AFM RSS Feed Follow Us on Twitter       
AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY THE #1 RESOURCE FOR FOOTBALL COACHES
ABOUT |  CONTACT |  ADVERTISE |  HELP  



   User Name    Password 
      Password Help





Article Categories


AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Gaining an Edge Through Special Teams

by: Tom Osborne
Assistant Head Coach, Special Teams Coordinator,Tight End Coach
© More from this issue

Click for Printer Friendly Version          

As football coaches, we have all heard the theory that the difference between winning and losing close games often comes down to a special teams play. At Arizona State University, we believe that in order to achieve success, sound execution of special teams play is paramount. We approach special teams with the perspective that the difference between winning the PAC-10 Championship and finishing at the bottom of the league could very well be determined by the effectiveness and efficiency of our special teams performance. Our goal is that our special teams will be our team's cornerstone for success. It demands a great deal of preparation, organization and attention to detail.

Our special teams players are taught to believe that each time they enter the game an opportunity for an "explosive" play exists. We want to create, capitalize on, and/or change the momentum of the game through our special teams. A hustling and intense special teams player sets the tone, not only for the momentum of the game, but also for fellow teammates on offense and defense.

Since our staff is in its first year at Arizona State, we have spent many hours planning and developing a corporate philosophy for special teams, establishing a method of selecting personnel, evaluating our staff and practice organization, determining the schemes we plan on implementing, outlining teaching methods and progressions, and creating ideas to motivate the players.

After much time and effort, we have formulated the various ingredients that we believe will enhance the success of our special teams.

Philosophy

The foundation of a strong special teams unit is built with personnel, attitude, organization, fundamentals, toughness, and preparation.

We believe in an aggressive approach that will put pressure on our opponents in all phases of special teams. We want to be attack oriented. We set high expectations for our effort level and performance because we've adopted the belief that great teams don't merely have adequate special teams, they have special teams that can break a game open by scoring touchdowns, forcing turnovers, and giving their offense and defense great field position. Our objective is to win the field position battle by accumulating "hidden yardage". We want to break it down to little battles that are fought and won on every play. We want our players to continue fighting until the whistle blows.

We are committed to investing time and effort into our special teams to get maximum production out of them. We aim to match our scheme with our talent, have a back-up plan, and find the most efficient means of teaching technique and obtaining quality repetitions. We strongly believe that we will improve on what we emphasize. The importance of special teams is further demonstrated to the players, by having the entire coaching staff participate in conducting and teaching special teams practice sessions.

More importantly, our players who participate on special teams must believe that they are unique and special and are recognized as such, rather than being "demoted" to being "just a special teams player". We are constantly emphasizing the importance of their effort and performance on special teams, as a factor in our team winning

The Role of the Head Coach

The Head Coach's commitment to special teams is absolutely crucial in determining their success. His involvement and attitude will have a profound impact both on the coaching staff and the players. He sets the standard by which all others measure themselves. The primary areas in which a head coach can exhibit his commitment to special teams are:

1. Designating an appropriate amount of practice and meeting time that will allow the coaching staff time to both teach and prepare the players adequately. It is because of this commitment that assistant coaches can provide players with the tools for success.

2. Allowing the use of both offensive and defensive starters to play on special teams. This eliminates the temptation for assistant coaches from becoming "territorial" of players at their respective offensive or defensive positions.

3. Decisions regarding the number of scholarships allocated to special team specialists. (i.e. punters, kickers, snappers, returners, etc.)

4. Motivating the team as to the importance that special teams has on winning.

Personnel Selection

The success of any special team unit depends on the selection of players. To be a part of the Arizona State special teams is to be a member of the elite. We believe that we must play our very best players to be successful. When we say the best players, we truly mean players who might possibly be first team defense and offense. We want our best 11 players on the field at all times. This will enable us the best opportunity to win. Using the best players on our team provides them an opportunity to impact the game on special teams as well as offense or defense. Our players are excited about it because they understand the importance of special teams in winning football games.

We are constantly attempting to identify ideal skill levels, body types, speed, etc. for every position to determine a "perfect world" criteria for all eleven positions for every specific special team. This allows us to place players in positions where they can achieve optimum success. We don't ever want to ask a player to perform a specific task when he doesn't possess the skill level to do it. This scenario happens frequently when backups play. We want to put players into positions where they are capable of performing a given assignment and they have 100% confidence in the task they are asked to perform.

We accomplish this by utilizing various drills that provide us with an avenue to evaluate and determine which players to place in specific roles. We are looking to identify players with unique talents. These drills also help players understand simple basic techniques and provide them with something objective and concrete to measure themselves against as they compete to earn a position on a specific special team.

We also look for athletes that clearly demonstrate tremendous intensity, discipline, knowledge of assignments, all-out effort and hustle. Anything less is unacceptable. To be selected and to maintain a position on a special team, a player must consistently perform. We re-evaluate our personnel weekly when our entire staff meets and discusses the most talented eleven players for each special team with no regard for offense or defense.

Teaching Progression

After determining the amount of time per day, and per week, that we are going to devote to special teams, we want to teach the players the skills needed so they can be practiced on a regular basis and with the same level of intensity and sense of urgency as they do on offense and defense.

We break our teaching progression into three different segments for each specific special team.

1. Alignment - We want our players to know in great detail not only where to align on each play but why. This is crucial for back up players. How many times have you seen a backup player go into the game and he is not aligned properly and consequently he is out of position to effectively execute a given task?

2. Assignment - Missed assignments determine the outcome of many more games than mismatches do. One of the priorities that we have established is that our players avoid mental errors. We have a zero tolerance policy for mental errors during games. Consistent execution is achieved by repetition. Repetition yields confidence. Confidence eliminates mistakes. If a player is not confident they will hesitate to act. That hesitation prohibits him from "pulling the trigger".

3. Technique - Simply telling a player what to do is not enough. We teach technique through various fundamental drills to improve a specific skill and through training tape sessions where players can visually see examples of another player performing the technique. Repetitions then yield improvement, and eventually perfection, of these skills and techniques.

Practice

How much time is realistically needed to be adequately prepared on special teams? The answer is complicated by the numerous unique and unpredictable situations that can arise in the kicking game. Even though these situations don't occur regularly, they must be practiced in order to effectively execute them when they do arise. The general rule is that all drills must have carry over to realistic game situations.

We devote special teams time at the beginning and in the middle of practice in order to help players internalize its importance. Conversely, if the end of practice time is used, special teams feels like an afterthought. During every special teams period all players and coaches are active and involved, again to underscore its importance.

When determining a teaching progression we do a thorough analysis of each special team and then designate time accordingly. For example, when planning punt return practice sessions we will establish the percentage of situations that arise during the season and then allocate practice time in the same proportion. The "situations" will be determined by both a self scout of ourselves from an entire season as well as an analysis of the league in general. A hypothetical example: we are a return team and after our research we determined that the following situations occur at the following rate:

Overall Punt Returns 80%

Wall Right Returns 70%

Wall Left Returns 30%

Punt rush blocks attempted10%

The defense remained on the field10%

In this example, we would devote 80% of our total punt return practice time to the various techniques and schemes for our returns (Note: based upon the above research we would practice our wall right return 70% of the "return" allocated time and the wall left return 30%). We would allocate only 10% of our practice time to punt rush techniques and schemes and finally spend 10% of our time working on playing defense when our opponents are in a punting situation. This teaching progression will eliminate the temptation to practice punt block 50% of our total practice time when in reality we only use it 10% of the time.

Tackling Drills

Every day during spring practice we designated a five minute "tackling" period immediately after stretch. The purpose was to have every player on our team actually perform various tackling techniques in different situations. This provided an opportunity for offensive players who are on our special teams to practice tackling Otherwise, when do offensive players actually practice the techniques of tackling? It also provided our kickers and punters time to practice actual tackling technique. What a difference it can make in a game when an opponent breaks a return and the kicker or punter is capable of making the tackle. The same can be said about the quarterbacks, running backs and receivers after a turnover.

Diagram 1 is an example of a drill that we use to emphasize making tackles in space. This drill is great practice for both our kickoff cover team and our punt cover team. It also allows the coaching staff an opportunity to evaluate which players can avoid blockers while running full speed and make tackles in space.

We form two single file lines of tacklers 20 yards away from each blocker and near the middle of the field. Twenty yards behind the blocker is a series of cones aligned five yards from each other and eight yards apart. A returner with a football under his arm is positioned 5 yards behind the last cone. The drill starts when a coach blows a whistle and one player from each tackling line starts to run full speed at the blocker aligned in front of him. The tackler avoids the blocker to his outside and then continues sprinting through the cones. A coach holds the back of the returner's jersey until the tackler passes the first set of cones at which time the coach lets go of the jersey and gives the command of "go". At this time the returner starts to advance the ball through the cones and has the option of avoiding the tackler in either direction. The tackler then must sink his hips and "come to balance" and make an efficient form tackle on the returner. The coach then blows another whistle at which time one player from each of the tackling lines begins to sprint downfield and repeat the drill. We can get a lot of repetitions within a five minute period if we use two, and sometimes four tackling lines.

Specialty Circuits

Since there is a great need for teaching fundamentals and techniques specific to special teams we incorporate a ten minute specialty period at the beginning of each practice. We do it before stretch or warm ups so we can coach fundamentals and techniques at a much slower pace than we do during the regular special teams periods within the body of practice. This is a great time to break all techniques down while teaching the players the fundamentals needed to be successful just like the offense and defense does during their individual periods. Every player on the team is involved during this time. We do not want our special teams players to think that what they are doing is "extra work" and therefore being on a special team is a punishment in their mind. We want them to believe that being on special teams is a privilege. No one is standing around. Every coach and every player is involved. There is constant player movement within each drill and as they move from drill to drill. There are designated drills and techniques for each specific day of the week. Some options are to have a punt blocking station and field goal blocking station. A half line punt protection station and a kickoff return drill can go on at the same time. This is also additional time for the punters to work with the long snappers as well as the punt returners. The kickoff specialists work with the kickoff returners. The short snappers work with the holders and field goal kickers.

Finally, we realize that special teams get just a fraction of time devoted to the fundamentals, technique work and group teaching that the offense and the defense are provided, but on Saturday they are asked to perform to the same standard. Therefore, matching our talent with our scheme, being fundamentally sound, and being effective and efficient with our practice time is all the more critical in order to provide us an avenue for success.

Tracking Drill






NEW BOOK!

AFM Videos Streaming Memberships Now Available Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach



















HOME
MAGAZINE
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE COLUMNISTS COACHING VIDEOS


Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved