O Line Skills

Continuing the conversation on my recent trip to Phoenix…

The second of the four courses we produced with USA Football at the Arizona Cardinal’s Training Center was entitled Leadership and Team Building.

If we really step back and take a look at our coaching roles in the lives of our student athletes, developing young men and women of character, ethics, and morals and reinforcing their potential to contribute to society after they hang up the helmet and cleats is really our greatest mission. We help shape character traits so our athletes can be leaders both on and off the field.

We begin our discussion of leadership by quoting three of our past presidents…

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things.  He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”  President Ronald Reagan

“Leadership is the ability to decide what is to be done, and then get others to want to do it.”   President Dwight D. Eisenhower

“A leader is a person who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do, and like it.”   President Harry S. Truman

All of our presidents agree that leadership is about getting others involved to get the task accomplished. All would likely agree leadership is, and should be treated as a privilege. Given the privilege to lead, one should consider two key concepts: Deference versus Respect.

We recognize there are significant differences between Respect and Deference.  Deference is a reverent and considerate attitude towards someone because of their position (principal, athletic director, coach), but Respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone because of their abilities, qualities or achievements.  In a nutshell, deference is given; but respect is earned. As coaches, we’re given a whistle, clipboard, and the authority to run the team, but the deference our athletes, parents, faculty, and community offer only goes so far. Every single day, through our words, actions, and decisions, we earn, cultivate, and maintain the respect of those very same people. In doing so, we model behaviors we hope our players will want to emulate. We must be ever mindful of our example, and understand all the hard work poured into earning respect can be destroyed in seconds.

Then we focused on understanding the millennial generation we now coach. Generations are shaped by the circumstances and philosophies surrounding their upbringing.  If you are a Baby Boomer, you were likely shaped by the prosperity of the Post War Years and the Civil Rights Movement and raised by a working dad and stay at home mom.  If you are used to coaching Generation X who were shaped by the Cold War and raised as latch key kids with two working parents. You may not understand today’s generation without taking a step back and considering the view from their perspective. The Millennial generation are shaped by the events of 9/11 and the War on Terror.  Many of them spent their early childhood in daycare and are now raised by helicopter parents. Their goals and aspirations are shaped by their experiences, and as leaders, we need to understand how those factors affect perspective and motivations if we are to help them maximize their potential and performance.

The conversation continues with John Maxwell’s “17 Undisputable Laws of Teamwork.”  Discussing them in depth, we looked at how they apply to today’s football teams.  Next, we borrowed from a US Marine Corps discussion on team building. I’ve had the privilege of sharing firsthand how the Marine Corps builds a team we know as “The Few and The Proud…” turns out the very same process, tenets, and values they use are just as applicable in building a winning football team.  Both a Marine Corps unit and a high school football team go through the phases of Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.  Nobody trains teams like the Marines, and by studying their model, we can reinforce our coaching success.

We conclude the course by understanding the differences between team building and hazing and focus on the negative impact hazing and bullying can have on your team, your school and your career.

I believe leadership is a privilege. As coaches, we have a fleeting moment to have a positive impact on the lives of our student athletes. It’s critical we seize the opportunity, set a good example, and cultivate young leaders for our team, and for our future.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss summer OTAs, coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for your time!

Welcome back!

It was a great experience working with USA Football at the Arizona Cardinals Training Facility last week.  We arrived at the facility shortly after 8AM and after a brief orientation began shooting the four video courses for USA Football Coach Academy.

In the next four weeks, I will share some of the information covered in the courses beginning with Setting Target Outcomes.

Using the term Target Outcomes in place of goals allows athletes to visualize the target they are aiming for and allows them to make adjustments when the target is missed.  We begin by discussing how we create a Shared Vision for your players, team and program.  Understand that a SHARED vision cannot be YOUR vision.  We discuss how soliciting the input of players and coaches creates “buy in” and commitment in determining the vision.  We complement Target Outcomes with Creating Performance Standards for the program, players, offense, defense, special teams and position groups so that everyone in the program understands expectations.

Then we discuss the importance of goal setting, why goals fail and why people don’t set them.  We share different types of goals: short-term, long-term, process and performance.  We note that goals should always be stated positively and not worded negatively.  For example: earn at least one first down on every offensive possession, rather than stating NO three and outs.  We addressed the step-by-step process of S.M.A.R.T. goal setting to see that goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound.  The course concludes with the importance of Monitoring Progress Towards Goals.  Tracking progress for starters and non-starters, veterans and rookies shows all players that you care about their progress.  Tracking also ensures that the goals stay relevant.  Lastly, it exposes any change in training needs.

After videotaping the first three courses, we took a lunch break and had an all-you-can-eat buffet in the Cardinal’s offensive lineman meeting room.  How ironic.

At the conclusion of production, I got to enjoy downtown Tempe, even though the temperature hit 110 degrees. The next day, I received the dreaded travel news…your flight is cancelled and your being rerouted.  When life serves you lemons, make lemonade.  The change in travel plans allowed me the opportunity to visit Arizona State University to tour their football complex, athletic training room, strength & conditioning facility and arena.

Although I spent most of my last night in a Chicago airport on a layover, missed a night sleep and did not get home until 6AM, it was a great experience I hope to repeat with USA Football.

Additionally, I look forward to sharing more about the programs I recorded for USA Football’s Coaches Academy over the next few weeks. Like the Target Outcomes discussion mentioned above, I’m excited to share the other programs and look forward to hearing your ideas about team building, goals, measures of effectiveness as well as some more detailed discussions of X’s and O’s!

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss summer OTAs, coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for your time!

I am excited to be participating in USA Football’s Course Content Productions.  On Tuesday, July 11, I’m flying to Phoenix to produce four courses in the Arizona Cardinals Training Facility.

The first presentation will be on Setting Target Outcomes.  We will cover sharing a vision, creating position group performance standards, goal setting with SMART goals and monitoring progress toward goals.

The next presentation is entitled Post Game Evaluations and Next Week.  It will cover grading your players, awards and recognition, analyzing data, self-scouting, setting up and breaking tendencies, adjusting for injuries and depth issues and progression of offense over the season.

The third course is Leadership & Team Building.  We will define what it is to be a leader, discuss understanding the millennial generation, the laws of teamwork, the four phases of Team building and the concerns of hazing and bullying.

The last course is on RPOs (Run Pass Options).  We will discuss the history of this concept of taking advantage of the conflict player, the concerns that negatively effect the execution of the scheme, how to solve those concerns and how to take advantage of this concept with a Screen Pass Option.

 

I look forward to telling you how the presentations went, discussing the material, and telling you about the interesting members of the coaching fraternity I meet upon my return.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss summer OTAs, coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for your time!

 

Thanks for all the great feedback on last week’s blog about preparing for summer Organized Team Activities (OTAs) and the value of a strength and conditioning coach. Building on last week’s success we have a guest post from Coach Adrian Guyer CSCS, USAW-2, CSAC. Coach Guyer brings an extensive athletic background coupled with over a decade of training experience. He’s been an invaluable colleague and helps both teams and individuals excel in their fitness and conditioning goals.

 

With Coach Guyer’s guidance, this summer our training program will have:

1. A focused plan of attack- We’ll apply specific exercises, techniques and philosophies to individual and team goals.
2. We’ll stay “Consistent” in execution, and measure success. Valuable progress takes both work and time.
3. We’ll plan in time to recover and refuel. The body is an amazing thing and with the right balance of exercise, recovery and refueling, can exhibit extraordinary success!

Coach Guyer has more great info available at his website https://www.xiptraining.com/

I look forward to letting you all know how our OTAs and Coach Guyer’s strength and conditioning program support our development this summer.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss summer OTAs, coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for your time.

For the last few weeks I’ve been exploring the idea of how to make your program “The Big Time,” for your team, school or community even if you’re part of one of the thousands of relatively small programs in cities and towns across the Country. We talked about helmets, traditions, and how in programs large or small, the passion to make a positive impact in the lives of our student athletes makes “Coaching, coaching regardless of the programs budget (or lack thereof!)

My favorite part of these last few posts have been the responses from colleagues, players, faculty, and communities near and far. This week I’d like to share the perspectives of a colleague who was in position to see firsthand some of the things we’ve done to help make our program “The Big Time,” for our school here in the hills of Vermont. I hope you find his perspectives enlightening and can apply some of the same tenets to make your program “The Big Time,” for you!

 

May 2017

Coach Alercio,

Having read your piece on changing the helmet to change the culture of the program, I wanted to share the biggest change I have seen in our program over the last 4 years.  In the first year you set expectations high, players and coaches understood what was expected of them and you let people fail (and understand the consequence of their failure).  The thing you did not do was change expectation or standard.  

People lost privileges and responsibility, and unaccustomed to such accountability, some left the program.  Others worked very hard to meet or exceed the expectation.  That work either built those who remained into people who could sustain the program or broke people who eventually decided to leave so that the program could be what it would become (pruning).  

This was the hardest, but best thing for me to watch.  I knew then and there that I was not ready to be a head coach but wanted to be the best assistant I could be.  I knew I would have to find my own way to push and prune if I were ever to have a program to be proud of. The “Big Time” allows coaches to cut, recruit, or draft, all while drawing from deep pools of talented athletes.  Our school is open to everyone as is our football program… but we must remember football (and its inherent personal challenge) isn’t for everyone (lesson learned). 

It is our job as educators and influencers in the lives of young men; to both get the most out of those for whom football can be a formative positive experience, and help guide those for whom football will have a negative impact (either on themselves or others) away from the sport.

Football in the “Big Time” is about building the collective.  Being a judge of character is very important, and it is most important to think of character as a collective; effectively a culture.  I (as you know) think of those for whom football can be a good experience.  I think of football as a tool to form individuals, to build character, and to inoculate young athletes against the fear and failure they will unavoidably encounter in life.

What I have learned about “The Big Time” is that football as a game sometimes exists in a vacuum apart from character formation.  It has its necessities and mandates set by a program, with the central goal of winning well and secondary goals of being tough, smart and working hard (or commitment, competitiveness, and classiness).  

Within that vacuum there is the necessity of building the individuals committed to these goals as full rich human beings, but the goals of the program cannot be sacrificed for humanitarian efforts in fixing attitudes or building morals or ethics that do not already exist (if not in practice than at least in will).  These humanitarian goals are noble but come at an expense to the team. In a sport where placing service to team and teammates above self is a core tenet, such an expense can never be a worthwhile bargain.  For me this has always been family and religion, and now I include football (more specifically Team) in this area as well.  To use football as humanitarian aid steals that experience from the many to serve the needs of the one.  This is counter to good football culture.

 I would love to see sometime in this vein in your evaluation of making every program “The Big Time.”  A piece on program standards and their role in the education of young people might be eye opening to other coaches.  I have learned how sometimes exclusion from participation or challenging young people can be formative in their development; even if it is uncomfortable or difficult in the moment.  

Playing in your program should matter, and if it does, you are the Big Time, no matter where you are.  If kids are ready to fight (in thought, word, and deed) for your program, then you are The Big Time.  

Football would be easy if it was for everyone. The truth is football is not for everyone. Football is “Big Time” when people become special (not better, but special) through their commitment, courage, and belief that together we are so much more than any one of us could be alone. I know this email is a bit of a rant, but outside of X’s and O’s this has been the best thing I have learned from you.  

Hope this is useful.

Thanks,

Please keep the feedback coming! If you’d like to learn more about making your program “The Big Time” for you, please stay with us on olineskills.com. We’ll be discussing more of the changes we implemented to cultivate success in the coming weeks. Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends.

PS: The Football Toolbox recently featured my presentation Special Teams:

Click here to learn more:”Going for 2 With the Swinging Gate“