In Week 4, we talked about creating your Program Promise. Ideally, that should be the framework for creating your program’s slogan. Ours is “Tougher Together," inspired by Nick Saban here.To elaborate on this topic, here’s a special Youth Flag Football Coaching Blueprint edition by Coach Bruce Kay:
I believe team sports' educational purpose in grade school and high school is to provide an experience where participants experience competition and teamwork, develop discipline, and understand what it takes to be successful in life beyond athletics.
This philosophy can be adapted to any team that is not a member of a school system; as coaches, our job is to influence positive attitudes and behaviors. Every program should have a theme that helps the players focus on the purpose of athletics in our school systems. Too much attention is placed on championships rather than the process of getting kids to understand that there are no shortcuts to success, and we all face adversity that we must manage.
Some programs have a different theme every year that I found inconsistent.
It's been our experience that young people need to hear the same message multiple times for several years, and eventually they will believe it. In my early years as a head coach, we didn't have a saying or a theme. To be honest, a slogan or program theme wasn't at the top of my to-do list. However, we evolved into one theme that we used every year: a simple universal clear message. Our message was and still is "Today's The Day – To Exercise Your Will."
The first half of the message came from Key West, where I visited the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum and read about the tremendous amount of perseverance that Mel and his crew displayed for 16 years searching for 2 ships that sank on September 6, 1622. Every morning Mel insisted that "Today's The Day" that they would find ships and treasures. I shared this story with our 1997 team and related it to our players on how developing into a good to great football player takes time and consistent effort.
That eventually, they will master and understand the skills and concepts we are teaching.That football was a microcosm in how they will face many challenges throughout their life and the belief that "Today's The Day" will help them do their best at everything they do. Every season I would call out a player and say, "Today's The Day," you will read the guard's block, take the correct footwork, etc.
It's about recognizing the challenges each player has and connecting a lifelong message to the statement.
The second half of the statement came from Kevin Kaplan, who was a member of our 1997 and 1998 teams and spoke to our program about a book he read that was assigned to his college team.
The message Kevin shared was that football is a game of will and that every day at practice, your "Will Power" is going to be challenged. As the practice gets hotter, harder, frustrating, painful, or confusing, that's the time you have to dig deep and draw upon your will power to push through the challenges of practice, competition, and life. Once you break your opponent's will, the game is over, opponents who have accepted losing are easy to break, and other teams who have more success take a continuous effort before they crack. Great teams don't crack, sometimes they lose because they run out of time. In tackle football, the physicality is one way to break the opponent's will to win.
In all athletics, it's the ability your players have to execute the skills and think quicker than their opponent that will win games.
The belief of "Today's The Day" is just being positive, and exercising your will is the acceptance that life is full of challenges, and it takes consistent effort to succeed.
