cav clinic practice and game organization

8/3/2019 Cav Clinic Practice and Game Organization

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PRACTICE AND SIDELINE ORGANIZATION

Coaching is about Control

Format

Syntax of preparation -How we do things

Organization

Compartmentalize the game -winning battles one-step at a time

Tempo

Dictating the pace of performance -in the drivers seat


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A coachs responsibility is to prepare their players for the contest they will befacing. How our practice sessions are formatted will largely determine how successful deliveringthat information will be. Our role as coach is to impart information to our players that they can

use (resource) within the contest they are presented with.

What will determine the efficiency in practice formats will be how well we plan andhow common the teaching concepts remain. Know what needs to be taught, why it needs to be

taught, and the context it will be used in. This approach lends itself to a modular outlook whereconcepts are built upon one another for an end-sum product of consistent performance in gamesituations. Not only is this an easier way to grasp concepts, but also affords players anopportunity to win mini-games, rather than being thrown to the wolves and overloaded with

multiple tasks. This step-by-step method also elicits a greater focus from the players, sincethere are only a few things to pay attention to. In each segment, only review what is importantNOW. Erase all irrelevant or superfluous information as this only hinders the learning process.

PRACTICE ORGANIZATION

How do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time.

-- African proverb

Information is the reduction of uncertainty Bill Gates, The Road Ahead

FUNDAMENTALSINDIVIDUAL DRILLS

GROUP DRILLS

TEAM DRILLS

GAME SITUATIONS


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PRACTICE SESSIONS

The most important dynamic involved in practice is how you structure it and how efficient yourteam prepares itself for competition.

Develop consistency, familiarity, and competitiveness so your players can progressively improve.We are to give them a basic structure that they can be familiar with, grasp a concept, and log awin in each session, then move on to the next lesson.

Stage practice sessions in timed blocks,so there is a beginning and an end offocus on a particular area.

This puts the onus on the coaching

staff to work within these parametersto get the message across, deliver it inquick coaching points, then rep it to aconclusion.

These practice blocks shouldpreferably be in 5 or 10 minutesegments. Short and quick, conciselessons for high-repetitions. Theseshort-bursts allow you to

compartmentalize the game intowinnable challenges, making it mucheasier to teach the body-of-work asyou progress.

FUNfootball leads to optimistic football, which proceeds

intopositive football that gives birth to winningfootball.

- Coach Glen Tiger Ellison

This structure creates an arena where an athlete can showcase the improvement of his techniqueand eliminates the temptation to just out-athlete everyone on the field.

These teaching blocks are tantamount to chapters in a book, dividing up the big picture intomanageable segments. This also helps build your practice plans, accounting for all the time you

are allotted, ensuring that all skills that are needed to be taught are included. You will have aclear picture of what is being taught and you can evaluate if all skills are given a practicalallotment of time.

With this kind of routine built in, you will spend less time explaining drills or announcing what isexpected next the kids will know (because of repetition) what each drill is for and when thatdrill will be used.

Lastly, you can shape the mentality of your team with this efficient approach as well. You canschedule blocks of time every practice devoted to fundamentals. This type of emphasis drillshome the importance of blocking or tackling, that gets players believing that they are aphysical team because we work on hitting ALL THE TIME (even if its for only 5 minutes apractice, it is something we never neglect).


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Examples of Practice Plans

Staging your practice blocks on a timeline, so that everyone stays on the same page.

Basic football fundamentals / Special teams / Offensive group / Offensive TeamDefensive group / Defensive Team / Team Competition (conclusion) / Devotional


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PRACTICE SCRIPTING

The next step in organizing your practices is going beyond general outlines, but actually scriptingeverything that needs to be practiced and WHO needs to practice it. This method ensures that

what you plan to have available in a game has been experienced by the people that need to beexecuting it, as well as seeing that all players get their much needed reps.

With this attention to detail, youwill eliminate much of theinsecurity and doubt playersexperience on game day. Emotion

and desire can only take you sofar, but confident preparation canbe a catalyst to sustaining them.

More specifically, you can usethese scripts to prepare forspecific situations within a game(red zone, 2pt conversions, 3rd andshort, etc) and set up a scout look

dedicated to what your team willface in that scenario.

By scripting the practice plays, allthe assistants can be on the samepage and can prep the next scoutlook you will need. Knowing theplay will also help them assisttheir players on what to look for.

Defensively, you can review your opponents formations step-by-step and play-by-play and howthey will threaten the defense out of each formation (what are the keys to stopping the baseplay out of each formation).

Again, the amount of detailed preparation you put into scripting your practices will ensure there

is no wasted reps or time by your staff, players, or the team you may scrimmage, as well asguarantee you have prepared the team against all possible looks (that nothing is by-passed duringthe rush of practice). The less time you spend making decisions in practice, the faster (and

smoother) it will run. The higher the tempo of your practice, the more stimulated your playerswill be, leading to a higher participation and (information) retention rate.

Give an account of your management.

- Luke 16:2


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GAME DAY ORGANIZATION

As a coach, your job is challenging enough without adding more variables unto your game dayplate. Watching the clock, ensuring all the kids are playing, that you have 11 on the field,keeping tabs on what is working (and what is not), and managing all the players on thefield.you have your hands full.

With the same amount of detail and circumspect attitude weve taken to practice, we want toapply it to game day. The easiest way to do this is to ensure you have all the resources you need,so not to miss anything. Those resources largely involve the information you will need to makeyour decisions throughout the game. With this need, we want to be able access snap shots of

information needed developing a game day call sheet. Useful information you can use duringthe game includes;

Depth chart

Plays to call

Play script

Down & distance scenarios

Position / player plays

Discipline is based on pride in the profession, on meticulous

attention to details, and on mutual respect and confidence.

Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than

the excitement of battle.

- George S.Patton,Jr,W

ar as I Knew It


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With all your information at your fingertips, the game will slow down (less wasted

time with decisions) and you will have moretime to effectively lead your team.

Also, with all the information consolidatedto a page, you can print multiple copies tofellow coaches (equipping everyone withthe same information to make decisions

from). Now, everyone knows the play beingcalled (and can effectively supervise their

game day responsibility) as well as beingable to track substitutions.

You can further maximize your efficiencywith your game calls by categorizing yourplays by field position and situations.

Not only does this allow you a clearer playselection (matching scenarios with thehighest percentage play), but it also allowsyou to focus your practice sessions

accordingly (its 3rd

and 7 inside the 15, weare going to run 47 C, and run thesesituations in practice so the players will

have a clear definition of their role in thisscenario).

For instance, you may have a signature 2-

point play or a money 3rd and 8 play.

Rather than pulling these blindly out of theair under the pressure of game day, youhave a well-thought out plan of attack thatyou can refer (and your assistants) in thecourse of a game.

Taking this a step further, you cancategorize plays by positions in the event

that you, just need to find a way to getJohnny the ball or if you need to give the

2nd

string B back some candy, you havean easy reference for what plays suit thoseneeds.


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TEMPO OFFENSE

In addition to controlling your players with techniques and fundamentals, we wantto influence as much control during the course of a contest to give our players a favorableadvantage on each play.A fairly easy way to accomplish this is to keep the pressure on your

opponent to correctly perform. Making a decision within 30 seconds is considerably easier thanmaking that same decision within 3 seconds. With tempo control, we are looking to speed up,slow-down, always altering how the defense is going to be attacked, as well as dictate how manyopportunities we will have during the course of a game.

This approach discourages our opponents coaches from making simpleadjustments, forces their players to perform under (manufactured) stress, and promotesmiscommunication with their defensive assignments.

Our players can gain a psychological edge knowing they have an advantage (evenwhen they can see they might be out-matched physically) they can use at any time during the

game to put the defense on their heels. This also promotes a greater focus during practice (high-tempo) as well as paying attention in the huddle or set in the formation.

We use varying game speeds to gain this competitive advantage.Among the fewspeeds we utilize;

Standard (huddle up) where we huddle up after a play and the coach signals in the play to run

NASCAR(no-huddle) where players line up in base formation then listen to the audible fromQB

INDY (no-huddle/no-check) players line up and execute a series of prepackaged plays

Rapidity is the essence ofwar; take advantage ofthe enemys

uneasiness, makeyour way by unexpected routes, and attack

unguarded spots.

Sun-Tzu,The Art ofWar


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Advantages of using a Tempo Offense

Control tempo of the game (fast,slow, normal)

Create artificial momentum (offsetting opponent advantages)

Magnify the offensive advantage (cadence, play, formation)

Appearance of something different (looming effect)

Control substitution

Limit fronts & coverages

Freezing allows you to see exactly what the defense is doing

No guessing with play-calling

Magnify conditioning / weaker opponents

Eliminate inefficient lull before and after plays

Establish a reputation (prepare for anything)

Packaging plays allows you to set up counters (defending the

entire field = minimizing concentrated attacks)

The forced attack requires more effort from secondary players tobe accountable for run support


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Using Freeze

The first tempo that you can utilize is freeze. This is nothing more than utilizinga hard count to draw the opponent off sides. With the freeze play in your arsenal, the defenseconscientiously has to slow down and play hesitant and circumspect. This is the first stage oflimiting the aggressiveness of a defense on the field. We are disrupting theirrhythm changingtheir starts and get-offs. What they have been conditioned to react to (cadence) is no longervalid now what do they do?

Freeze can be called from any tempo you use. Whether you are in no-huddle(INDY), hurry-up (NASCAR), or your standard tempo, hard cadence can be used to attack adefense to slow down their aggressive style and/or gain a cheap 5 yards. What is involved with

Freeze is lining up in a formation, then have the quarterback call the cadence with hardinflection. The players have nothing to learn, just that when a Freeze play is called, to just sitin their stance. The quarterback will go through the cadence through three huts, and if noresponse is drawn from the defense, the quarterback is free to call a time-out (to avoid a 5 yardpenalty for delay of game). You can use all your standard presnap motions with Freeze.

This is a low-rent approach to controlling game tempo, but is a good start todictate the game at YOUR speed and force your opponent to play with less aggression.

Calling freeze in the course of a game can be done through your standard,

huddle-up tempo or by including it as a regular play on the QB play card / play sheet. Thequarterback would just call Tight (formation) Freeze (play) then break the huddle and run theplay.

In hurry-up (NASCAR), you can make this call with any F word (Florida,Franklin, faith, etc). While the team Is setting on the ball, the coach can just yell outfrisco (any f word), the quarterback repeats it four times to the players set in formation,then initiates the hard cadence.

In no-huddle (INDY), you can insert Freeze in the sequence of plays you have

packaged. This works especially well if the team you are facing knows you are capable ofperforming no-huddle and prepares their defense to react on cadence.


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Example of FREEZE


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Using Indy

The next tempo you can utilize with minimal practice time is INDY (think of INDY

500 race cars). This is a no-huddle speed where we are trying to run plays as fast as possible. Weare looking to get 5 plays off in under a minute. These are high-percentage plays we practiceeveryday that we have packaged in a series. This package will never change. Once the INDYpackage is defined we do not alter it (it has to be something the players can remember withoutfail).

Packaging the plays is completely up to the coaches, but it is best if you can groupplays that compliment one another and can stress the entire length and width of the field, sothat your attack isnt one-dimensional.An example is;

INSIDE (2 Wedge)

RIGHT (88 Power)

LEFT (99 Power)

LEFT (99 Power Pass)

INSIDE (2 Wedge)

Rather than trying to memorize a handful of plays, we simply teach it asmiddle,right,left,etc. That is all they really have to remember, because it becomes a naturalprogression of thought(We are running to the right, what play that we use runs to the right? 88Power). To limit the amount of things that could go awry, all plays are on first sound (GO)once the ball is set.

Once INDY is called, it is no-huddle urgency until the play series is exhausted or thecoach calls a time-out. At the end of each play, the players are admonished to quickly get theball to the official (this aides our tempo) quickly so we can get set for the next play.After thelast play in the series is ran, the offense resumes the standard (huddle up) tempo, unless the

coach signals otherwise from the sideline.

You will find that many times when confronted with a hurry-up offense, manydefensive coordinators will use a time-out to attempt to regain control of the game speed and

try to coach up their players to what you are doing on offense. This also increases the tempo inpractice and gets kids fired up to move so quickly (serves as conditioning as well).


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Example of INDY


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Using NASCAR

NASCAR is a hurry-up speed, slower than INDY, but faster than our standard tempo.We are striving for snapping the ball 14-16 seconds after it is put in play. NASCAR is used to varythe tempo that we operated at and allow us to open the entire playbook in a simplistic check-

with-me approach. This is best used when you have a few formations installed, that you can getin and out of. The main thrust of NASCAR is to threaten a defense with quick count, freeze, andformation adjustments. The tempo of NASCAR promotes the tool of audibiling into better playsthan the one originally called.

Because we can effectively change the play at any time, the linemen always remainin a 2-pt stance to remain comfortable and be able to adjust to a long-cadence.

The cadence of NASCAR involves a FORMATION, GROUPING, & DIGIT PLAY and isrepeated twice to ensure all players received the call. This allows us to communicate in our own

language and further confuse an opponent. The play calling is driven solely from wrist coachesworn by all players (even linemen) by position.

FORMATION - call the formation to be run out of (TIGHT, SPREAD, SLOT, etc)

GROUPING - F word = Freeze / D word = Dummy call / City = pass / State = run

DIGIT SIDE - even is to the right / odd is to the left

DIGIT PLAY - 1 9 series on the NASCAR call sheet

SPREAD A RIP! TEXAS 66 22! TEXAS 66-22!

SPREAD ARIP! formation withA motion

TEXAS = run play list

66 = first two digits are dummy numbers

22 = first 2 (even number means play to the right)

22 = second 2 (2nd play from Texas column)

You can turn this into a check-with-me system byusing the dummy calls (Dallas 66-70, D word is no play) to runthrough a cadence, then look to the coach to see if they want togo ahead with the play or check into a different play. Remember,this approach allows us to use ALL of the presnap time to find theplay we want to run, as well as keeping our players focused on thegame.

To signal in the play, the coaching staff will need to utilize a greaseboard or number chart to flash at the QB so he knows what play

series to call from.All formations and motions will be shoutedfrom the sidelines prior to giving the number play call.

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