Many of you are in “scrimmage mode” at this point in your pre-season practices. How you approach those/that scrimmage will have a BIG effect on your players’ mental approach to your regular season.
I would encourage you to talk about “execution” and “enthusiasm” as the Objectives of scrimmaging. Talk about how the players’ performance in the scrimmage will determine starting positions and the 2 deep depth chart. So: “play hard” and “play smart.” Winning and losing a scrimmage is, in my mind, secondary to the main purpose for scrimmaging. If you stress “winning” a scrimmage as the prime objective; it can have an adverse effect whether you win OR lose on the scoreboard. Your kids can get too over-confident OR… too devastated. The score is secondary.
Talk up that this is the chance to “take it out” on someone else since you’ve only had teammates to pound on for a couple of weeks. Go out there and show the coaches who’s aggressive… who LIKES to hit. If you make a mistake, make it going “100 miles an hour!”
This sets the tone for emphasizing to your team that the team that executes the best and minimizes errors is most likely going to come out on top on the scoreboard when the real games start.
It’s all in how you approach things.
Good luck and God bless you!
