REG SEASON VS PLAYOFFS: MENTALITY | METHODS

[GeneralForrest]

Forrest is 10-0. Yay, but now the real season begins. 

In the last 6 seasons, they have had the following  playoff results. 

2013- 2nd Round exit at Adamsville, 26-7

2014- 1st Round exit at home against Riverside, 35-30

2015- 2nd Round exit at home against Marion, 38-10

2016- 3rd Round exit at home to Marion, 55-14

2017- 1st Round exit at Waverly, 63-36

2018- 1st Round exit at Waverly, 31-19

My question, what do the Marions, Waverlys, Peabodys, and Trousdales do to sustain and even improve once playoff time hits. 

A natural letdown occurs, the reg season is over, there is different weather and usually much more travel. Injuries, fatigue, attrition also are factors.  

What adjustements are these teams making?

 

[Wavo2004]

From Waverly side . R boys have been playing together since Jr pro days. And they have won on every level they have played on. The team.is close and more like family so they hold each other to a higher standard 

[GeneralForrest]

Our kids have that. This year's seniors.  And i think a lot fo crappy teams have kids that have layed together since elementary school. How do you guys approach the postseason mentally. What routines do you break or keep. 

Edited November 5, 2019 by GeneralAmerigha

[Wavo2004]

15 minutes ago, GeneralAmerigha said:

Our kids have that. This year's seniors.  And i think a lot fo crappy teams have kids that have layed together since elementary school. How do you guys approach the postseason mentally. What routines do you break or keep. 

Well the idk bout this year cuz we got a new coach.  But coach knows what it takes to get the boys ready he won the 1A championship last year. From what I've heard they r still coming the same things as they have all year. 

[Trollin]

1 hour ago, GeneralForrest said:

Our kids have that. This year's seniors.  And i think a lot fo crappy teams have kids that have layed together since elementary school. How do you guys approach the postseason mentally. What routines do you break or keep. 

You go into each week with the same mentality as far as preparation goes. Maybe some things that change at practice are less physical because of injuries and such and honestly all teams are beat up by then. By playoff time you should already know how to be physical and tackle, no need to beat eachother up even more. Guys are tired of beating up on eachother. The focus is more mental. Film. Running through scheme, working on things that matter to get better and most importantly staying healthy. We have gone with shoulder pads and helmets only maybe 2 practices. Monday’s and Thursday’s just helmets.  Monday’s are lots of film and stretching and walk through on upcoming scheme. Tue Wed work. Thursday game prep. 

[GeneralForrest]

anything diff with weights or stretching or hydration?

This is great stuff thanks guys 

[Trollin]

13 minutes ago, GeneralForrest said:

anything diff with weights or stretching or hydration?

This is great stuff thanks guys 

Always in weight room. Always stretching. Always hydrating. Maybe less weight in weights and more intense stretching. 

[Grizzly478]

Watertown is always in the weight room, yoga a lot of times on wednesdays and/or fridays. There’s been times we lift on game day. I think that has been key to a lot of our recent success.

[tcjacket13]

1 hour ago, GeneralForrest said:

anything diff with weights or stretching or hydration?

This is great stuff thanks guys 

Work and more work, TC has a rigorous summer workout schedule and lift and run year around, which most teams do, and honestly I think most of our success is the drive to be another one of those state championship teams, to not let the town down, to dominant the competition, just my thought. 

[GeneralForrest]

so its mental. i can totally see that. certain schools they just expect to win. i think the closest i saw to that in person was marion 2015. they were so understated in terms of bravado but man could they play. the adamsville 2013 team TC beat in the final was like that as well. i didnt see TC in person but the fact that you beat Neary's Adamsville team speaks volumes. 

[GeneralForrest]

4 minutes ago, TCRadio said:

those state championship teams, to not let the town down, to dominant the competition, just my thought. 

dont laugh but i think the same thing motivates yankees, packers, bama, etc. its the expectation of the brand regardless of who is on the team . leaves no room for doubt. certain teams, and i think forrest has fallen into this at times, its like "well we arent supposed to go more than a couple games." and then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  

now...we werent beating 2016 Marion in rounds 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. but there is something to this expectation of greatness.  when a team is better thats it. but this mental stuff is still really important.  

[tradertwo]

5 hours ago, GeneralForrest said:

Forrest is 10-0. Yay, but now the real season begins. 

In the last 6 seasons, they have had the following  playoff results. 

2013- 2nd Round exit at Adamsville, 26-7

2014- 1st Round exit at home against Riverside, 35-30

2015- 2nd Round exit at home against Marion, 38-10

2016- 3rd Round exit at home to Marion, 55-14

2017- 1st Round exit at Waverly, 63-36

2018- 1st Round exit at Waverly, 31-19

My question, what do the Marions, Waverlys, Peabodys, and Trousdales do to sustain and even improve once playoff time hits. 

A natural letdown occurs, the reg season is over, there is different weather and usually much more travel. Injuries, fatigue, attrition also are factors.  

What adjustements are these teams making?

 

I've gotten myself into trouble already for being honest, so here we go. Those teams were better than Forrest. I had firsthand knowledge of all those teams except Marion, and we all know how far they went and how good they were. The only two things that you can control come playoff time are preparedness by the coaches, and the mentality of the kids. In '16 Scotts Hill played three playoff games... two of the three teams were better than us. In round one we beat #1 Adamsville at their place, beat Lewis County at their place, and lost a squeaker to Waverly at Waverly (after being blown out at home earlier in the season by them at our house). All that you can do is game plan for the team you face, and have the kids trust that the plan works and that they WILL win the game.

Adamsville was better than us, but they had a moment of doubt when they couldn't put us away, our kids never doubted that we'd win, and we did in a battle until the last seconds.

Lewis County was not as good as we were... we had already played once that year, knew what they did well, knew that we'd win, and LC could not do anything about it, because we didn't allow it.

We had a great game plan for Waverly too. Our kids played their hearts out, preformed very well, and knew that when the chips were down that we'd find a way to win... we did not for the same reason that Lewis couldn't beat us... Waverly was better and didn't allow it to happen.

 The only difference between the Adamsville and Waverly games was that Waverly's kids never faltered. We had the ball twice in the last five minutes, down 5, and the best team still won because they believed in themselves and their coaches.

Long story short, you don't necessarily lose because you fail... you lose because the better team does what it takes to win.

Edited November 5, 2019 by tradertwo