Winning The Mental Game by Ray Lauenstein

Summer Time Blues…Keeping your team motivated through the summer.

Football season is less than two months away in some states, no more than 10 weeks in most states. As a coach you are counting on new players to make an impact, seniors to really break through and that surprise kid to grow two inches and add 20 lbs of muscle!

You all know that the key to your success next year is how well your summer strength and conditioning program goes. Your team will be bigger, stronger, faster and less prone to injury. What can you do to maximize your players’ motivation for off-season conditioning that will lead you right into pre-season camp? A few suggestions for you to consider:

1. Team Meeting – If you have not done so already, have a team meeting of all players in the program. This meeting should outline next year’s goals for the team, finalize camp plans, communicate summer workout information and when practice starts.

   This meeting should set expectations and be a rallying point for the launch into the all-important summer season.

2. Player Development Plan – I strongly recommend that the coaching staff have a detailed player development plan which outlines goals for each individual in the program right out through their senior season.

   I have a good friend who coaches at Harvard and he told me that each player has career conditioning performance goals: Attendance is the first one, but also goals for lifts, vertical jump, shuttle runs, 40 yard dash, etc.This plan is shared with the player who sees he is expected to attain certain goals over his career with the program. The 140 lb freshmen can now see into the future a little and be excited that what he does today is getting him ready for things 2-3 years away.

   These goals should be re-evaluated each year, usually to set the bar higher. Make it known what area the players needs to work the most on how you expect them to make that improvement. This should help fight attrition as well.

3. Build Leadership Confidence in Your Upperclassmen. Try assigning each rising senior an incoming freshmen and each rising junior a sophomore “training partner”. Call it what you will but make it the upperclassmen’s job to make sure the lowerclassmen attend workouts. Create rewards and incentives for pairs who have the best attendance record. Add to this competitive spirit by assigning each class level a leader who is responsible for his entire class’s attendance. Make these leaders your agents of communication.
4. Communicate Regularly – Email is a great tool – even a team web site can be used. I used to work for a company that allowed High School Sports teams to build team web sites. The Butler High School football team in Charlotte NC had a great site and used it to promote all their programs, announce winners of the “Weekly Workout Warrior” and a lot of other things. There were photos of the kids working hard, success stories – all things that keep kids working hard. Butler won a lot of games in a very tough league. It all adds up!
5. Give em a break! Occasionally, it makes a lot of sense to give your athletes a mental break from the grind of working out all summer. Instead of a day off, bring them in as usual and run something different. Ideas include: Obstacle course races, mini fitness Olympics, a game of dodgeball against the coaches, bringing the kids on a challenging hike up a hill while the carry the watermelon! Open up the pool and do some water based games…anything that keeps them moving but is not the same old thing.
6. Talk to each of your players individually during the summer. Talk about their goals for the next season, tell them what you expect of them.