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FOOTBALL COACHI 956705 SCIENCE article Sponsored Links
FOOTBALL COACHING: BOTH AN ART AND A SCIENCE
COACHING FOOTBALL: BOTH AN ART AND A SCIENCE.
By leon criner
Category: SCIENCE
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COACHING FOOTBALL: BOTH AN ART AND A SCIENCE. They say art is in the eye of the beholder and is therefore subjectively measured. Most of us have heard this many times over the years. But, if you’re like me, you haven’t really stopped and thought about it. Try to think back to your playing days and remember some of your best coaches. Aside from making you work hard, what attributes did they have that you remember most? For me, it was coaches that could communicate how they felt about my performance without saying a word. Think of that! A coach that could yell at me silently. What a gift that is. This means that when he really did yell at me, it meant something important. One of my coaches had the ability to look at me out of the corner of his eye with no expression on his face and head down. When he did that, it meant an opportunity for me to improve after conditioning. That same coach could give me almost the same look, but with a raised eyebrow, and his head up and it made my day. I was happier than a hog in slop! Therefore, I believe, the art of coaching is how I present the subject matter and carry myself as a coach. If that’s true, my mannerisms and actions should convey the importance of what I’m doing at the time. Everything I do on the field, should have an urgency to do them correctly. Conversely, if I take a “ho hum” approach to whatever I’m doing, so will my players. I, as a coach, should have an enthusiasm in my everyday demeanor. Which reminds me of a head coach I once knew. When asked by his assistant coaches about their on-field demeanor, the head coach replied, “da meaner da better” On the other hand, the science of coaching is what I teach. This can be objectively measured. It’s my schemes or the X’s and 0’s of the game. Every Sunday, following our last game, we sit down and watch a tape of the previous night’s performance. We then objectively grade our players on every play and come up with their overall score. With this score in hand, we have a basis from which to correct and improve performance. It also gives us our next week’s starters based on performance. With the advent of video tape, almost everyone can routinely measure performance everyday. This all but eliminates squabbles about who your starters are going to be. Video tape doesn’t lie!
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