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AFM Magazine


Managing your Program - Self Evaluation With Film

by: Keith Grabowski
Offensive Coordinator Baldwin-Wallace College
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Spring football begins soon around the country. While the format and limitations vary from state-to-state, there should still be a focus for both the players and coaches. The spring is a time where the sense of urgency is not as important as during the season. There either isn’t a game at the end of this period, or if there is, it’s at the end of several weeks of preparation. With that removed as a prime focus, development of a foundation for the fall is of utmost importance. Using film and teaching players how to evaluate their performance and technique now will pay big dividends when time for preparation, teaching, learning and evaluation have a weekly deadline during the season.

Begin the process by developing detailed coaching materials. Most programs have some kind of editing system now. Even without an editing system, putting these kinds of materials together is possible with basic software that is installed on most computers.

Using your installation plan as a guideline, put together your diagrams and video of the play. Ideally, you have a video of the play and techniques executed perfectly, as well as a clip of the play not being productive because of a key error in technique. Because video is so dynamic and many things can be focused by the player viewing it, we like to use a sequence of materials to enhance understanding. Taking the two video clips, we create a series of still shots focusing on one particular aspect of the play. This allows the player to view the play caught in different stages as it develops. Step-by-step, the player can see what is being done right and wrong. This can easily be created in PowerPoint or Keynote.

PowerPoint and Keynote allow the lines to be animated and the coaching points to appear one at a time, further enhancing the players’ ability to grasp the concept. Having these available both in meetings and for self study creates a powerful teaching and learning tool. Film is great, but to be able to show the isolated techniques and coaching points in a step-by-step sequence with notes helps solidify learning. The outcome is that the player learns how to watch and evaluate film.

A new addition to our coaching method has been creating screencasts or short telestrated videos with the coach including his commentary with voiceover. The screencast slows the video down as the coach stops and points out keys on what makes a play or technique successful. Finding a way to make these available for the player to watch on his own is invaluable. The problem with a live meeting is that it is done at one pace, and because of time constraints, much information is usually packed into that classroom meeting time. The screencasts allow the player to pause and rewind which is unlike a live meeting in which the player is expected to retain everything that is said after hearing and seeing it just one time.

Again, these tools begin to give the players a focus on exactly what they should be looking for as they evaluate their own performance on video. To further develop this process, we break down our players skills into four categories for each position. The position coaches provide the specifics in the still frame illustrations and screencasts. The four categories are stance/start, approach, assignment and finish.

The stance and start phase involves the player putting his body in an optimal position to begin with efficient movement as well as taking the correct footwork and attaining the correct angles in body position. For a receiver, for example, we want great explosion off the line of scrimmage and this involves the correct stance that eliminates wasted movement like sinking his hips or false steps. The next category is approach. Whether that is the running back wing on track on his aim point, the quarterback on the correct path for a naked, or the receiver on the proper stem on his route, the approach is the player’s next few steps that put him on the best course for a successful play. The assignment is self-explanatory; it is who the lineman blocks or the route the receiver runs, for example. The finish is what the player does after putting himself in the right spot. Does the ball carrier use his run after contact technique correctly? Does the quarterback carry out a fake? Does the lineman roll his hips and run his feet through the block? These are examples of finish. Again, each coach has specifics for his position players in each of those categories. Those are shared during installation in still frame breakdowns and screencasts. By breaking down those phases, the player knows specifically what he is doing right or wrong and has specific criteria he is looking for in each stage of the play.

After the work has been done to create a clear picture of what a successful play and precise technique look like, the position coach then creates an interactive meeting room. This allows each player to apply what he has learned. Instead of the coach standing up front and telling each player what he did right or wrong as the video plays, the remote control is given to the player who breaks himself down in each category as the play progresses. The player verbalizes what he did correctly or what he needs to do better. The coach simply guides the players through the process by asking questions instead of providing the answers. Again, this is happening when the time is available to slow things down in the spring or early summer. This takes more time than

Extending this to the fall, we have each player grade his practice film daily. The four categories are still the focus for proper execution and technique. These have been drilled into them in the spring and through a detailed process they become better at watching film and seeing where they can improve. We have the players keep a notebook and record their daily grade in each category. The coach grades the film as well. We have found that the players often become more critical than the coach. Either way, the coach has a tool which helps him focus on certain areas as he sees trends develop in a particularly category of a player’s grade. Both the players and the coach can develop a critical eye for the details. Ultimately, this leads to better execution and performance on game day.








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