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AFM Magazine


Managing Your Program – Spring Practice: Make it About the Details and Development

by: Keith Grabowski
Offensive Coordinator Baldwin-Wallace College
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As we head into spring practice, now is the time to set a focus that will carry the team into strong summer preparations and camp, eventually leading up to the 2013 season. For many areas in the country, a spring game against an opponent is not part of the equation. This is a time that will end in an inter-squad game, or for some, no game or scrimmage at all. This is true at the NCAA Division III level, where we cannot even put on pads. However, this is still a great time to make progress and set up positive habits in the approach to how we practice. Even the teams that are allowed to play an opponent have several weeks until that happens, so the week-to-week crunch and grind of the season is not quite the same.

Without that opponent looming at the end of a week, the enemy is complacency. Even with the limitations we have at the D-III level, we find ways to maximize our time on the field and coach with great attention to detail. The spring should be about setting some specific objectives by position and using performance to set the depth chart coming into camp.

We set up our practices and drills to be very detailed and, at times, competitive. We grade our practices with great precision. Learning is the key that drives all of this. We really want our players to make a jump in the understanding of our offense and how they can succeed in it. Whether it’s in the meeting room or on the field, our players understand that attention to detail is expected. I’ll tell freshmen all the time that the key for them is really learning. The impact on them is much greater when the pace slows down a bit and they receive more reps than they did in camp, where there was a sense of urgency to make the most of the 25 opportunities before our first game. The growth we see in our freshmen at this time is huge. They’ve had a number of months to develop in the off season program, and the second time through learning our system helps them make a big jump.

Our approach to coaching in the spring really helps us develop our depth, and inevitably there will be a player or two coming into spring low on the depth chart who will work his way up to being a starter. Here are some ideas we use to accomplish our goals.

•  Equal reps for every player on the depth chart. Many programs err in viewing spring practice as an opportunity to make starters and key back-ups better but forget about the down-the-line players who are viewed as “program kids” willing to be a part of the team and play a small role. Development comes before winning. I remember back in the 2004 season where in a late season stretch we needed guys who were “program players” to step up and play key roles when we were faced with injuries. Going into that season, I told the seniors that they were all important and that they needed to focus and keep developing because even if they were playing a small role at the beginning, at some point they might have the opportunity to be starters. Those words came true, and that constant reinforcement and involvement in practice throughout the season allowed them to be prepared. Spring is the time to develop and prepare all players for a bigger role when the opportunity comes.

•  Focus all players on taking their mental reps. Each team is given the exact same number of reps with the exact same script. The third team always goes last, but those players who are truly taking their mental reps avoid making mistakes or are able to execute better at times if they are paying attention.

•  Videotape individual drills. This serves a few purposes. First, it adds to your teaching library and provides you with video that you can use later to teach your players the set-up of a drill. We always install a drill in the classroom, so having a diagram and then video of the drills provides players with a concrete example of exactly what is needed. The second purpose is obviously the teaching of technique. Every coach should use these drills to develop their own teaching video. With today’s technology it’s easy to make this accessible to players for study over the summer. Everything you want to see on the field should be made available for your players to study.

•  Drills should be set up for everyone to have a sense of purpose and to maximize the number of reps in a given time period. To illustrate this point, here is a set-up of a drill that involves many players. This drill started as “routes on air” but we’ve repurposed it to be much more efficient in teaching players exactly what we need on a given route. Our set-up includes five quarterbacks. In the spring we usually don’t have five quarterbacks available so we will adjust to running half of the concept at a time, alternating between right and left, but regardless, we are involving as many people as we can (Diagram – Route Timing).

The chart shows how each player rotates. We use this flow throughout the season for all of the different plays we are working. Receivers acting as defenders are taught to give a key so that the offensive player reacts accordingly in performing his route. The quarterbacks rotate through each station, getting at least two repetitions to each different receiver. The quarterback coach stands behind with a stopwatch giving one of the quarterbacks his release time on each repetition.



The expectation is that if five quarterbacks are throwing, the ball will come out at different times for each because they are moving their eyes and feet through the progression. The RB and TE coaches serve as quality control on each side, and the WR coach serves as quality control in the middle. They are looking both at the receiver’s execution and how good of a look the defenders are providing. The expectation of any player in line is that they are also critiquing the players involved in the drill as well as getting their own mental reps. Detailed drills with involvement by everyone creates an intense focus and a positive learning environment.

•  Find a way to have the drills competitive. We do this when we are working our up tempo procedures and plays. We will run these plays on air with the focus on offensive procedures, which are a very important part of our attack. This will be a series of five play scripts run by each team. The first team will start the drill with the second and third team players serving as signalers or getting their mental repetitions. As soon as the ball is snapped on their first play, the clock starts. They are running the plays with our game procedures and working on getting to the ball, getting aligned and running the play perfectly, and with as fast of a tempo as possible. One coach will serve as the official, blowing the whistle and spotting the ball. Any error in procedure or assignment adds ten seconds to that team’s time. The winning team that had the best time for a set of five plays will get out of whatever conditioning drill is at stake. We are usually able to get through three sets of five plays in a ten-minute period. That’s a total of 45 plays, so we are getting a lot of work done.

•  Have fun and build team unity. Football should always be fun. In the spring, without the stress of preparing for an opponent, always find ways to make it fun. Keep morale high, and find ways to build team unity. We institute a competition for the spring. The team is divided into eight smaller teams, each lead by an elected off-season captain. The captains are responsible for drafting a team. We treat this like the NFL draft.

The first pick in the draft even takes a photo with the number one jersey. Many of our upperclassmen attend the draft even if they are not captains. Usually the upperclassmen are drafted first and they like to assist their elected team leader in drafting the rest of the team. Each team receives points for various things throughout the competition. Missing a workout or skipping study table is a deduction from the team. Every practice finishes with some kind of competition.

The competitions are a range of things like punt, pass, and kick competitions, the “Kentucky Derby” in which one member of the team has to carry another piggy back around the field for a lap, and more conditioning drills involving some kind of relay. For drills not involving all members of the team, the team captains must make sure that all members of the team compete and represent their team at least one time or the team is disqualified. Point totals are posted each day and the leadership that develops is outstanding. The awards for the winners are t-shirts and front-of-the-line privileges for the entire season. This is a privilege they can invoke anytime. This may be waiting in line for a team meal or picking up their gear each day from the equipment manager. It’s a little thing, but a constant reminder of hard work and discipline.   

Spring is a great time to accomplish much. Regardless of limitations, the spring is an outstanding time to develop great habits, team chemistry, leadership, and to have fun.






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