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Fan File: Speaking as a coach, is there one facet of the high school game that perhaps needs more development over others?
Marvin Lewis: Oh, I think you have to teach players to be better athletes...and I think high school football inherently has too much standing around. You watch a high school practice and you see too many kids watching...and not enough people involved. The lines are too long. What you'll see is a coach with a ball under his arm and two kids working...and everyone else just standing there watching. That's not coaching. You have to get more kids involved with learning something at all times. You have limited time anyway, and there aren't enough kids running and moving around. And then...when they do run, they make it as a punishment and that's the wrong message to send.
FanFile: What can coaches remember to become better and more efficient in their job?
Lewis: Coaching is about teaching and being interactive...and you have too many former guys who aren't trained as a teacher so they don't have the skills to put together the lesson plans it takes to be a good coach. All they bring is a portion of their experience as a player...and that usually is the perception of their coach. He had a whistle around his neck...I've never worn a whistle...and he had a ball or a clipboard in his hand or under his arm. But that's got nothing to do with coaching.
When you're coaching you have to have your hands free...as a tool for expression and demonstration. Even here...I see some of our guys, when they're working individually, have a practice plan in their hands and I tell them to put it in their pocket. Why? Because you have to be able to use your hands to work...you have to put your hands on people in order to teach them how to do things. It's about expression and the skills to communicate. It's so important!
FanFile: Which is more important to coaching...being a good communicator or being a good motivator?
Lewis: (smiling) Well first of all, motivation is not a relevant term to me. You have a goal and you have to convince people why that goal is important. That is, I guess, the motivation part of it. You're not always going to have all people focused on the same goals, but you have to be able to get them headed in the right direction. To me, that's what motivation is...establishing the goal. It can't be emotion, because emotion...just as soon as you get hit in the mouth...is over and done with. You better have something to fall back on after that happens. You better be able to communicate the fundamentals and the plan you've developed to reach your goal.
FanFile: You hear so much about development of a winning attitude. How does a coach go about achieving such a thing with teenage athletes?
Lewis: It goes back to coaches and coaching...to the fundamentals. If you're doing things fundamentally right...and obviously you're not if you're not winning...you have to address that repeatedly until you start getting better.
You have to identify and focus on what's getting you beat. That's where coaches lose it...they can't see the trees for the forest, being so obsessed with the big picture that they lose sight of small things. That's all we focused on as a team this season in Cincinnati. We were allowing one or two things to get us beat...and they were things we could correct. That's what you have to continually show your players...that these are the things that are preventing you from winning...from doing your job correctly. That's the reinforcement. This is wrong...this is right. This is how we want to see it done.
This was John Wooden's principle...you see someone do something wrong and you go show him how you want it done. Show them how they did it...and how you want it done. Don't just tell them...you have to show them. Once they can see themselves developing correct fundamentals they'll begin to believe in that as a winning advantage.
FanFile: There is a concern among some parents and others that the game of football, as it's perceived in the NFL on television, has become too violent. Is the game more violent than it needs to be...or is it, as we said, a matter of perception?
Lewis: I think it's less violent, actually...especially here in the NFL. I can't comment on high school and college because I don't sit and study it. I do think you have bigger, stronger, faster guys playing...so naturally the collision part is going to be greater.
Rules have been put in place to minimize the risk of injuries...and I can tell you that the NFL is not nearly as violent as it once was. For instance, you're limited as to how and when you can hit the quarterback and there are restrictions pertaining to how and where you can block...all for the purpose of making the game safer. (smiling) But it's on TV where people see the big hits that the media plays over and over. It used to be you'd see one big hit...and now SportsCenter has their top 10. It's drilled into people's minds.
You can't think about it when you play football. You have to react to the ball and make the play. Otherwise, you will get hurt. It again, goes back to coaching...teaching the fundamentals of blocking and tackling so you do things correctly.
FanFile: Coaches, as you know, are often the target or criticism. In high school, it can get very close and become very personal when it comes from parents. What do you say to those who would criticize a high school football coach?
Lewis. (with a chuckle) Well, it starts with officials, you know. Parents who yell at the officials send the wrong message to their child right away. Then, the rest of child's life he or she is going to blame something else when they don't succeed. The other team was bigger...they had this...they had that...the refs made the wrong call. When I catch my son or his friends doing that I try to nip it in the bud. You can't support that mindset, even if you believe it yourself. You can't give your kid an excuse 'cause he'll use it the rest of his life.
And the same applies to coaches. Your son or daughter is there to participate. The coach is there to teach and provide a positive environment to learn and achieve...and hopefully he or she holds up their end of the bargain. As a parent, you have to let them teach. It's no different than the classroom. They have to do their job and you have to step back. People assume that because of my position that they don't have to coach my kids...and I have to tell them, "No...you have to coach them, because they're not going to listen to me. I want you to coach them." But to sit there in the stands and be critical of them...all that does is send the wrong message to young people. It's like my new favorite commercial: Leon says it ain't his fault "...'cause Leon can't do everything."
FanFile: Obviously, a coach can become as big of influence on a youngster's life as a parent. Knowing that, is there a philosphy you'd try to follow?
Lewis: I'd want to keep my environment as positive as possible. Always run for the right reasons. Never run as a punishment because you're just re-emphasizing something that's wrong. Running should never be perceived as a negative because it's too much a part of our game. The coach has to keep it positive and uplifiting because you want participation and execution.
Obviously, coaches "have" to win...so you can't guarantee every parent that his son or daughter is going to play...or the extent to which they participate. But participation and development...being part of a team...ought to be the reason that child is out there. Then, ability and skills should determine how much they play...not politics or whose kid it is. It should be fun...and it has to be fun here with the Bengals. Here it's a job...and a tough job. But it's no fun if you can't win. That has to be understood and become an aspect that makes them love doing it. They have to consider how hard they have to work and appreciate the rewards of winning.
[ Part I ] [ Part II ] [ Part III ]
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