Don’t Be A Control Freak

This morning, on a sweep around the right side, our running back got caught behind the line of scrimmage by about three opposing players. In his futile struggle to resist the growing tide of players converging on him to bring him down, he tossed the ball to his blocking back, who was then free to run 80 yards down the field for a touchdown. Great play!

But was it? The players showed great initiative to turn such a busted play into 6 points, and we all congratulated them for their terrific heads-up play. But what if the toss had been off target – after all he was in the process of being tackled – or if the second RB had missed the ball? We would be getting on his case for trying such a risky maneuver. We had certainly never taught him to do that!

So he took a risk and it paid it off, but it is not a risk we want our players to take, because more often than not, it ends poorly, sometimes in disaster. Should we reward process or results?

If we decide to reward results rather than process, then we send a signal to our players that it is OK to ignore the coaches’ advice (orders) if you think you can do better.

Well, you certainly don't want to punish a player who makes the play but did it by not playing his position correctly. We are not control freaks. So that means you're going to reward (and punish) based on results. That is, you're going to wait to get on your DE’s case about abandoning his containment responsibilities to pursue the play until he gets burned. Which is too late.

But there's no teacher like experience. I think it is OK to let your kids go “off the reservation” now and then, even if it does come back to bite you in the end. Let them experiment. Youth football isn't that important, and the lessons they learn from getting burned in youth football will serve them well when they are older, playing in high school, when their split-second on-field judgement can draw on this experience.

Be forgiving when your kids don't do what they're supposed to. It cuts both ways: sometimes they do the wrong thing and it turns out great, and more often than not, when they do the wrong thing, it turns out badly. Best to make those teachable moments, when you explain to your players what they did wrong and why you tell them to do it differently in the future.