About the Author: Dan Holt teaches English at St. Joseph High in St. Joseph, Michigan. He is a former Michigan Creative Writing Teacher of the Year and a co-director of the Third Coast Writing Project at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He coached freshman football for 20 years before hanging up his whistle and clipboard.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the November-December 1999 issue of The Voice, a National Writing Project publication.

The best thing to happen to me as an English teacher didn't occur in a classroom or during the school year; it happened during the summer when St. Joe's varsity football coach, the legendary Ike Muhlenkamp, pedaled up my driveway on a bicycle that looked way too small for him.

I was waxing my Toyota station wagon and just beginning to enjoy my summer vacation, assuming that the school year ahead would be the familiar routine of poetry, prose and writing process. But, on that day, my life and my attitude about teaching were about to change. Ike remarked about how nice the day was. He asked about my family, my health, and how my summer was going. "Fine, Ike, and yours?"

"Great, but I'd be better if I had an eighth-grade football coach."

So began my football coaching career, one that now has spanned nearly 20 years, all of it in the St. Joe system. I have coached eighth and ninth grade and junior varsity football and immersed myself in theory and terminology. I have also scouted and attended clinics. I have soaked up everything I could about the game because at St. Joe football is serious business. It has taken me years to appreciate that what I was learning on the field about coaching football could apply to teaching English.

The first similarity I discovered between coaching football and teaching writing was that I couldn't do either and stay on the sidelines. If I wanted my offensive linemen to get into the proper stance for a particular block, I had to get down into my own three-point stance to show them what I meant. I had to line up next to them and demonstrate how to fire out, pull, trap, and double team. When I modeled for my players, they knew what I wanted them to do and they did it.

Writing students also benefit from demonstrations. They will emulate and execute what the teacher shows them--if you show them. If you want students to write using figurative language, then create metaphors with your class. If you want students to write scintillating introductions using short narration, concoct one of your own to show them how it's done.

Now, some people might suggest that showing a film of an NFL lineman performing a scoop block would serve as a better model than the imperfect example that a coach could deliver. Some people might say that a Faulkner paragraph really shows how using good comparisons can turn a piece of writing into a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. This is an attractive trap. Sure, teachers could and should show polished professional examples to their students, but it makes all the difference when your students see you doing the same activity that you have asked them to perform. And frankly, they need to see the activity performed to the degree of proficiency that they can realistically hope to achieve. Watching John Elway fling a frozen rope 40 yards to a wide receiver doesn't mean much to a 14-year-old boy who is just learning how to hold the ball and how to throw a pass that doesn't resemble a wounded duck. Expecting a novice to write a perfect sonnet on the first try is just as senseless.

Set an example; don't try to achieve perfection. Whether it's pitching the ball to a halfback on the option or writing a poem using iambic rhythm, your players and students are looking for direction, not an impossible standard. Your team and your class will be motivated if there are players and students who can perform the technique better than you can demonstrate it. In fact, you should make it a point to praise them often, "Wow, that was a killer block," or "That paragraph is tight." Statements such as these will train butterball ninth-grade boys into varsity linemen and insecure adolescents into aspiring poets.

When teachers begin to write with students, they will find that they cease to be the "sage on the stage" and they become the "guide on the side." In other words, they become writing coaches, and they discover that students respond positively to a hands-on approach to teaching. Teachers will also find that textbook theory is replaced by student activity and that students learn to write by writing, not by reading about writing or hearing about writing. Every good coach will tell you the same is true for football--that X's and O's are good for coaches, but they don't help players understand the game much. In both teaching writing and in coaching football, a little theory goes a long way.

Good coaches also understand the KISS theory to teaching football. "KISS" stands for "Keep it simple, stupid." KISS is a reminder to the coach not to get too ambitious. It is better to teach a little football well than to teach a lot of football badly. Perhaps that freshman quarterback ought not to be given too many decisions to make on the field, perhaps the "audibles" (on-field-commands) are best used with care until a player has reached a higher skill level.

Start Small

In the writing class, a student who has never written a poem needs to start with small verse forms such as cinquain or haiku before tackling longer free verse poems that make special use of line arrangements. Students eventually can graduate to writing sonnets or sestinas, just as a freshman quarterback can hope to run a triple option offense and read complicated coverages by the time he is a varsity signal caller.

A word of caution about the KISS strategy: teachers who oversimplify may end up boring their players and students. Judge the abilities of your charges and adjust your coaching and teaching accordingly. A wise coach/teacher knows how to challenge students without confusing or overwhelming them. Every team and class is different; one group's challenge may be easy yardage for another.

Practice and routine drills are critically important for football players and writing students. Practice is a time when real improvement can take place because teachers can focus on specific writing skills and introduce new techniques to their students. During practice sessions, teachers can help design activities to address those needs. The team works on those problem areas in preparation for the next game. English teachers also need to design specific drills that work on particular skills. It is not enough to take the flabby approach of asking students to begin correcting mistakes only after they have written multiple drafts.

Specific drills help students learn to identify their errors before they become emotionally tied to passages and phrases in a re-worked draft. Like a preemptive strike, coaching can introduce a new strategy to the writer/player-in-training before the student has settled on a game plan. Of course, it's most effective when a teacher introduces new techniques during practice sessions and writers are free to experiment and fail without penalty.

Provide a Sample

Also, student writers tend to benefit from working on a "dummy" version, rather than attacking their own work. It's one thing to ask teenage writers to try out new concepts on an ugly, choppy paragraph provided by the teacher; it's another to ask them to rewrite one of their own paragraphs. They may do it because it's an assignment, but they are likely to resist altering their style in part because they are emotionally tied to their own words and work (as so many of us are).

Practice sessions help to reinforce that writing is a skill that requires regular effort and attention even for students with natural ability. As a football coach, I never expect my players to be able to perfectly execute a play or an offensive series immediately. It's the same with writing: we need not only to accept imperfect writing; we should encourage it. Good writers will tell you that they have to produce a lot of junk before they learn to craft something worth publishing. By focusing on practice, teachers help their students work new muscles that can put forth well-organized comparison and contrast papers or gripping stories about their summer vacations.

Of course, writing practice time should be organized and directed. The purpose of each drill should be explained so students know how the exercises are going to help their writing. Practice sessions are more effective when they adhere to a predictable routine. I have found that students and athletes appreciate knowing what will be covered ahead of time. They will gear up for a sequence that starts with stretching exercises, followed by offensive group work, then defensive group work, and so on. Writing students benefit from knowing when drills are scheduled and what will be covered, and how much time they will have for sharing and re-writing.

The Adrenaline Rush of Writing

While practice, routine, and direction are important, it is equally important to emphasize the end goal or final product. As a football coach, I anticipate each game; I feel adrenaline rushing through my veins whether my team wins or loses. Shouldn't we also get as excited about student writing?

When students finish their pieces and hand them in, we shouldn't simply collect the essays, poems, and stories and slap grades on them. We should enthusiastically read select pieces aloud, comment on them, and have students read them aloud for an audience or a partner. We should establish goal posts such as submitting excellent work to literary magazines and writing contests. We should do everything we can to celebrate writing, to make good pieces visible, and to create tangible, meaningful rewards like publishing. A grade is simply not enough; it never has been.

At St. Joe's, we publish work in a monthly news magazine and a yearly literary magazine. We display posters with student work on them in the halls. In addition, the Poetry Club hosts several well-attended readings each year and holds monthly meetings where students read their works in progress. Individual classroom teachers post student work on bulletin boards and some teachers regularly set aside class time for students to read to their classmates. The point is, we need to show students that their writing is important; we need to create public forums to celebrate their efforts just as we attend football games and cheer our athletes to victory.

I realize, of course, that no matter how much we try to jazz up writing, we won't be able to compete with Friday Night Lights. I'm not expecting marching bands, cheerleaders, and thousands of fans. But teachers of English can take some lessons even from hard-nosed football coaches about the benefits of practice, setting realistic goals and getting down in the mud with your team. I haven't busted an elbow yet and I'm no Joe Namath, but my recruits have thrown some winning touchdowns all the same.

As Ike started to remount his teetering bicycle for the return trip, I pointed out that while I was flattered by his job offer, I didn't have any coaching experience. "Heck, that's all right," he said. "You can teach, can't you?"

"Sure," I responded.

"Well, I just want you to teach on the field instead of in the classroom."

Now, 20 years later, I realize that I have also been coaching in the classroom--that teaching and coaching are two sides of the same educational coin.