KISS OL Install

NO! Not that kiss

A blog post by this week by Coach Hoover got me thinking about KISS, the link can be found here.

Install is something that is often brought up and I have seen install done horribly.  The school I used to coach at was about plays... not execution.  My final year there, the OC ran every play you can think but we weren't very good at any of them.

I truly love our offense now... not because Spread is sexy and new but because it is very simple to install with my guys upfront.  I do not care how good your team is it all starts up front.  I differ from many TFS clients in the fact that I believe in running the ball first, I love the reduced numbers in the box that 2x2 and 3x1 give us, it makes my job as an OL coach easier.

We just wrapped up spring ball and I have 95% of the offense in with the OL.
We have 4 different run plays that can be run out of any formation with either F or Q as the ball carrier.  Within those 4 plays I only had to teach 3 schemes because our power G scheme is used for both Power G and our inverted veer play (what TOG calls Dash).  I discussed the flexibility of this blocking scheme here.

So in the 6 days we have had to practice offense I installed 3 run schemes, 90 pass pro, 60 pass pro, sprintout pass pro, and 3 of our screens.  That is a good majority of our total offense for my OL and we did nothing but review the final 2 offensive days to make sure we had these things down.

They key to what I feel has been the most successful installation spring ball of my 6 year coaching career has been

1. the simple rules for plays
2. the carryover between plays

Our run game is gap based and the players are given rules that will work against any front... we have been mixing going against odd and even fronts all spring ball without any problems.  Our screens are incredibly simple for the OL because they have a universal set of rules they use for their release on all screens.  Our screens are based so that no set player has any set defender, which gives us the flexibility to pick up any Defense on any screen without any changes.  Only thing that I have to install once they understand our fast screen is what their first steps are before they release.

60 and 90 pass pro is easy because in terms of scheme they are identical.  I teach 90 first because the steps are slightly more difficult, once I have taught 90, 60 is just 1/2 the steps and 60 is installed.

Sprint out is simple enough and that is my install for OL.

The carryover between run plays is what has made this extremely easy for me.  We devised our run game with simple block down rules playside, we are leaving the PSDE and PSLB unblocked every play by the frontside... after 2 weeks of beating those rules into their heads the frontside has it down now.

We mess with the defense by altering who picks up the DE and LB, sometimes a kickout by either a FB or G, sometimes we read the DE, sometimes we Log him.  for the LB sometimes we have G take him, sometimes WR cracks on him, sometimes RB blocks him.  Essentially for my OL we are only changing the backside pullers responsibility... playside stays the same and the backside tackle always executes a hinge block ...which I am teaching the same as our backside on sprint out pass pro, so there is even more carry over!

Everything I have installed builds upon what they already know and is so simple, that even my kids who have never played and was really worried about (mentally) have picked it all up.

For example our next play to be installed when we start our summer practice is "Counter"... this will take all of about 30 seconds to install because it is the exact same as our current "Power" (the first play we put in day1) but we add the tackle pulling instead of hinging.  Exact same frontside rules!  By having these few schemes, that can be run with different variations we get a complex, no huddle offense that is still simple for my guys up front. 

I fully expect the decreased thinking to result in increased aggression.

Coaches remember, keep your schemes simple and try to increase inter-schematic carryover as much as possible! It leads to enhanced learning and performance.

This is by far the most confident I have felt about my OL as a unit in 6 years of coaching.  By August I will have 2 full offensive lines that can flat out play

Drill Videos are Here!!!

Sorry for the delay, it rained on offensive day 1 but the sun came out a bit today so I was able to film some of our drills.  Here is a short video I just made showing off some of our daily drills.

Ladder Drill, Stance, Mirror, Vertical Setting, Cage, 60/90 sets

Best $20 you can spend on your program

What if a simple $20 purchase can make your practices more efficient and time effective than ever before?

Well that is all it takes to have a practice segment timer.  These are incredibly beneficial and will keep your practices moving fast and you will get more done in less time than ever before.  We have gone to 5 minute segments at all practices and with out a $1,000 + dollar segment timer at our disposal we thought we could just have a student with a stopwatch and a whistle keep us on track, but something always got messed up.  If a student manager didn't show up, or messed up one time all of practice was messed up.  Plus there was no way of knowing when you were close to ending a segment.

Enter Coach Hoover
He makes CD's with mp3 of a segment timer on them.  He has ones ready with 5 minute segment and a horn buzz with the segment number.  All you need is some sort of audio device or better yet, play it over the PA system at your stadium.  Best thing is it has a beep beep with 2 minutes remaining as a way of knowing when you are getting closer to the end of a segment. 

This is a great value because we just hit play once and our entire practice is taken care of, we segment everything out to 5 minute drills.  Need more time at a drill? double up and do 2 or 3 segment in a row, but you are still going off the 5 minute segment timer.  It has improved our pace, efficiency and getting our backups in.  Now with a 20 minute team session divided into 4 - 5 minute segments we can give our backups the exact amount of time we want in because the horn tells us when to switch.

Enough of my rambling about how awesome and simple this is.  Here is the link to buy it from coach Hoover.

You are crazy to not buy this if you want better faster practices and for just $20... how can you pass this offer up?

DIY OL Ladders

Hi guys, I have to pay respect to Brophy and his blog, he gave me the insight for this.  His post on it can be found here . His blueprint was for a 15 space ladder, I decided to make two, 7 space ladders.  I felt 15 was pretty long and I wanted 2 ladders (1Var, 1JV).

Really simple process as he lays it out for ya.  I went to Lowe's last night and purchased then - 10' PVC pipes, 3/4 inch, and 32 T's to fit them together.  I already had a pair of PVC cutters laying around the house.

My bill came to $28.63 for all the PVC.

When I got home from Lowe's last night I measured all the cuts and started cutting, took about 25 minutes or so for all the measuring and cutting (i had a crappy pair of cutters which slowed me down a bit)

For this project (2 ladders, 7 spaces each)
I needed

• 16 - 36" poles
• 32 - 14" poles
• 32 - T fittings

Last night after the cutting

I brought the pieces with me to the school to assemble ( I have a car so I wouldn't be able to transport the ladders pre-assembled).

I subbed today and the classes were watching a movie all day, so I was able to put the pieces together in the back of class while they watched the movie, took less than 10 minutes. 

Here is the finished product

Also,
Great news, I received my KODAK HD pocket video cam (mentioned here)in the mail today, I got it sooner than I expected... which means that I will be filming everything on Monday (our first day of spring ball).

I will be sure to have some slips of ladder drill up early next week!!!

Drill Videos to come soon!!!

Since I started this blog I have received a TON of reader requests for film, especially of drills.  I have had some issues figuring out getting HUDL stuff off and on to the blog and I have just been lazy but this will soon change.

With Spring ball officially starting here on Monday I decided to purchase one of these

Kodak ZxD

Compares quality to the FLIP but I purchased it because it was cheaper and you can add an SD card up to 32 gig, instead of being stuck with a 4gb flip.

This will be in my pocket pretty much 24/7 but most importantly out there on the field so I can film drills, for teaching as well as blogging.

Now my next project becomes finding at least 1 student assistant to help out at practice and film for me. 

I am hoping to receive the camera sometime within the next week and I will be posting video with it as soon as I get my hands on it.

Sports Psychology - Applied to football

Well it turns out that my college education is NOT a complete waste of time.  Lately I have been able to see more of a connection between the kinesiology classes I take and coaching.  I have a set list of classes I have had to complete to graduate in June but instead of just getting through things so I can teach, I am actually beginning to LEARN things that I can apply to coaching.

Sports Psychology is my final scientific kinesiology class in my way of graduating but it has been without a doubt the most interesting, rewarding, and applicable class I have ever taken.  Before I began this class I had negative connotations (as I'm sure many coaches do) of what sports psych really is. 

I just pictured people asking about athlete's feelings and what they are thinking... basically a big waste of time.  My thinking on sports psychology was to not be negative to the kids, and get them to just play ball.

I am sure there are people reading this right now that think the same way.  The fact is psychological skills are a huge facet of football or any activity and these skills can be improved just like a backpedal or down block.

The first step is on us as coaches to get educated, i highly encourage all of to take a basic sports psych class to give yourself a foundation to build from.  If any of you need continuing education to keep employment try finding a sports psych class.  I will do my best to synthesize and summarize the valuable nuggets I have gotten from class but you will get the best benefit from taking a course yourself.

The first basic concept to understand is arousal level and anxiety level.  Arousal is essentially how activated a kid might be, arousal is not inherently bad, an increase in arousal can result in an increase in focus.  However with arousal also comes an increase in anxiety.  Anxiety is the stress and nervousness our athletes, and even coaches feel.

Anxiety takes away from performance because it destroys focus, confidence, and it diverts attentional space within the brain.  It hinders physical performance and can cause athletes to both mentally and physically lock up.  Over anxiety can literally cause an athletes muscles to lock up uncontrollably. 

It is important to understand that we as coaches must get to know our players on an individual basis so we can determine what level of arousal they need to play.  Understanding our players, and their arousal and anxiety levels can allow us to maximize their performance and focus by minimizing their stress. 

The goal of sports psych is getting our kids in to, or as close as possible to being "in the zone."

For each kid this zone is different, some kids perform better at low arousal levels, some at high arousal levels, and some are somewhere in between.  This is something I have to work on next year, I am a big Ra Ra guy on Friday nights and try to get everyone pumped up, essentially getting everyone to high arousal levels, and while this may have been helping some of my athletes it is absolutely crushing others.  For those low arousal in the zone kids I have just taken them to an uncomfortable arousal level, undoubtedly increasing their anxiety, now couple that with it being a big game, or against a rival, or homecoming, or their girlfriend just broke up with them, and this kid is not focused on football or at the top of his game, neither physically or mentally. 

This all affects what information athletes take in visually and how they process it.  Each athlete is different but when they are in their zone they take are able to take in relevant information on the field and exclude everything else.  If they become too aroused, or not enough they will either go into tunnel vision and not take in visual information from a wide enough scope, or they will take everything in, including all outside distraction and irrelevant information.

We of course want to give our kids the best chance to be focused, play confidently, and succeed so how do we go about applying these concepts.

Just like in football we have to practice these psychological skills. 

First we must explain to the kids what I have laid out, and then begin working on anxiety management and getting int heir zone at practice.  Each kid will begin to get their own sense of what level of arousal they play best at.  Once we can master this in practice we can apply it in games.

Red Light, Green Light, Yellow Light

This concept will allow you to understand where each kid is at pre game.
Once the kids understand the concepts or arousal, anxiety, and their optimal zone we teach them red, yellow, and green light.

Green Light is being in the zone... whatever that zone is for the kid.  So if a kid is feeling great, no stress, just perfect ready to kick ass, he is green light.  "hey Johnson, how do we feel?"  "Green light coach!"  Now you know that kid is fine, you do not need to do anything, he is ready to go.

Yellow light - over aroused - He is feeling anxious, nervous, worrying, you need to lower his arousal level now because he is about to crap down his leg.

Red light - under aroused - they are not pumped up enough to be focused, this kid needs that great Al Pacino pep talk or fired up head butt.

By quantifying their arousal and anxiety levels the kids are able to give you a measurable glimpse into their mind.  Then you as the coach can apply intervention to get them into their optimal zone.

I hope this didn't get too boring lol, I think there are some good concepts for us to use in football within this sports psych class.

As I progress through the quarter expect more posts on the concepts from sports psych I can use in football.

My favorite play action concept

I have recently received some private emails asking to discuss play action and goal line passes in the spread, so I decided to offer up my favorite play action pass concept.  I first began running this simple PA concept in a splitback fly/pro style offense.  Our bread and butter was criss cross counter trey and this was our play action off of that look.  We had a ton of success with it, and I wanted to get the same look out of our spread stuff at my new school.  I realized that I could easily do the exact same things out of a 2x2 set as I could out of our splitback set.

From splitbacks we would criss cross the backs, one slipped into the flat, TE ran a deep drag, SE ran a Go (basically just to clear out) and flanker ran a backside post.  These routes are easily converted into our spread stuff, we have merely moved the 2nd RB into the left slot position (H).

We fake to the RB going Right
Use standard Boot protection up front with the OL

X has a go but if he cant get on top of his defender he will run it at the safety, to take 2 defenders away
H has a 5 yard out
Y has the Deep Cross 
Z has a backside post (with the option of curling it up in the MOF if there is grass)

Qb reads the Go first (this is just a homerun play we see pre snap)
his read really comes from reading from the out - to the cross

When we ran this under center every single time either the RB was wide open in the flat or the Y was wide open...  It was a great play for us.  I installed it last season with my JV team but didn't get around to running it much.  Finally called it on a big 3rd down play, and got everything I wanted, deep coverage went deep with the X.  Flat defender jumped the out, so we would have had Y WIDE open on the cross... but he ran straight into one of the officials, fell down and never got back up.  I should have worked on it more so I would have called it more. 

I think it will be a great PA concept for us this season and it is my favorite PA pass (both spread and UC)

Tony Franklin Anaheim recap

Got back last night from the TFS seminar in Anaheim last night.  It was a great experience for myself and the rest of the staff.  Some of it was review because we ran a fake version of it last year, no huddle, air raid pass game, vertical sets, screens, we just didn't do some things right.

After going this weekend, seeing all the things we get on DVD, flash drive, all the resources, I am very happy we made the choice to buy in to this system for real.  There were some new things modified this year from last year's stuff that I really liked.  They simplified the pass protection down even more than last year and at first I was slightly confused by it but after some review I see how easy the rules are and we will make the same switch. 

If you have never heard Tony Franklin speak before then you NEED TO.  He was awesome, energetic, colorful, football genius, he made sitting down for hours watching PowerPoint's and cut ups seem fun.  I am very excited to get Spring ball started so we can start putting this stuff in.

I have to be honest, we have way too much information, they keep no secrets, they give you every detail and every play possible in this offense, now our staff has to sit down and condense it into what we want to run and get really good at.  I love the overall philosophy of this offense, i think that is what separates it from other systems.  The offense itself is simple, but effective because of Tempo and limited plays, which allow them to get a ridiculous amount of reps.  They get really good at just a few things and run them over and over again super fast paced.  This aligns dead on with my personal philosophy.  i would much rather run 1 play perfectly than to run a bunch of plays mediocre.

I feel good about our team next year and think this seminar will be a major factor in turning last year's 1-9 into a much improved 2011 season.

Although the clinics are done for the year, teams can still become clients, they get access to all the good stuff, DVDs, flashdrive, conference calls, website.  If you have all of that you actually do not need the clinic itself because every single thing is recorded and put onto DVD for your entire staff and players to review.  If anyone is interested in becoming a client please let me know and I can refer you to the staff.

Different kinds of kids require different kinds of coaching

I think one of the most often overlooked areas (and most IMPORTANT) of teaching/coaching is being an adaptive teacher/coach.

In my eyes a "good" coach must be willing to adapt not only his playbook but his own coaching personality, not just year to year but from kid to kid.

There are a great number of personality types for kids, and this must be dealt with by being able to communicate with/to them in different ways.  I think one of my greatest strengths as a coach is my ability to deal with, relate to, and speak with the kids.  This may stem from my closer proximity in age compared to most of the guys i coach with, or maybe it is just my personality.  Either way I have always felt I can connect to the kids.

A teacher once told me that what makes a coach a GREAT coach isn't when a kid listens to you, or fears you, it is when a kid WANTS to do good for YOU. This message struck me and has stayed with me.  Many coaches motivate by screaming, yelling, and wagging there finger, but does this make the kid play hard for you, to do well in your eyes? Or is he playing to not get yelled at anymore?

I often see coaches locked into one personality type, either stern, unfriendly, dictator style, some are screamers, some are too nice, an effective, adaptive coach can do it all.

I know for example, there are some kids I can yell at, that yelling motivates them and pushes them to excel, while there are others that if I yelled at them in the same way simply couldn't handle it.  They need to be pulled aside, talked to more calmly, and they will be more successful.  Some kids self implode with the pressure/fear that comes from the yelling, and some kids just can not be yelled at, they shut you out, and quit on you.

As a coach, we must learn our kids, just as we ask them to learn our playbooks.  Better understanding how each kid works, thinks, and learns will only increase your ability to coach them up to reaching their full potential.

This isn't true of just football either.  I have been a Varsity HC in both boys and girls volleyball.
My knowledge of volleyball is basic at best, but I have had a relatively great amount of success in volleyball because I understand how to motivate my kids and get the most out of them at practice and in games.

If what you do works for you that is fine, but everything I have written above I truly believe in and I think it is something we as coaches all need to look ourselves in the mirror about.

Screens - Cage Drill

I have received a ton of reader interest on the series of posts on screens, so I decided to add more to the series.

Below i will diagram and explain what I call "Cage Drill"  this is the only drill we use for our screen game (OL)

I do this 1 or 2, 5 minute segments per day and we will rep screens live.  What I love about this drill is that it

• Works all necessary skills needed for our screen game
• Allows me to check for understanding of each of the screens
• Emphasis on the proper release/steps
• Emphasis on not "whiffing" on contact
• I GET TO DO IT ALL IN JUST 1 DRILL

First let me explain the drill layout, drill roles, and the rotation.
Please excuse the crude diagram of the drill.  O is the Offensive Lineman who is working, D represents defensive dummy players.  The orange circles are cones.

This drill uses 4 defensive players.  2 on each side.
1 Defender on each side is in the "cage"  they can move around anywhere within the cage, as your guys get better expand to bigger cages to they really have to get good at covering ground.

This cage defender is holding a bag (or no bag if you want to go live) their job is to move around a bit, try to juke the OL as if he were a LB or DB avoiding a blocker

The other 2 act as DL, they just come up the field a few steps on every rep.  They are there so the offensive player gets used to proper disengagement and release for the given screen called. 

Once an OL guys on offense, he takes the bag and moves into the cage, that previous cage defender becomes the new DL, that DL moves to the back of the offensive line.  That is how we cycle through to keep everyone moving efficiently.  We get a decent amount of reps on this, probably 4 or 5 per minute.  Do not let them slack, they run to switch spots and rotate.

If you have a lot of kids, I have broken up into 2 cage drills and have run them simultaneously, or have another assistant take over

Teaching points

First to check for learning I call all of our screens in 3 different ways.  We might be doing Jailbreak right for a player's given rep.  His wristband would say Jail Rt in a game.  So I can call it this way, or I can call it by our no huddle name for it, or i can call it by our audible name for it.  We have 3 different ways to call each screen, so when we do cage drill I constantly mix up the names I am using to be sure that they have learned our system. 

They have to take the proper steps/release described in my earlier posts on screens Screens - OL

The keys I stress are working flat down the LOS, and once they near the cage defender they need to break down just like an open field tackle.  They must buzz their feet, widen their base, and punch the defender, then run their feet to stay engaged/in front of the defender.  They block until my whistle then everyone rotates.

As we get better I really start making HUGE cages for the defenders to move around in, really gets the guys good at blocking in space.

Please keep the questions/comments coming