iPods are destroying the ability to coach

B

Bunger Henry

Guest
iPods and MP3 players are destroying the ability to coach. They allow players to block out any kind of atmosphere or mood the coach is trying to set in order to motivate, intimidate, inspire, or otherwise alter the mindset of a team.

It used to be that a coach could call a meeting. And once everyone was inside the room, he would quietly tell someone to close the door. As soon as the door was closed, it was like a thunderhead began forming in the room. The lights seemed to darken. The coach gazed down at his subjects like a face from Mt. Rushmore. The very earth trembled beneath his countenance. And the coach would proceed to calibrate the mindset of the team.

In classroom settings, the teacher tries to set a mood of studious seriousness, an atmosphere conducive to learning and understanding complex topics. A class clown is someone who is at war with the teacher to alter the mood of the environment to one of levity and lightness, not conducive to learning.

But the advance of the iPod has allowed people to create their own personal mood-bubble inobtrusively. It allows them to listen to something upbeat and light without anyone else knowing, when the coach is trying to impart the seriousness and gravity of the situation. It is taking away the ability of the coach to motivate.

At GT, we are always going to be at a disadvantage to other teams talent-wise, because they will take anybody, and we only take people with a brain. We must compete with this two ways, with superior strategy (the triple option) and with superior focus and mindset. iPods takes one of our tools away.

Here's what I would do if I were PJ. All iPods, MP3 players and the like would be banned on athletic premises. Anyone caught with an iPod would have it taken away and returned at the end of the season. I would encourage the team to be on the lookout for fellow players not getting with the program and making sure these things stayed in the dorm room and away from the training room.
 
Once again, Bunger Henry proving that his sarcasm is weak or that he really is an idiot.

There's this crazy invention called Walkmans that came out just recently. I remember Shawn Jones and Marco Coleman listening to them on the way to an undefeated season. Last I heard they banned walkmans, or maybe they just stopped making them. Not sure why. Probably because of this crazy thing you talk about called ipods and mp3 players.

Dummy.
 
I know its early only being the 2nd of January, but I'm going to go ahead and nominate this for "Curmudgeonly post of the year, 2009"

You'll probably only get topped if someone starts complaining about non leather helmets and those blasted automobiles that are all the rage these days.
 
I assure you the music any CFB player plays pre-game is going to be music that pumps them up.
 
Can someone run this through the Lou Holtz translator, because I imagine those are the things he thinks about.
 
EastJacket said:
WTF. Who's this guy?
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He's Bunger Henry. In the great flood of 1994, rain from hurricane Alberto inundated much of Albany, Bunger's home town. Due to soil saturation levels not seen before, many of the coffins from local cemetaries that long layed dormant in their rightful resting places, were expelled to the surface. Some of the remains escaped coffins that weren't sealed like they should have.

You often hear the expression, "in my next life", used to reference what some folks would possibly like to do or do differently if they could. Well, meet Bunger Henry. He's risen from the floodwaters of the "great Albany flood" to experience life a 2nd time. His avatar is really him...live and in living color "in his next life", which is now his present life. He's come back to impart profound thoughts on this, the Stingtalk nation.

:laugher:
 
They kinda get on my nerves a little. During a player walk, the team needs to show me that they are fired up. They don't need to show me those white earbuds.
 
Vespidie said:
He's Bunger Henry. In the great flood of 1994, rain from hurricane Alberto inundated much of Albany, Bunger's home town. Due to soil saturation levels not seen before, many of the coffins from local cemetaries that long layed dormant in their rightful resting places, were expelled to the surface. Some of the remains escaped coffins that weren't sealed like they should have.

You often hear the expression, "in my next life", used to reference what some folks would possibly like to do or do differently if they could. Well, meet Bunger Henry. He's risen from the floodwaters of the "great Albany flood" to experience life a 2nd time. His avatar is really him...live and in living color "in his next life", which is now his present life. He's come back to impart profound thoughts on this, the Stingtalk nation.

:laugher:
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:laugher::laugher::laugher:

Oh.. my.. GOD. That was spectacular.
 
gsu_paintballer said:
They kinda get on my nerves a little. During a player walk, the team needs to show me that they are fired up. They don't need to show me those white earbuds.
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New Dumbass post of the new year!

Hey, I have an idea. Let's jump up and down and high five the fans and go nuts and use energy 3 hours before the game, yeah great idea.
 
gsu_paintballer said:
They kinda get on my nerves a little. During a player walk, the team needs to show me that they are fired up. They don't need to show me those white earbuds.
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They don't need to show anyone anything, they just need to play well.
 
refrigeratormover said:
New Dumbass post of the new year!

Hey, I have an idea. Let's jump up and down and high five the fans and go nuts and use energy 3 hours before the game, yeah great idea.
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Yeah because 18-21 year old college kids are so lacking in energy! You're getting old so I bet you dont remember how you were when you were 20 but I promise you, running out of energy was never a concern for me, and I played the only sport that i would ever consider to be as tiring and as physically demanding as football.

But, regardless, I agree that they do not need to be running and jumping around high fiving the fans. They need to be rememebering the play book, rehersing what they saw on film, and getting mentally prepared for war.
 
refrigeratormover said:
Hey, I have an idea. Let's jump up and down and high five the fans and go nuts and use energy 3 hours before the game, yeah great idea.
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Don't forget they should also spend as much mental energy and anxiety before the game so that mentally they have already exhausted their body before they step on the field of competition.
 
GTMensLax&SoccerD1Soon! said:
Yeah because 18-21 year old college kids are so lacking in energy! You're getting old so I bet you dont remember how you were when you were 20 but I promise you, running out of energy was never a concern for me, and I played the only sport that i would ever consider to be as tiring and as physically demanding as football.
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At what level did you play? Let's not compare the physical needs of club team lacrosse to FBS, that's like throwing a bullet and shooting it.
 
It's worth noting that iPods destroyed our entire season, as evidenced by our inability to run the option at any point in 2008.
 
JacketDan said:
At what level did you play? Let's not compare the physical needs of club team lacrosse to FBS, that's like throwing a bullet and shooting it.
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To some extent yes, but running non-stop for 60 minutes at full speed while someone is beating you with a metal stick is hard no matter what level of sport it is. And i was not impying it's any harder, but physically, it's on a comprable level. And it was not about me or my lacrosse so much as it was about the fact that wasting energy is not a HUGE deal. Those kids stay up all night playing madden and talkin to girls and all that crap just like any other college kid.

Like i said, they should be mentally preparing during that time, and if the Ipod helps then who cares if they have it...
 
GTMensLax&SoccerD1Soon! said:
Running non-stop for 60 minutes at full speed while someone is beating you with a metal stick is hard no matter what level of sport it is.
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I don't disagree with this, but you have to understand that the level of competition does matter. What you're saying is that the level of intensity of me and my friends playing a game of basketball as hard as we can go is the same as an NBA game. That's not how it works when you start looking at elite level athletes and I can't FBS football players as elite level athletes.

And it was not about me or my lacrosse so much as it was about the fact that wasting energy is not a HUGE deal.
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For these guys it is. Look at Michael Phelps, he's in that age range and fully admitted that he had nothing left in the tank at the end of the Olympics. Same thing as I read in a power lifting article, you ask your average gym rat to go 10 sets of single rep squats at 80% of his max and he'll be tired. You ask a pro-lifter to do the same and he'll barely crawl to the corner to puke up a lung.

These guys are firing their central nervous system at completely different levels then the rest of us. That's why the mental aspect of taking their mind OFF the game as much of the day as possible is important as well. You can literally tire yourself out before even setting foot on the field if you don't rest and relax until it's time to start warming up the machine.
 
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