(S38) PT 2 - Behavior Control

[JoshiePoo]

There’s a place no one on the team talks about. Not even in whispers, yet it is understood by all. Just over the small dirt hill, past the stadium, when the sun goes down in the winter Yellowknife players inherently know to stay away. Strange noises. Shrieks, cries, whatever sound Jarvis Harbinger-Marjin makes when he posts on twitter. Once I saw Coach go back past the hill, and now I know why all the Yellowknife players don’t dare look him in the eyes. There was this dude on the team before, can’t even remember his name though, which scares me even more. Everyone saw him, one night after gameday, we were filing out of the locker room to the buses. Coach pulled him aside and took him behind the hill. And now I can’t even remember his name. I can’t even remember his name! What was his damn name? Well it’s getting late, I need to get to practice… Wait…

[caravaggio]

Discipline is a huge part of being a professional athlete. We’ve all seen someone get the yips and then get inside their own head, or start smoldering when the team isn’t playing well or the player doesn’t feel like they are getting their chance to perform. All this can spread like wildfire among the team and cause play to plummet. Sometimes it spirals so quick that it can happen within a few plays.

The team staff needs to help protect against this, and it starts with emotional training alongside physical and mental training. The coaches work really hard to instill a sense of teamwork, and work to stabilize and support the team as a whole, and work on each individual player when it’s warranted. On the preventive side, this includes team building exercises, social activities, and empathy drills. On the reactive side, it’s personalized meetings with the players, and even professional help if things don’t right themselves quickly. Everyone has their moments to pop off a little bit, but repeated or systemic lapses are going to hurt the team.


(179 words)

[Kyamprac]

The Austin Copperheads have been performing probably better than everyone expected or hoped they might this season. People must think our team is pretty well disciplined to be able to claw our way to a 6-1 record, but the fact of the matter is the opposite works better. Our GMs just let us do whatever the heck we want. For years our GMs did a great job keeping everyone motivated and disciplined with the goal of getting us to a championship, but it seems the trick was to do the absolute opposite and give everyone free reign to do as they will. You'd think routine and discipline would work best with a bunch of fresh-faced rookies on the team, but it turns out just letting them take their frustration out on a wall or enjoy pre-game cocktails seems to work just as well. Letting them blow off that steam before and after games stops them from getting penalties out of frustration during games, and overall the team is just tighter because they're more relaxed and enjoying the team and whatever it is they want to do between games.

[PMoney]

Yellowknife keep a strict control on their players to ensure maximum discipline on game game. For every penalty that a player commits during a game, they are made to swim across the Great Slave Lake once. This might seem like a harsh punishment especially for players in positions where penalty flags will occur as part of your regular game but it has worked well so far for the team. Not only is everyone fully mentally switched on and prepared on game day, to avoid the miles of icy water that may occur otherwise, but it also helps newer players get acclimatised to the tough Yellowknife weather when they first join as rookies. It also means Yellowknife compete in the national ice swimming olympiad every year and for the last 20 years running, it has been won by a player on the team. Older veteran players eventually become immune to this punishment as they may die in the lake as regression takes away their abilities.

[KC15]

Mistakes are made on the field when players’ minds wander and they lose focus.  It is all about what the Buddhists call “mindfulness”.  If you think about it, we all know it’s true.  You don’t have to even try to think of “nothing” as our Buddhist friends would urge us.  Just try to sit still and think of only one thing.  Keep your mind on that one thing.  If you are like most of us, your mind wanders to a thousand other different things and you have to keep dragging yourself back to that one, original thing.

But the mind is just like the body.  We have been practicing and running physical drills for as long as football has existed.  All this to create muscle memory of what works best in each situation.  Austin does the same kind of practice  on the mental and emotional side.  We run regular mental “drills” designed to increase our focus and self-discipline.  We are creating a different kind of muscle memory – our mental muscles.  It is paying off big dividends on the field.  We have fewer mental errors and fewer outbursts.

Code:

187 words

[Crunk]

The first thing that the Arizona Outlaws do to cut down on penalties and ill-discipline is to work on their team's intelligence. That seems to be the best way to cut down on silly penalties, so they do it by having a few groups of people work on intelligence building tasks. A few of the players play chess, one or two have been learning to write computer code. There's also a remedial group where Spottie O'Dopaliscious sits and tries to put blocks into the correct shaped holes. He's nearly mastered the triangle.

Aside from that, the Outlaws have a team culture that fosters accountability, and if you aren't holding yourself accountable, your teammates will damn sure do it for you. Jay Cue Jr had a period after his third MVP where he was getting sloppy in practice, so the O-Lineman picked him up, turned him upside down and flushed his head down the toilet. This not only made Cue concentrate on his game more, but it was great for team morale.

[Raven]

SHL PT

[mer]

It's easy to get frustrated with the game. When so many players on Secondline feel like this season is their season, any slip up or penalty can cascade into disappointment that tanks an entire game, maybe more if they can't break out of the funk. Discipline is really the name of the game - each minute spent on the field has to be a minute dedicated to the play. When you're on you're on, when you're on the sidelines, you're off. There's no room for carrying the weight of a missed tackle, catch, whatever it was with you past that moment. You can improve for sure, you can watch tapes and talk about missed opportunities, but Carissa knows you have to distance yourself from the mistakes. It's not personal, it's something that happened. Carissa knows that every time her fingers skim a player and she falls into the grass, it tastes like disappointment. But she has to shake it off, it's all a mind game.

Code:

164 words

[zeagle1]

The Portland Pythons coaching staff have had many opportunities this season to see how their brave players react to losses ranging from heartbreaking to blowouts, and by the look of the team, will likely continue to have many more opportunities to do so.

Donovan Winters takes the losses very personally, he knows he is not perfect, but he is well aware that he needs to play better in the remaining games if he wants to have a chance of playing at the next level. 
After a particularly rough loss at Tijuana in which he played badly, only throwing one touchdown pass and managing a pitiful 170 yards on 37 attempts with a completion percentage below 50, Donovan was feeling extra down. General Manager Pug Walrus noticed Donny's emotional state being a bit fragile and took him out to get some ice cream after the game, his treat. After downing two scoops of cookies and cream ice cream, with extra whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles, Donovan was feeling much better and is now looking forward to his next game.

[Exilizer]

Good discipline starts with good culture and good culture starts at the top. Our GMs live and breathe this league, their passion and dedication is evident every day from when they get up to when they go sleep. This sets the tone for every in the locker room, and helps build excellence and discipline. Regular updates that are laser focused help as well. Then of course there is practice. Meticulously practicing high pressure situations makes us less error prone. When we truly act as one team then we avoid mistakes and unnecessary penalties. When it comes.to game time, we focus on one play at a time. In the rare moments that an error does happen, we briefly discuss it as a team, make sure we all understand what happened and how to prevent it going forward and then we move on to the next play. Most importantly, we avoid a blame culture, which helps our overall team spirit a lot.

[160 words]