Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Saturday, August 13, 2005

THE ART OF COACHING

I am passively fascinated by my current situation where I have no clue about who will play attack for us this season.  To me this sort of thing or time is when you earn your coaching money, or at least that would be the deal if you were getting paid.  The unknown in this case does not scare me. I like doing things like giving individuals, new or otherwise, the opportunity to "step up" in a new year, or any time for that matter. Will the first contestant enter and sign in please.

GOOD HABITS FROM THE GET GO

I will always come out first orating in August about the kinds of things that can help a player to catch the ball better and such things.  I am from day one in search of ways for our team to get and have the ball more than the other guys.  Simple goals suit me.

BRING IT ON

I realized recently and I reiterate that it is very important that I have no preconceived notions about who or what it will look like on attack in ‘06.  I must not prematurely evaluate.  I must not elevate or not elevate individuals in my mind based on what they did or did not do last year. 

It is important for me to get a good look at what last year's freshmen bring back to our kitchen as sophomores.  Sometimes they return with a whole new flavor of player with them.  By having early mindsets or even notions about how certain things will come out I am doing no one a service, nor am I using my preseason "cooking" time well.

PUT THE BISQUIT IN THE BASKET

So just give me people to play the attack position who can already catch, throw, and protect the ball. Anything else is a bonus as far as I am concerned.  Catching is not a joke to me, and in my opinion far too many really good players do not place a high enough premium on doing it well.  So many of them believe that shooting, for example, is far more important.  That is the joke as far as I am concerned.  I think the individual shot is many times way overrated.  Yes, being a good shooter will help you to score goals.  There can be no doubt about that.  Technique and shot speed are very helpful to be sure.  You cannot shoot what you do not have, however.

To me it (offense) is so often much more about breaking down the defense as a unified offensive group until you get the right numbers, or is it get the numbers right?  However you get there, the math is one versus none.  In other words someone for us eventually has the ball in front of the cage and their goalie is conveniently out of position.  That is what I call a one on none.  Just hit the basket, kid.  Dunk the ball, son.

WE DO NOT ELIMINATE THE MIDDLE MAN HERE

My objective in offensive lacrosse is to pressure the goal, and to get shots that make the defense increasingly uncomfortable as we play on.  Meanwhile we are controlling ball and tempo as a team in search of the ultimate, easy looking "finish" to a sequence.  The more individuals that take part in the dynamics of the eventual score, the better. If we had ten guys score two goals against a really good team, and all 20 goals were assisted goals it would be fine with me.  Of course the 100% ratio on assists to goals is a pretty steep team pyramid to tackle, but I like it as a concept, as a pinnacle of team excellence.

FRESH BLOOD

We have a bunch of new people coming in, freshmen and otherwise, that are surely loaded with potential for our team.  It would be really dumb for me to project their possibilities beforehand, though.  I don't work well that way. 

I like MY way of course, "our" style of play, but part of my way is always blowin' in the wind while we are at it.  I embrace new.  I like surprises. Change is inherently neither good nor bad.  It just is. Each new group becomes a combination of a completely new and different personality make-up mixed with a stable full of CSU traditions.  The chemistry that the new and old create together is indeed the catalyst for a season.

I AM FOREVER MARKED

I will go about my usual business when we start practice one week from Tuesday, which means that speed is pretty much the only thing that can immediately impress me.  Everything else takes time to simmer. 

I take it back.  Mark Plonkey impressed me the first day I saw him, and it wasn't his speed.  It was his IT.  He already had it, whatever it is.  Still, he didn't really even start (in my mind) becoming THE Plonkey until the very end of his freshman year.  I'm not sure we have a "Plonkey" in the coming lot, but I am planning on a bunch of guys that can have fun fundamentaling. 

TO FEAR AND NOT TO FEAR

I guess in conclusion for this line of thinking, the thought of having a team that has the tendency to drop or not catch the ball with monotonous regularity or having other bad team habits or idiosyncrasies like that are the possibilities that have nightmarish implications for me, not taking a few chances on personnel or having a little simple blind faith about what is to come.  The future is yet to be built.  That is a good thing in my opinion.

ETERNAL WARP SPEED TO YOU, SCOTTY 

Scotty from the original Star Trek cast died last week.  Except for his family that is how he will be remembered, as Scottie, the man behind the scenes making the Enterprise perform at its best as it casually or crazily cruised around the galaxy.  He was the consummate team player, wasn't he?  It was never about him, but he was often the MVT of the episode. 

Did he ever play another role? I think his name was James Something. I'm far from a Trekkie, but Happy Trails, dude.

I'M GIVIN' HER ALL SHE'S GOT, JIM

So here I am in Florida.  I have nothing much important to do while here (assemble bicycle, go to beach, etc.).  Still, I got behind "grandpa" today as we were leaving The Savannah.  He was inching along at 15 miles per hour in his Le Baron or whatever in a twenty-five mile an hour zone.  Instead of joining in, going with the flow, and enjoying the moment while projecting myself as a person living in whatever era this guy was from, I stressed.  I could have been in the touring-along-with-him-in-the-motorcar mode, but I allowed it to instead drive me insane within about 90 seconds, like I was Parnelli Jones and I had to get to Toys R US more quickly for some unknown and mystical reason.  Dick Trickle is more like it.  I am ultimately a product of my own cultural evolution, or lack thereof. 

I FEEL THE NEED

I need some coaching activities to begin soon.  I have had enough of thinking about thinking about it.

BLOODY WELL RIGHT

I hope that I am starting to get back into a writing rhythm because it hasn't been easy for a while, and it seems like somehow, after all these years of journal writing, that ain't quite right.

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