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Don’t Sleep on January – It Can be the Cornerstone of Your Success Next Season

by: Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer, American Football Monthly
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Listen… Quiet isn’t it? So goes the sound of a culminating football season. Like most coaches, if you did it right, you’re probably spent. A full season with all its emotional ups and downs could suck the life out of every mortal. Which is why some of us may have a natural inclination to take it easy come January. But as most of us know the game is year-round now, so if you do it right, January may be the most productive month you will have in laying the groundwork of the success that may lie ahead next season.

How we spend the beginning of the off-season is always subjective. College coaches are pounding the pavement an attempt to snatch some more talent, but if you’re a high school coach, you may be combing the dozens of coaching websites looking for a new way to teach what you’re already doing, or maybe even a way to change a fruitless scheme. Maybe you’re stocking your video library or lining up what clinics you’ll be attending in the winter. However you decide to spend the first month of your off-season, just realize it’s instrumental in developing what your team will be next year. Here are some suggestions on how we can all spend the next 31 days:

• Player Exit Interviews – Kids love to be assessed and it may be a good time (if you haven’t done so already) to conduct exit interviews with your players. Thank the ones who will be moving on and critique the returning players. Give them strengths and weaknesses of their game and an outline of what they need to do to improve. There is a great worksheet in “Football Forms for the Winning Coach” that you can replicate and use.

• Review – Go back and look over the cut-ups of the previous season’s games. It’s a good time to assess what went right and what went wrong, no matter how painful it may be. Offensive coaches can focus their studies on the production of their plays and defensive coaches may assess their pressure and coverage packages.

• Research – Now’s the time to start digging into what your plans will be for next year. Maybe you want to find a better way to teach what you’re doing or maybe you’re thinking about tweaking your system. No better time than now. By spring, it may be too late to teach it to your coaches and players.

• Recruiting – By now, your top level kids have committed or are about to commit to a school. But January is more of a time to push the program kids who as we all like to say “would run through a wall for you, coach.” Lower tier programs start flocking now to scoop up what the big cats lost out on, so now’s a time to get those kids into schools. We all know they can’t do it alone.

• Off-Season Program – Whether you’ve started your program the day after the season or you’re just getting it rolling now, this is the time to put the finishing touches on your strength and conditioning program. We have to sell the bill of goods to our kids and keep preaching the bigger, faster, stronger mantra. Get them in the weight room at all costs so that we all can reap the benefits come next December.

• Shop the market for products and services that can increase your chances of winning next season. In this issue, AFM presents our annual Product & Service Guide to help you sort through the companies serving football programs everywhere. And be sure to check out our new Online Buyer’s Guide on AmericanFootballMonthly.com.

Yours in football,

Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer
American Football Monthly
MikeKuchar@AmericanFootballMonthly.com






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