Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Thursday, August 25, 2005

I GUESS IT ALWAYS HAS TO BE FAMILY FIRST FOR ME

I am starting to not just dislike, but rather to actually hate splitting up the team for any part of practice.  I am currently driven with the motivation to do this (split up into smaller groups or different places) almost never.  I am constantly trying to think up drills these days that simulate real game situations and also keep somewhere around 40 people all busy and moving.  This is not the easiest challenge I might add. 

CAN YOU FEEL ME?

I go by feel a lot when I coach, and that is often regardless of the game or practice plan I might have set up only hours earlier.  Things often change quickly with injuries and whatevers. I put a huge premium on prepping them and me for specific situations by creating simulated moments inside of a real game sort of picture frame.  We practice situations as much as I can think of different scenarios to practice.

I always want to try to be prepared to give myself as well as them a chance to make a good choice in stressful or otherwise intense moments.

Yesterday was a sort of a "choose up sides and play" kind of day at practice.  The idea was for coaches to get a further look at individuals.  I ended up hating it (scrimmage) however.  I spent last evening obsessing about change.  Take it easy Coach.  It's August for Christmas' sake.  Still, in my mind and in less than two days I had deemed that everything I saw on the field screamed for more structure.  This team needs form to follow.

Don't get me wrong.  Structure must also be fun.  I accept the challenge.

I am moving the pieces around already in search of something.  I know not exactly what.  I do know I want more creative, all-inclusive drills and a little less scrimmaging right now, so we will go there for starters. 

IT'S ABOUT PLAYING UP TO THE GAME

I search for visions in practice that are instinctively pleasing to me as well as images that the coaches think might work or help us be more productive over the long haul.  I look for these things in "snapshot" form, always seeking something that seems to come about naturally as they play, and that once discovered we can then begin to recreate that same scenario with monotonous regularity to our team advantage because it does in fact come naturally or more easily or whatever.

Sometimes it is the seeing individuals with particular skills or gifts as sort of pictures on a proof sheet that I want us to somehow develop into a team photo, too.

As we progress (hopefully) as team and in a new year I may not always be able put my finger on how or even exactly why I take us on each of our particular steps, but my hope is to always feel like we are heading up the right staircase, and I already do with this group.  They will lead me where we need to go.

STEAL YOUR FAITH OFF

I do have faith, yes, but I do admit that I secretly fear that the face-off position might eventually prove to be the Bo weevil that crawls in through my ear and eats out my brains if I am not careful. Maybe even if I am careful and diligent.  It's times like these that I wish I could still teach (one of) them by being a real player that can compete with them, instead of the has been or possible never was that I actually am.  I will find a way to get one made (face off guy that can get it done) this time.  This is Job one.  Last year it didn't matter to me as much as it does right now.  I must somehow fix this!

Fall ball is Club ball – SPRING BALL IS NOT! -

It is not important to me who or who is not out there or whatever from one day to the next here in August, only that we show obvious evolution as a team from Thursday to Friday and then from Friday to Monday. 

AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE....

The other thing we need is to always (daily) have a strong central, passionate core of our team apple at practice.  This is crucial to team growth, period.

No matter which way or how far we mature in any given day, my goal remains the same, and that is for our TEAMogranite to ripen a little more every time it is exposed to daylight.

WELL BLOW ME DOWN

I believe that if you are not careful a team can get off or should I say on to the wrong track more quickly than one can even imagine.  It must work both ways, though.  Getting on a good track from the get go must make it easier to improve from day to day.  Maybe both these realities are why I have taken to putting so much into figuring out how to do as much as possible with the so-called meaningless "Fall Ball" .

AUDITIONS MAY NOT LAST LONG THIS SEASON

I say I'll look at anything as in, "Coach, can I play some (insert new or other position here)?".  I always say yes at first, but I never do say how long the "audition" might last.

SOMETIMES YOU FEEL LIKE A NUT…..

Sometimes I am intrigued by possibility. Sometimes I am not. 

I did not like our overall direction or style yesterday for some reason (ugly and uninspiring), and I knew it wasn't a u-turn to the day before that I wanted either, so I just took some of them and in the process us on a quick jog up a slightly different road. I don't have a clue what all that means really, other than the fact that I was much more fulfilled following today's session than I had been last night.  That gut-feeling stuff is good enough for me right now.

DREAM WEAVER or DEMOLITION DERBY

I am sure I might have crushed a hope or a dream today.  To whoever that might have happened to I say, "Take heart".  It might only be temporary.  I have no idea where I might go with this team as far as where on the field people should play, not really, but I already treat us as if there were something broken almost daily, and that we must fix it right now in order to move on. I love thinking about things from that particular motivation. That means I like the looking at things from the how-can-I-fix-this or make it better place. 

Yesterday everything seemed out of kilter, or as a Flipism it cried, "That's not what I WAAAANted".

I basically have already said to quite a few of them where I want them to play and what kind of team role and motivation I want them to have while they are at it.  Yes, I want them to start putting things together in a particular place as early as now.  By this I mean let's get on with the muscle memories and mind sets.  Let's do things right, right now.

Tomorrow is always another day.

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