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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


10 Musts Before The Start of Fall Camp

by: Bruce Reynolds
Former Head Coach William Penn High School (DE)
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#1 Hit the weights and don’t forget to stretch for success.

Nothing can make up for players that are not physically ready to play their best. Instead of lamenting that your players are not “bigger, faster and stronger,” take the initiative and make them bigger, faster, and stronger. If you do not have a weight room, create your own. We started our weight room in a storage closet in the wrestling room. I personally ran the summer weight room three days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the initial years of our program. I did not want the time of day to be an excuse for anyone. If a player worked a summer job at night, he came at 8:00 a.m. or noon. If he had summer school, he came at noon or 6:00 p.m. No excuses, just commitment.
Find a professional weight training and stretching program that centers on the core body muscles and follow it religiously. The stretching exercises are essential to keep the muscles safe from injury and also to promote maximum flexibility and agility of movement. Measure and record everything. If you want to see great results, you must chart each player’s progress. Measuring their weekly progress is a great motivator for the athlete and keeps them focused on continual improvement.

#2 Add plyometric training.

Explosive power is best developed when weight training is enhanced by a good plyometric program. Variable height boxes are needed to develop explosive leg power. Athletes trained on plyometric exercises will increase their vertical jump by several inches over the course of the off-season. Jumping up and then down from the plyometric boxes in a set exercise routine is a must to enhance and supplement the great benefits of the squat legs exercise which must be a core of your program.

#3 Don’t neglect “speed” work and agility exercises.

Today’s game is getting faster all of the time. There are some really great speed /quickness drills and equipment (weighted sleds, parachutes, running harnesses) available to help you develop this key ingredient. One of the best that I used was Dr. Greg Sheperd’s BFS “Dot Drill.” The Dot Drill incorporates a series of patterned quick foot maneuvers. The pattern combinations are performed by the athlete and always timed and charted. Again, progress must be measured and charted. By doing this the player sees visible proof that he is getting quicker and will develop a “need for a quick” mindset that he will later carry that into the games. Handball and handball with an irregular shaped ball (one that comes off the wall at odd angles) are also good tools. These exercises will promote quick hand-eye coordination as well as foot agility. The sky’s the limit as to the number of inventive ways to promote speed and agility. Find the ones that fit your program best and get to work.

#4 Use cardio conditioning.

Get your team in top condition so they will be the “last to quit.” Incorporate various forms of cardio training and interval distance running into your team’s summer running program. Keep track of a detailed cardio training plan as well as interval distance running that involves bursts of high intensity work. You want your team to be at their peak in November as well as September.

#5 Stress nutrition and hydration.

Give your players and their parents a professional nutrition chart. There are many sport nutrition programs available and accessible on the internet that outline the do’s and don’ts of a sports diet for your players. The proper way to lose body fat and gain lean muscle mass is critical for optimum sport’s performance. Some players need to lose weight and some need to gain weight, but all need to gain lean body mass. Make sure they have the proper tools to reach their physical goals.
Notice that I said to give the nutrition chart to their parents as well. Proper nutrition for your players will never be achieved without the cooperation and encouragement by the parents and guardians. Don’t forget to give them the rules for proper hydration as well. Remember, during the dog days of August, dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are all too common. We always used the old adage that if you’re thirsty, it’s too late. Hydrate before and during practice and watch those heat induced leg cramps disappear.

#6 Get your equipment re-conditioned and ready to go.

Safe equipment is a must. Make sure every helmet and shoulder pad that will be used during the upcoming season is either new or professionally re-conditioned and certified. First and foremost, it provides the safest physical environment for your players, but it also legally protects you and your district to the fullest extent possible from legal action resulting from an injury.
Have all of your equipment completely checked for defects. We had our metal sled parts checked by our own maintenance staff and welded or repaired as needed. Cloth and plastic dummies had to be patched or replaced each summer to insure that they were in great shape for the start of practice. Being able to do some of this with your own maintenance staff will cut down greatly on the costs of having to get new equipment each year.


We asked each player to purchase the football shoes that he was going to wear in pre-season at least a month in advance. We wanted them broken in before the beginning of practice. Before we instituted this rule, many hours of practice time was lost because of blisters and other foot related injuries caused by new or ill fitting shoes.

#7 Get your players to summer football camps.

Find good fundamental teaching camps for your players. Expose them to other professional coaches, but make sure that the camp is not a “hype” camp. By “hype”, I mean a camp that places its emphasis on the number of professional players in camp and not by the number of dedicated coaches who will teach and stress fundamentally-sound techniques and skills. Summer passing leagues are also a plus and should be encouraged. Anything you can do to encourage your players to practice and improve their skills during the off-season will pay huge dividends during the season.

#8 Do the bulk of your scouting now.

You know the teams you must beat before the season even begins. Start preparing for them now. You should create a composite scouting report for each of these teams. Use as many past games as you have at your disposal to come up with a basic scouting report and plan. By doing this, you will be knowledgeable on their basic formations, their base defenses and stunts and their tendencies on down, distance and field position. From this you can create your own outline for your game plan against that opponent.This will allow you to start on day one of regular practice working on the things you will need to beat them. Don’t wait until the week before the big game to put together your base game plan. Do it in the off-season.
The week of the game can then be spent on refining and “tweaking” your base plan based on current scouting reports. For me, this was critical to our success in the big games that would define our season.

#9 Push academics before school even starts.

You can’t win if your players are academically ineligible. Plus, you must be true to your players and stress to them that they are “student-athletes” with the emphasis on student first. For their future’s sake, you owe this to them.


We found that, for some of our players, there was often a climate of indifference and even hostility toward those who took school seriously – it just “wasn’t cool.” We took a page from Joe Paterno’s book and told our players that we wanted only “nerds” on our team. To reinforce that, I told our players that if any coach or captain caught a player without his books, notebook, and pen or pencil, he would have to run sprints after practice. No one wanted to run extra sprints after practice. Even those who mocked serious students understood that our players were “smart” to carry their books and avoid the penalty. It worked.


You might want to set up student-tutors for your players. Another good idea is to use grade-monitoring questionnaires that were filled out by the player’s teacher. Attendance, discipline, homework and test scores were recorded and then monitored by a coach. Have these ready to go on day one of school and you will have your players when you need them at the end of the marking period and season.

#10 Send a letter home to define your goals and philosophy.

Before the start of every season the final “must” is to get your team to buy in to your program. You have to define exactly what your program is. Every day, you have to preach to your team the core values and the philosophy of your program. You have to spell out exactly what makes your program unique and special. One tool we used for this purpose was an open letter to the team. It was a “blueprint” for success achieved by applying the mindset and attitude that we tried to instill in our players. The letter illustrated and reinforced the building blocks of our program that we worked on each and every day of the year. It also served as a good summary of our “Must” list. In the letter we stressed the key words and phrases of our program philosophy. Words like team, never quit, persistence, passion, hustle, character, pride, intensity, and focus, were prominently displayed. We also included a time chart and check-off form that included all information regarding physicals, eligibility requirements, permission forms, and a detailed schedule of practice and meeting times.

Follow the “Ten Musts Before The Start Of Fall Camp” and prepare to be rewarded. The reward will be a great season shared by you, your staff, your players, their parents, your school and your entire community.

About the Author:

Retired coach Bruce Reynolds was the head coach at William Penn HS in New Castle (DE) for 27 years, 1974-2000. He is a two-time Delaware HS Coach of the year and won seven state Division I Championships. A graduate of Duke, Reynolds also has a Masters in Education Administration from Delaware. He can be reached through his email (bcreynolds@aol.com) or his web site (www.coachbrucereynolds.com).






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