Coaches are always searching for anything that will give them an edge over other performance
coaching businesses or other coaching staffs and teams in their given sport. That desire for an
edge has led to many innovations in coaching, not only in performance coaching but sports as
well.
Over-speed training was an example, as were steroids. The Communist Eastern Bloc certainly
knew how to “train” athletes.
Just ask Rocky Balboa.
But we as coaches are always preaching to our athletes about the importance of being able to
overcome tough odds just as Rocky did.
I searched for edges too.
I traveled literally all over the country to attend conferences and attain certifications in the
areas of developing speed and explosiveness along with strength and conditioning. That
definitely solves one part of the “How do I coach my teams better” conundrum.
But none of that directly motivated the athletes to value off-season training and preparation
more than they already did.
The bulk of coaches below the college level have very little control over the quality of talent on
the roster each year. Sure we all beat the bushes within our schools and try to get kids to come
out for the team or sport, some of us even start youth programs to feed our high school teams
or an create an entire ladder of age group programs in a club sport scenario.
But many of the coaches we are competing against are doing the very same things.
When I was involved with coaching varsity football in the late 90s, 7 on 7 summer tournaments
were just taking shape in my area. It was kind of exciting and the coaches and athletes certainly
enjoyed it. 7 on 7 served as a great way to keep kids engaged in the sport and work on specific
skills at the same time. It definitely made the athletes involved better football players which
certainly helps your team improve as well.
Or did it?
The added layer of time and effort put into the 7 on 7 programs across the area improved the skill levels of every team. That is good for the sport itself but it doesn’t necessarily give any specific team an edge over others, and the edge is what coaches always look for.
Spending more time, effort and bandwidth on a vocation to not necessarily improve your standing versus competitors isn’t exactly optimal.
In 2008, I was about halfway through my coaching career as a high school head coach. That career ultimately lasted 18 school years and 36 seasons as a high school head coach of three different sports, wrestling, track & field and cross country, and both genders.
At that point in my coaching career, my time in wrestling was over. I needed time to breathe and focus on the other two which were somewhat married together. We are about to try and defend our streak of seven consecutive team district championships in track and field and we had won the same championship in the fall with cross country.
I didn’t know it at the time but two things at this point in my career were true.
1 - I had 10 years left as a head coach.
2 – I was about to stumble upon something that transformed our offseasons and therefore our seasons.
It wasn’t something entirely new, it was an addition to something we had already been doing that also included a complete makeover of how I presented it to our athletes.
Though we had had great team success prior to this transformation, we noticed a dramatic increase in roster depth and in the margins of victory. We were creating better athletes and much better depth on our roster, with which we could better survive unforeseeable illnesses and injuries.
We didn’t necessarily dramatically change how we were training, though we continually upgraded that when possible, what “flipped the switch” was something I created and how we packaged it to the athletes that resulted in a surge in their motivation to train year-round.
I explain that in detail in this video. When you implement something similar, I cannot over-emphasize the benefit your athletes and teams will gain as you see a bump in effort and performance in your athletes and teams as well. Good Luck!