GumboBC

The key to good coaching is knowing what’s fundamental to success and what’s not.

Teams with effective players and good plans usually do well.

That might seem like a blinding flash of the obvious, but look around the NFL and see how many teams are at least "one level removed" from something that improves either the effectiveness of the players or the quality of their plan. When I refer to plan, I mean the entire plan. Whether that be dealing with injuries, or having the scheme that best fits the personnel, or motivating the players, etc. etc..

It’s hard to define what I mean by being "one level removed" but you know it when you see it. Examples help:

1. When you're teaching a new scheme that puts your players in the best position to make a tackle -- that's fundamental to improving your team, but when you are teaching players how to make a tackle, that's -- "one level removed."

2. When a coach is trying to motivate his players during a pregame speech -- that's fundamental to having success on game day. When a coach is trying to motivate his players to lose 35 pounds or show up on time for team meetings, that's -- "one level removed."

3. When a coach is trying to implement a new passing route to give a receiver the best chance to catch the football -- that's fundamental to improving the offense -- when a coach is teaching a receiver to catch a football, that's -- "one level removed."

In other words, a coach does not spend enough time on truly implementing a plan that's fundamental to improving his team because he's too busy working on the "one level removed" stuff.

To be fair -- every coach has distractions that interfere from working on the important stuff. I mean, todays players come with their on set of unique problems.

But, what happens when you have too much of this stuff is "inconsistency."

Then what happens is the coach is always searching for ways to "tinker" with something in hopes of finding "consistency."

Haslett needs to resist the urge to tinker so much. It’s always tempting to "improve " the organization structure, or to rewrite the team policy to address a new situation, or to create committees to find where the inconsistencies are.

Individually, all those things seem to make sense. But experience shows that you generally end up with something that is no more effective than what you started with.

Or, in other words, the coach is always so busy changing his policy that no one is really ever on the same page. Or to put it plainly.............The coach is inconsistent and that leads to the players being inconsistent. Show me a consistent coach, and I'll show you a consistent team. Show me an inconsistent coach and I'll show you an inconsistent team.

A culture of efficiency starts with the everyday things that you can directly control: team meetings, practices, punishing players (but be consistent and send the right message), and praising players when it's called for. The way you approach these everyday activities establishes the culture that will drive your fundamental success. When a coach is "consistent" in his every day activities, players respect him. When a coach is inconsistent, players start to doubt him.

Haslett seems obsessed with the big picture. I think the big picture is hidden in the details. I’m all for working for the big picture, if you know where to find it.

Finally- we’re all idiots and we’re going to make mistakes. That’s not necessarily bad. Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Compounding mistakes with different mistakes is "one level removed."





[Edited on 26/6/2004 by GumboBC]