Over the years, I’ve heard a number of different major college coaches – in a variety of sports – note that you simply can’t coach effort in players. It’s something that they either understand and are able to give you, or they don’t and there’s no amount of coaching that can change that.
If they get it and can give it to you, they play. If they can’t, their playing time normally reflects that. It’s a simple fact of coaching.
I was a believer in that philosophy until this morning when I saw this tweeted by several football coaches.
As coaches, we’ve always been able to demand effort from players, but when it comes to actually coaching them up on the finer points of effort and the specifics in what you and your staff are looking for, I think that’s where things sometimes get tricky.
By breaking effort down into three elements, my viewpoint on whether or not you can coach it in your players completely shifted. By breaking it down into specifics that you can actually observe in burst, speed, and finishing, you now have some metrics to effectively coach effort. Right?
Would love to continue this conversation via Twitter. Do you believe you can coach effort in your players? Why or why not? Let me know @CoachSamz or via email at doug@footballscoop.com.