by Steve Stark | Sep 19, 2016 | coaching kids, player development
Saying motivated during a football season can be difficult.
When you reach that 4th or 5th week of the season in high school, practice is a grind.
Add a tough loss to the mix and it can be downright brutal.
Staying motivated to improve and preparing to win is essential.
In today’s video we discuss a few ways of staying motivated during the grind.
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4 Ways of Staying Motivated
Take care of your body.
As the football season progresses, players’ bodies take a beating.
When your body isn’t right, it plays on your mind.
Be sure to take care of any injuries and sore muscles.
If you regularly ice and treat your aches and pains practices and games won’t be as much of a grind.
Take a break.
Find a day to get away from football.
Good coaches know when their team needs a break.
Players need to know when to take a break too.
During the season this is tough.
If you get a day off take advantage and do something to relax.
Just the mental break from thinking about football can have a huge impact on staying motivated during your season.
Pick each other up.
The best motivation comes from the guys you spend time with in the trenches.
Be a great teammate.
When you see someone who is struggling mid-season, pick them up.
We all want to manly and tough football players.
That doesn’t mean we don’t need help sometimes.
The mental part of the game is just as important as the physical.
Nothing helps you stay motivated more than having great teammates.
Remember to have fun.
Playing football is fun.
Being on a football team is fun.
Sometimes we get so caught up in preparing to win that we forget we need to have fun.
Coaches need to realize this more than anyone.
As a coach, I know I have been guilty of sucking the fun out of a practice.
It’s a delicate balance but we need to have fun everyday.
If not, a team just won’t reach it’s potential.
So have fun!
If you you found value with today’s post please like, comment and share.
Play Big!
Coach Steve
by Steve Stark | Sep 12, 2016 | coaching kids
Dealing with temptation is a test of a person’s ability to choose good instead of evil.
If you play sports then the goal is always to win and become the best player you can be, right?
Otherwise why play this difficult game?
I know temptation all too well and have dealt with it my entire life as you all will as well.
Temptation is something that can take us from our goal.
I am going to explain how temptation took over at times in my life.
There are ways to help keep temptations to a minimum that will help you to reach your goals.
In today’s video I discuss a few ways of dealing with temptation.
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4 Ways of Dealing with Temptation
1. Have solid goals
Set goals and track your progress as you work towards achieving them.
The temptations that I had when I was a young football player were distractions that kept me from some of my goals.
But part of the problem was that I did not have very well defined goals.
It could have been because of this lack of defined goals that temptation was such a problem for me.
It would be very easy for me to blame my parents and others.
However, the fact is they were doing the best that they could at the time and I was the one that kept choosing not to be focused on any goals.
So with that said it is very important that you get as concise and detailed goals as you can.
It’s important to realize that goals are one way to help you keep the temptations at a minimum.
Make yourself accountable by setting your goals publicly.
Motivate others through detailing your progress and interact with like-minded individuals who are are on a similar path.
2. Surround yourself with like minded people
Find people that want to succeed the same as you.
As I mention in the video, we can choose to become like-minded with losers just as well as we can become like-minded with winners.
We get to choose who we feel is a loser and who is a winner based on the goals that they each have set.
3. Get Help
There are mentors, coaches, teachers, pastors, uncles, aunts, and many others that understand how much temptation can move you away from your goals.
They understand because they have had to deal with temptation too.
There is NO shame in asking for help.
But the shame does come when you ask for help and then choose not to accept or refuse to learn from the help you get.
Many people ask for help and then refuse to use it.
This is something to watch for because the temptations you are facing are what is swaying you from taking the help.
When we ask for help it does not mean we need to fully accept the help we get and buy into it 100% because every one of us is different in what our experiences have been.
What I suggest is that you ask for help, listen to the help, and figure a way to absorb it by writing it down.
Some help I have gotten I have thrown in the garbage right away.
Unfortunately, down the road I have realized that I should have kept it and used it.
At the time, I just couldn’t understand it.
So don’t just give up on the help immediately but put it somewhere so that you can think about it and use it when you’re ready.
4. Realize your football career is short
This is a tough one for all football players and other sport athletes as well.
Many athletic careers are over once they are done with high school.
Those that are able to go on and play in college add only 4 to 5 years to their career and those that make it to the NFL rarely add on 3 more years.
So in a normal life span of 70+ years, most football players play about 6 years of football.
This is such a short time in a person’s life.
If you were to ask most players what football meant to them you would hear that it was 6 years that changed their lives.
Because players have such a limited window for a career, it’s important for to realize how temptation can and will mess with their goals.
I have listed some of the temptations that were large in my life when I was a young football player.
- The couch
- Desserts
- Friends that did not have my back
- Girls
- Drugs and Alcohol
- Goofing around in class and not taking school seriously
- TV “now video games are big ones”
- NOT Going to bed on time
- Staying out late with my friends
- To not be honest about what I was really thinking and wanting to do
These are a few but they are the ones that seemed to haunt me the most.
Not all of them are “bad” or “Evil” as you can probably see but they are temptations that kept me from my goals.
Temptations are something that you can no completely eliminate!
What is important is to understand the temptations in your life and how they are affecting your goals.
Again football is a difficult sport.
It takes a lot of hard work and discipline if you want to be really good
These are some suggestions to help you all in your quest to “Play Big”… if that is your goal.
Coming very soon we will be adding more in-depth articles in our membership site. Please get your membership now so you can get access.
Have a great day and remember to always “Play Big”
Coach Glenn
by Steve Stark | Sep 5, 2016 | coaching kids, youth football
Dealing with a loss in football is never easy.
Let’s just say it… losing SUCKS!
Everyone will deal with a loss in football.
I can guarantee you will not go undefeated your entire career.
We all experience difficult losses in football and in life.
How we handle those losses and what we learn form those losses makes us who we are.
In today’s video I discuss some ways to turn a loss into you most valuable learning experiences.
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Lessons from Dealing with a Loss
Dealing with a loss reveals your character.
Compared to dealing with a loss, winning is easy.
Although, winning has it’s difficult moments as well.
Both will reveal the character of a player… but a loss, even more so.
Football is an emotional game.
Players will face adversity in every game they play.
How you deal with that adversity defines a player.
I had a chance to watch my Wisconsin Badgers beat LSU this past weekend and it was awesome.
… if you are Badger fan.
Many people are still talking about a cheap shot that an LSU linemen gave a badger player at the end of the game.
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That’s what losing can do to some players.
Emotions and frustration run high.
A young man makes a mistake and not only did he lose a game but now he has to face a suspension.
That’s a difficult lesson but one that I hope he learns.
Keep emotions in check.
As I said above, football is a very emotional sport.
Keeping an even head can be tough.
Players never want to get too high with a win or too low with a loss.
If you play sports you have to have a short memory.
That doesn’t mean a player can’t celebrate a win or be upset about a loss.
But players have to move on quickly especially when you have a game next week.
What kind of a teammate are you?
NEVER play the blame game on a football team.
We win together and we lose together.
No one player is solely responsible for a win or a loss.
That’s the great thing about football. It is the ultimate team sport.
When players start pointing fingers at others after a loss, the team suffers.
That kind of behavior is toxic on a football team and will ensure that team is not successful.
Instead players need to pick each other up.
Have an appreciation for what your teammates do.
Realize that everyone’s job is important and EVERYONE will make mistakes.
Be a good teammate and be a leader.
Realize why you lost.
Why did you lose?
Was the other team more talented?
Did they execute better than you?
Was it a lack of effort from your team?
You need to understand why you lost in order to learn and get better.
Focus on the things that YOU can control.
How can you improve from week to week?
Someone has to win and someone has to lose.
Losses teach us much more than wins.
If you make dealing with a loss a strength those losses can help build championships.
Always be learning and always continue to get better.
I hope you found value with these tips on dealing with a loss.
If you did please like, comment and share.
Play Big!
Coach Steve
by Steve Stark | Aug 28, 2016 | coaching kids, student athletes
We can all use a few time management tips, right?
As a student athlete, time management can be very difficult.
Sports continue to become more and more demanding on your kids time.
It’s critical for your athlete to keep perspective on what’s important and not get burned out.
That is, however, easier said than done.
In today’s video I discuss 4 time management tips that can help your athlete perform better and stay on top of all their activities.
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5 Time Management Tips for Student Athletes
1. Use some form of calendar or organizer.
If you right something down or place something in a calendar it makes it real.
There’s something about planning and scheduling events that puts a sense of urgency on those items.
Try scheduling your time in blocks every day.
Stick to that schedule and you’ll be amazed at how efficient you can become.
If you are looking for a digital tool, Google calendar is a great and it works on any smartphone or computer.
2. Eliminate distractions.
In today’s world we are bombarded with constant distractions.
Studies have shown that it takes, on average, 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption.
That means that just 2 distractions can cost you nearly an hour of lost time.
You have to turn off your phone when studying.
This will maximize your study time and ensure your phone doesn’t cause you to lose time.
Social media is an absolute time killer.
Spend less time on social media by scheduling time for it.
Choose 3 or 4 times a day but limit yourself to 15 minutes for each block.
3. Spread out the work.
When you get to the middle school and high school level, most teachers will give you a schedule for assignments over the course of the semester.
If not for every assignment, certainly the bigger projects.
Take advantage of knowing these schedules.
Break the work into smaller blocks until it’s due.
How many times have you had a big assignment that you knew about for weeks but didn’t start until the week before.
Then it becomes a fire drill and you have to throw everything else aside while you finish it.
Schedule regular blocks of time to work on these projects so you don’t go nuts and lose tons of time before it’s due.
4. Learn to say no.
It’s Wednesday night and there’s great new movie in the theater.
Your best friend is asking you to go but you have time scheduled to work on a project due in 3 weeks.
This is a huge project and you have created regular blocks to work on it (Great job!)
You can probably miss this one time, right?
Unfortunately, one time turns into two.
Two times turns into three.
And then you’ll just decide to do it all the week it’s due.
You have to learn to say no.
If you don’t say know to those types of things you are going to really struggle with your schedule.
It’s tough to say know but so many times it will make the difference between success and failure.
5. Use your weekend wisely.
The weekends can’t just be your time to unwind and sleep the day away.
Make your weekends count.
Now, I’m not saying you should relax on the weekends.
You should.
But make sure you schedule the time on your weekends too.
Don’t waste all of this time vegging out in front of the TV.
I hope you found value with these time management tips.
If you did please like, comment and share.
Play Big!
Coach Steve
by Steve Stark | Aug 21, 2016 | coaching kids, teamwork
How important is it to know your role on a team?
Everyone on a team has a role. Regardless of the sport.
In football, with 11 players on the field, knowing your role and understanding the roles of others is essential.
My college football coach said it well…
“Know your role. Know where you fit in, know how your contribution contributes to the greater whole. More importantly, know and appreciate the roles of those around you.” – Barry Alvarez
Everyone wants to be a star and that’s okay.
As a coach, you want players that have the mindset to be the best.
However, not everyone will be a star and that’s okay too.
In today’s video, I discuss two things that coaches and players can do to ensure you know your role.
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2 Steps to Know Your Role
1. Defining your role.
Sometimes the most difficult part of being on a team is figuring out where you fit in.
When you get to the high school level not everyone will play in every game.
Understanding your role is crucial to the success of the team.
As a player, you need to understand what is expected of you on your team.
There are MANY roles on a football team.
Stars, vocal leader, leaders by example, special situational players, and even the goofball to lighten the mood.
All are critical to the success of a team.
Some coaches are great at explaining roles and others are not.
As a player, if you are not clear about your role on a team then you MUST speak with your coach.
A good coach will be able to explain how you are expected to contribute to the team.
Understanding your role and what is expected relieves pressure and allows you to focus on your job.
I was chosen as a team captain in both high school and in college.
It was an incredible honor both times.
It was also a bit scary.
Not being a vocal leader at all, I had to figure out what this role as a captain meant.
In both high school and college I had coaches that helped me to figure out my role.
I thought a captain had to be vocal but that wasn’t the case.
My coaches helped define my role as a captain.I realized that I didn’t have to be a vocal leader.
I realized that I didn’t have to be a vocal leader and I could focus on leading by example.
The funny thing is, when I did speak up, it was far more effective.
If I had continued to worry about that it would have affected my play and the way I interacted with my teammates.
2. Appreciating roles of others.
We’ve all heard about team chemistry.
Chemistry comes from players meshing and appreciating one another.
All the great teams that I can think of had great role players and not just superstars.
The Chicago Bulls teams of the 90s had superstars like Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen.
They also had incredible role players like Steve Kurr (outside sharpshooter), Dennis Rodman (the rebounding machine), and Ron Harper (the perimeter defensive expert).
Without those guys, the Bulls don’t win 6 NBA championships.
Think about current teams with superstars that don’t have enough good role players around them.
Adrian Peterson in Minnesota, Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City (now flush with role players in Golden State), and Mike Trout with the Angels are all superstars in their sports.
What these players have lacked is the right combination of players around them to win championships.
Not only do you have to have the right role players you also have to make sure all of those roles feel appreciated.
This is not only the responsibility of the coaches but the players too.
No matter how good a running back, quarterback or receiver is, without the guys up front they go nowhere.
The same thing is true on defense.
If you don’t have good defensive tackles that take on double teams and use up blockers, the linebackers won’t be able to clean up behind them.
Everyone has a role on a team and they all need to know they are essential to the team.
I hope you found some value learning how to know your role.
If you did please like, comment and share.
Play Big!
Coach Steve
