How To Get The Most Out Of Practice Time ­ As An Assistant Coach

by: Joe Schotland
Assistant Coach, Westwood High School (MA)
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Football programs at all levels ­ from Pop Warner to the NFL ­ have to deal with similar challenges. Your practice time is limited. Your playbook is unlimited. Your next opponent presents numerous difficulties. As a result, many coaches struggle weekly with the same dilemma: How are we going to get all this done? The answer, of course, is that every staff must get the most of practice time. But how? While many clinics, books, and articles advise head coaches how to plan a week or day of practice, there is too little advice for an assistant coach on how to plan the part of practice he is responsible for: the individual period, or ³indy." This article hopes to fill that void.

The first key is that the coaches must communicate well among themselves. At the pro and college level, that¹s often easy, because coaching is a full-time job. Coaches are together all day, so they have time to meet and plan practice. At the high school level and below, however, coaches often work full-time elsewhere, so they arrive at practice just minutes before it starts. Communicating is more difficult. Therefore: (A) coaches should have each other¹s cell phone numbers and email addresses so they can contact each other when needed. (B) The staff should try to meet over the weekend to plan practices. (C) In place of, or in addition to, weekend meetings, coaches should huddle briefly before practice, while the captains are leading the stretching and cals, to make sure the staff is on the same page. In those ³pre-practice² meetings, make sure that: all the assistants have some way to keep time (by watch, stopwatch, or cell phone), that everyone has the same time, and that everyone understands how much time there will be for indy.

This is also a good time for you and/or injured players to set up any equipment and/or drills you¹ll do during indy. Last, ask your coordinator what, if anything, he wants you to work on or install during indy. A coordinator should coordinate. That is, he should orchestrate his assistants and their indy periods so that, by the end of the week, each element of the game plan is installed. A productive indy, in other words, should install part of the coordinator¹s game plan. An assistant who free-lances by doing whatever he wants does not result in a productive indy. For example, if you are the assistant coaching wide receivers, don¹t show up after a hard day¹s work and throw the ball around just because it¹s easy and fun for you.

Instead, ask the OC what he wants done. Coaches must work together just as players must. The coordinator¹s agenda should be the most important factor determining how the assistant spends his indy.

The second factor shaping your indy should be what your unit needs to improve on. How do you know what that is? From observations you make and notes you take. During each game, I maintain a ³T-chart². Really, it¹s just two lists. One tracks what my players do well, and the other records their mistakes. Those mistakes tell me what we should do in the first indy of the next week.

That first indy is spent trouble-shooting mistakes from the last game. The rest of the week is spent preparing for the next game. I make that organization explicit to my players each week so they know what we¹re doing and why. I have found that that explicit instruction is another key to having a productive indy. Here¹s a more detailed breakdown.

Let¹s say you play Friday night, and your players lift, run, and watch film on Saturday. Sunday is a rest day for the kids, and the coaches meet to plan. Monday¹s indy is spent trouble-shooting. I start with positives from the last game ­ both for the unit and for individuals. For example, ³We made no mistakes in alignment or assignment, and Mike had that big stop on fourth down. Chris, nice sack.² Then I explain what we did wrong. For example, ³We really did not tackle well.² I¹ll even mention a few specific examples:

³Mike, remember that third-down bootleg in the second quarter?² Or, ³Chris, remember when you had the QB in the backfield, and he got away?² Rather than be embarrassed, the kids often nod in agreement. Everyone saw it; everyone knows. Then I explain that we¹re going to trouble-shoot: ³So we¹re going to do some tackling drills, so that this coming Friday we won¹t have the same problem.² And we do the drills. (To get the most out of a drill, explain why they¹re doing it, how it prepares them for the game, and, especially in the beginning of the season, have your best player demonstrate. Have the kids start slow and go against air. Next, work them at medium speed against bags.

Finally, they go full speed against live bodies. By that point, the kids know what to do and how to do it, so they can go hard).

The rest of the week¹s indy periods are spent preparing for Friday¹s game. (You really have only two indies ­ Tuesday and Wednesday ­ because Thursday is the walk-through). The crucial first step for the assistant in game-planning is for the assistant himself to break down the film as it relates to his unit. Getting the coordinator¹s film analysis just isn¹t the same. You, the assistant, have to watch the film with your own eyes and with your own unit in mind. I don¹t analyze film any differently from most coaches. I look for the opponent¹s best and worst players, their formations, and tendencies. What I do well is communicate the resulting analysis to my players.

On Tuesday, I start ³indy² by yelling for my players loudly and enthusiastically. If you are happy to see your guys, they¹ll be happy to see you. Next, the players I appointed at the beginning of the season remind me to start my stopwatch ­ something they love to do and I always forget to do.

We begin the period with our warm-up: stance and starts, and read and react drills. (The warm-up is always the same so that the kids know what to expect and so that their basic techniques are reinforced.) Then I introduce the next opponent. I always sequence my explanation the same way: from their philosophy to their personnel to their formations and their plays. I ask, ³First, what do they want to do?² And then I¹ll answer. For example, if I¹m coaching my defensive unit, I¹ll state whether the opponent¹s offense wants to run or pass. If I¹m coaching my offensive unit, I¹ll state whether the opponent¹s defense wants to attack, penetrate, and blitz, or whether they want to read and react and cover. Then I¹ll ask, ³Second, who do they want to do it with?² And I¹ll explain their best personnel. For example, ³They want the wingback, #4, to run the ball,² or, ³They want to blitz their stud, #56.² Then, I¹ll ask, ³Third, how do they want to do it?² For example, ³They want to get the ball to #4 on the jet sweep,² or, ³They want to blitz #56 by moving him from the middle to the outside.² Then, I¹ll ask, ³Fourth, where and when do they want to do it?² And I¹ll explain their tendencies. As most coaches do, I look for tendencies based on formation, field position, hash, personnel, and down and distance. Last, I give an overview and I explain why the opponent does what they do. For example, ³The bottom line is: their offensive line isn¹t that good, so they¹re going to down block us on the frontside and pull from the backside.² In short, my players come to expect, each Tuesday, the same kind of crisp summary of the opponent: What do they want to do? Who do they want to do it? How do they want to do it? Where and when do they do it? And why are they doing it?

For the rest of the indy period, I go formation by formation and explain what to expect and how we¹ll attack it. I start with the opponent¹s base formation or defense and what they like to do out of it. For example, if I¹m coaching defensive ends, my progression would be something like the following: ³The offense¹s base formation is double-wing.² (And I line up the substitute and younger players in that formation.) ³Out of this, they love to run jet-sweep to this wingback, #4, and counter to that other wingback, #7.² (Again, I use the subs and underclassmen to demonstrate.) ³We¹ll defeat that counter by using our Œwrong-shoulder¹.² We then drill that technique. I sequence the drills so that the players work on techniques in the same order that they are needed as plays unfold. Moreover, I explain that explicitly to my players. For example, I say, ³OK, we did stance and starts and read keys in warm ups. That¹s the beginning of the play. Now we¹re going to work on the end of the play: pursuit and tackling. Remember guys, we practice in the same order we play.² The players seem to appreciate this. They like that there¹s a ³method to the madness². Usually, in Tuesday¹s indy, I can cover the basics of what our opponent wants to do. In Wednesday¹s indy, I cover whatever remains. That usually includes what the opponent can do, but doesn¹t do often. For example, ³They really want to play man and blitz ­ that¹s what we covered Tuesday ­ but when they do sit back, you¹ll see Cover-2, so today, I¹ll show you what that looks like and how we¹ll attack it.² Also, on Wednesdays, we cover ³specials²; short-yardage and goal line situations, and trick plays. By the end of Wednesdays, my players usually feel comfortable making those crucial pre-snap reads of formations. As a result, we know what to expect.

At the end of each indy, I bring the unit together. I review what we¹ve done and learned that day and what we¹ll do in the next indy. Last, I have one of the oldest players in the unit (usually a senior starter) lead a ³break-down² by calling out: ³Breakdown!² And the unit responds with their name ­ ³D-Ends!² ­ for example. That¹s proven to be a fun way to build unit pride and cohesion.

At the end of Wednesday¹s practice, or on Thursday, I will give my players their scouting report, or ³scouter." Thus, everything that they have heard from me and practiced in indy, they also get on paper. The format of the scouter ­ like the format of my indy periods ­ is always the same so the kids know what to expect. The first page of the scouter includes a newspaper article previewing the opponent. Then I include a table showing whom the opponent has played so far and how they¹ve done. I also add our league standings, just to remind our kids what¹s at stake this week. Then I write up the opponent¹s personnel in their base formation. I include names, height, weight, grade, and uniform number. I have found that my players like all those details. A little thing such as knowing the first name of the guy you¹ll be going up against helps make the match-up more personal...and more intense. The next part of the scouter is the most important. Proceeding from the most important formations to the least, each page has one formation at the top, and then the rest of the page features what the opponent wants to do out of it. For example, a page in my defensive scouter will have the offensive formation at the top, and then the middle of the page will show the runs, and the bottom of the page will show the passes. A page in my offensive scouter will show the defensive formation at the top and then the blitzes or secondary rotations out of it. The next to last page in the scouter is a summary of each formation and what the opponent will do out of it. The last page is a history of the opponent¹s school and/or town. The packet usually contains about ten pages. When is the best time to hand out the scouter? I¹ve found that if I give it out too early in the week, then the kids don¹t pay as close attention in indy because they know they have the information written down on paper. If I hand out the scouter too late, the players don¹t have enough time to memorize and internalize the information. Over the years, I¹ve learned that the best time to distribute the scouter is Wednesday if the game is on Friday, and Thursday if we play on Saturday.

On game day, I try to meet briefly with my unit to review the scouter ­ twice. The first review usually happens in the locker room after the players have gotten dressed. The second review often happens on the sidelines before kickoff. (At halftime and on Mondays, I talk with the players and discuss whether our opponent showed us anything that was not in the scouter.)

In summary, as an assistant for ten years and in several different programs, working for several different HC¹s, I¹ve found that a productive indy period requires that the communication between the assistant and the coordinator be open and frequent. Likewise, that the communication between the assistant and his unit be explicit and predictable. In closing, I¹d like to thank AFM. I¹ve been a subscriber for years and have learned from many of the articles I¹ve read. It¹s an honor to now be a contributor. I hope you have found some of the information valuable. Good luck! If you have any questions, please contact me at: joey@schotlandinc.com.

Joe Schotland coaches WR¹s, DE¹s, and the JV at Westwood High School in Massachusetts. He previously coached at Boston Latin High School and Belmont High School. Schotland played college football at Amherst College.

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