Coaches, its okay to change

Football has evolved so much since it first began many, many, many years ago. We all have seen the T formation offense, wishbone, full house, veer, wing T, then changed to I formation, then yes into that shot gun/spread that has taken football by storm for many years now. As much as the spread teams sometimes don’t want to admit, some of their plays come from wing t or veer teams. When they do run the ball, their blocking schemes come from under center offenses, or some of their passing plays or play actions come from them as well. You did know the air raid was a 2 back system even under center, right? Can you imagine mike leach running that? Well that’s what they did way back when he and Hal Mumme were coming up with the air raid.  What I am getting at is, it is okay to change coaches.

 Its okay if you find a different offense that you like and learn it to run it yourself. Its okay to see different drills for the same type of thing that you want and try it. Its okay to get away from how your high school coach did things sometimes, its okay to not use the terminology that the head coach you coached under for years used. Its okay to change, and it’s okay to be your own coach, not someone else. It’s okay to change, but on your own terms, don’t let any coach try and change how you coach.

If you are going through a season, and things are just not working, a drill isn’t transferring over to a game, or this play isn’t going transferring over to a game, don’t you think that you would either scrap it or make some tweaks? If you are running an offense, and the players just aren’t picking it up or getting, don’t you think you would figure out a way to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore? If you are running a defense and it just isn’t working with the players you have, don’t you think you would make an adjustment? Because I find that you can only beat your head against the wall so many times until you fall and lose conciseness or worse. Its okay to admit when your offense to defense isn’t working, or this drill you really love just isn’t working and change it. But you have to be willing to admit this stuff to yourself.

Sometimes, we just see the excuse of, well this is how so and so did it when I coached with him, or this is how this team does it. Well, sometimes teams do things a certain way because that fits their players. But sometimes it can fit yours too, but just because it wasn’t your idea, doesn’t mean you just don’t give it a try. Or, if you hear of a better way to do a similar drill that you are doing, but you don’t want to do it because it wasn’t your idea or its because the coach you worked under for years didn’t do that way, or the school didn’t do it that way when you played there, isn’t fair to those players. In that situation, it becomes more about you than them. Its okay to change with the times and the type of players you have sometimes.

I get it, if you are trying to turn around a program, you have drills, a defense, and offense, and ways of doing things and you don’t want to stop doing those things because it is a process and you don’t want to quit it and try something else. To me, the only thing that makes that true, is if you see the progress for your team going upwards, even if they are losing games. If you see the drills you work transferring over to the game, if you see you getting positive gains from your offense, if you see your defense actually making plays and doing the things you work on, then you are seeing progress and know that in a year or so this will start turning into wins.

If you don’t see anything transferring over a game consistently, then what are you doing? If you just show up to practice every day, and don’t make adjustments, with drills, the defense, offense, or what each coach needs to do, then you are not going to be around long as the head of the program. And if your reason is, well my head coach didn’t do this, this town didn’t do things that way, or the coach I worked under didn’t do that, then you are going to be left in the dust.

No matter what offense or defense you run, you can take things from other coaches and use them for yourself. If you are an under center guy, but find a drill similar to yours or one that might work for your players from a spread team, you would be dumb to not use it. Same goes for spread teams if they see a drill from a under center offense that they could use and don’t use it.

You also have to be yourself when you are coaching. You can't try and coach like this coach or realize that you don't want to coach like this coach and try and change who you are. You need to be yourself and coach the way you want. You can't say, well this coach I worked under coached this way and some people in town didn't like it, so I am going to make sure that I don't do that. That is going to make you over think on how to do things and you are going to crash and burn.

Coaches, sometimes we have to be willing to admit when we our won stuff just isn’t working during that season and change it, we have to be willing to adapt to certain things, and we have to be willing to change. Especially at the high school level where you don’t get to go out and recruit kids to fit the system you want all the time. If you do not do these things, that’s only hurting them to try and win games and get better. Its hurting you as a coach because you wont be successful yourself, and you are not helping your assistant coaches see the right way to do things and to prepare them to be the best they can be.