Character Development Archives:

 Daddy favoritism is one of the most common and deadly team killers in youth football. Almost all of us have seen it, the average player who is put into a no-win situation by a well meaning but selfish or delusional father. The average baseball player who would make a pretty good outfielder is made the [...]

Misplaced Priorities When Coaching Youth Football  The biggest mistake poor performing youth football coaches make are misplacing priorities. I communicated with a youth coach last month who had struggled the last 2 years. He was not using our system and was looking to change schemes. He was putting hundreds of hours of research in coming [...]

Reacting to Blown Calls When Coaching Youth Football On June 3rd Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Gallarraga was one out from throwing a perfect game when a ground ball hit by Jason Donald went for a single on the 27th out. The problem was Donald was mistakenly called safe at first base by umpire Jim Joyce, replays showed [...]

Coaching the “Inside Stuff” Almost every single issue we deal with today is a character issue—good or bad. In today’s world we hire people for skills and then fire them for character. The same can be said of sports. Today talent is not enough. Character and skill develop excellence. Skill without character develops mediocrity. If [...]

What to Say to the Local High School Coach, Pressuring You to Run His System? I love going to places where football is important. The Bay Area has good football and there are plenty of good youth football coaches I’ve met over the years from that area. My wife and I had the good fortune [...]

Holding seems to be an evolving “penalty” at all levels of football. Did you know that the rules in the NFL, College and High School game have NOT been changed to allow defensive linemen to hold? That goes double for youth football, where 48 of the 50 states us NFHS rules, while Texas and Massachusetts [...]

I spoke at the Kansas City Glazier clinic this past weekend.  This was a pretty small clinic, but they had some good speakers, really enjoyed Rick Darlington from Apopka, FL- 6A school in Florida- Largest class- his defense stuff was great, couldnt stick around for his Single Wing stuff- I was on at the same [...]

A Mistake the First Year Assistant Coach Usually Makes Many dads starting out coaching youth football for the first time make the same blunder, they try to “connect” with the kids by trying to look like them, talk like them or be their best buddy. In most cases the coaches intentions are noble and good, [...]

 Interview with 2001 Heisman Trophy Winner Eric Crouch, April 10, 2009.    Eric Crouch won the 2001 Heisman Trophy playing for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. Eric finished his career at Nebraska with 59 rushing and 29 passing touchdowns. He was the first Division I player to pass and run for 1,000 yards in the [...]

  While we do plenty of technique and X and O work on this blog, coaching youth football well goes so much further than that. The most successful coaches seem to always be able to get the most out of their teams. Little of that success seems to be based on superior technique, talent or even schemes. How do they [...]