The New Guy

This week was very uncharacteristic for the football team that I observe. A new head coach was brought in. Only a handful of players had met the new coach previously. It came as a shock to many players. The players were used to their normal practice and game routine. The previous head coach was more relaxed and lenient with what he allowed the players to do. The new guy was all about discipline. Within five minutes of him being there, the players had already gotten punished for not doing little things correctly. The main thing the new head coach used as punishment was running. The players were already worn out before practice actually started. One of the players never was in the best shape, and really struggled with all the running during practice. He seemed like he was about to give up a few times, but with the encouragement of one of the players and a couple of the other coaches, he kept going. Practice didn’t last as long as usual, but it was much more demanding. The players really got an eye opener on Monday. On Tuesday the team came out much more crisp and ready to go. They seemed to learn a lot from their new coach in just one day. I think that many of the players were still very nervous. I have been observing this team for a few months now and understand what they have been taught. When the new coach asked different questions, the student athletes froze up and never knew what to say, even though they had been taught the same things many times already. Another thing I noticed on Tuesday, was there wasn’t as many layers at practice. The coach made a rule and let everybody know that if you don’t go to practice, you will not play in the game. Some of the players thought that this was not a fair punishment, while some of the others did. On Wednesday, it turned out that a few of the players actually quit. This was surprising, but I guess somewhat expected. By Thursday, the players started to loosen up a little bit, which significantly helped their game. Like I mentioned, a lot of the players were nervous early in the week and that had a big impact on how well they played. You could really see the players relax and enjoy being out there. The coach’s philosophy was to be very hard on them at first, and then lighten up a little bit later. He didn’t want to come off as soft when he first met the players. I think this will benefit the team moving forward.