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GAME CONCEPT
All football coaches will eventually develop their own concept of the game. These concepts will vary, in some ways, but in the game of football one fundamental truth always exists. Football is at its best, a game of controlled aggression. You, the coach may emphasize either the control, or the aggressive nature of your team. one aspect more than the other, but it is important that you have both. Without aggression your, team will be sedentary. Without control your team will lack direction. To develop the aggressive nature of your players simply stress aggression in practice. Make aggressive play second nature by stressing it's importance for effective play. Insure your team understands that without aggressive play they will needlessly lose games, and incur more player, injuries. Some players will already have the aggressive nature you expect. These players can help you greatly by setting a suitable example for the rest of the team. The control aspect of the game can be more difficult for the coach to keep a handle on. To insure the team exercises control, you will have to carefully watch how they execute the actions necessary to the specific play you are coaching at the time. If you see a Lack of control or purpose exhibited by a player do not simply tell him what he did wrong. First ask him why his play execution went the way it did. It is possible that it was due to misunderstanding or that one element of his fundamental play needs help. You have to know why the player made the mistake before you can make the required corrections. If any of your, players exhibit such aggressive nature that it interferes with his play execution. It may be necessary to spend an inordinate amount of time with him to get his play under control. If you undertake to do this it is best to have an assistant coach take the time, As a head coach your concern has to be the whole team. An important part of game concept is understanding the purposes of your offensive and defensive units. DEFENSE. The short version of defense is to defend your goal line from the opposing offense. This is the wrong way to look at defense. I once heard a high school coach describe defense as a gasket. He said to his defensive unit, "YOU ARE A GASKET. IT IS YOUR JOB TO STOP ALL LEAKS, AND KEEP THE OPPOSITION FROM MOVING, BY CONTAINING ALL PRESSURE EXERTED AGAINST YOU." He was wrong. Your defense must meet the opposition force on force. "Drive the opposition backward, and take the ball from him." Never play the containment game with your defense. To simply rebound against force exerted against you is foolish. Your defense should be employed as an arm of your, offensive strategy. Designed to gain yards, and deprive the opposition of the ball. Drive the opposition back, Force turnovers on downs, through fumbles, and interceptions.. When properly employed your defense will gain yards as effectively as your offense, by mounting such an attack on your opponent as to render, his offense totally, ineffective. Your defensive unit has to understand that they are the real game winners when they deny the opposition the opportunity to score points, by keeping the ball out of his hands. As a coach you should employ an offensive, approach to defense. OFFENSE. Your offense is key to controlling the tempo of the game, This is done in two ways. First. Deprive the opposition time. Scoring points is not the only job of the offense, they must also deprive the opposition time to score by keeping the ball as long as possible. If you receive the ball at opening kickoff, and take ten minutes to move the
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