Archives for the Month of February 2006 on Angelo Mirando's Online Journal
Management in Sports Post 6 Life Experience
When I decided to transfer from Valparaiso University to Case I knew there were going to be some things that were much different then before. Different isn't all that bad but in some respects it might not be the best for you in the long run. At Valpo everything with the football program was very strict and disciplined. If you were told to be some where at two o'clock, you were there at one fifty-five. At Case it's not like that, we'll have practice at three thirty and people would show up five, ten minutes late and sometimes more. The coaches don't say a word and people get used to it and it translates in life as well. At Valpo we had morning running and you had to be there at five forty-five in the a.m. If you weren't then you gave the whole team extra sprints at the end. You were a team, a family and thats how your job should be when we all get older. At Case we'll do one thing together as a team and that is run on Friday afternoon. We are required to lift but that is only throughout the day but at Valpo you had set times with your teammates where you were pushing each other. If I had to do it all over again would I transfer, yes, but just because the education is superior here. The football is more relaxed and that aspect is not helping me out down the road in life.
Management in Sports Post 5 Inseason
Managing an athletic team is alot of hard work and the head coach has to be very organized. When I was at Valparaiso University and played football for them everything we did was organized. If we were one second late we had to get up early in the morning and run. After camp was finished everyone started taking classes and we had to give our position coaches our class schedule. So I gave the quarterbacks coach my class schedule and several days later I received another schedule. This schedule included practice times, meeting times, and lifting times. He cordinated it so all the quarterbacks were at the same place at the same time. This not only built position unity but made if very efficient for our coaches to work on a game plan each week and give us new things that we were doing. When we would go on road trips to play opponents our schedule was set weeks in advance. We knew where we were eating, sleeping, lights out, bus stops, etc. In life I believe that you have to be very organized so not only your work gets done faster but you will have more time to play and have fun. My father always told me to work first then play. If you are organized then you can achieve this.
Management in Sports Post 4 Change
In reading Chapter 16 in Tucker I realized that there is change in sports every day. Players changing teams, coaches changing teams, and coaches changing how they do things with there team. Here's an example of how coaches change things in there program. Our coaches every year go to a coaches clinic in Columbus, here they mingle with some of the top football minds in the country and they always come back with something new to do or some new scheme to win a few more ball games. This past year our coaches learned about a new training program for our offseason. It was taken to heart by our coaches and our lifting program was totally revamped. The coaches loved it because of how strong it could get our team. Well our team didn't buy into it. They had been doing stuff there own way for years and thats how they wanted to keep it. We would go into lift and players would do the program our coaches set up for us but they wouldn't give a hard effort because later that day or after our mandetory session they would do there own thing. Needless to say the program failed and now the players are allowed to train themselves there own way. In relating it to the reading the coaches were in the excitement phase when they first heard about it and looked forward to bringing it back to the team. The hard work phase was put in by our coaches because they set out training templetes weeks in advance for our players. But there wasn't a turningpoint phase. The players weren't excited about it, didn't put in the work and the team never made it to the turningpoint phase. Institutionalizing the training program never happend because the previous phases weren't done. In my opinion our coaches needed to make our players excited about this program before they put in the hard work.
Management in Sports Post 4 Change
In reading Chapter 16 in Tucker I realized that there is change in sports every day. Players changing teams, coaches changing teams, and coaches changing how they do things with there team. Here's an example of how coaches change things in there program. Our coaches every year go to a coaches clinic in Columbus, here they mingle with some of the top football minds in the country and they always come back with something new to do or some new scheme to win a few more ball games. This past year our coaches learned about a new training program for our offseason. It was taken to heart by our coaches and our lifting program was totally revamped. The coaches loved it because of how strong it could get our team. Well our team didn't buy into it. They had been doing stuff there own way for years and thats how they wanted to keep it. We would go into lift and players would do the program our coaches set up for us but they wouldn't give a hard effort because later that day or after our mandetory session they would do there own thing. Needless to say the program failed and now the players are allowed to train themselves there own way. In relating it to the reading the coaches were in the excitement phase when they first heard about it and looked forward to bringing it back to the team. The hard work phase was put in by our coaches because they set out training templetes weeks in advance for our players. But there wasn't a turningpoint phase. The players weren't excited about it, didn't put in the work and the team never made it to the turningpoint phase. Institutionalizing the training program never happend because the previous phases weren't done. In my opinion our coaches needed to make our players excited about this program before they put in the hard work.
Management in Sports Post 3 Lifting
An athletes body is thought by some as a fine tuned machine. You have to take care of it and keep it running smoothly. For an athlete this means to eat right and train right. You can't go all out every workout or you will burn yourself out. You have to manage each training cycle so when your season starts you are at your very best. Just like if you're the CEO and you have a board meeting in 2 weeks, you better be getting yourself prepared for that meeting. Most professional athletes have private trainers who lay out a plan to maximize the players potential. I train with a private trainer who also trains NFL athletes and he has set up for his pro's exact set and rep schemes so these athletes show up bigger, faster, and stronger. He exams weaknesses and evaluates how to make this athlete better. This trainer is managing the athletes body so he doesn't over train.
Management in Sports Post 2 Training Camp
Training camp for a football player is very physically and mentally demanding. But a coachs role in preparing for training camp is rarely discussed. I saw a show on HBO that went in depth about the Baltimore Ravens training camp. The coaches on this professional team not only have planned where the athletes are staying, what they are eating, what equipment they are using, but what every single play is going to be through out the whole 3 weeks of camp. They have it timed down so perfect that they never waste a rep the whole camp. They have planned out every single play and exactly how long it will take. This management of time is very extreme but thats what it takes to be a champion.
Management in Sports Post 1
Every day I work for the football team as an assistant to the coaches. I see how a coach has to manage his time because there are so many people demanding his time. During this time (offseason) recruiting is the main focal point of a coaches job. They have to review film of a potential player, call or email the player, convince him that Case is worth taking a look at. This is all before a player even comes to campus. When a player ends up coming to campus the coach has to set up an academic meeting, a host for the player to stay with, meals, and a tour of the campus. Our coaches do one of these activities every day of the off season. They have to set strict schedules and manage everyones time so it is not wasted. Have any other athletes out there gone through the recruiting process?