10 COACHING COMMANDMENTS..

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The full text of “10 COACHING COMMANDMENTS..” by Jeff Adamson, from the Vol 1 — Summer 2023 issue.

1. Surround yourself with great people. 1. Coaches 2. Administration 3. Spouse 2. Have a mentor: someone who is honest with you and holds you accountable 3. Constantly evaluate what you’re doing and how you do it. 4. Read books 5. Study the game: Clock management, nutrition, special teams, no huddle 6. Reward effort above talent. 7. Build relationships with your players. 8. Organize 9. Delegate 10.

Serve others O ne of the absolute most important things for a coach, or any leader, to do is surround himself with great peo - ple. Having a supportive spouse who understands the demands of coaching is essential to a long marriage and a successful career. Loyal assistant coaches and support - ive administrators are irreplaceable. I think it is very important for younger coaches to seek out a mentor.

It helps if this person is a former coach, but it just needs to be someone who is willing to have those hard conversations and tell you things you don’t always want to hear. Having access to a person who has already experienced coaching can help you get through the dif - 10 COACHING COMMANDMENTS... ficult times that will inevetibly come up. It also helps to have someone you can trust to hold you accountable.

One of the most rewarding things about coaching is the relationships that you build with the players you coach. Having coached at the same school for 35 years, I am starting to see grandchildren of guys I first started coaching and it can’t get much better than that. Strive to find new and creative ways to build relationships with the guys you coach. If you want to have a cohesive team, I believe the coach has to recognize and reward effort over talent.

Every - one has a certain amount of God-given talent, but we all have to make a choice on how we use it. It is an individ - ual choice to decide to use your talents to their absolute fullest every single day. My parents taught me the importance of reading and always read in front of me and my brothers. I try to read anything I can get my hands on that pertains to leader - ship. Coaches have to continually study and keep with the latest research to be effective leaders.

I have made it a habit during every off-season to study a very specific football topic. In past years, I have re - searched clock management, situational football, and football conditioning. Studying these topics has proven to be time well spent because, even if it’s just from watching a game on TV, I see situations come up where I can apply what I have learned to a real game. LESSONS FROM LEADERS by Jeff Adamson

Two valuable lessons I heard repeatedly as I attended coaching clinics in my earlier years were to be organized and delegate the work. I am typically not an organized person. More often than not, my desk is surrounded by several stacks of papers. As I began collecting more and more football notes and information, I needed an efficient way to store it so I could find it when I needed it. Organization also applied to planning practices and making the absolute most of the limited time available.

I had to make a very conscious effort to be organized with my football materials. Delegating responsibilities to your assistants is how you show that you trust them. As they continue to show good work, give them more to do. The last essential for coaching is to serve others. It is critical to serve the players you coach and the assis - tants you work with.

As the Head Football Coach of your school, you will be recognized as a leader in your community and I believe we have a responsibility to use our platform whenever possible to help others whenever possible. Jeff Adamson - Head Coach Eastbrook High School Eastbrook, IN Bio: Coach Jeff Adamson is one of Indiana’ great coaching legends having accumulated over 308 Victories since becoming Head Coach at East - brook in 1989.

This amazing record includes 16 Sectional Titles, 7 Regional Titles, 4 Semi-State Titles 4 State Final Appearances 2004, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 17 Conference Titles. Maybe most special is the amazing feat of achieving 8 Undefeated regular seasons.

After retirement and observing many other programs I realized that so many programs don't have a system that they can always fall back on. I was very stubborn in my career starting out. I was an assistant for 19 years before becoming a head coach. During that time I was offered many jobs that I did not feel would help me become what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a head coach where I could implement my system from January to December which was the State Championship culmination. Many people ask me who my mentor was.

My reply was always "MY FATHER". They would always ask "WAS HE A COACH"?. No he was not but I learned the work ethic from him. When forming my system I learned what NOT to do from my previous head coaches that I had worked under. I always believed that the X's and O's were the easiest thing to learn in football. As I studied under multiple head coaches I kept detailed notes and notebooks on what I would do and NOT do. Here are some of those things to DO. OFF-SEASON: 1. Take a detailed look at your calendar.

I divided up my off season into three 8 week periods. A. The first 8 weeks were totally focused on the weight room. This was 3 days a week or sometimes 4 days a week de - pending on your analysis of your ath - letes. There were times I felt our athletes were not tough enough and I would require 4 days a week. B. They focused totally on strength and flexibility. No conditioning required.

THE SYSTEM THE SYSTEM “DO NOT GIVE AN EXCUSE OR CHEAT YOUR ATHLETES BY SAYING THAT YOU CAN’T TEACH THIS SYSTEM BECAUSE IT IS TOO COMPLICATED.” by Bob Beatty

2. The second 8 weeks required our athletes to lift 3-4 days a week and add 8 stations of agility after each lifting session. We usually had two groups. An A group (Varsity) and a B group (JV). This was also a motivational tool. Don't show up for or don't excel in the varsity group then you would move to the JV group. A. These 8 stations of agilities were hell in the beginning. Such things as 3 corner cones, 5-10-5 slides, etc. All stations had a change of direction and running drills.

For the first two weeks of this training it was very ugly. B. This part of the off-season required time from my assistants and if they couldn't be there then I ran it. FIND A WAY!!!!! 3. The 3rd phase of the off-season (summer) required LIFTING, SHORTER AGILITY SES - SION, AND FOOTBALL SCHOOL. A. 8:00 AM-varsity lift. 9:00 AM -varsity agility-JV lift. 10:00 AM-JV -agility 10:30 AM- FULL TEAM FOOTBALL SCHOOL. (POSITION GROUPS, TEAM OFFENSE, TEAM DEFENSE, SPECIAL TEAMS). SPECIAL TEAMS ROTATED ON A DAILY BASIS. EX.

PUNT, KICKOFF, KO RETURN. 11:00 AM-12 NOON. 7 ON 7 VS OUR - SELVES. This 3 phase was implemented up until our dead period, and then resumed after the dead period until the official start of practice. MY GOAL WAS TO BE ABLE TO PLAY A GAME (PREPARATION WISE) BEFORE DEAD PERIOD. I truly believe that this off season was respon - sible for winning 7 of our games each year. There is no substitute for conditioning and strength.

Our football school taught all the lit - tle details so when official practice started we could learn the game without worrying about conditioning. When you are tired the brain will not allow much capacity.

OFFENSE: (BUILD YOUR OWN) Why? I have had O-co - ordinators and some of them were very good. I allowed them to tweak the offense to some extent. As you know these coordinators want to be head coaches and as they left, then I took over with no interruptions in the system. Some of the tweaks were good and some not so good. WHEN YOU DESIGN YOUR OWN AND IT BREAKS DOWN, THEN YOU WILL KNOW HOW TO FIX IT. This offense can adapt to any group of ath - letes that you might have.

There is no such thing as fitting a square peg into a round hole. 1. I built my offense from the ground up. It is a combination of the West Coast Offense, Run and Shoot, and multiple formation, multiple personnel groupings. I designed the protections and those include 60/70, (six man protections) 90/190, (three step protections) Hot protections,(5 lineman with no help from the back or backs) Max pro - tections,(protecting with 7 which can include two backs or multiple TE's.) 2. I designed the run game.

It always starts with the wide zone concept. CREATE A TOOL BOX. I have 33 different ways to run the wide zone. Example-open side, TE side, TE with wing, TE with double wing, etc. Are you going to run all of these in a game---- -NO, but build your tool box so you can adapt and choose what variations you want to run that week against that particular defense. I built the same tool box for INSIDE ZONE, GAP GAME-COUNTER TREY AND DART GAME. Do we run other concepts, yes, such as SPEED OPTION, POWER, ISO AND BLAST GAME.

We almost always focus on the big 4. WIDE ZONE, TIGHT ZONE, GAP TREY, AND GAP DART. 3. I designed the passing game. Here are the following concepts. ARROW/CURL CONCEPT, FLAT CONCEPT, DRIVE CONCEPT, SMASH CONCEPT. I do exactly the same with the passing game as I did with the run game. I create a tool box for each concept. Utilizing multiple formations with the same read for the QB (west coast) and different tags for different situations (run and shoot). I do not use a passing tree.

I use whether you are an inside rec, middle rec, or an outside rec. This allows a much easier learning curve for the TE's. The TE will run the same routes as our inside rec in a four wide group. Creating a tool box for each concept affords you the ability to create huge mismatches. In one game we hit the arrow/curl route 7 times in one game from a 4 wide personnel group. The next week we hit the TE 7 times using the same arrow/ curl concept with a different personnel grouping, coming from THE TOOL - BOX. 4.

I do exactly the same thing with RPO's, SCREEN GAME, AND THE BOOT GAME. I have witnessed teams that go into a game with no system whatsoever. They just have a culmination of plays and call these plays with no blueprint for attacking a particular de - fense. THIS USUALLY RESULTS IN A COACH GETTING FIRED OR JUSTIFYING WHY HE SHOULD BE FIRED. SOME NOTES: DO NOT GIVE AN EXCUSE OR CHEAT YOUR ATHLETES BY SAYING THAT YOU CAN'T TEACH THIS SYSTEM BECAUSE IT IS TOO COMPLICATED.

WHAT YOU ARE REALLY SAYING IS, YOU ARE TOO LAZY TO TEACH. I HAVE SEEN THIS SYSTEM WORK WITH 5-6 GRADERS AND THEY WON CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH THIS SYSTEM.

DO NOT UTILIZE THE SHOTGUN FORMATION 100%. YOU ARE CHEATING YOUR ATHLETES OUT OF A COMPLETE CHAPTER OF AN OF - FENSE. AGAIN, IF YOU ARE NOT TEACHING THE QB TO BE UNDER CENTER, YOU ARE LAZY AND DO NOT WANT TO SPEND TIME ON THIS PART OF THE GAME. I BELIEVE IN A 60/40 SPLIT EITHER WAY. PARTS OF THIS SYSTEM WERE TAUGHT IN A WEEK. I WAS THE OC IN THE ARMY ALL-AMERICAN GAME AND THE FOLLOWING YEAR HEAD COACH IN THE SAME GAME. UNDEFEATED IN BOTH YEARS.

DEFENSE: (BUILD YOUR OWN) Once again I have had many defensive coordinators that have run many different schemes. Split 6, 3-4, 4-3. All were successful but if they left then I would always fall back on what I built. That concept was a 4-3 with multiple slide fronts EX- 22 base, 31 slide, 13 slide. I would cover it up from the back end with cover 2, cover 2 man, cover 4, and cover 6. I would not hire a defensive coordinator unless he built his own defense. If it broke down, then he could fix it.

If he left then I could teach my defense and teach it in great detail. Again, create your own tool box. This is a blueprint for my success in the coaching field. I cannot emphasize enough to create your complete SYSTEM of all phases of the game ESPECIALLY THE OFF-SEA - SON. CREATE THAT TOOLBOX AND USE IT. Coach Bob Beatty achieved one of the great records for high school football coaching including a career winning record of 279 victories vs 51 losses.

One of the greatest accomplishments is wining 15 Kentucky state championships while head coach at Louisville Trinity High School. Coach began bis career coaching with stops at Clinton High School, William Jewell College and Blue Spring High School before joining Trinity as head coach in 2000. He retired after the 2020 season and 231 wins at Trinity.

Coach Beatty’s amazing success, has been recognized by being named USA Today Na - tional High School Coach of the Year in 2017 and named to the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame (2018),