version here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1075902270.

Order the Amazon Kindle version here:

http://www.amazon.com/Using-Multiple-Tempos-Create-Explosive-ebook/dp/B01ATOL46A/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

One of the keys to our success was tremendous preparation!The key to  preparation was our outstanding group of documents we used for all three phases. If you are looking for fully editable and customizable documents that you can tailor to your program, I have made mine available. 

Here is a link to my offensive game planning documents: https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to practice plans, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today for under $15 and download them tonight!

Here is a link to the defensive game planning documents. It includes 12 fully editable and customizable documents. https://sellfy.com/p/AY1u/

And finally, I put together a special teams resource. This has everything you need, included drill tape, practice tape, and game footage. It includes teaching presentations and scouting forms just for special teams! https://sellfy.com/p/tJwz/

Guest Blog Post: Jim Harshaw

One of the most difficult issues in sports is being able to communicate and build relationships with parents. When I first began coaching I had now clue what this would entail. It is one of the most important things we must do as coaches.  I have screwed up many times in my dealings with parents, and each time is a valuable learning experience.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Jim Harshaw about a book he has written called Dealing Successfully With Parents. Coach Harshaw has coached at every level of sports, and brings an outstanding perspective to this important issue. Jim has shared a guest post, and I have also included a link to his TED Talk. He offers tremendous insight that you can use to build stronger relationships with parents.

By: Jim Harshaw

Surveys show that dealing with parents is one of the top most time consuming and frustrating tasks that coaches deal with on a regular basis. 

Having coached for 15 years from youth through Division I, I've spent countless hours researching best practices on dealing with parents. I've read books and blogs, listened to audio podcasts and talked with dozens of coaches about it. Here's what I've found: it all boils down to communication and education. 

While these are simple concepts here are some practical solutions that you can use right away. 

1. Let Them Talk: Many parents just want to be heard and by letting them talk without interruption you satisfy that need. Acknowledge that you've heard them and will consider their point of view and move on with your day. 
2. Admit When You're Wrong: We all make mistakes. When we see a public figure make a mistake and try to explain it away or cover it up, we lose respect and end up talking poorly about them and even trying to undermine their authority. When they apologize and face the issue head-on, we are far more willing to give them slack and a second chance. It's the same with you. 
3. How to Be a Sports Parent: Parents react with emotion instead of logic because they never took a class on how to be a good sports parents. It's your job to teach them things like how to be supportive at home, what kind of nutrition they should be providing and what kind of feedback is actually helpful for you. It will not only minimize the issues you have to deal with but also maximize the performance of your athletes.  

Get many more tips and tactics as well as worksheets and templates in the Dealing Successfully with Sports Parents ebook. Access to this proactive guide will help you spend less time reacting to criticism, responding to emails and looking over your shoulder... and more time coaching. Download Coach Harshaw's Book Here

This is a guest post by Jim Harshaw. In addition to learning how to deal successfully with parents as a youth, high school and college coach, Jim Harshaw learned many life lessons on the wrestling mat. He was a 3X ACC Champion for the University of Virginia, trained at the Olympic Training Center and competed overseas for Team USA. He lives in Charlottesville, Va with this wife Allison and four children. 

Here is a link to order Coach Harshaw's Book: Dealing Successfully With Parents

Here is a link to Coach Harshaw's TED Talk...

Coach Harshaw is more than an outstanding speaker, he is also a very good coach who cares about the success of his athletes away from sport. He has great advice for coaches of all levels. I have screwed up many times, and this information will help me to be a better coach.

Coaching with Purpose

One of my favorite websites to check out is coachhuey.com, where coaches share their thoughts and insight. A topic that frequently comes up is "why coaches went into coaching." I have chimed in a few times, and recently I shared some information that I wanted to put into a blog post. For the next couple of minutes I am going to jump on my soapbox about what it truly means to be called "coach."

Coaching is about much more than teaching a sport. The same way that teaching is about much more than the results of a state mandated test or whether a kid can calculate an algebra equation. It is about teaching kids to be the very best that they can be, and they can do more than what they think they can. And it all starts with relationships. I watched my dad coach when I was growing up, and the love he had for his players was unconditional. He was a master at building relationships with kids that lasted a lifetime.

Building relationships is much bigger than just sending a text to a kid or an email blast. It is about caring for the kid outside of sport. it is about learning about his home life and background. it is about learning their hopes and dreams and fears and goals. I talked to guys my dad coached 40 years ago and they talk about him in very high regard. And, they never mention a win or a loss. They talk about how he helped them through difficult situations they faced in their personal lives. These are things that are not out in the public eye. Part of building relationships is about being available.

Many times I asked my dad why he taught and coached, and he never talked about winning and losing. He talked about giving kids something to believe in so you can impact them through sport, improving their life after sport. Do you care about the Jersey, or the Player wearing the jersey? Do you care about the kid as much when he is in ISS as much as you do when he is scoring touchdowns? Do you cast kids away when they make a mistake, or do you reel them in for a teachable moment?

I have been blessed to work with head coaches who set great examples for building programs based around love. Kent Jackson, the HFC/AD in Seminole, Texas, cares greatly about each player. He often says, "do you teach English, or do you teach kids?" The answer to that question says a lot. It starts with wanting the very best for every kid you coach. It is about loving them unconditionally. It is about caring about them for who they are, not what they can do. It is about looking deep inside each kid and finding the gold inside. We can't give them greatness, they already have it. Our job is to pull it out of them. And again, it all goes back to relationships. If they know you care about them, and I mean truly care about them as more than a player on your team, they will play their hearts out.

Why is this important? Because someone has to fill the void that left by the absence of fathers. Most of the kids we teach and coach don't have a relationship with their father. For most of them, we are the only positive male role models they might have in their life. We may be the only adult male role model who truly cares about them and loves them unconditionally. Many of our young people are surrounded by adults who break promises. We have an opportunity to be someone they can trust.

One thing I have learned is to never, ever talk negative about a player in public. It does not do you any good personally or professionally. It builds a disdain and a distrust within your current and former players. Guys are going to talk and share information. Imagine what you would think if you ran into a former colleague and he told you your former boss said you were a lazy S.O.B. with no heart... How would you feel? What if that same colleague came up to you and said, your former boss said even though you didn't see eye to eye he said he always loved and respected X, Y, and Z about you... Which is more effective? If you are going to use an example of a former player, leave out the name. Or, bring back the former player to share his story. Let him educate your players.

Tell your players you love them, then back it up with your actions. If they make a mistake, coach them through it. Tell them you believe in them, and remind them of this often. Ask them about their family... and then listen to what they say. Hold them accountable for their actions and explain to them how it benefits them in the long run to be held accountable. This doesn't mean berate them in public. It means privately talking to them about the behavior and telling them why you are holding them accountable.

Take 5 minutes a day, three days a week and have a character talk. Have a different coach deliver the message each time, and keep it to 5 minutes. Bring in former players to give the talk. This will be meaningful to the players.

But again, this all comes back to if you don't care. If you don't really care, then you may want to make a career change. If you don't care whether Johnny has food on the table, or you don't care whether Bill became a good father, then your players are right.

When I first started coaching it was all about winning and losing, and I did not care about my players outside of sport. I really didn't care about them inside of sport unless they were a good player. We took a losing baseball program in the mid 90's and won games, but something was missing. Then I went to work for a man coaching football who cared deeply about each and every player. It was a great lesson for me on why we do what we do. Do we do what we do for ourselves? Or do we do what we do to because we have an opportunity to impact kids? The answer to that question can change and evolve over time. My purpose for coaching continues to evolve as I grow as a person.

The biggest regrets I have don't have to do with a play call or a why we lost a game. They have to do with how I might have handled a situation differently. They have to do with the crappy example I set on handling adversity. They have to do with the stuff I said to and about kids. There are kids that I had a chance to impact and I chose to take the easy way out and break them down. Why? Because I didn't care. I had a chance to build them up and help them to believe in themselves. I let my ego get in the way of this opportunity. Don't let your ego get in the way of an opportunity to change the life of one of your student-athletes. Is what you are about to do going to satisfy your ego, or is it going to help that kid be successful? An instructor at West Point once said, "give em what they need, not what they deserve."

There are some who would say this philosophy doesn't work. This is all kumbaya. That would be patently false. We coach our kids hard. We hold them accountable for every little detail. If we don't do something right, we do it again. But we try to do this without breaking them down. We work hard to coach with passion and enthusiasm each and every day. We bring energy and try to set that example for our kids. We don't sugarcoat things. We tell them the truth, but we do so with a twist about how it can change. We add that we believe in them. As John Wooden said, "a coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment." If you constantly break your kids down, they will play like they are broken down. More importantly, they will live their life broken down.

Here is the cool part... When we began to coach as transformational coaches nearly 20 years ago, we won more games. We were more consistent. Our kids believed in themselves. We had better leadership. We had trust between players and coaches and players and players. Our players could handle adversity. And, our kids learned values that have continued into adulthood. If you want to be champions on the field, you have to be willing to build champions off the field. You have to build  culture of love and trust within your program.

The best part about this is that how we coach is a choice. How much we care is a choice. I make mistakes each day. Yesterday I said something to  a kid I had to apologize for. I told him I shouldn't have said what I said and asked for his forgiveness. He responded that he forgave me. We hugged. He said, "thank you coach." I told him I loved him. He repeated it back. Our relationship is now strengthened because of it. He knows I care about him, and I modeled for him what you do when you make a mistake. Some would say that showed weakness. I would tell you that something like that shows great strength. That kid can now use that lesson when he is a husband or father and makes a mistake.

That is the real goal. What can we do to build young men that will be great husbands and fathers? What can we do to help them achieve more than they once thought possible What can we do to help them believe that they can overcome adversity they will face in life? And that all starts with the relationships you build.


I wrote two new iBooks that can help your program with X's and O's. The first is on Installing RPO's into any offense. Here is a link to the iBooks version: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1078061959. The ibooks version includes explanations, diagrams, and video clips on multiple RPO Concepts. It will give you a simple process for implementing them into your offense. 

If you don't have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you can order the Amazon version for the Kindle. It has everything except the embedded video. You can order it here: http://www.amazon.com/Installing-Explosive-Concepts-Into-Offense-ebook/dp/B01B12YSCG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Coach Vint has authored several books and instructional DVD's with Coaches Choice. His book 101 Pistol Option Plays is actually available now as a 2 volume interactive ibook for the iPad! It is similar to a traditional book, but it contains several hours of video as well!
Order Part 1 Here: 101 Pistol Option Plays Part 1- Traditional Option Concepts
Order Part 2 Here: 101 Pistol Option Plays Part 2- Spread Concepts

One of the keys to our success was tremendous preparation!The key to  preparation was our outstanding group of documents we used for all three phases. If you are looking for fully editable and customizable documents that you can tailor to your program, I have made mine available. 

Here is a link to my offensive game planning documents: https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to practice plans, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today for under $15 and download them tonight!

Here is a link to the defensive game planning documents. It includes 12 fully editable and customizable documents. https://sellfy.com/p/AY1u/

And finally, I put together a special teams resource. This has everything you need, included drill tape, practice tape, and game footage. It includes teaching presentations and scouting forms just for special teams! https://sellfy.com/p/tJwz/

 Last year I got hooked up with CoachTube, and put together three courses for offensive football coaches. I put together two courses on RPO's, and a course on Building An Elite System of Communication. All of these courses will help you to score more points! 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint

All three of these courses are detailed, with everything you need to be more explosive and to score more points. 

The course on communication gives you a detailed approach to your gameday communication. I give you a system and a process to improve the quality of conversations, leading to improved play calling on game day. This course has received outstanding reviews from coaches at all level of football. A coach with multiple state titles told me this course helped them to be much more efficient and explosive this season. 

My two RPO courses take you through a systematic process of installing RPO's into your offensive system. RPO's put the defense in conflict, forcing them to defend all 53 yards of width and all 6 skill players every single play. I not only give you a system, but I teach you the methods to develop your own RPO concepts. 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint