OT for coaches: my team stinks

That's something that honestly helps. Not only does it give extra incentive to try in practice, it does so by making each player accountable to the team as a whole. The same way a player blowing an assignment in game harms the entire team, a blown assignment in practice does the same. Don't do it for mental mistakes at that level, they are just learning the game, but going half speed, at any level, is unnaceptable. Not only is it lazy, a kid meeting a blocker or tackler and not fully involved in the action can injure himself or another player.

May I suggest taking a few pointers from Bobby Knight?

Fear is the number one motivator for kids. I coached a baseball team of a little older kids 14-15ish. I was having the same problem, they were a group of kids not used to winning and played like it. They half assed their way through everything. After the first practice I kicked the "star" off the team (I allowed him back on the team after he apologized a few days later to the team for screwing around).  After this the entire attitude changed, they were all business in practice and games. We won quite a few games, finishing second in the league. This was a team that the previous year had won no games at all.

For kids these days you have to teach winning attitude as much as X's and O's.

Coaching the next generation of leaders. You are making deposits for a lifetime, regardless of age.  Why did you get involved? How you answered that gives you the meat of your objectives.

Expectations: Set them and be prepared to hold those young men accountable for not reaching expectations and try to instill the number one non-negotiable in football: TEMPO. If players play fast, even mistakes are palatable. There are some things you can run defensively that are intense and fun. andy <dot> postema <at> yahoo <dot> com if you'd like to email regarding it.

If they can figure out how to play fast, with great tempo, they will be able to compete. Set the tempo and hold them to it.

Sports is a great vehicle and platform for influence. Be influential and be firm. Teams do what they are allowed to do, good and bad. I heard an old coach say, "You see what you coach". Hard word sometimes, but it's proven to be true over the years of my coaching.

Blessings!

i don't coach football ( don't have enough experience in it) but I coached baseball.  One thing, maybe during your next practice, do something crazy... such as make them watch a motivational sports movie, or set up a fun game that will take the pressure of footabll off of them.  For example, on practice, we decided to do a home run derby, rather than the standard practice, it threw them for a loop and they liked it.  (Our team under-achieved big time this past summer and it was heart breaking.)

...be kids. Don't take the fun out of playing and participating. Sure losing isn't fun, however, a short quote I picked up from a recent movie sums it up pretty well, I think:  "A man learns nothing from winning. The act of losing, however, can elicit great wisdom. Not least of which is, how much more enjoyable it is to win. It's inevitable to lose now and again. The trick is not to make a habit of it."

My advice, for what it's worth:  Keep it upbeat. They're kids.

1- they are tired/gassed; 2- they don't know what they are supposed to be doing, or 3- they have lost their heart.  Take the film and  and break it down.  Just a few plays will do.  You are portraying this like it was a meltdown (which it might have been) but ultimately someone got beat.  When someone gets beat, someone else has to make the play.  

Change the story from we suck to we need to do this better.  Give them the tools to play better.  If someone got pushed off the line.  Tell them next time to stay low and make a pile when they are getting pancaked so others can flow around them.  I'm not saying that was the problem - how would I know, but whatever the problem was show it to them a  couple times and give them a plan to overcome it.

No matter how bad it was, find one play or player who did something right (it helps if that play is unexpected.)  Show that to the team.  Reward those players who played with heart with opportunity as best as your league rules allow.  The team will see this and rally.

Usually the better athletes win.  There is no shame in losing to a better team.  If that was the case give them credit and move on.  Sounds like your guys didn't give it their best.  You need to show them, encourage them and move on.  

My son's varsity team started this season 0-5 and he was carted off the field in an ambulance in first game (he was the starting QB).  We played hard too, but the other team were simply bigger and better (the combined record of our first five opponents was 24-1).

We never changed his style or attitude.  We brought the same enthusiasm last week as we did the first day of camp.  We all knew the kids were giving it their all, they were just outmanned.  So we kept it positive, continued to teach and game plan, and we never pointed a finger at this kid or that kid.  Finally, this past Friday night, we broke through on the win column with a 40-0 win.

Your kids need to believe they can win.  They need to believe that YOU think they can win.  Coach with enthusiasm, but nothing contrived....they'll see right through that. 

As a guy who coaches in that age range and a someone who spend time playing ball in that age range I have two comments.

First off at least some kids on your team are playing because their parents made them.  Their dad had dreams of being a football player and he didn't achieve them, so now he's trying to live through his kid.  Making those kids the goats, making people eat group punishment because Bobby got his arm twisted into ball is not cool.  You need to lure your kids to play with sugar.

You need to sell to these kids that they can be good.  Odds are you have a few kids on your team who are really into the game.  They might have kind of slacked off because the other 10 kids on the field are playing like crap and they know it's pointless to give the A effort.  You have to find a way to let these kids shine and show the other kids "Hey we want be good".

Personally I took my two best players and talked them in to play as  the left defensive end and LOLB.  I then created a playbook based entire on blitzes and designed to let those two kids shine.  We got torn up in the passing game, but we got some impressive QB kills.  After two games I loaded another kid in into the LOLB and ran same the plays.  This other kid had seen the success you could have and he played full speed because he wanted to nail the QB in the backfield.  

Basically once the defense saw those kids slamming into the backfield and getting sacks and TFLs they realized "Hey we don't totally suck" and they have a desire to not be the weak link.  This gave me an opening to start coaching up the rest of the team.  Our secondary is still suspect, but luckily we don't exactly face a lot of stud QBs in this age range.

 So get the biggest and most athletic twelve year olds on the team and get them to show up.  Also get them to be leaders for the younger kids.  One constant of childhood psychology is kids like being treated like bigger kids.  So give them a chance to feel like big brothers with more trust and more importance.  If they get shown up by a 9 year old, call them out on it.  

Oh and bribery.  I always give out a week offensive MVP award and defensive MVP award that I pick and a team MVP that the team votes for.  The awards come with little cards I just print out on heavy card stock using a color laser printer and a toy of some sort.  Halo and Star Wars action figures are popular with my kids.  I keep about a dozen or so in stock and when you win you get to pick one.  I had this overweight and under performing kid turn into a stud DT and blow through double teams when he realized there was a Master Chief action figure in the MVP award pile and he wanted it.  After that game he also realized "Hey just because I'm chunky doesn't mean I have to suck." and stepped his game up.

Two last comments.  Get the parents involved if you can.  I passed out little sheets to the parents that read "Hey your son plays [positions] and here are some drills you can do with him to help him."  Talk with the parents and get them to spend some time bonding with their kid and building him up in terms of football.  If your dad built up you and spent the week encouraging you, odds are you don't want to look like shit when it comes time to play.  

On the group punishment thing.  I avoid that unless the group is screwing around.  I had all my offensive linemen ignoring me and talking about Halo Reach one day, so all my offensive linemen ended up running laps together.  Overall I try to avoid punishment in this age range because like I said Bobby may have been forced into playing ball by his father.  If someone really pisses me off I toss them in as deep safety (since no QBs really have a deep ball) or as the #4 WR in four wide sets and make sure the QB knows to only throw them if no one else is open.  The kids who do the best in practice get to spend the most game time in a "fun" position (QB, RB, pass rusher) whereas the kids who jerked around can go play deep man for a game.  Normally they get the message pretty quick.  

Edit: One specific you could try in practice, it's worked for me at least, is I have all my lineman also take reps at RB both during games and in practice.  My run game is pretty simple, 2 backs, run off tackle (one back either serves as the FB or fakes taking the handoff), pull a guard.  Classic Lloyd Carr era Michigan power running.  I rotate all my players though so they learn that "Hey if I'm playing tackle and half ass my blocks for Billy, he'll half ass them when he's the tackle and I'm the RB."  So basically my RBs, linemen and TEs all rotate around through varying positions.  I get a lot better of play out of them because they all get the reward of the fact they could get a TD run and they all get an understanding of teamwork.  Kids don't like to lose, give them a realistic hope of winning and getting to do something fun (the TD scoring RB, etc) and they'll play.  Just focus on doing one thing really well in practice (consistent blitzing, off tackle running or whatever your shceme's bread and butter plays are) so they have something to take pride in and something they'll do full speed.  In practice I just lined up my offenses and defenses and had the offense keep pulling the power run out.  3 play rotation, run off LT, run off RT, FB dive.  The defense knew the rotation so success was totally based off executing, no guessing the play.  Constantly calling for them to move faster, all the coaches clapping our hands, yelling encouragement.  Faster tempo every play.  Once the kids are gassed let them grab a drink, sit them down and tell them how well they did.  Then do it again.  Sooner or later they'll start to feel good at it and run it full speed in their sleep.  

Your team gave up 40 points.  You need to fire your defensive coordinator immediately.  Do that and all your problems will be solved.

I thought this was a satirical post. 

It sounds like your kids have a basic enough understanding of what they're supposed to do, but are lacking the motivation to kick it into the next gear.

I'm not a coach, but a psychologist and part time sport psychologist. Emphasize to them that physical skill will only get them so far...they need to spend some time in the mental gym and put in the effort if they want to take it to the next level. Start with an inspirational video, maybe something like this:

In the offseason, I'd recommend reading up on some sport psychology. Jeff Janssen has some great books with easy to implement strategies:

http://www.jeffjanssen.com/coaching/resources.html

I use the Team Captain's Leadership Manual with the sport psych class I teach. Like CRex said above, having a few captains/leaders can go a long way...they may have some great ideas and a unique ability to motivate the rest of your troops.