Coach to Coach: The Pre-Season Home Stretch

“The time will come when winter will ask what you were doing all summer.”
- Senator Henry Clay

Two months and counting! It is amazing how fast the season is approaching. By the start of June, our players have completed countless workouts, 10 days of spring ball and now are preparing for summer camp at the University of Nevada. We have spent the last few months training and preparing ourselves for the 2011 season. June is the start of the final phase of the so called off-season. What we do over the next 10 weeks will have a direct impact on our success this season. 

    As a coaching staff, we have spent years trying to perfect our summer sessions and fall camp schedule. As the head coach, my primary objective is to ensure that we are getting the most out of our players in the areas of physical and mental preparation. I am also attentive to the fact that pushing too hard too early may lead to fatigue in the critical later parts of the season. In this article, I want to share with you some of the philosophies and plans that we have used to help our program achieve success. Since implementing many of these strategies, our program is 16-1 in our early non-conference games. At the same time, we have been strong at the end of the regular season, playing in five of the last six NSCIF semi-finals and reaching three NSCIF finals. I certainly do not claim to have all of the answers and I am always searching for ways to be more efficient and effective in this area, but we have been successful and I think that we are definitely on the right track.
    In my 20 seasons as a football coach, I have experimented with many variations of summer workouts and fall camp practice schedules. Some I liked and some I didn’t. There has been a process of trying to replace the useless and detrimental with the efficient and productive. The longer I coach, the more I realize that there is a fine line between being prepared and being burned out, between progression and retreat, between fun and fatigue. Getting the most of your athletes without draining their enthusiasm or stealing their summer is a real balancing act. I do know that teams and programs that consistently win have a well thought out and tested formula when it comes to their summer programs and fall camp schedules. Philosophies and formulas are as varied as the different defenses or offenses that teams may run, but you will find that winning programs establish their dominance with their off-season approach. 
    Here are some common questions in regards to planning your summer and fall camp philosophy and plans. Hopefully, they will help you prepare for summer and fall camp. 
 
1. How often should we schedule workout sessions in the summer?

    This is always a debatable topic. I know that some coaches demand five days per week while others have a more lenient approach. In determining the number of days that we hold team training sessions, we discuss the following:

•  Are we meeting the player’s physical needs?

•  Are we mentally prepared?
•  Are our families, coaches and players able to enjoy their summer and remain enthusiastic for the start of camp?

•  And finally - are any of our summer activities actually counterproductive to our season? Obviously, a coach would never schedule activities or workouts that are knowingly counterproductive. However, I have seen coaches wear their team and coaches out and actually lose players and in even games due to their demanding off season preparation. They grind so hard that their coaches and players are  running on fumes during the critical part of the season and in the playoffs. As a head coach, I never want to be out prepared, but I also value mental enthusiasm as much as I do physical preparation. Over the years, I have tried many schedules and each had its advantages and disadvantages. I have yet to discover the perfect schedule. However, after years of trial and error I have found the following schedule to be very effective. 

    During the summer session, our team meets three days per week. We meet at 8 AM on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Our sessions are broken down into three, 45-minute periods. We waste little time and our sessions are very well organized and upbeat. The sessions are categorized as follows: session 1 is dedicated to strength development; session 2 is dedicated to X’s and O’s; and session 3 is dedicated to speed development. This schedule allows our players to come to practice fresh, have a full day of recovery between each workout and it gives our players every afternoon off. In surveying our players and coaches, the overwhelming majority like this schedule over the others that we have tried. 

2. What about vacation time?

    I think it is important that our players and coaches have some time off. Our summer schedule includes several off or as we call them “dead” weeks. These are weeks that players and coaches take completely off. I have found that our players and families will try to schedule their personal vacations around these dates. Dedicating time for vacations in our master schedule has increased the attendance during our active phases. Instead of missing four or five kids every week due to vacations, we seldom have any players miss. The majority choose to vacation during our dead weeks. Our dead weeks include the week after we return from team camp in June, the week of the fourth of July and the first week of August prior to official start of camp. By staggering these dead weeks, our players get plenty of time off and they also are refreshed and eager to give 100% effort when they are here. 

3. Do you include practice during the summer?

    I think that it is important to keep the X’s and O’s sharp during the summer sessions.. During our team practice sessions (phase 2), we install and practice our offensive and defensive schemes. Due to our section rules, we cannot use pads but we can use a ball. We don’t spend a lot of time on technique during these sessions. I have found that if our kids know the plays and the schemes prior to the start of official camp, we can spend a lot of time during the three weeks of fall camp applying and refining the techniques and skills required to execute the schemes at a very high level. This approach has been very effective for us and our players are very comfortable with their assignments by the time that we start camp in early August. 
 
4. What are your physical goals for the summer?

    At Foothill, we divide our lifting and speed development into four phases. The first phase starts in January. During this phase we are getting the body reintroduced to lifting and running. Phase two starts in March. During this phase we are focused on building mass and increasing plyometric strength. We continue to build muscle mass through the spring session. Phase 3 starts in June. During this summer session, we work on maintaining our strength, increasing our stamina and improving our flexibility. In the area of speed development, we are concentrating on maximizing our top-end speed and further developing our core strength, lower leg muscles and all areas associated with cutting and getting out of breaks. By the time August camp breaks, our kids are in great cardiovascular shape and they are also very strong. This eliminates the need to spend camp time getting players into shape. We no longer have to devote practice time to conditioning as our players are at their peak physically and therefore we only have to maintain that level throughout the season. 

5. How do you structure fall camp?

    A few years ago when I played (ok, more than a few) double day practices were the norm. When I started coaching, fall camp was often called hell week due to the extremely vigorous practices purposely planed in the peak of the August heat. Today, things have changed. We are already in great shape when we start camp and therefore our practices are spent on “sharpening the sword” and not “whipping the horse”. This approach has our players and coaches enjoying the August camp much more. We’ve even changed the name to heaven week because we enjoy camp that much! 

    We certainly do maintain our conditioning during camp, but it is never a time killer or a negative aspect of camp. We also avoid many over-training injuries that often cause players to miss valuable time in camp. In the past, we would lose days of practice by some key players by driving them to get into shape. This just does not happen today. We have also eliminated the double or triple practice sessions. Over the past several years, we have chosen to hold one extended practice that usually starts in the morning and ends around lunch time. This keeps the heat from being a distraction and since our players know that they do not have to save something for the later practice, we get 100% of their effort. We are more efficient with our practice schedule and the results have been very obvious and rewarding.

Has this approach been successful?

    I strongly believe that our summer and fall camp philosophy play a large part in the success that we have had at Foothill High School. Again, I certainly do not claim to have all of the answers. We tweak things year-to-year to try to improve our system and approach. But I do know that we have made huge strides in improving our summer program and that has translated into us having a better overall program. My hope is that a few of these ideas may resonate with you and spark ideas that would help you and your team have a great 2011 season.