Thursday, February 10, 2011
danish way to south africa 2010 del 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmMUxz3lUzI&hl=en
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Thin Blue Line - "Come on you Blues" (1/4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Za5fLweN4&hl=en
Friday, December 3, 2010
Football's Answer To Building Successful Teams
A common theme floats through the bleachers of any youth sports event. This theme embodies the essential elements of teamwork that are crucial to every business in America. Every manager has the task of assembling teams of people and leading them in a successful direction. Obviously, this sounds much easier than it is, but why?
Ask the parents of young athletes what they think of the coaching and leadership of their sons or daughters team. Most will offer a positive remark about the team and the coach. The unspoken is often at the heart of the matter and deals with the only participant they truly care about; their child. Parents reserve the right to hold lofty opinions of their offspring's athletic prowess and ability to impact the team. They sense that coaches try hard, but rarely see the true athletic genius of their child. Those of you who've spent countless hours on cold, aluminum bleachers can relate to this message.
The problem lies mostly in the message that kids receive at home. They listen and give their team and coach their best effort in practice only to hear a parent tell them how underappreciated and misused they really are on the field of play. Many of these athletes then return to practice wondering themselves why they are not the center of attention or the leading scorer. The results can be devastating for the young person. Unsure of their real value and role on the team they can lose interest, pull others down, or quit. Because the window of athletic participation is short lived for all kids, we often miss the mark as parents and coaches. Youth coaches have a unique opportunity to develop not only the team but each young person's life. The beauty of sports in our world today is that the playing field can be a powerful teacher of life's lessons to come.
In business, just as in youth sports, the football model holds true. Imagine yourself as a football coach for a second. The goal is to establish a vision, set goals, provide roles for participants, and design a path to success. Not until you get each of the players to buy into the game plan will you move ahead in the right direction. So where does the football analogy come in?
As the coach you must decide who will fill all of the positions on the field. Much like fielding a business team or office staff, the head coach must find and develop the best center, quarterback, receiver, and place kicker. What qualifications are needed in each position? How do you entice players to accept less glamorous roles on the team? Do you have quality people in your organization that can properly fill and execute these positions or do you need to recruit them? What strategy do you use when a player will not accept the role you present? Would you know how to put the best possible team on the field if you were the coach? The role of a business leader is much the same.
To crystallize this process, a great coach or leader will instill the value and greatness of each person on the team within their specific role. Truthfully, almost every kid grows up wanting to be the quarterback or receiver. What would a team look like with 11 quarterbacks and no one to snap the ball or block for them? As players fit and fill roles on the team they buy into the importance of what each bring to the table. They gain strength and confidence by doing their job well. Without their role being filled in an important way, the team does not execute to its capabilities. When more than one player fails to accept or execute their role, the team begins to deteriorate from the inside. On the outside, losses fill the schedule instead of wins. My advice for every business leader is to take a look into the genius of the great coaches in sports. You can find them at the elementary, high school, college, and pro levels. How and why do they make these tough personnel decisions on a daily basis, year after year. You'll find that each are masters at defining roles and establishing the importance of each role. As each part of the team is assembled and developed through practice and hard work, the inner workings of a successful team are in place. Take a page from the football playbook and create your own winning team.
Randy Brown has passion for the game of basketball. He works as a basketball consultant and mentor for coaches. Visit him at http://www.coachrb.com for free resources, Q & A, newsletter, and coaching programs. A speaker and writer, he has authored 75 articles on coaching and is nationally published. His 18 years in college basketball highlights a successful 23-year career. Mentored by Basketball Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson at Arizona. Resume includes positions at Arizona, Iowa State, Marquette, Drake, and Miami of Ohio, 5 Conference Championships and 5 NCAA appearances. His efforts have helped develop 12 NBA players including Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, and Jaamal Tinsley. To contact Randy, email him at rb@coachrb.com
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Building Cohesiveness and Chemistry in Your Youth Football Team
Building Chemistry When Coaching Youth Football
The best youth football coaches are not only very good X and O guys and great teachers, they are outstanding at bringing their teams together. One of the best I've seen at doing that is my friend Tony Holland from Baltimore. Tony has been using our system for the last 3 years and has had some amazing results. He has some very unique techniques he uses to bring his teams together. Tony is a voracious learner and has taken some concepts he has used so successfully in his business and applied it to his youth football team to make it better and improve the experience for his kids.
Laying the Foundation of Your Youth Football Team
Like us, Tony divides his team into multiple groups of 5-6 players. We do the same and assign a coach to each group and allow the group to name their little "team". By organizing your team in this way the kids feel more connected. When you are running circuit type drills and take a break, it is much easier calling out each group by name and sending that group to the next station. The kids often take pride in their little group. We've found when doing competitive drills or the fun team building drills from the group, the kids have more fun and effort greater when there is competition between groups. By keeping kids in those smaller groups, the kids connect quicker and deeper which in turn improves their fun and commitment levels.
Laying The Solid Rock Foundation
Tony takes this a step further. Before the season, Tony goes to Walmart and buys a bunch of small smooth round rocks. His team is the Ravens, so Tony spray paints each rock purple and puts Ravens stickers on each rock. After each practice the coach of each of the groups awards a rock to one player in his group who has listened the best and efforted the hardest. Each coach hands out the rock to his group winner before the entire team at the end of each practice. Tony said his kids go nuts over getting these little rocks. He calls the effort the kids put during practice as the foundation (rock) of success for his team. The foundation is built with the help of these strong little rocks that cost Tony less than .25 each.
Lifetime Lessons From Youth Football
These simple and inexpensive rocks are treasured by Tony's players. One player in fact was moving and mentioned to Tony he had put his treasured rocks in a box and made sure he got them to his new house. It was as if these rocks were his most treasured possession. He told Tony "I'm keeping my rocks forever"m which brought a huge and knowing smile to the lips of my buddy Tony. The teams parents even bought in after some initial skepticism and now are all for it after seeing the results.
Just think about this kid, 40 years from now in 2048, this same kid is moving again. He is now 49 years old and loading his belongings into the moving truck. he takes a look at that last small box from the attic. In that box are a few old scrapbooks, some old kids trophies and his little box of treasured rocks from Tony Holland, he got back in 2008. 40 years from now that player will still remember Tony and his lessons on effort, commitment and team work. How many other people are going to remember you 40 years from now? Think about that.
If you are coaching youth football, my good friend Tony is definitely one of the guys you want to emulate if you want those kind of permanent lessons ingrained into your players.
Dave Cisar
Dave is a Nike "Coach of the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His personal teams using this system to date have won 90% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.
To Sign up for his free tips and drills newsletter or to view 400 free youth football coaching tips go to: Youth Football Plays