Post Game Reflection

Coaches,

Please share this with your assistant coaches - if you believe worthwhile.

I attended a full Friday high school football game this week:
Pre-game meal all the way to the loading of the buses - with a truck ride home with an assistant coach.

This is what I learned:

Coaches need to use their willpower to control their emotions and be self-LESS.

As men, we get wrapped up in the competition and the intensity of the game.

It takes WILLPOWER to catch yourself, think about "what the players need", consciously forget about yourself, your urges, pressures and emotions ... and make the effort to TEACH your players.

I KNOW how hard this is. I had to catch myself. I was totally routing for this team. They were losing and I was getting upset at the mistakes, the penalties, etc. I was getting pessimistic. But I NEEDED to catch myself and CHANGE my own attitude. I asked myself, "What am I doing here? How can I help these players?"


Examples
(I apologize if this seems arrogant of me mentioning what I did. I did not change the world or the outcome of the game. I am just trying to provide another viewpoint of how one can coach. Again if a player's coach would have done these things the results would be 10X better)

An offensive lineman had injured his shoulder early in the second half. He was pacing the sideline totally in tears his shoulder wrapped in ice. This went on for a while. No coaches spoke with him. I understand that you are busy during the game, you can't drop everything as soon as a guy gets hurt ...

- Maybe the O-Line coach when the defense is on the field, after speaking to the O-Line on the bench ... could seek him out, etc.

- I spoke with him, encouraged him as best as I could, had him look at the sideline and pointed out how many guys were leading ... "no one" ... encouraged him to use his pain, his sacrifice, his will to lead on the sideline ... he did and it changed him and his teammates.


Post Game after the loss

The team met in the gym, it was an away game ... Head Coach addressed the team briefly. A bus driver was missing so the team could not leave. One coach gathered a position group and was basically tearing them up ... the rest went to the parking lot ...

- In this moment it was obvious that the players needed some encouragement. They needed to be uplifted, mentored, prayed with. They needed some LOVE.

-What do you accomplish whining in the parking lot amongst yourselves? You can do that watching film together or at the restaurant after the players go home ... Use every moment you have with the players to BUILD

- I went to as many players as a I could, prayed with some, told them every positive thing I saw and did my best to get them to forget about themselves and encourage their teammates, to build - not mope.

God bless, Lou