(S38) PT 2 - Behavior Control

[lordcoolcats]

Emotional and mental discipline is about controlling yourself. It's about taking stock of your surroundings, determining what you are able to fix and what needs to be left alone, then managing those feelings accordingly. One of the most important facets of this process is stress management and purging any negative emotions. 

Philadelphia facilities this process through a special, innovative process - Karaoke. 

After a grueling 0-3 start to the season, the Liberty were not found moping about their locker room. They were found at the local dive bar, belting our the lyrics to Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline. By focusing on team bonding, the team is able to strengthen its inner relationship's, rather than allowing rage and frustration to erode morale. 

Notable performances include Jasper Fontaine's rendition of All These Things that I've Done by the Killers. His safety duo, Aleksandr Milescu gave an outstanding performance for Billy Joel's Piano Man. Most emotional of all; however, was Art Deco's manly rendition of Dancin' on my Own by Robyn. 

By the end of the night, the team's negative thoughts had been purged. They were stronger than ever, and they would never abandon a teammate to be stuck " dancing on their own." 

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[Troen]

As much as we'd like to believe so, our players aren't perfect. With every win and loss, there's high emotions. With every game, there's mistakes that turn into flags and heartbreak. Every team's response to these kind of situations is different depending on the sort of discipline that team and their players have. For this PT, talk about what sort of strategies your team employs in order to keep everyone emotionally and mechanically disciplined. How do your teams get players to avoid making silly penalties or putting holes through the wall after a game?

Austin is definitely a younger team overall, so we can have some undisciplined games. I find that the biggest thing is to not let a single mistake compound into recurring or bigger mistakes - for example, I try to make sure that if I get hit with a pass interference call against me I keep my game at the same level and don't get angry at whoever I'm covering and stack up late hits or extra holding calls. I think I've been doing ok at it so far this year (and naturally winning games rather than losing them helps smooth over troubles amazingly well), but I do want to try and help out the rest of the team as we go. The 2-penalty games we've had so far this year are coming primarily from our rookies so there's definitely work to do. As a captain on the defense, that's definitely something I want to work on even more as we get deeper in the season and try to put a playoff run together.

[sathona]

The Arizona Outlaws are a very, very disciplined team. Nobody ever gets any weird ideas or pulls any funny nonsense, and that is partially due to one really big contributing factor. That factor is Savathûn the Witch Queen. When the team loses (that happens sometimes, I promise, just not lately as much), Savathûn will not tolerate anybody acting like a sore loser or a little baby about it. To Savathûn, a loss is shameful, but it is motivation to get better. If one cannot win, one is not worthy of playing, so that means after losses, the team knows that if they try to have emotional outbursts or channel that frustration into ANYTHING that is not "Getting back out onto the field and busting your ass to get better" they will have to deal with her wrath. And most people realize they do not want to do that, or Savathûn will kick them directly through the uprights just like she did those six field goals in that one game. Just try her. (don't).

[negs]

In order to keep everyone physically and emotionally disciplined, we start every practice and game with freeze tag. It really helps as an icebreaker to help with the nerves. After a competitive game of freeze tag, everybody knows its time to be serious and get into the zone. Our team can have a tough time with discipline because the oldest guys on the team: Willie Miller, Lucid Dreams, and Lonnie Jackson are all goofballs. Willie cannot keep socks on, Lucid's in another world, and Lonnie just runs. However, our head coaches do the best they can with what they are given. To help our offensive lineman not commit penalties, they go all through practice with their hands behind their backs. You can't hold if you can't grab anyone! I think going forward, we are going to have a lot less offensive and defensive penalties. Hopefully this means less running in practice and more freeze tag!

[Liter]

As a wise green space elf once proclaimed: "something leads to anger and anger leads to something" or something along those lines. Here in Berlin, after a loss, there is anger, and super anger. Anger is an emotion that drives us to act volatile and aggressive. Anger isn't always a bad thing. Besides punching holes in walls, anger can motivate the team. You might be wondering "well I know what anger is, but what is 'super anger?'" Well I'll tell you. Super anger is like anger on performance enhancing drugs. Ever watch those old Looney Tunes cartoons where they get so mad steam shoots out of their ears? That's mild super anger. Severe super anger actually makes atomic discharge excrete from your nostrils, and don't even get me started on how it effects people with nipple piercings. To make sure nobody gets super angry here in Berlin, we have a pro anger attitude in the Fire Salamander locker room. If someone gets angry we give them drugs or cake or a nipple piercing. Sometimes that doesn't work and the coach will hire some people to take the angry player away in a van, some of them aren't seen again.

[Lumosityfan]

Staying emotionally and mechanically disciplined in a season as long as the ISFL’s season can be challenging at times. Whether you’re a rebuilding team like the Hahalua or a contending team like the Outlaws, you’ve got to stay on top of your game every single week to keep your team in the game and show your teammates you’ve got their backs. Strategies that the Copperheads use to do so include incentives for every correct drill which are free ticket vouchers to their favorite movie theater, free hamburgers, and free tours of the Grand Canyon. In addition, there exists a punishment system where if you drop a pass you do 20 pushups and if you shank a field goal you have to do 20 sit-ups. It’s a tough regimen but it’s what’s led the Copperheads to be one of the surprises of the seasons, starting 5-1 and in a tie for the top spot of their conference. The members, despite the challenges, know these things are for their own benefit and are excited to continue to stay focused as the season progresses.

Code:

181 words

[Skindog44]

PT #2

The cohesiveness of a good team relies hevily on the leadership. You must have and established strong leadership group in order to keep the other players checked and within the culture of the team. If the team exhibits a bad culture from within the overall cohesiveness could be altered both negatively and positively. Regardless, I have also adhered to a fair court system. Within each locker room there comes a time when an official or unofficial “players court” forms. Usually a trusted veteran or team leader will act as the judge and player will go before the judge and jury of the team to establish of their actions were hurtful towards the team. You will also need a “buy in” factor where the team as a whole and collectively buys in to this form of judgement. This again all comes back to the strong foundation laid by the team leadership as well as the coaching staff. So with this in place we can now move forward when a player finds them self out of pocket. They then will willinging go in front of the player’s court and be found either innocent of their actions or guilty. Now don’t get confused most of the time there is no official court room. This action can be conducted just amongst the team in either private or team wide discussion within the locker room. But if there is no well established team leadership this form of team bonding will fail.

Code:

248 words

[fnordypsyduck]

At our Birddog practices, we have a fun way of making sure that our players don't make silly mistakes like false starts and offsides specifically. We generally have a line of 3 people next to each other, it can be a mix of offensive lineman and defensive lineman generally but we will throw in the linebackers and other offensive players to keep everyone on there toes sometimes, and we will have a coach yelling out words and phrases. The goal is to not jump early but if you do, you get a bucket of ice cold water dumped on you and you're out. If no one jumps early, there is a specific word they are all listening for and that is their cue to go. Whoever is the last to move off the line is the loser, but don't worry you only get ice cold water dumped on you if you jump early. We'll rotate through all the players and keep going until there is exactly one player left standing, and that person gets the golden flag award for the week. This is a good way to make sure that the lineman aren't just getting in a rut and making sure to listen for the go word in games.

[Starboy]

New Orleans has always been a team with a very close knit group of former players, current players, and the front office. It can be seen similar to the New England Patriots or the New York Yankees where discipline is at the top of the chart in terms of importance with the entire team. Nobody is allowed to step too far out from the rules which is always quickly put into check as the coaches keep a strict routine and punishment for players. The main drill put into place is a structured jazz band time where every player is trained in an instrument then learns to play it in sync with other parts of the offense, defense, or special teams. The Second Line have found keeping every player in rhythm as a form of correction keeps the need for single punishments low. Even having players sing in unison for different vocal practices keeps positions that are required to speak often on their toes since they have to use their voices both on and off the field.

[LANEFROST]

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