erod
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I'm a huge believer in positive affirmation. I've seen it with the kids I've coached; you can tell them something over and over, but until they do it in a game and see a positive result for themselves, it's all just a bunch of gobbledy-goop.
Even for NFL players, coaching jargon gets tired and meaningless, especially in the throes of endless classroom time and camp practices. To players who've been practicing football all their lives, it's just more of the same yapping and growling they've heard since Pop Warner. It has long lost much of its oomph and message.
Enter Mike Pope.
He'll dump ice water on you as you catch a pass. He'll make you hold your hands in freezing water for 20 seconds, hum a ball right at you, and expect you to catch it. He'll make you catch passes laying on the ground in all sorts of contorted positions. This week, receivers were running routes with tightly-woven bags over the heads with just enough visibility to make out the ball. Pope claims that he has exactly 478 of these drills. I guess 477 wasn't quite enough.
There's a lot of ways to deliver a message. Some are just more memorable than others. Mike Pope keeps his players guessing as to how they'll learn the next message. They know something weird is coming tomorrow, it's just a matter of what.
The point is, they're already thinking about it before practice. They are ready to learn when they get there.
Pope's goal is to find a cognitive mechanism to make these lessons work when it matters. For a lot of players in the NFL, that comes with experiences in real games, usually bad ones that result from costly mistakes. He's trying to nip that the best he can ahead of time in Oxnard.
These are points of reference Pope can harken back to midstream in a ball game. It's not going to be southern California every week. The wind's gonna blow, the fog's gonna roll in, the rain and snow will fall, and the ball will come in all sorts of variations a receiver's way. Just catch the damn ball and save the 478 excuses.
That's when these mind vitamins will matter. "James, remember that net over your head in camp and that ice bucket of water? This is that. Block it out all out, and catch the ball." No, these silly drills won't fully simulate Green Bay in December for James Hanna, but they'll provide a point of reference to settle nerves and focus on the task at hand.
Longer term, no doubt all Pope's subjects will recite their favorite Pope tales to friends and family, and especially their kids. This morning, there are probably corporate speakers that played for Pope waxing nostalgic about these same drills to companies across the country.
How do you not like a stodgy throwback football coach who can get a rookie's attention and make him smile at the same time? You can't, and Jason Garrett's sure his tight ends can't either. That's why he insisted the longtime Giant coach be brought here by hook or crook.
Pope is working with a small group of tight ends, but no doubt eyes dart over to see what those knuckleheads are doing every morning. It's gotta be contagious. Those lessons must permeate. Players ask the tight ends about it later, which only reinforces it more in the locker room and dinner hall.
Tough to measure the impact of it all in real numbers. Got to go with your gut. My gut says it wins football games.
Even for NFL players, coaching jargon gets tired and meaningless, especially in the throes of endless classroom time and camp practices. To players who've been practicing football all their lives, it's just more of the same yapping and growling they've heard since Pop Warner. It has long lost much of its oomph and message.
Enter Mike Pope.
He'll dump ice water on you as you catch a pass. He'll make you hold your hands in freezing water for 20 seconds, hum a ball right at you, and expect you to catch it. He'll make you catch passes laying on the ground in all sorts of contorted positions. This week, receivers were running routes with tightly-woven bags over the heads with just enough visibility to make out the ball. Pope claims that he has exactly 478 of these drills. I guess 477 wasn't quite enough.
There's a lot of ways to deliver a message. Some are just more memorable than others. Mike Pope keeps his players guessing as to how they'll learn the next message. They know something weird is coming tomorrow, it's just a matter of what.
The point is, they're already thinking about it before practice. They are ready to learn when they get there.
Pope's goal is to find a cognitive mechanism to make these lessons work when it matters. For a lot of players in the NFL, that comes with experiences in real games, usually bad ones that result from costly mistakes. He's trying to nip that the best he can ahead of time in Oxnard.
These are points of reference Pope can harken back to midstream in a ball game. It's not going to be southern California every week. The wind's gonna blow, the fog's gonna roll in, the rain and snow will fall, and the ball will come in all sorts of variations a receiver's way. Just catch the damn ball and save the 478 excuses.
That's when these mind vitamins will matter. "James, remember that net over your head in camp and that ice bucket of water? This is that. Block it out all out, and catch the ball." No, these silly drills won't fully simulate Green Bay in December for James Hanna, but they'll provide a point of reference to settle nerves and focus on the task at hand.
Longer term, no doubt all Pope's subjects will recite their favorite Pope tales to friends and family, and especially their kids. This morning, there are probably corporate speakers that played for Pope waxing nostalgic about these same drills to companies across the country.
How do you not like a stodgy throwback football coach who can get a rookie's attention and make him smile at the same time? You can't, and Jason Garrett's sure his tight ends can't either. That's why he insisted the longtime Giant coach be brought here by hook or crook.
Pope is working with a small group of tight ends, but no doubt eyes dart over to see what those knuckleheads are doing every morning. It's gotta be contagious. Those lessons must permeate. Players ask the tight ends about it later, which only reinforces it more in the locker room and dinner hall.
Tough to measure the impact of it all in real numbers. Got to go with your gut. My gut says it wins football games.
