Behaviour management in American Football

By Coach Hartley, Head Coach at Reading University 

photo by "takingthepixel"

I work as a Behaviour and Inclusion Manager for Reading Borough Council and I have come to realise that the skills I have learned at work could assist me in my coaching. I have decided this year that I would make Behaviour Management a key point in how I run my program. The first part of this article is an explanation of the basics of Behaviour Management and how I see it working within a coaching environment. The second part is about how I intend to use these ideas with my program this BUAFL season.

This is based on the premise that as a coach you are putting the program ahead of the team. It may well have a slight negative effect on the results at the beginning of the season, as the players learn to change their behaviours you should see a huge positive change. It is also mainly focused on a University program but I feel that many of the techniques will translate to a senior or junior/youth program. I expect that most coaches will discover that they use some of these techniques already, and some programs will be in such a position that they don’t feel the need to try any of these ideas. I’m going to try and take everything down to basic principals but if you have any questions feel free to contact me.