Realign, Redefine and Reassign When It’s Time to Make Adjustments

When a head football coach is very unhappy with his team’s performance, often times the situation gets much worse – if those very tough decisions and choices that need to be made are prolonged, fretted over, and/or severely drawn out.

Things don’t stay the same – therefore they either get better, or they get worse.



The late, great football coach, Bill Walsh believed in clearly assessing the situation(s) at hand regarding his football team’s chemistry and performance. And then, once those issues were critically assessed, Walsh would firmly make those brutally tough decisions that he thought were necessary, and then he would instruct his assistant coaches and players to “close ranks” and move forward without pause.

As a head football coach, it’s vitally important to remember three key things when making the adjustments needed in an attempt to improve your football team’s lagging performance.

1. Realign: the definition, is to change the position or direction of (something) slightly usually in relation to something else, or to organize (something) in a different way.

When your football team is really struggling to win games and not performing up to its potential, then realigning your team’s Focus can help your team improve.

How and Why?

Shifting your team’s immediate Focus from winning games to improving its overall attitude on a daily basis, and ramping up each player’s basic fundamental execution can relieve bouts of stress that some players might be feeling, and refocus their attention on the day-to-day little things in order to improve their performance one-step at a time.

2. Redefine: the definition, is to reexamine or reevaluate especially with a view to change, or to transform.

Change is not easy, and delivering an overall platform of successful changes is even harder to achieve when you’re working with a large group of people. Asking yourself, your players and your assistant coaches to clearly reevaluate all-things-considered during unhappy times is one of the toughest things to do in sports.

Why?

Football coaches and players are naturally competitive, they are accustomed to winning, and they relish the thrill of victory. When a team’s performance sinks way below par, sometimes the players and coaches will tend to believe that if they just keep working even-harder, then “things will get better.”

However, as a head coach, it’s important to remain flexible in order to be successful. Therefore, transforming your team’s offensive, defensive and special teams attack can dramatically improve your team’s performance, if you are not afraid to radically adjust your tactical approach in the early to mid-stream phase of the season.

3. Reassign: the definition, is to move personnel or resources, etc., to a new post, department or location, etc.

As a head football coach, not only do you need to remain flexible in order to maintain long-term success, but your assistant coaches and players must be willing to adapt and adjust in order to thrive.

Tweaking some of your duties and responsibilities within your role as head coach, and those of your assistant coaches and players will often times provide for the influx of fresh and innovative ideas to emerge, and also enable some of your reassigned players to blossom on the field of play in new and exciting ways.

The goal is to win.

If you want to maximize your football team’s chance of success when the results are not going your way on the field of play, it’s prudent to remain flexible in your approach.

And remember, to be ready, willing and able to Realign, Redefine and Reassign.