Video: Offseason
See how offseason workouts can involve fundamentals as well as creating a team culture.
This offseason is going to be very important for high school football program's across the nation. Some will flourish. They will work incredibly hard. They will do incredible things together as a team. They will build their identity through a commitment to hard work in the weight room and on the field. These teams will go through the fire together, and come out stronger on the other side, like gold. The precious metal first has to be melted before being designed in to a beautiful necklace or ring or statue.
Other teams will struggle this offseason. They will fail to flourish. They won't necessarily work hard, they will just work. The will not build an identity; they will simply go through the motions. They will come out the other side much like they entered January: just another football team with no real work ethic, no real leaders and no real vision for excellence this coming season.
Three things to understand about building an identity this offseason.
1. A team must have values. These values guide the behavior of the team just like a personal set of values influences an individual's behavior. For instance, if one values responsibility and life, they will not drink and drive. Similarly, players will follow the values of the team. If the head coach places value on attendance, the players will value being at practice. However, if there is no consequence for missing practice and a player can miss the entire spring and just show up and play in the fall, your program's value system relating to work ethic and attendance is lacking. This means that you won't build an identity of a strong work ethic.
I've coached a handful of Division I athletes as a high school coach for 16 years. One of those full-ride D-I kids refused to show up to summer workouts, so we cut him his junior year. Our program valued attendance and work ethic, no matter your ability to help us on the field.
Guess what that did to everybody on the team who also came to value work ethic and attendance? It forged them into a tighter group. It helped us to create an identity that offseason. And that kid didn't miss one summer practice his senior year and was welcomed back in to the program. In fact, not many kids ever missed. Because if we would cut that kid, we would cut any kid with attendance issues. What your program values will help to build an identity.
Creating a team culture where players and coaches share one vision should be forged in the offseason.
Photo by Gary Jones
Sometimes you have to cut loose players or coaches who lack the same vision and purpose that you do as the head coach and as a program. Everyone in the program must embrace the same values in order to succeed. If a member of the team, no matter their place on the totem pole, fails to buy in to the vision and purpose by ignoring the values, you will fail to create the identity that you're looking for.
I'm often asked by head coaches my opinion on keeping around this kid or that coach. A person will contact me with a story about what has transpired and ask my opinion. My answer is usually: Do they embrace the values about the program that you do? If they don't, then it's probably time to part ways. Because they will continue to hurt the team if they don't share a common vision.
What is the vision for the program? Do your players know what the vision is? Do you have that vision written for players to understand the direction of the program?
3. Values + Vision = StandardThe program's values plus the vision of the head coach leads to a certain standard for the program. That standard is part of the identity the team forms during the offseason. What do you wish the standard to be? And is that standard supported by your values and vision?
Think of the standard being like a twelve-inch ruler held vertically. Do you want your program to be a 3? An 8? A 12? If you want the standard to be a tremendous work ethic, but allow kids to miss practice, that means your values and vision do not line up to the standard. You cannot have a standard of 12, and an attendance rate value of 6.
Your values (what is important) added to your vision (what you want) will set the standard for the season, and the future of the program. If players and coaches don't understand what the values are, or what your vision is, they will never get to the standard that you are trying to set. This is why communicating your values and your vision is so important. The head coach needs to communicate these values and vision daily. These are communicated to kids and parents with every move you make. If values and vision are not comprehended, then the chances of the program working as one strong unit, instead of many individual units, are minimized. The potential to build a tremendous identity in the offseason is being missed.
Chris Fore is a veteran Head Football Coach and Athletic Director from Southern California. He consults coaches and programs nationwide through his business Eight Laces Consulting
