Where to Start?

Learning how to coach football is pretty daunting without having some sense of direction.  Obviously my goal someday is to coach at the high school level since I will be the teaching profession at that level and I want to make myself a better teacher candidate.  So where do I go first?  Do I jump right in and YouTube videos of position coaches that I know to be experts at their profession as did when I first started exploring this topic?  Finally I decided to do what I usually do when I want know about something, I Googled it.

I ended up just searching the query "how to become a football coach."  This led me to a whole array of quality search results.  I got to reading a couple of blogs about coaching which were pretty helpful in explaining what I would be getting into as a football coach. 

http://strongfootballcoach.com/how-to-become-a-football-coach/

This blog is by a football coach who I now follow on Google + by the name of Curtis Peterson.  He gives a well thought out guide in becoming a coach and he emphasizes things I hadn't thought about.

Step 1: Analyze the time I have to devote to coaching.  Curtis suggest that you make sure you are physically able to do it.  In high school, we are talking about 30-35 hours per week.  For me I think that commitment is entirely possible since I will not be in the credential program anymore and I won't have to (hopefully) wait tables anymore for an income.  My biggest hurdle in this will be with my wife.  But I know she understands my passion for this.  Curtis goes into some other things like what level to coach and what financial compensation to expect.  But most importantly he writes about what coaching is really about, having a positive impact not just on the players, but impacting the community as well.

Other resources I explored.

http://coachhuey.com/ This is an online forum where coaches discuss the game of football and share ideas with each other.

http://www.nfhslearn.com/sportDetail.aspx?sport=football This is an online coaching football course that the state of Ohio has as a requirement for all coaches to complete.  It is 50 bucks to take the course, I haven't decided on it yet.