Passing along a great link provided by Trevor McIntyre, detailing elements of Saban's program manual and how it influences players at Alabama.
Blueprint of a Champion Article
Though Saban isn't the only coach to use such intense indoctrination methods to build a positive-peer culture, this is an insightful look at how to lay a detailed foundation of expectations, behaviors, motivation, and mental processing to build a consistent product. Some of the insights regarding player expectations outlined in the article can be heard here and also through the 2010 ESPN "All-Access" special.
Some choice excerpts from the article;
“It's almost like you're being brainwashed into, 'This is how you play the game, how it has to be,'” [Colin] Peek said. “Those stories, those messages, and how that relates to us are reiterated by the coaches. It's a motivational tool to bring it home to us.”
“In short, perceived self-efficacy is concerned not with the number of skills that you have but with what you believe you can do with what you have under a variety of circumstances,” Bandura wrote in his 1997 book, “Self-Efficacy, the Exercise of Control.”
“Discipline, commitment and effort and toughness - that's the four fingers,” (Scott) Cochran said. “The thumb is pride. “So when you put the four fingers up, that's what it's all about. It means fourth quarter, but there's a lot more.”
The manual is obviously not just the sole creation of Saban, but a collaboration from his entire staff, selling a united message. Even at the high school level, there are many valuable tenets to essential program building to be garnered from this lesson ( framing competition, staging strength & conditioning, positive mental imagery, leading with purpose, etc).
Additional Links:
Dr. Kevin Elko
Albert Bandura
Self-regulation of Motivation and Action through Goal Systems
6 comments:
Shot in the dark but I am an assistant coach at an inner city public school and think my players could use something like this to explicitly set expectations. Anyone have a copy of this or something similar that I can work from in creating my own?
AJ
A good place to start would be to get a copy of Saban's book, How Good Do You Want to Be? Also, hope Brophy doesn't mind my shameless plug, but check out my site (www.coachhoover.blogspot.com) and look at the resources under Football Program Manual.
From Brophy's article link, found a book that could be good, too - Vision for Victory: A guide to Becoming a Football Champion by Dr. Kevin Elko, who has helped Saban with some of the content in his manual. Anybody read it?
Thanks for the credit Brophy. I'm glad I could be of some help in finding a good article for y'all.
slight nuance, but I believe the Bandura publication about Self-Efficacy is a wonderful example of why many best-intentioned 'moral' mentorship/classes HS programs beat their chest over MISS THE POINT.
It touches on positive output not through compliance or piusness, but through performance and self-empowerment.
With regards to AJ Hamilton.....
If you can find a copy, lemme know...I'd love to see it.
However, the 2001 LSU playbook, the first 20 pages or so kind of go over the exact same thing. I doubt something like this would be copy & paste appropriate. It would have to be a supplement to what you are already teaching the kids in your program. It may be better served to develop short chapters (nutrition, S&C, visualization, etc) by your staff, using the language you guys will be using, than to introduce a foreign voice (dissonance) with teaching concepts.
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