At Maryland our coaches would use a military expression to reinforce our fundamentals and approach to the little things: “you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall back on your training”.
At Maryland our coaches would use a military expression to reinforce our fundamentals and approach to the little things: “you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall back on your training”. Our coaches took pride in the teaching, instruction, and development of individual players. The little things, the fundamentals, were critical. You can’t do the big things, if you don’t have the little things down. A great example of this in my own experience was that on my very first day at Maryland, before official fall practice even began, Coach Tillman came up to me as I was tossing with a friend and began to show me how to throw properly. He readjusted my hand positioning on my stick, my body posture, how I stepped and released the ball. I was blown away for a second – I had just come off of a successful HS career and here I was being taught how to throw… I did not see that coming.
That was a sneak peak of my next 4 years. The amount I learned at Maryland from the smallest details of the most basic concepts transformed me as a player, and I saw it happen to many of my teammates as well. There is no doubt in my mind Coach Tillman’s success comes from his relentless focus on training the little things.
I was reminded of this when I got lunch with Navy Head Coach and USA Defensive Coordinator Joe Amplo last week. Coach Amplo has had a big impact on me as both a player and coach from the past few USA training events. The way he talks about the game and defense has grounded me back in that collegiate mindset. In the professional game, many guys rely on their abilities and habits – sometimes to a fault. These habits have been developed over years; however, without consistent training and coaching they get a bit rusty. I have realized myself falling into this trap of getting by on instinct and ability, rather than disciplined fundamentals.
Coach Amplo was harping on how he trains his guys to be able to fall back on their training and their habits, and to do that, they have to rep these movements over and over. One quote he said to me that stuck out was “don’t confuse boring with unimportant”. Sometimes the work we have to do isn’t glamorous, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn't do it.
At FCL, it is our hope and goal to share this mindset with athletes everywhere. This approach had such an impact on our staff. The little things might mean walking through your approaches slowly and then building speed while maintaining proper form. It might mean standing in the mirror and checking your “stick in front, bottom hand in hip pocket” stance. It could mean to go out to the wall and try to throw with proper form even if that means missing a few passes at first. Development isn’t always fun and it isn’t always comfortable, but that’s how you know you are separating yourself. Only doing what is fun and comfortable is a great way to make sure you're doing what everyone else is. Not that training can’t be fun, but be careful using that as the barometer.
Train what you need to, so that on gameday you can fall back on your training and go dominate the game.
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