How high school football coaches can make the most of the offseason

The offseason often feels like wasted time to fans and players, little more than a New Year's Eve-style countdown until the first game of next season.

However, for coaches, the offseason is crucial for player and strategy development. After all, a good offseason is the first domino in a long chain of good practices, great games and glorious playoffs.

Nail it, and your team begins its steady progression toward that elusive season to remember. As signs of spring slowly start appearing and dashed hopes of the previous season fade into hope for the coming one, I'd like to offer some offseason tips from the mental side of the game to create a happy, productive offseason.

Empower your players

 


Offseasons should have structure and the players should have a clear understanding of what, and how, they should improve.

Setting goals with individuals at the beginning of the offseason, can provide that structure. Creating clear goals means being specific about what needs improvement (for example, a receiver's speed off the line instead of general quickness) and creating a way to measure that improvement.

Additionally, remember that goal setting is a collaborative process between the coach and the player; the coach offers their expert opinion on football and the player offers their expert opinion on their own abilities and comfort.

Just like you probably reject some of your doctor's advice ("sleep more, don't work so hard, and yell less often!") when their advice doesn't match up with your personal aims, your players will reject some of your aims when they aren't involved or don't believe they can accomplish it. Setting goals that the player doesn't believe in could demotivate them, so be sure to include them in goal setting.

Embrace failure

I wouldn't recommend calling it failure to your athletes, but this is the time for them to try things out, to explore their game, to work toward growth.

Likely, you'd rather have your guys screwing up now in pursuit of a more diverse skillset than playing it safe all offseason. Therefore, this is your opportunity to go full Philadelphia 76ers and trust the process over results. I promise that your local football authorities won't add the scores of any offseason games to your record come October, so consider what your players are learning rather than how well they're doing in the moment.

This isn't nearly as easy as it sounds, though. Embracing failure requires some forgiveness on your end. It might be hard to watch your running back trip over his new spin move every other rep over the summer. You might agonize over missed read after missed read from the player moving from corner to safety.

However, if you continually crush their mistakes, it's likely that you'll teach them to stop trying instead of to improve their technique. Now, this depends on the player, and some thrive with higher levels of criticism than others.

At the very least, you'll have to tie in lots of teaching and plenty of praise. You're not playing for wins on the first day of camp, you're playing for wins under the Friday night lights months away. Accept your players' mistakes early on and reap the rewards of a new skill during the season. Besides, if not now, when? It's better to be in the learning phase now and the mastery phase later, so accept mistakes, embrace failure, and excel later. Establish the mental foundation

Players will lift in the weight room, jog on the track and play on the field all year, working their bodies and skills into top notch shape for the upcoming season.

Why, then, shouldn't they do the same with the mental side? Any sport psychology professional will tell you that the "band aid approach" (trying to patch up mental weakness at the last minute) doesn't work as well as planning in advance and laying a foundation. It isn't your essay in American literature, you can't do it the night before and expect success.

Get started early with mental training for the best results. Chat with your leaders and your coaching staff – where were we mentally weak last season? Did we bounce back from mistakes? Were we focused under pressure? Did we focus on the opponent or the game? Talking to your players and staff about these topics raises awareness, and allows you to create a plan to combat these issues in the coming season. Or, better yet, reach out to a sport psychology professional to hear their perspective!

Let them take a break

Yes, I've offered several tips for improvement, but they'll be far more effective with well-rested players. It's important to let kids be kids for a while, and the high school offseason's length accommodates some time away.

Getting away from football will allow the players to come back healthier and more motivated for the upcoming season. Often, this means playing another sport for a season. This can be great news for a coach. Not only do your players get to refresh from a grueling season, they can develop their athletic abilities in a different setting, continue to experience a team environment and perhaps apply their leadership skills to a different group.

Not everyone will want to wrestle or play basketball (or any other sport). Perhaps time away entails participating in drama, refocusing on school, or playing Fortnite for three hours a day; as long as the activity refreshes, rather than drains energy, the player can benefit.

Younger players, in particular, can thrive after taking some time away. The amount of time will vary based on the player, whether that's two weeks or two months, but some time away has serious positive implications once the season rolls around.