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Give Your Players a Job

By Coach Kip | October 6, 2007

Teach everyone a job, and then let them play. Doing this lets your players think less, and play more.

There is no need for the linebacker to know what the cornerback is doing. It only has him worried about things that he does not need to be worried about. The linebacker should only be worried about reading the guard and tackling the ball carrier.

In teaching players that they have a job, and that they only need to concentrate on that job, you also have to teach them that everyone on the team has a specific job to do. You do not need to tell everyone what that job is, just that everyone has one. The big point that you have to emphasize is that they must trust each other to do that job. If everyone works together they will be unstoppable.

Many of the problems with defenses that I see is that the players begin to worry about everyone else’s job. They may be right that someone else made a mistake, but if they begin to worry about everyone else then they will soon begin to not do their job.

Have you ever seen a big college or a pro team begin to get beat, and then the wheels completely fall off and they get killed? The other team scores touchdown after touchdown, and all of a sudden a good defense looks terrible. When this happens watch the players on the field. It is nearly guaranteed that they are yelling at each other. Now everyone is making mistakes because everyone is worried about everyone else’s job. There has been a complete breakdown.

Your job as a coach is to prevent this from happening. There are two things you must do to prevent it.

Correct Mistakes Immediately — If you correct these mistakes quickly then your players will not feel the need to do it for you. This prevents any arguing between your players, and lets them concentrate on their own job.
Make Adjustments – If your defense is not performing well it is on you. You must make adjustments so that those who are doing their jobs well are in the best positions to make plays. If you have players not doing their jobs you need to either sub or adjust your game plan. Doing this puts the blame on you. It is part of your job. They players may all blame you but at least they will not be blaming each other. Take the burden and move on to the next play or next game.

It is much easier to do on defense then offense, but it can be the same for both. If the players have a well defined and specific job, and they know that everyone else does too, then they don’t need to think, they can just play.

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