MY FUTURE LEARNING GOALS

The goal for my career is to coach football at the highest, most competitive level.   Ultimately, my end goal is to become an offensive coordinator, calling the plays and designing an offensive attack for either a division one collegiate football team, or for a team in the National Football League.  I am looking to improve and learn in three main areas.  First, I must improve my overall football knowledge, growing in knowledge of how to best attack different defensive schemes.  Second, I need to grow in the ability to coach up my players, improving my ability to help them play to the best of their ability.  Third, I must improve as a life skills coach; I need to make sure that the skills I am teaching my players transfer over to their lives outside of the world of football.

 

I am constantly looking to improve my overall football knowledge.  Our coaches here at Michigan State say that you can learn something new every single day, whether you are a graduate assistant, a position coach, an offensive or defensive coordinator, or a head coach.  The sport of football is constantly evolving, with people coming up with new offensive and defensive schemes, and the opposing side of the ball looking for the best ways to counteract these schemes.  I must continue to watch film of other teams, ask questions, and consider how these new play ideas can be successfully implemented into an offense.  Conversely, I must seek to continue my knowledge of defensive schematics.  My entire football playing and coaching career has been on the offensive side of the ball.  I played quarterback growing up, and have worked primarily with the offensive skill positions in my coaching career.  I am a firm believer that to be a successful offensive coach, you must have total knowledge of the opposing defenses that you face.  I must continue to develop knowledge of defenses, from what each player’s responsibility is depending on the call, to how they are taught to play each and every snap.  The more knowledge I have of a defense, the more successful I will be in attacking it.  I will use my fellow coaches as resources, and will attend clinics across the country, listening to other coaches talk on different subjects.

 

Another area I am seeking to improve as a coach is the actual coaching of my players.  This is just as important as football tactics and strategies.  I must know how to reach my players to know how get my players to perform at their highest possible level.  Knowing how to deal with and motivate players is a bigger party of coaching than most people realize.  I have learned a great deal from my Master’s program on how to motivate players.  Additionally, I have learned from my own experiences, and from our coaches here at Michigan State.  There are a couple resources I will be able to use in the future.  I will learn from my fellow coaches, and observe how they motivate players, and how their players respond to this motivation.  Additionally, I will talk to my players, discussing my coaching techniques and how it impacts their own performance on the field.

 

Finally, and arguably most important, is developing players as people.  Through the Sport Coaching and Leadership program that I am currently enrolled in, I have learned a great deal about the importance of sports in teaching players how to be responsible, respectful people.  The lessons learned in sports can be carried over into the rest of your life.  These lessons can only be learned, however, from a coach who is dedicated to developing the character of their players.  There must also be a focus on the transfer of these skills over into life off of the playing field.  I have been lucky enough to learn from a coaching staff at Michigan State that cares about their athletes as more than just football players, but as people.  My experiences in coaching for the football program here have allowed me to use everything that I have learned from my Master’s program every day.  I must continue to apply what I have learned in class, growing as a coach as I attempt to help my players grow as people.  Learning to become a great leader is something that I must work on every single day.  As a resource, I must continue to read books suggested to me throughout my education.  Several books that I have read in my Master’s program have helped to shape the way I look at coaching, and there are more books out there that will make a positive impact on me.  I must also talk to my players about how participating in sport has made a positive impact on them.