Coaches clinic

The Raiders were invited to a coaches clinic at Halas Hall, and 11 of use attended. I was pumped to see the great facilities that my beloved Chicago Bears train in. Other than a finally manicured field, I was greatly disappointed. The facilities did not live up to the expectations I thought a NFL team should have. In fact some high schools and most colleges have better facilities.

I was not there to view the campus I was there to get coaching ideas. I got a few and the day was not a total disappointment. I did get to meet 149 other coaches with the same passion that I have for the game of football. I hope to put these ideas into a package for a successful football season.

I leave in a couple days for the happiest place on earth, and when I get back it will be time to put all the pieces together.

Rest

From the end of the season 2004 the Erickson's have not had a break from work, football, marathon training, or iron man training. So a well deserved vacation to the happiest place on earth will be a great distraction. When I return home back to the grind of every day life, the plan will come together.

Control Freak

As a coach you want to call your offence or defence the way you think it should be run. It is an ego thing. Not many coaches would say that their plays are not good, it has to be the players execution of the play that makes it fail. How do you get coaches involved in a game? One coach call offence the other defence leaving other coaches to look on and suggest plays that may work. That's why we need to game plan and work on the basics





If you control the line of scrimmage on ether side of the ball.......... you win! That takes blocking and tackling. Control your man, know your assignment, because the game is won during practice. That is how I need to get coaches involved...................IN PRACTICE.





RULE #3 You play like you practice

Coaching Tips

Attitude; it is contagious. After each season I reflect and try to grade myself. I have never given myself a positive grade. The 2007 season was my worst. I coach football so the kids I coach remember to have fun in the boundaries of the game. I also want each kid to feel that he is part of the team and not a practice player. I failed to get all the players into some games, and follow our teams minimum of four plays. Most of the players deserve more. They attend all practices and give maximum effort. I got caught up in wins and losses, and player suffered because of it. If my attitude was different the wins and losses would take care of themselves and all the kids would have fun and feel as if they belong. So :

RULE #1 Attitude (Mine = Yours)
RULE #2 Time + Effort = more playing time

Back to the drawing board

I can't get motivated to set up the offence, there are to many other things that come up, distract or just take up my time. Last year at this time I had everything in order. I need to start over from zero and work up. Number one, why do I coach? Some times I seem to loose sight of the reason I began coaching. I want this to be a game and to be fun. Personally I would like to win along the way, but having fun, especially at this level is the most important. I think both can be accomplished with the right offence, key on the basics, and the right attitude. The basics can be boring, blocking and tackeling, especially when doing them over and over. I guess this is where the right attitude comes in. Time to get started.

Finding the right Offence

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  I'm using this time to create formations for an offence that is simple enough for the kids to learn, but not so simple that another team can scout us and determine what we are running by formation. We need to be able to spread the feild along with using tight power formations. Most of all I need to find positions for kids that are not as skilled as others so that they can get quality playing time, a task that I did not accomplish last year. This will be my 20th season as a Raiders coach, and from time to time I need to be reminded as to why I dedicate my time to the progam.
  
  
  I will use this Blog to keep parents posted as to what we are doing from week to week. This week I am going over plays for Power I..........................................................................................
  

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