Learning Curve

I’m getting up in years and have been with this team since 1958. I have seen a lot of bad years and a lot of good years. My question to all the coaches on this board is. Do you think the Steelers learn anything from there loses. Seems to me if they play bad one week they come back the next week and do something else stupid. IE all the dumb penalties on D this week, I want to see what happens next week with the D. Don’t get me wrong the D is good but will they shy away from being aggressive to avoid penalties.

 

They do; as do all teams. The issue is not the lack of learning from coaches to players. The issue stems from not applying those lessons to GameDay action.



If that does not work, then one of three possibilities exist;


1.) The team is not talented enough to overcome these issues.


2.) The Head Coach is not good enough to place his talented players in position to win.


3.) The team has quit on the Head Coach



Anything type of issue usually falls into one of these three categories.

 

Hey bettissb40.

If all Steeler performance personnel involved is not self-reflecting after each and every game, they are doing a whole lot of people a great disservice. That is a big part of the job. Huge! This includes: the players, the coaches, the trainers and any other staff member that are responsible for the team's performance. As my Master Teacher told me after every lesson during my Student-Teaching, even when I felt like I knocked the lesson out of the park: "Good job, now find me a better way."

It is a creed that has driven me for over forty years as a Teacher and a Coach. Probably the most valuable thing that I have taken away from my Collegiate studies.


STEELWINDS The East Side Kid

 

In all fairness, most of those "dumb" penalties on D were reflective of the ineptitude from the referees that resulted in continual drive 3rd down conversions.

Frustrating I tell ya when it seems like Vega$ is heavily involved. J/S.

 

Hey AskQuestionsLater.

Yes to your quote: "The issue stems from not applying those lessons to GameDay action"


In the realm of "Teaching", a problem first needs to be identified.

Now, as a Teacher and a Coach with 40+ years of experience, I will tell everyone here that there are Universal Principles involved with the process of “Teaching”. I do not care if one is teaching long division, how to defend a pass in football or training a dog to stand on his hind legs and beg.

“Teaching is Teaching” in a sense. The skill or objective at hand is irrelevant. Again, it is about the overarching goal and all of the “stepping stone” objectives that need to be achieved along the way to reaching that goal.

In the case of our Defense making errors and committing penalties, this can involve a very, very wide spectrum of issues.

To know where to begin the process we have to identify the specific problem. So for instance, if we are constantly being called for Pass Interference, let us look at some of the possible reasons as to why.

To list a few:

• “Mugging” the WR past the 5-Yard allotted margin.
  
  
• Not turning around to look up for the ball when attempting to make a play.
  
  
• Premature contact on the WR before the ball gets to the player.
  
  
• Look at the officiating tendencies that may be leading to these calls.

Let us stick with the second one:

Not turning around to look up for the ball when attempting to make a play.

Very, very common. Yes? Yes.

Okay, common enough. Now that we have seemingly identified the problem we have our baseline data in a sense. From there we establish our big overarching Goal which is to stop this behavior. Now, it is up to the coaches to devise an instructional plan to rectify this problem. This would entail the devising of smaller sequential learning steps (Objectives) that are outlined and taught in sequence.

As each objective becomes mastered, the Coach and Player move onto the next learning objective enroute to reaching and maintaining the ultimate, bigger and singular learning Goal.

That is Teaching 101 in a sense. Again it is applicable to many things in life, not just football. Nonetheless, it is up to the Coaches
("Teachers") to implement this process for problems identified on the field of play to be rectified.

Backtracking for a second: all is for not, if, the coach, or teacher, does not recognize a problem.


STEELWINDS The East Side Kid