by Tyler Brandt, The 7 Second Coach
As a former head football coach and defensive coordinator I used to say, and be told, all the time that defense wins championships, although I might lean towards special teams being a close second. One thing that is certain is that a team can’t lose if the other team can’t score! The problem is, the same team that can’t lose, will also never be able to win, if they can’t score!
Focusing solely on defense becomes a lesson in futility when you don’t have every other phase of your game fundamentally sound! If you look at what is at the core of how you develop your athletes, program and culture it is clearly:
Relationships!!
I recently had the opportunity to watch the power of partnerships in my current college wrestling program. For over 25 years I have been a Head Coach of extremely successful programs and recently I accepted the Head Assistant Coach position Simpson College. The head coach and I have been collaborating on various technical aspects and have merged two series of techniques into a very potent offensive system! The important thing to take away is that both of us had great arguments for putting up walls and being defensive with regard to our positions and experience. The Head Coach could have taken the position that “I am the Head Coach and a former National Champion and we will do it MY WAY” and I could have taken the position that “I have been a Head Coach for nearly 3 decades, I have more experience and a proven track record of elite level coaching success and you should do it MY WAY!” However, because neither of us took a defensive position by shutting the other coach’s ideas, suggestions and opinions out and we were open to learning from each other, we created a better system together than either one of us could have done on our own!
Without a strong process oriented plan to build honest and transparent relationships based on common interests and a servant mentality, absolutely no scheme will work to its full potential! You might be asking yourself why I haven’t mentioned the fact that simply having the best athletes will make virtually any game plan easy to execute? The reason is, no matter how good your athletes are, when you are always on the defensive you’re always reacting!
Here’s what I mean, I have conversations with coaches almost daily where they’re concerned about scholarships, facilities or dorm rooms, you name it, they have sought out and found the worst their institution has to offer. Many of these coaches are constantly spending their time in a defensive position surrounding the negative aspects of their program or campus. Often coaches are spending time trying to overcome potential issues about something insignificant instead of building a relationship with the recruit. Unfortunately, a by-product of that mentality is those items become important to the prospect because the coach is spending a large amount of time on them – so the recruit becomes aware that those negative issues must be important! If the coach would have had an offensive game plan to overcome those issues as they arose instead of making them arise, the coach could have been focusing on the right things at the right time!
This happens all the time with coaches in general and not just with recruiting. A coach’s standard state of mind is often “Defensive” because they get it with both barrels all the time from every direction! Sports are so “available” that everyone thinks they know how to coach so it’s simply just easier to take a defensive posture and keep EVERYONE at arms length. This tactic never ends up working out very well, but does insulate the coach for a short period of time. The most unfortunate aspect of coaches being so defensive is that they often miss great opportunities to improve and advance because they have shut-off the collaboration.
The best plan is to be on the offensive with a resolute plan to focus on learning the right things, from the right people so that those things can be implemented and delivered at the right time to build the best athletic environment possible for the athletes. When that is accomplished the wins truly do take care of themselves! Learn to build the relationships that matter with your, coaches, athletes and parents and watch your program skyrocket to the top!
