Post by Oneback on Jan 11, 2012 20:38:31 GMT
3 National Championships & 47 consecutive wins at Oklahoma:
BUD WILKINSON THOUGHTS & QUOTES:
COMMON COACHING ERRORS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
By: Bud Wilkinson
GENERAL COMMENTS: The best coach is the one who makes the fewest mistakes; the one who does the best teaching job; the one who is the best organizer. Writing the X's & O's is not the most important thing. There are 22 variables in a football game. Coach must be a salesman to the extent that when his team loses, they don't blame him or the offensive and/or defensive system, but rather themselves.
ERRORS IN TEACHING METHODS:
FIRST = FAILURE TO USE TIME EFFICIENTLY. Failure to recognize the time factor available to get the job done. Planning makes for valuable use of time. Too long on any one thing produces boredom. When boredom comes in, learning goes out. Football players have a short attention span. Hold to time schedule.
SECOND = FAILURE TO EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE OF THE DRILL. Tell the boy WHY he is doing what he is trying to accomplish and he will do a better job. Explain WHY, then show HOW.
THIRD = IMPROPER TEACHING PROGRESSION. You can't teach a boy how to block until he has learned stance. If he hasn't learned stance, he doesn't know how to step out of the stance into the block.
FOURTH = TOO MUCH VERBAL INSTRUCTION ON THE FIELD. How much can boy learn from your verbal instruction with his helmet on, he's breathing hard, he aches, he's stunned, etc. Do WHO and WHY in chalk talk. Teach assignments before hitting the field. Correct on the field. Teach — no! (HOW is taught on the field — not WHO & WHY).
FIFTH = TOO MUCH DEMONSTRATION BY COACH. How much you know is not important. How much player knows is.
SIXTH = BEING ON THE FIELD TOO LONG. Better to have a team eager to play rather than physically tired. How long to practice is a judgment factor. Cut down as season goes along — not going to change mechanical ability late in season. Only one rule never violated at Oklahoma. If one coach on staff feels practice too long, we must cut it down. More boys play poorly because they practiced too long than boys playing poorly because they didn't practice long enough.
ERRORS IN TACTICS AND STRATEGY:
FIRST = TACTICS AND VICTORY. You get very few victories on tactics. Victories come if you can out block, out tackle, out fundamental your opponent. Red Sanders quote: "Intimidate them physically"! Outmaneuver — no. Defeat — yes.
SECOND = CLEAR CUT PHILOSOPHY A MUST. Decide on an offense and defense that will suit your personnel then stick to it. Depth of morale can be determined by a kid's reaction to a loss. If morale deep, they'll blame themselves. If morale shallow, they'll blame you.
THIRD = TOO MANY PLAYS AND DEFENSES. Subtract the number of different plays used in the game from the total number of plays you practiced. If this number is too large you better get rid of some plays. It is difficult enough to know when to run off- tackle, but if you have four ways to run off-tackle, you will never get the right play. Beauty of Split-T was it's very limited number of plays
ERRORS IN JUDGMENT:
FIRST = BE REALISTIC ABOUT PLAYER'S ABILITY. Don't just put an X or an O on the board. Put up the boy's name. Immediately his limitations affect the offense or defense you put up. Whale of a lot of difference between Dick Butkus and Humpty Dumpty.
SECOND = WHEN CHIPS ARE DOWN, BEST PLAYERS ARE IN THE GAME. It is a mistake to be able to play blue chippers only one way. Say best kid you have can only go on offense. Say opponent has ball for 45 minutes. These are 45 minutes he cannot help you.
ERRORS IN OFF FIELD RELATIONSHIP:
FIRST = RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER FACULTY MEMBERS. The environment that exists has a lot to do with winning or losing. If they are with you, your job is easier. If they are against you, you're in trouble. Work on a program of how to win friends and influence faculty members.
SECOND = ORGANIZE A MOTHER'S CLUB. Get mother on your side by pointing out to her what he can get out of football besides winning games.
THIRD = PRESS, TV, AND RADIO. Straight up fact of life that the great majority of people get their impression of you from what they read in the paper, see on TV, or hear on radio. Their jobs depend on info. Get it to them to make their jobs easier. Get these people on your side. Let them know what you're doing. They will interpret what you're doing in the way you want it interpreted if they are with you.
ERRORS IN DEVELOPING MORALE (MORALE IS TO THE PHYSICAL AS 4 IS TO 1).
FIRST = FOOTBALL BEGINS WITH MORALE! Once you get morale, it is easy to maintain. How to get it is a problem.
SECOND = HOW TO LOSE MORALE. Do what you said you're going to do. Don't say we're going to practice 1 ½ hours and go 2 ½ hours. Training rules — if you're not going to enforce them, don't have them.
THIRD = MORALE STEMS FROM DISCIPLINE (ALL Discipline begins by being on time).
FOURTH = TREAT PLAYERS AS A PERSON. If he feels you are interested in him only as a football player, he won't go all out for you. If you are interested in his academics, his personal problems, etc. and he knows this, he'll go all out for you. Convince him that football is good for his future.
FIFTH = One year, Knute Rockne had 2 QB's. Under great athlete, team failed; under mediocre QB, team succeeded. Why? Captain's reply — "the great athlete is trying to show how good HE is. The TEAM is trying to make the average guy look good".
COACH IN YOUR OWN WAY:
FIRST = DON'T COPY! Note clinicians and their personalities. ALL different ways of being successful. Plan carefully in the off season. Can't take golf lessons between the 8th green and 9th tee.
CONCLUDING REMARKS: The man who is best organized and does the best teaching job, is the best coach.
************************************************************************
PLAYING WITH MORALE AND INTENSITY (with thanks to Bud Wilkinson)
There is no magic formula for developing morale, but there is a means of getting consistent effort from your team and intensity is what it is all about. How close do your players come to making their best effort every time the ball is snapped? That is what it is all about, and if your team can do that then they are going to play very well. My theory of judging how well a team is coached is not how many games they won that they shouldn't have won (they upset somebody), it's games they lost when they were a superior team, they didn't play well that day. And why didn't they play well --- nobody got geared up about it. Teach your players to think of the game totally as a chance to find out about themselves --- what kind of a man am I and how well can I play when it is tough to play? You begin by explaining to them that this is a most uncomfortable game to play. There is no way you can play football and feel good. The first two or three plays everybody feels good. But now I am the Nose Tackle and I have got to meet someone me and now it's a sweep and I've got to run 20 yards and there is a big collision and I've got to line up again and meet somebody and run 20 yards and then there is another collision. I do this three or four times and I don't feel good. Now, do I quit at this point and wait to get my breath or do I continue to go as hard as I can to try as hard as I can try? THAT'S WHERE THE GAME IS WON OR LOST! What happens to most teams is they play the first two or three plays as well as they can, then they get to a point, I used to call this the "QUITTING DOWN", where two or three guys tell themselves, "If I coast on this play then I'll be able to go real hard on the next one". They have gotten kind of tired so they coast for a while. So they go hard again but now a few others decide it is time for them to coast and the result of this is that you never get eleven guys going all out.
So to get back to the basic point, if you can convince your people that the reason for playing is for them to find out about themselves and for them to find out how close they can come to playing as well as they can on every snap. Then you can eliminate, I think, that "up and down". So now I have three practices and I get the men together after practice and I ask them, "how many of you think you went as hard as you could every time" and if anybody puts his hand up he is lying. "How many of you did it 90% of the time", I don't think you get any hands if you have an honest relationship. "80% of the time", you will get some hands and you explain to them again, that's not very good if you expect to be a good football team, and we've got to make the effort every time the ball is snapped and if you don't think you can, walk off the field --- it takes more courage than standing out there bluffing. I'm never going to know if you make the big effort, and your teammates are not going to know if you make the big effort, but you are going to know and the whole game is a test of yourself. Now, if your players understand this, and I think if you explain it to them they will, some days they are going to play a guy in a red shirt who is a super athlete, some other day it will be a guy in a green shirt who cannot play a lick but that does not effect your guy's performance at all because his whole purpose is to find out today how close, "I can come to making my maximum effort every time they snap the ball". After the game in the locker room, "Okay how many of you went the best you could everytime", I don't think you will ever see any hands. How many of you went 95%", maybe one. "90%", maybe 4. But this is something that if they understand what I'm talking about, as the season goes along more and more of them will be able to get their hand up and if you can ever get them all giving their best effort then it is going to be awfully hard to beat you. And the major thing that happens is this, if you players begin to think this is just an opportunity to for me to find out about myself, "today, how close can I come to doing the best I possibly can", then it doesn't matter whether you are supposed to win by four touchdowns, because the objective has nothing to do with that, their objective is to find out about themselves. Or, they are supposed to lose by three, that has nothing to do with it. It is simply a question of "today, am I able to beat MYSELF". I'm the toughest opponent that anybody ever had, there is no question about that. If they do honestly believe that, that is the purpose of the game, then I believe they will play consistently with MAXIMUIM INTENSITY!!! Get everyone on the field doing that — it will be very hard for anyone to defeat you!
************************************************************************
BUD WILKINSON: "In my coaching, I was able to achieve a momentary selflessness on the part of our team — when you play well, it is because the cause transcended individual recognition or honor".
"If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price than your opponent."
"Football in its purest form remains a physical fight. As in any fight, if you don't want to fight, it's impossible to win."
"Morale and attitude are the fundamentals to success."
"Play against the Game, not your opponent."
"If a team is to reach its potential, each player must willingly subordinate his own personal goals to the good of the team."
"We compete, not so much against an opponent, but against ourselves. The real test is this: Did I make my best effort on every play?"
"If a team is to reach its potential, each player must be willing to subordinate his personal goals to the good of the team."
"Your players' attitude toward you hinges on just one thing, and that is respect. If they do not respect you, you've lost them. If you have their respect, you've got it made."
"If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price."
"Every game is an opportunity to measure yourself against your own potential."
"You can motivate players better with kind words than you can with a whip."
"The will to prepare is the key ingredient to success."
"I feel more strongly about this than anything else in coaching: Anybody who lacks discipline, who doesn't want to be part of the team, who doesn't want to meet the requirements — has to go. It's that simple."
BUD WILKINSON THOUGHTS & QUOTES:
COMMON COACHING ERRORS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
By: Bud Wilkinson
GENERAL COMMENTS: The best coach is the one who makes the fewest mistakes; the one who does the best teaching job; the one who is the best organizer. Writing the X's & O's is not the most important thing. There are 22 variables in a football game. Coach must be a salesman to the extent that when his team loses, they don't blame him or the offensive and/or defensive system, but rather themselves.
ERRORS IN TEACHING METHODS:
FIRST = FAILURE TO USE TIME EFFICIENTLY. Failure to recognize the time factor available to get the job done. Planning makes for valuable use of time. Too long on any one thing produces boredom. When boredom comes in, learning goes out. Football players have a short attention span. Hold to time schedule.
SECOND = FAILURE TO EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE OF THE DRILL. Tell the boy WHY he is doing what he is trying to accomplish and he will do a better job. Explain WHY, then show HOW.
THIRD = IMPROPER TEACHING PROGRESSION. You can't teach a boy how to block until he has learned stance. If he hasn't learned stance, he doesn't know how to step out of the stance into the block.
FOURTH = TOO MUCH VERBAL INSTRUCTION ON THE FIELD. How much can boy learn from your verbal instruction with his helmet on, he's breathing hard, he aches, he's stunned, etc. Do WHO and WHY in chalk talk. Teach assignments before hitting the field. Correct on the field. Teach — no! (HOW is taught on the field — not WHO & WHY).
FIFTH = TOO MUCH DEMONSTRATION BY COACH. How much you know is not important. How much player knows is.
SIXTH = BEING ON THE FIELD TOO LONG. Better to have a team eager to play rather than physically tired. How long to practice is a judgment factor. Cut down as season goes along — not going to change mechanical ability late in season. Only one rule never violated at Oklahoma. If one coach on staff feels practice too long, we must cut it down. More boys play poorly because they practiced too long than boys playing poorly because they didn't practice long enough.
ERRORS IN TACTICS AND STRATEGY:
FIRST = TACTICS AND VICTORY. You get very few victories on tactics. Victories come if you can out block, out tackle, out fundamental your opponent. Red Sanders quote: "Intimidate them physically"! Outmaneuver — no. Defeat — yes.
SECOND = CLEAR CUT PHILOSOPHY A MUST. Decide on an offense and defense that will suit your personnel then stick to it. Depth of morale can be determined by a kid's reaction to a loss. If morale deep, they'll blame themselves. If morale shallow, they'll blame you.
THIRD = TOO MANY PLAYS AND DEFENSES. Subtract the number of different plays used in the game from the total number of plays you practiced. If this number is too large you better get rid of some plays. It is difficult enough to know when to run off- tackle, but if you have four ways to run off-tackle, you will never get the right play. Beauty of Split-T was it's very limited number of plays
ERRORS IN JUDGMENT:
FIRST = BE REALISTIC ABOUT PLAYER'S ABILITY. Don't just put an X or an O on the board. Put up the boy's name. Immediately his limitations affect the offense or defense you put up. Whale of a lot of difference between Dick Butkus and Humpty Dumpty.
SECOND = WHEN CHIPS ARE DOWN, BEST PLAYERS ARE IN THE GAME. It is a mistake to be able to play blue chippers only one way. Say best kid you have can only go on offense. Say opponent has ball for 45 minutes. These are 45 minutes he cannot help you.
ERRORS IN OFF FIELD RELATIONSHIP:
FIRST = RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER FACULTY MEMBERS. The environment that exists has a lot to do with winning or losing. If they are with you, your job is easier. If they are against you, you're in trouble. Work on a program of how to win friends and influence faculty members.
SECOND = ORGANIZE A MOTHER'S CLUB. Get mother on your side by pointing out to her what he can get out of football besides winning games.
THIRD = PRESS, TV, AND RADIO. Straight up fact of life that the great majority of people get their impression of you from what they read in the paper, see on TV, or hear on radio. Their jobs depend on info. Get it to them to make their jobs easier. Get these people on your side. Let them know what you're doing. They will interpret what you're doing in the way you want it interpreted if they are with you.
ERRORS IN DEVELOPING MORALE (MORALE IS TO THE PHYSICAL AS 4 IS TO 1).
FIRST = FOOTBALL BEGINS WITH MORALE! Once you get morale, it is easy to maintain. How to get it is a problem.
SECOND = HOW TO LOSE MORALE. Do what you said you're going to do. Don't say we're going to practice 1 ½ hours and go 2 ½ hours. Training rules — if you're not going to enforce them, don't have them.
THIRD = MORALE STEMS FROM DISCIPLINE (ALL Discipline begins by being on time).
FOURTH = TREAT PLAYERS AS A PERSON. If he feels you are interested in him only as a football player, he won't go all out for you. If you are interested in his academics, his personal problems, etc. and he knows this, he'll go all out for you. Convince him that football is good for his future.
FIFTH = One year, Knute Rockne had 2 QB's. Under great athlete, team failed; under mediocre QB, team succeeded. Why? Captain's reply — "the great athlete is trying to show how good HE is. The TEAM is trying to make the average guy look good".
COACH IN YOUR OWN WAY:
FIRST = DON'T COPY! Note clinicians and their personalities. ALL different ways of being successful. Plan carefully in the off season. Can't take golf lessons between the 8th green and 9th tee.
CONCLUDING REMARKS: The man who is best organized and does the best teaching job, is the best coach.
************************************************************************
PLAYING WITH MORALE AND INTENSITY (with thanks to Bud Wilkinson)
There is no magic formula for developing morale, but there is a means of getting consistent effort from your team and intensity is what it is all about. How close do your players come to making their best effort every time the ball is snapped? That is what it is all about, and if your team can do that then they are going to play very well. My theory of judging how well a team is coached is not how many games they won that they shouldn't have won (they upset somebody), it's games they lost when they were a superior team, they didn't play well that day. And why didn't they play well --- nobody got geared up about it. Teach your players to think of the game totally as a chance to find out about themselves --- what kind of a man am I and how well can I play when it is tough to play? You begin by explaining to them that this is a most uncomfortable game to play. There is no way you can play football and feel good. The first two or three plays everybody feels good. But now I am the Nose Tackle and I have got to meet someone me and now it's a sweep and I've got to run 20 yards and there is a big collision and I've got to line up again and meet somebody and run 20 yards and then there is another collision. I do this three or four times and I don't feel good. Now, do I quit at this point and wait to get my breath or do I continue to go as hard as I can to try as hard as I can try? THAT'S WHERE THE GAME IS WON OR LOST! What happens to most teams is they play the first two or three plays as well as they can, then they get to a point, I used to call this the "QUITTING DOWN", where two or three guys tell themselves, "If I coast on this play then I'll be able to go real hard on the next one". They have gotten kind of tired so they coast for a while. So they go hard again but now a few others decide it is time for them to coast and the result of this is that you never get eleven guys going all out.
So to get back to the basic point, if you can convince your people that the reason for playing is for them to find out about themselves and for them to find out how close they can come to playing as well as they can on every snap. Then you can eliminate, I think, that "up and down". So now I have three practices and I get the men together after practice and I ask them, "how many of you think you went as hard as you could every time" and if anybody puts his hand up he is lying. "How many of you did it 90% of the time", I don't think you get any hands if you have an honest relationship. "80% of the time", you will get some hands and you explain to them again, that's not very good if you expect to be a good football team, and we've got to make the effort every time the ball is snapped and if you don't think you can, walk off the field --- it takes more courage than standing out there bluffing. I'm never going to know if you make the big effort, and your teammates are not going to know if you make the big effort, but you are going to know and the whole game is a test of yourself. Now, if your players understand this, and I think if you explain it to them they will, some days they are going to play a guy in a red shirt who is a super athlete, some other day it will be a guy in a green shirt who cannot play a lick but that does not effect your guy's performance at all because his whole purpose is to find out today how close, "I can come to making my maximum effort every time they snap the ball". After the game in the locker room, "Okay how many of you went the best you could everytime", I don't think you will ever see any hands. How many of you went 95%", maybe one. "90%", maybe 4. But this is something that if they understand what I'm talking about, as the season goes along more and more of them will be able to get their hand up and if you can ever get them all giving their best effort then it is going to be awfully hard to beat you. And the major thing that happens is this, if you players begin to think this is just an opportunity to for me to find out about myself, "today, how close can I come to doing the best I possibly can", then it doesn't matter whether you are supposed to win by four touchdowns, because the objective has nothing to do with that, their objective is to find out about themselves. Or, they are supposed to lose by three, that has nothing to do with it. It is simply a question of "today, am I able to beat MYSELF". I'm the toughest opponent that anybody ever had, there is no question about that. If they do honestly believe that, that is the purpose of the game, then I believe they will play consistently with MAXIMUIM INTENSITY!!! Get everyone on the field doing that — it will be very hard for anyone to defeat you!
************************************************************************
BUD WILKINSON: "In my coaching, I was able to achieve a momentary selflessness on the part of our team — when you play well, it is because the cause transcended individual recognition or honor".
"If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price than your opponent."
"Football in its purest form remains a physical fight. As in any fight, if you don't want to fight, it's impossible to win."
"Morale and attitude are the fundamentals to success."
"Play against the Game, not your opponent."
"If a team is to reach its potential, each player must willingly subordinate his own personal goals to the good of the team."
"We compete, not so much against an opponent, but against ourselves. The real test is this: Did I make my best effort on every play?"
"If a team is to reach its potential, each player must be willing to subordinate his personal goals to the good of the team."
"Your players' attitude toward you hinges on just one thing, and that is respect. If they do not respect you, you've lost them. If you have their respect, you've got it made."
"If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price."
"Every game is an opportunity to measure yourself against your own potential."
"You can motivate players better with kind words than you can with a whip."
"The will to prepare is the key ingredient to success."
"I feel more strongly about this than anything else in coaching: Anybody who lacks discipline, who doesn't want to be part of the team, who doesn't want to meet the requirements — has to go. It's that simple."