Sometime in the mid ’90s, while I was playing high school football, I read an article in Sports Illustrated. The article was about a division III college football coach who was taking a non-traditional approach to coaching. The article is lost to me, as I could not find it during an internet search, but the premise stuck with me all this time. In the article, as far as I recall, the coach would encourage/require the players to make daily affirmations. He would stride through formation during pre-practice stretching, talking about how beautiful the day was, and that each and every player belongs there. He would make them repeat phrases aloud. The intent was clear, to me at least, that he was using those affirmations to prepare the players for the practice. To stay focused and build confidence. It seemed to have worked as well. The program was successful, winning many games, and stood in stark contrast to traditionally run programs. For example, the one I was playing for at the time. A top down dictatorship, with strict adherence to what the coaches commanded, all coming from a hard nosed head coach who would lose his temper and scream at people who made mistakes. Fear was one of their main tools of motivation.
Sports psychology is a large subject, and the full scope is beyond what I am talking about here. I am focusing on the daily affirmations. Something that I can get my youth players, ages 10-12, to say everyday that will boost confidence, and get them ready to play a game that is complicated, hard, and taxing. It is not only to get them ready to play, but to create an environment that they feel comfortable in. Will it work? I have no idea. There is not a tangible way to prove that it does. Our win total may increase, but wins are so far down my list of goals that it is a useless metric to me. Below is a breakdown of the daily affirmations I intend to implement for our team next year.
The first decision that I have to make is when to do it? The example from the Sports Illustrated article it happened during the team’s stretching period. Due to the way our team stretches, that will not work for us. It will have to happen right after the stretching period. I will gather them up in a gaggle and we will begin.
The affirmations will be in a call and response format, where I ask them a question, and they respond with the affirmation. The intent is that they will not have to do it on their own, but with the whole team. It will begin with with me asking to look around them, at the sky, the grass, their teammates, every where. I will ask them to feel the sun hitting their face, the wetness of the rain falling on their skin, the cold wind blowing. I will ask, in a loud voice, “What kind of day is it?” and they will respond in their loudest voice possible, “A BEAUTIFUL DAY!” This is meant to accept the conditions in which we find ourselves. We are there, outside, about to practice. The weather cannot be changed, but it hardly matters, because it is beautiful. We are there on the field, not at school, not at home. We are at football practice and it is always a beautiful day for football. Which leads to the next call and response.
Since we are accepting that the weather and day are beautiful, it only makes sense to say what we do on beautiful days. “What do we do on beautiful days?”, “PLAY FOOTBALL!” This establishes why we are there and what we are going to do. We have a purpose for being on the field. The word choice is important I think. We are not there to practice. We aren’t even there to get better, although that is often the result of practice. We are there to play. Play implies freedom. I think that is key to a successful practice. On the playground kids don’t get mad at themselves if they drop a pass, or miss a tackle (likely two hand touch). They are playing football to have fun. That needs to be brought to the practice field. Sure we have structured practices. There are assignments that you have to know. The drills may be challenging. It is all rooted in playing a game. When you are playing you are free. You are free to make mistakes, or to try something new. That spin move you saw Saquon Barkley do and have been practicing in your living room? This is a place where you can do it.
Now we know why we are there, but we are not alone. Our team is with us. “Who do we play football for?”, “OUR TEAMMATES!” Football is a team sport, just like soccer, or baseball. However, all team sports are not equal. Individual brilliance, a midfielder weaving their way through the defense and finishing with a well placed shot is not reliant on their teammates in the same way that a running back relies on their blockers. A batter that hits multiple home runs in a game receives no help from the players sitting in the dugout. But that linebacker who missed a tackle? They are counting on that safety behind them being in the right place to push the runner out of bounds and save the touchdown. You rely on your teammates for every play. You need the confidence to know that if you make a mistake, your teammate will be there to help. By repeating it every day a player begins to believe it. It also implies respect. By stating that you play for your teammates, you are saying that you respect them. You respect that they are there with you at practice going through the same thing you are. You respect their effort in practice, fighting through the pain of catching a ball when their hands are freezing, or digging deep and sprinting to make a tackle, even though they are exhausted. Even just wearing the equipment becomes a challenge to overcome. You are all doing it together. It is you and your teammates that are putting in the work. Not your coaches, or your parents.
Finally, and shamelessly stolen from Jim Harbaugh, “Who’s got it better than us?”, “NOOOOOBODY!” This is meant to motivate them in a way that compares their experience in contrast to the rest of the world. Not the world as a whole, but compared to all of the other teams that are practicing and preparing for the season. Others can do it their way, but we are there practicing hard, in the rain, in the cold, in the sunshine. We are doing it together, and it is distinctly different from everyone else. Why is it different? Because no one is playing with these teammates and this program. It is even different from the other teams in the program. Does the younger team have it better than us? Or the older teams? No. No one has it better than us. We are playing together, having fun. Regardless of win totals, this team has it the best out of all the teams that are playing, because we play for our teammates, because we are playing with freedom.
What the season will bring is still a mystery. These affirmations will be a daily reminder of how we play the game. We will take each day for what it is, a day to play football. Two hours where the players can learn, experiment, and suffer, together.