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  - More Solutions to Problem #9

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Continued from:
32 Solutions for the 12 Biggest Problems You'll Face this Season

Problem 9: Special teams letdowns – losing a game because of special teams play...what can be done to improve special teams play?

Our focus here at Holbrook is on kick coverage and punt/punt return, since these are the biggest change of field plays in the game of football. Our philiosophy is to put our best 11 players on the field and create positive field position through aggressive schemes and techniques. We have in our daily schedule two 10 minute sessions covering various special teams play and then over half of our Thursday practice/review is focused on our special teams.

Keith Wheeler, Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach
Holbrook Roadrunners (AZ)


The solution: Your Special Teams is a third of your game. Your planning and preparation is a must. We practice 30 minutes a day on special teams. We focus at first on 3 things: every day we work 10 minutes on PAT , field goals and special kicks. On Monday: we cover all Special Teams. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we spend 10 minutes on kickoff, 10 minutes on punt and Wednesday we work 10 minutes on kickoff return and 10 minutes on punt return. We also cover all special kicks and situations (off-side kicks, fake punts and field goals). On Friday is a Special Team walk through and assignments.

Ron Price, Assistant Coach
Santa Rosa High School (CA)


Every practice starts with our special teams periods first. If we have to drop something from practice at the end it will not be special teams practice time. As head coach I will introduce and teach all the basic special teams concepts. We make special teams special to our kids by trying to do more than most teams. We have fakes and reverses and spread formations and you can rest assured we are going to use one in every game. We have individual drills for all special teams that are run almost daily. We use our ball machine in the return game to get consistently good reps. During the off season we have special days set aside to work with just kickers and snappers. All receivers and backs during the season and in the off season spend at least one period a week catching simulated kicks from the ball machine.

Randy Pinkowski, Head Football Coach
C.B. Aycock H.S. (NC)


Several years ago our special teams were a real problem. As head coach I decided that I would take over the special teams. Immediately that gave credibility to it. The first part of our playbook and our practice is special teams. At the beginning of each season I show the team a 5 foot trophy. I explain that this is not the award for the team MVP. Instead it goes to the player that grades the highest on special teams. Believe me, every player in the room wants to take that trophy home. No players are off limits. Every coach has an area that they are responsible for on each special team (just like on offense and defense). If that area breaks down during a game, that coach is accountable for it. Our special teams have become a real weapon for us. I feel like it is an advantage we have against any opponent.

Bill Kennedy, Head Football Coach
Spring Valley HS (NY)


We just don't give it lip service about how important it is to practice special teams. We play our best players on special teams. It's not a time to give someone a break. Big yardage is exchanged and field position is too important. We also keep it simple to reduce mistakes. We work on 2 or 3 phases of special teams daily. We work with the punt team every day and all the others 2 days a week.

Sam Harp, Head Football Coach
Danville High School (KY)


Special teams in my opinion is the least emphasized aspect of football by most coaching staffs. However, special teams can make or break teams and should be one of the most important aspects of the game that you teach. If you put a huge emphasis on special teams your players will sense the importance of its nature in the game of football. I stress all three phases of football: offense, defense, and special teams and if your team wins two out of the three you have a great chance of winning the football game. This is especially true if you win the special teams phase. I also try to instill pride in our special teams and make it an honor to be on a team. I give each special team a military special forces name and give dog tags to all members on each team. Soon the kids start fighting for those dog tags and you get maximum effort in practice because everyone is going hard and thus helps special teams for Friday nights!

Jared Van Acker, Head Varsity Football Coach
Galax High School (VA)


I have seen it so bad that we eliminated it. Punt it out of bounds if you can't cover it. High school football has a great disparity of athletes. Sometimes you can not let one player beat you because you aren't talented.

Bob DeLong, Offensive coordinator
Xenia high School (OH)


Not giving equal importance to special teams play is a huge mistake in judgment. When I coached at North Bend, we were meticulous in preparing for special teams practice. We always practiced various situations for punts, kickoffs, field goals and extra points. Ball possession and field position make the difference in games. Using checklists and game scenarios will help prepare a team to improve special teams play. Use 3 or 4 drill stations that enable you to have quick repetitions (3-4 minutes each) for linemen, LBs and DBs. Organize, educate and discipline for championship special teams.

Larry Payne, Assistant Coach (retired)
North Bend H.S. (OR)


More reps, like anything you do, muscle memory is the best to have your best possible execution.

Zak Bessac, Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator
Warner Park, Madison (WI)


We devote a great deal of PRACTICE TIME on special team play and they have a VERY SPECIAL emphasis and priority among our staff and players. Here are some of the ways we address their importance: During pre-season two-a-days (1) Each practice begins with a 7 minute individual specialty period. All players on the team are coached in a specialty. (2) Following a team stretch, prior to any other work, at Least One special team, two deep, is practiced for a 15 minute period. (3) While we do have a coach who is designated as the Special Teams Coach, the entire staff shares the responsibilty of coaching the players during this work. Each member of the staff is assigned to coach a position and a responsibility. As an example, if we are working the punt team, we have coaches assigned to the snapper, punter, left side protection, etc. (4) We place most of our Best Players on the special team(s), all coaches have input, and the team personnel is evaluated daily and weekly throughout the season. (5) Our players select the game awards for each game, the most coveted, and most respected is to be selected as the Special Teams player of the game. (6) During the season, we continue to practice special teams each and every day..... Emphasize personnel, fundamentals, allot practice time, and recognize performance.

Ron Stolski, Head Football Coach
Brainerd High School (MN)


After having two punts blocked in one game costing us a key victory, we recommitted to both timing snaps and the kicker's steps and release. Timing and speeding up the mechanics under pressure even in pre-practice helped us tremendously. We loosen up for the first 7-8 minutes, with our special teams kickers and others but the last 5-7 minutes are timed and recorded for punters, snappers, holders, and kickers. We also went back to using “sudden change" periods of practice where we blow a whistle and announce a special team situation any time during team.

Steve Hopkins, Head Football Coach
Basehor-Linwood H.S. (KS)


4 downs to score. Start everyone of the three work practices putting the ball on the 8 (may vary the yard line). Make sure your coaches are intense and coach, although the idea is to emphasize scoring/holding them out. Losing unit does up/downs.

Bruce Evans, LB coach

Addressing and incorporating more emphasis on special teams.Extra time and film study to special teams to identify and correct the problem. Football is offense, defense, and special teams and not just the first two. Equal amounts of times should be given to all.

Gerald Aubrey, Asst.Coach

Focusing on special teams in practice is the key. Making them part of your practice tempo is important. Having a younger coach with the special teams coach title is a great motivational tool for a young and up coming coach and you can bet he will do his homework and prepare yor special teams properly.

Harry G Bellucci, Head Football Coach
Hartford Public High School (CT)


I believe that it should be seen as a privilege to play on Special Teams. You need to instill a certain level of pride within your coaching staff as well as the players. I also like to get some non-starters in with our Special Teams. Special Teams should be given the same stature as your Offense and Defense- make certain that you work it into your practice plan.

R. Scott Thompson, Head Football Coach
Montgomery JHS (AL)


We try to emphasize from day one in summer camp the importance of special teams. These are scoring plays with the best players in the open field with the ball. Dedicate practice time to it. Some ways to improve special teams play is to not get yourself into situations causing problems if you can avoid them. Kick away from good returners, get your absolute best players on the field for kicking plays, and keep things as basic and simple as you can. For an exciting twist, add new wrinkles to make special teams more appealing to players. Kids love unique or even trick plays.

Allan Amrein, Head Coach
Kennedy Middle School, Hays (KS)


Being a former Defensive Coordinator and current Special Teams Coordinator it is important that special teams are a primary focus of team practice and preparation from week to week. In my opinion there are four critical factors in attaining a high level of play on special teams. 1) A committment from your head coach and assistant coaches to make special teams an important focus. For the players to take special teams serious, the coaches have to treat it with just as much importance as they do the offensive and defensive phases of the game. If the head coach and staff are committed to making this phase important then it will be important to the players, as they will take the lead that the coaches set about the proper attitude toward special teams. 2) Preparation in scouting and game planning is extrememly critical.

Understanding what your opponent is trying to do, his protection schemes, punt direction tendencies, return schemes, etc. are all things that can give your team an edge in the specialty phases. Taking an aggressive well conceived approach to special teams can often swing the balance of the scales in your favor. Knowing when to be aggressive and when to be safe can be learned from studying your opponent and knowing his preferences in the kicking game. 3) On the practice field special teams are often limited in time as compared to offense and defense, yet there are still many phases and scenarios that must be covered to ensure that players are properly prepared for their opponent. Practices must be well organized and well scripted to ensure that the time allotted for special teams is in-depth, quality time. During the practice week we will frequently schedule our special teams circuit into multiple practices to teach and get reps at the skills we require of our players during specialty phases of the game 4.) Player understanding. If you have covered your bases in the other 3 aspects mentioned, then your playesr should understand that a game can be won, or lost, in the kicking game.

T. Brandon Carpenter, Special Teams Coordinator / Linebackers Coach
Klein Forest High School - Houston, TX


At the beginning of most practices we have an opportunity period (which usually lasts 12 to 15 minutes) where punters, field goal kickers and other kickers are with holders and snappers. Then we go to special teams work. Kids are warmed up and we make sure that there will be success with trys. Coaches control the defense so good things happen and kids gain confidence. This is one way we work to avoid let downs. At other times during practice we practice “sudden change" where a coach will blow the whistle and annouce we're punting and we are immediately into a game situation. This happens throughout practice time but it is game like and doing it in this sequence has been good. Don't expect the kids to do well if they do not practice situations.

Jerry Parrish, Retired head coach
North Kitsap High School (WA)


Practice it more. Practice it near full speed. Put your best athletes on the field. Try not to get fired for benching the board members kid because he won't tackle on the kickoff team.

Thomas Taylor, Teacher/Football Coach
Weir High School (WV)


Much like tackling, time has to be committed to special teams or they will suffer. Use some of your better athletes to help show the importance.

Bob Reeves, Offensive Line Coach
New Hope High School (MS)


Make sure you devote enough practice time to it! Also, use your need kids that are fearless, relentless and one’s that can tackle. Make sure you have the proper personnel-we constantly review our teams and make changes; if you aren't getting it done then you get replaced. These kids are hugely important and they need to feel the same pressure as the kids on offense or defense. Competition is always good. Do what you can to replicate game speed and conditions. We assign coaches to positions within the team and they evaluate their performance.

Barton W. Miller, Offensive Coordinator
Trinity High School, Camp Hill (PA)


Look to change personnel. Special teams is not a time for your starters and best athletes to get a rest.

Anthony, Defensive Coordinator
Lawrence High School


We have a special teams section in 3 of our practice schedules every week. We do it early in the practice when the team can go full speed. We also have pre-practice meetings with each special team and have video of each special team play broken down and reviewed with a coach and the team just like offense and defense does.

Louis Farrar, Head Coach
Charter Oak High School (CA)


I am a firm believer that technique and fundamentals need to be coached constantly for special teams. Also the coaching staff needs to emphasize the importance of special teams. One thing that we do here at Moreau Catholic is all starting eleven players on KO and KOR get a rubber bracelet to signify that they are starters on one of the hardest, nastiest plays in football. The players love this and the take pride in being the bearer of the rubber bracelet.

Andrew Cotter, Head Football Coach
Moreau Catholic High School (CA)


Our head coach has placed an emphasis on this since I have been at Hereford and run the special teams. Two things EVERY team needs to do to be successful on special teams are: 1) Spend quality practice time every day. 2) Put your BEST players on special teams. I get two 10-15 minute periods Monday through Wednesday to work my special teams DURING practice. Thursday is pre-game and I get a much longer period. We cover all that we have talked about during the week and we don't move on until we NAIL it. We cover and run through every special teams and special situation we think we might encounter in that week’s game.

Joe Bosley III, Assistant Football Coach
Hereford High School (TX)


We spend every day doing one aspect of the special teams. We have a Special Teams Coordinator. The kids know the importance. We have been very fortunate to have good to excellent kickers over the years. That is important! Our kids know what our order of priority is: Defense - Special Teams – Offense--in that order. I think if you make the kids believe that it is important they will respond.

Ed Sadloch, Head Football Coach
Cedar Grove High School (NJ)


Identify the reason for the special teams failure. Was it scheme, personnel, execution of the scheme, the readiness to execute the specific special team play, lack of practice time, effort, etc. If the problem can be specifically identified, then focus the solution on the problem.

Thomas A. McDaniels, Head Football Coach
Massillon Jackson H.S. (OH)


Special teams must be seen by all to be as important as offense and defense. We work special teams every day of the week and we never schedule it for the same periods. The kids can never see it as a break or I will let the other guy handle the situation. During the pre-season we work all type of skill drills for covering and blocking and make sure that every player on the team runs through them. This includes offensive linemen on kickoff coverage. We have always found they get the idea that these are important to our success. The other thing is we make sure that we are instilling pride in all of our special teams players and that they know they are as important as an offensive starter or defensive starter. We give out weekly awards and a Special Teams Player of the Year at the end.

Danny Gouin, Head Football Coach
King


We stress special teams more than most of our opponents already; however, when we have experienced problems, we will spend even more time on the area(s) that we feel we need to work on. We practice punt team every day (we feel it's the most important play) for instance. If it's coverage, returns, long snapping, etc., that we're having difficulty with, we will take time away from individual, group or team offense/defense practice time to spend more time on the area we need to work on.

John R. Mackay, Director of Athletics/Head FC
St. George's School (RI)







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