Cup of Coffee and birds chirping

Gotta say that it is a great way to start the day by sitting on the old front porch with a cup of coffee and the sounds of nature all around. Off in the distance, toward town, I can hear the bells to the old church ringing at 07.00. Sounds pretty cool. Most likely, unless you live right next to the church and wanted to sleep in..plus it's Monday morning...anyways here are some thoughts for the blog today.

Breaking it down to the simplest thought:
I have the goal of developing some really good offensive lineman from within our club. I have had this goal for a long time, being usually the only coach on offense it makes it challenging to put a ton of time into every position. I am an avid studier of "The Annual Offensive Line Clinic" videos and I really like Jim McNally and how he teaches OL play. But, truth is, you cannot dump too many things on to young players or "new" older players. I have come up with this simple...and I do mean simple teaching progression for OL play.

1. Rule number one is this. Put yourself between the defender and the ball carrier or QB passing the ball.  Yes it sounds simple, but you have to make sure each lineman understands exactly where the ball is suppossed to be run or where the QB will set up to throw the ball. He has to know where to "put himself." If he can do that, then I tell them to get between the defender and the ball and make it take as long as possible to get beaten....step one...
2. Make sure your stance allows you to move the easiest and quickest way to where you want to go. I used to be one of the guys that taught the "universal stance" but I have changed somewhat into teaching how a lineman can adjust his stance to get the job done. Now this will be a little harder to write, but I will give it a try. Let's say it's 3rd & 8 and everybody in the stadium knows you are going to throw the ball. The DE aligns up in a very wide, rush the QB position. As the OT, why should I set up in my "normal" stance? Go to a two point, narrow my feet a little, sit back and put myself into a better position to cut-off DE's rush angle...and yes...it could still be a draw. Another old trick to eliminate the false step in your footwork is to curl the toes on the foot you want to push off of. In doing this, you actually shift a little weight and take a quick step with the opposite foot. There are a ton of little changes you can make, and they do not appear obvious to the defense.

These two concepts are what I start with in introducing OL play. How does it get more advanced? Once a young lineman or the classic "new" old lineman begins to understand these two concepts, they will begin to get better. The hard thing that I have noticed is that a player that is not sure what he is doing, wants to be told what to do. I want the player to figure out that by understanding, for example, "we are running outisde there, and if I am supposed to put my body between the ball carrier and defender, the defender is going to run out there to where the ball is going...I might have to pull around here and cut-off his pursuit angle to the ball." When I see the light start to come on, confidence comes with that also.

So that's this mornings thoughts. Two basic ideas for the OL to master. Putting yourself between the defender and where the ball is going...adjusting my stance to get there the fastest and smartest way....and by the way, when you get there...be aggressive...

Until next time...see if you can get two blocks on one play....

Early Morning Thoughts

Up early this morning, sitting on my front porch, thinking about football...and having some coffee...

A Good Read:
Just finsihed reading Pete Carroll's book "Win Forever." I would suggest this book to all young (and old) coaches for that matter. I would not say that there is earth shattering revelations in it or even things that you might have not heard before, but the book takes the reader on a journey of self discovery that is very interesting. Of things that stood out in the book, the idea "to do things better than they have been done before" stood out the most. That statement hit home the most in our little football community here in Sweden. I can assure you that you will here about "how good it was back then" or "things were better then" or "we should do like we did back then" in just about any conversation. I would say why don't we say "Let's do this BETTER than it has every been done before." That is not to say it wasn't good "back in the day" or put any disrespect on the pioneers of the past that have built the sport up here from scratch. It is putting our chin out there and saying, "OK, now is the time for us to build this sport and do it better than it has ever been done before." It would sure lead to some exciting times. How do we do that? In my world it is simple. We start as individuals doing our jobs in our clubs and trying to do them better than they have ever been done before. The more people (clubs) that do that, the stronger the "team" of American Football will be. Sound simple..it is..will there be set backs and bumps in the road..there will be...will it be worth it in the long run...yes it will.
So, read the book for a little inspiration. I get no kick back from Coach Carroll. I don't know him and the chances of him coming over to Sweden to say hi are slim to none..but it is a good read. By the way, it is NOT an X's and O's book. The X's and O's are the easy part of coaching. The book is about developing a philosophy and building relationships. Check it out...

A Quick Apology to Mrs. Ritchey and Mrs. Lewis:
Here is a thought that has been on my mind since I started to try and write a blog. I must apologize to the two English teachers I had growing up in Blanchard. Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Ritchey were my english teachers from grad 7-12 at good old Andrew J. Terrell High School in Blanchard. I am openly apologize to them for my sentence structure and potential spelling mishaps. Sentence structure is just something we are going to have to live with.. The spelling will get bettter when I figure out how to get the setting on my spell check off of Swedish and on to English....anyways, ladies...my apologies..but it if fun to right stugg....I mean write stuff....

What's happening in Football:
SAFF just relased the names of the players called to the Juniour European Championships. This is an exiting time for those young men and it shows in their facebook status when they post about how excited they are that they saw there name on the list!! Great to see young people fired up about the upcoming tournament. You can read the names on the roster here: http://www.amerikanskfotboll.com/110729jem_slutlager.pdf
The Jets have 4 young men that have made that roster and I am quite proud of them and happy for them. I know they are serious and will have a great tournamnet. Two from my Elite program in American football have been picked. Markus Grip and Mark Rosenqvist. They are very hard workers and have done quite well in developing in the weight room and on the field this last year. Mark is one of only two young athletes that was born in '94 that made the roster. Best of luck to Team Sweden at the Junior European Championships. Work hard Coaches and players and build a great memory!!
The other big tournament that will actually kick off in a few days is the Senior World Championships. I had the honor of being the Head Coach for Team Sweden in Kawasiki, Japan at the World Championships of 2007. We finsished in 4th losing to Germany 7-0 in the Bronze medal match. USA beat Japan in overtime to win the gold. This year the tournament is in Austria and you can follow along at the following website:
http://www.americanfootball2011.com/en/ I can assure you that it is an ubelievable event to be at. Football players, coaches and fans from all over the world there to cheer their country on...maybe even NFL Network will cover it since there isn't too much happening right now with the lock-out. My predictions...USA vs Japan for the gold USA wins...surprise team for the tournament Austria takes on Mexico for the bronze......can Austria upset Mexico?? Wait, where's the Germans....will be fun to follow the tournament...some day I hope to get the opportunity to coach in it again....

Other good blogs:
Here are some blogs to keep in touch with about football in Sweden..some are in Swedish, but there is googl translate now..
http://coachingforpizza.blogspot.com/
http://leobillgren.wordpress.com/
http://bogorans.blogspot.com/2011/07/juniorsatsning.html?spref=fb
http://lirresblog.wordpress.com/
http://thecatch.se/sebastian/
http://thecatch.se/om this is a page that is the main communication in the our little world (besides the main SAFF sight)

Until next time...when you pull right...hit with your right shoulder...when you pull left hit with your left shoulder.....

Halfway through the year

Well, since we are at July 1 and 2011 is on the "way out", I thought it would be a good time to update the old blog again. We'll start with the official report on 2011 New years resolution:

• Update blog every two weeks--Result--there's always next year...
• Learn to play the guitar--Result--there's always next year...
• Have a date night with my wife each week--Result--need a better definition of date night...
• lose weight--Result--am down 13kg's but seemed to have hit a plataue--maybe I have found my ideal weight???

Here's is what's happening so far this year:

FOOTBALL WITH THE JETS:
To say that we are struggling would be an understatement. We have tied one game and lost 5. The guys are  playing, but we just can't seem to put it all together. On offense we have some serious struggles. The biggest challenge we have is that we have about 25 guys playing so a lot of players have to play both ways. That is ok if your opponents are having guys go both ways, but when they are not, the advantage goes to the opponent later in the game.
The thing that I can promise is that we will keep having good practices, we will keep working on the fundamentals and we will get better.
I am totally convinced that if we could combine our "B" team and our "A" team we would be more competitive. The "B" team is a good idea, but, in hindsight, I have to say it all happened a little early. We'll see what we can put together for the second half of the Season...You know, the season where we have played our last game on June 11 then we will play our next game on August 6th...then we play again on August 27th...Anyways, Coach Parker has a BBQ party scheduled on Monday the 25th of July. So we'll kick things off for the second half of the season....

Youth Football:
We are on summer break for our U-11 & U-13 age groups also. We had an end of school camp on June 20-22. It was not as well attended as we had hoped, but the kids that came had a good time. We will keep doing this camp at the end of the school year and again before schoo starts. The next camp will be scheduled to be the 17-19 of August. It should be a fun time.

I might finally get it:
In my 9 years I have been involved in American Football here in Sweden, I have been in a million conversations, emails, committee meetings, disucssions over a beer, phone calls and forum posting meetings regarding how to make football better here in Sweden. There are as many ideas and opinions as there are days in eternity. That is somewhat normal, when people are passionate about something. Finally, I have come to the realization that the best use of my time and energy is to concentrate on where I am at and try to do what I do better than it has been done before. This is the secret to making football great. Sure, we need those people with the ideas and vision to push the sport forward here in Sweden. That, of course, is essential to growth, but if more time was spent by us trying to make our clubs as professional and good at producing football players as we could be, then the game would improve. Committ to getting out to the local schools and recruiting kids to come and try some football. Committ to going to the local hockey, soccer, handball and basketball clubs and see if there are some players that want to play two sports. More importantly, find those that have been cut or stopped playing and get them to try something completely new and fun, like American Football. Committ to not just saying we can "play some kids up" when you don't have enough U-13 guys to make a team and you want to move up some U-11 kids so you have a team. Go out and find enough players in that age group. It is not easy and it is not easy for us at the Jets. It takes a lot of work and not by just one person to make it go and keep it going when the numbers are low. I can't say it enough...If you want football in this country (Sweden) to grow, then make it the best it can be where you are at: That, my friends, is the secret...In my opinion anyway...if you don't think I am correct, then just keep watching...but don't invite me to one of those meetings where we all sit around and have coffee and brainstorm about what needs to be done...because that is the slowest way to get something done...wait..if you have good pastry & coffee....yeah...then invite me...lunch included..could get me there also....

Senior National Team:
Things are starting to get rolling for the Senior national team. They are having a "combine" type camp at the end of July. This is a great idea, in my opinion and it gives the coaching staff an opportunity to take a look at what is out there and an opportunity to set standards (which has been done in the past via Niclas Carlsson) to show the players where they should be physically. I hope that all the guys that are serious about football take the time to go to the camp and show what they have. I have met and spoke with John Konecki and he seems like a really good coach and he is excited about leading Team Sweden to the next European Championships. I would also encourage any coach that wants to be apart of this camp to show what they can do and help work the camp and meet with the coaches currently on staff to contact Patrick Lundqvist and see if more help is needed.
A few people have asked me about me roll. As of this moment, my roll is to be a fan. I cannot committ my free time right now to the national team. I am full up with the Elite gymnasium program, school visits, u-11 and Senior team football...and when you are employed by a club, there is an "other duties as assigned" clause. But someday, somehow, I hope that I can be involved to some degree. I truly enjoy the idea of international play, The European Chamionships & The World Championships.
Here is a link with information regarding the Senior National Team camp: http://www.amerikanskfotboll.com/110728senior1.pdf

Vacation in Sweden:
I have four (4) straight weeks of vacation. As an American, I can say that I think this is really cool. But now as the owner of  a summer stuga I can say that it means that for 4 weeks, I do a different kind of work than what I do on a regular basis. But all in all, I love being at "The Kennedy Compound". Lots of projects going on and a few visitors coming by, before we head back to the big city....

Well until next time, and you know I can't promise when next time will be, I hope all your blocks are pancakes....also keep in mind that all the things I write here on the blog are my thoughts on how things are and are not intended to represent Arlanda Jets or SAFF ect...