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Nothin’ But The Dawg In Me
By Avery | June 12, 2007
Okay. So I’ve got a coaching dilemma. Well not a dilemma so much as a situation I’m just not sure how to handle. Anybody with coaching experience, athletic or otherwise, is welcome to chime in, because the questions I’m asking here are not rhetorical, they’re live.
So I’m the assistant coach of my school’s football team. We haven’t had a football team in years and years, so for all intents and purposes, we’re starting from scratch. One of the hard things about doing this is that there’s no football culture here. Yesterday was the first game in the summer passing league, which we play to help us prep the skill positions for the season. Before the game, we got kids walkin in talmbout some, “If I’m not playin’ today, do I hafta go to the game?” I gave him the look.
You know what I learned at the game, though? We have no dawgs. Well, we have one player with a little dawg, but his is not really the infectious kind. For it to really work, the lead dawg has to be as encouraging as he is critical. Encouragement is not our guy’s strong suit. Yet. Still, that’s just one person of seven. Now to be fair, one of the other kids is a pretty good athlete, but he’s not the rah-rah type.
But I guess my first question is, how many dawgs does it take to pull in the rest of the team? At what point does having a brave teammate cause one not to be afraid anymore? I don’t think it’s just one, though. There has to be a critical mass. I just don’t know what it is. But I know you can’t field an effective team with just one dawg.
Now taking this to a wider situation, I’m thinking about the line that some of my more nationalistic friends like to kick about one of us being oppressed. If it’s true that one person’s “oppression” (and in some cases, I’m not too sold on the quality of that oppression) means that we’re all oppressed, why isn’t the inverse just as accurate? If one of us is free, shouldn’t that mean that we’re all free? If not, why not?
But I still need to figure out how to bring out the dawg in my kids.
Topics: Everwhatever |
June 12th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I know it sounds dumb, but I really can’t think of anything better than a review of ‘Remember the Titans’.
There are so many practical lessons in that one, some combo has got to work.
June 12th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
You have to be the lead dawg, Avery. For inspiration, I recommend watching R. Lee Ermey’s performance in Full Metal Jacket. George C. Scott in Patton will work as well.
The thing about coaching football is that you have to get all the players thinking as a unit. For that to occur, the easiest tactic is to strip the players of their individuality through a steady dose of rigorous PT. Once they’re dog-tired, they’ll be more apt to unite around a common cause — even if that cause is proving you’re a jackass.
June 12th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
oh, man. me and conditioning? i’m givin them a li’l taste right now, but come summer? just before the pads go on? please. but they knew about me last fall. and they definitely know what the deal is if they see me in a knit hat. (yeah, i still wear knit hats in the summer time. wrestling habits are hard to break.)
only thing is, like yesterday, i had kids who always look ferocious in practice come out and look straight-up timid. they linin up across from the dudes lookin absolutely shook. and at that point, there’s nothing i can do except replace em. but we don’t have that many bodies in the first place, and the dropoff in quality is marked.
i hear you, though.
June 13th, 2007 at 7:55 am
I beg to differ w/ MIB. You can’t be the lead dog, not w/ h.s. kids. If I understand you correctly that you’re coaching seven, one lead dawg or Alpha wolf is enough f/ that ratio. I coached 12-and under boys’ basketball, and have assisted with older boys. After middle school, the team needs an internal leader, one whom, in group dynamics, generally surfaces for varying reasons. Football folk need to be pumped in a manner shared by few team sports.
June 13th, 2007 at 8:25 am
I’m just thinking Av’s kids recognize this summer passing league isn’t the real thing and many are probably doing just enough to get by. They’re going through the motions. My advice was for when regular practice starts at the end of summer.
I’ve coached little league football, too. Other than during times when skills are being taught, I wouldn’t call a pass play in a ‘live’ scrimmage for nearly the first two weeks — especially for 12-and-under. Trust me… after a week of ‘Bull in the Ring’, calisthenics, 3-on-3 pit drills, and sprints, the genuine killers will step up and be recognized.
June 14th, 2007 at 2:13 am
Ave:
As to your query regarding oppression, Doc said no one in this world is free until we all are free. Obviously a doctorate in divinity involves studying and defending the great philosophers, and he was coming from a “My fellow man’s woes are my own” ethic.
So was Yeshua Ben Maryum.
BCB
June 14th, 2007 at 4:15 am
i pretty much got what he meant, but i also know a lotta cats who say it without the same level of forethought that he put into his word selection. that’s probably 47% flippant retort, 53% live question. cuz i do have some Nationalist friends who run that line from time to time, and they pretty much mean it. and at that level, i am curious whether it “works” in the inverse.