Value of Coaching

In the area of high school football I became aware of the value of coaching when our local football team challenged for the high school state championship in the 90's. Mark Speckman, the coach without hands, directed this team to glory with marginal talent. Many games started in the same fashion. The first half would be a very close contest. The opposing team tried its magic. Even with teams exchanging tapes of the previous games, the reality of actually playing a game the first half was pretty unpredictable. The line is fresh, the team usually has figured out a defense for the team. Much of the time in the first half the team works against its own tendencies. In high school ball the reality is that a successful outcome is more of a function of the players correctly identifying the defense and accurately execution of their plays. The coaching staff works to put the players in places where their natural tendencies will enhance the execution sequence. In the years that our local team won the state title, Mark Merced High's head coach designed a smoke screen back offense that made it hard to confirm which back had the football as there was a great deal of horizontal movement right behind the line. The fullback could have the ball or not as they passed right in front of the quarterback. This was seldom done the high school football basically because the "fly" offense is so hard to make happen fast enough to complete the illusion. The blocking ahead of the offense has to be impeccable as well. The back has to hit the hole without a question in his heart. Mark is now working in the pro ranks, for the Montreal Allouettes of the Canadian Football League as their back coach.It was fun to pick him out on the sidelines this summer as I was flipping channels.

A similar move was done at the University of Nevada when the 49er quarterback Colin Kaeperneck led their team. They called it the pistol. The added wrinkle to the fly  is a very effective short pass available in this formation. When Colin was playing for the Turlock Pitman High School team, he tore the local Merced High school teams to shreds.

The Forty Niners also have a similar rhythm in their games in comparison to the Merced High State competition teams. The Forty Niners have to be winning or close to winning for a typical blowout to occur in the 2nd half. The difference is the same. Excellent coaching with less than stellar performers can result in an amazing performance. The difference is coaching. Changes are made in the 2nd half that allow for the Forty Niners to dictate the rhythm of the game. Match ups are made. The commentators have mentioned that the offenses have a decided advantage in the modern game. It still takes superlative coaching to see and take advantage of the execution of the game plan in the 2nd half.

Coaching was the highlight of the recently completed America's Cup sailing catermaran series. The team was down to its last loss, but a cleverly positioned time out allowed the Oracle USA boat to chang the way the cup was played. Suddenly the Oracle team representing the home USA cup holder figured out by coaching how to tack (move against the win) while staying on their little wedges in the foam. On the last race a tack was not completed as well as could have been done and boat almost skidded into disaster. The boat made it screaming at almost 30 miles an hour while headed up against the wind. They and recovered to pound the lead into the New Zealand boat which raced much better in lighter air. The last races which all had to be won to keep the cup were ferocious wind days. The team that figured out the tide advantage in the end (The USA Oracle Boat) won in decisive  fashion. Coaching and understanding the tides in  San Francisco Bay in September was vitally important for this boat to continually win from behind. And did it ever win!

By the way, the coverage and commentary for this sporting event was extraordinary. For the first time tech brought the TV viewer closer to the race than ever before. The graphics on the screen allowed the viewer to see the relative speed of each of the boats as well as the turning radius and boundaries in each of the races. It is still amazes me that 70 ton racing cats with 14 story sails could survive on the bay let alone race.

Hats off the coaches of the games.. they figure it out so that the stars can look good.

: ) Pat