Effort in practice often determines
success come game time

by Pete Bercich, Special Contributor to Let’s Play Football

You all know it when you see it.  If you are not seeing it then the coaching starts and stops there.
 I am referring to “effort.”
If your child is not giving 100 percent, then ANYTHING ELSE you tell them is folly.  Effort takes you farther in football than any other sport.  That’s the good and the bad of it.  The good is the harder one works the better they play.   It’s THAT simple.   If you want to be better at football then work harder, block longer and chase the ball carrier until you hear the whistle.
          Now, there are sports where flat-out effort does not equate to better performance. The harder I physically try to hit a golf ball straight the worse I do.  Baseball is similar.  A pitcher gets into a “zone” where everything is a strike, and not because they are trying to throw the ball harder.  Sometimes while hitting, the ball looks like a softball and sometimes like a BB. Swinging harder physically doesn’t always equate to success.
       And there is another level of effort that can determine a player’s ascent. What is his effort level in practice?  If you exhibit great effort at practice you will benefit more from drills than your teammates, you will extract more every single day and therefore improve more quickly than the rest.  Players who understand the correlation between effort and success are usually ones who excel on the football field or in other sports they participate in.  

Dictating Positions

I remember having a conversation with Jack Del Rio on this topic.  His take was that 27 years old is the “peak” age physically for football players (he was 30 at the time). I would agree with him on it.  But high school football is different. Kids change quickly.   As a high school coach every year there were two or three juniors who would show up for camp as seniors and be physically transformed.   For some kids this doesn’t happen until college.   The point is at a young age physical characteristics often dictate positions.  Striper rules exacerbate this.  Be patient and feed them often.

Learning the Basics

As a Gen X member we had to watch the entire game not just highlight reels.   Like almost  everything else these days football is consumed in 15-second snippets or just the highlights. What these highlights represent is the very pinnacle of an entire team doing what is necessary.  Knowing where to line up.  Knowing their responsibilities once the ball is snapped and more importantly executing the assignment at hand.  ONLY THEN can a Justin Jefferson make his amazing receptions.  ONLY THEN can a Jonathan Greenard dump an opposing quarterback.
             Football is also a very nuanced game that is played on many levels mentally.   Linebackers biting on a run fake when it’s 3rd and long — no way!  An offense using a hard count when backed up — always!  These levels are best learned when watching the game in its entirety, not chopped up into pieces.

Developing a Short Memory

Bad plays happen. There will be breakdowns. What is important is moving on after a bad play.  What happened is not important .  What’s important is how you react.  We learn more from our mistakes than our successes (science tells us that, look it up).  The ability to recognize mistakes, implement a solution and then go execute is a valuable life skill.  One that can be applied to every aspect of one’s life.  We also learn more about others as they succeed and fail.

Finally, Make it Fun

“Play the game to earn the respect of those you play with and against.  For that is enduring.”   The “best players” are not always the most respected.  Football requires a lot of hard work, and kids love to compete. Make it fun.

Pete Bercich is a former professional linebacker  and coach with the Minnesota Vikings. He was also the head coach for the Hill-Murray Pioneers and is currently the play-by-play analyst for the Minnesota Vikings Entertainment Network and has a YouTube channel called “The Eye in The Sky.”