With the summer time coming up, current High School Football players and teams have the opportunity to attend camps around the country. Too many players and even coaches go into these camps with the wrong ideas though. There are several different types of camps that our players can attend, and we need to know the purpose and benefit of each. Whether attending camp as an individual player, or as a team, we need to get our money’s worth from the right football camp.The most beneficial type of camp for improving player performance would be a position-specific camp. The most popular and common of these are certainly Quarterback camps. While I’ve never attended these, we have had players attend the Jeff Trickey Quarterback Camps. I have also heard very good things about the Darrin Slack football camps – and the videos are awesome. Coaches at these clinics may be able to make corrections in Quarterback mechanics. However, if a player is attending one of these camps, their own High School coach almost certainly needs to attend as well. Otherwise, there will be conflicting messages from the coach and the camp, and the Quarterback will wind up just being confused.With the exception of the best camps, though, I don’t think players should go to camps to try to learn new skills or greatly improve their game. It is great to get out and get some real football experience, but coaches will teach the skills. As an individual attending a football camp, the player should be looking for something different. An individual player should attend football camps for exposure. As a coach, we should be encouraging our players to attend football camps that are put on by colleges, at a level that is equivalent to their ability. Do keep in mind that large camps often have coaches from many different schools working them. The goal should be to put on a good performance, to be coachable though not necessarily to learn skills that you will use on the field in your high school. Get noticed! And just remember, if a kid with D-III talent goes to a huge D-1A camp, he will not be noticed.There are two types of team football camps to attend as well. There are camps in which an entire team attends, and learns a system. Some schools offer to teach your school the Spread Offense, or the Wing-T, and help you with the installation of the offense. These can be beneficial if you find a school that fits with your system. As a team you are getting several days worth of actual, extra practice in – especially in states with strict limitations on off-season practice. Taking your team to a camp that works skills and drills, and is a individual-style camp is the other option. This is a good trip for team building, and a good way to get some of your kids noticed. We have been able to install most of our defense during these camps outside of the actual team camp because of the rules in Virginia. But your players are not going to be better football players for the drills they are performing. It may also make sense to attend a team camp that is put on by a college that the highest possible number of your players will get noticed at. [Read more...]
Linebacker Drills Simulating Game Situations
As we begin building a player through repetition of drills, eventually we have to put it all together. That player has to be able to perform multiple skills during a single play. We need to simulate these game situations in practice. So build more complex drills to get your players working through the play. One example of a Linebacker Drill combining multiple skills is a Shed-Cut-Fit Tackle drill:
Have a line of Linebackers in front of the Lev Sled, with a line of ball carriers on the other side. The LB starts about 3 yards from the Lev Sled in a good hitting position. On the start, the Linebacker will fit into the sled with arms extended and lift it up, and then rip off in the direction of the ball carrier. Using a cut ball or another player, a cut block is attempted on the Linebacker. He must get his hands down and legs back to get off of the cut block, and then continue on. As he gets off of this cut block, the ball carrier begins running at an angle. The drill is completed when the Linebacker fits into a good tackle, squares up the ball carrier and runs through the tackle. We will not go to the ground at the end of this drill, as the purpose is more in defeating blocks and maintaining a good football position throughout the play.
Football Drills to Build "Toughness"
We have all seen those drills that are designed with only one thing in mind – “Toughness!” Maybe it is something with some level of football skill involved, such as Oklahoma drills. Then again, it may be something with absolutely no relation to football.
My dad likes to tell the story of how tough it used to be, back in the day. He says he was fighting for a position with another guy. The coach put a ball on the 50 yard line after practice, and lined up one of the guys at each end zone. They ran at the ball, colliding at the point in a massive collision, struggling for the ball to have that starting position. (By the way, if you think this is a blog about football drills, I encourage you to try this one. With your Principal and A.D. present, and tell me how it goes).
Why do football coaches believe we need to “build toughness” through football drills that, well, don’t really involve football? Let us remember that just because there is a football involved, doesn’t mean we are working a football skill. Sometimes, we may not be doing anything more than inviting injuries, and turning kids off of the game.
Think back, who is your toughest kid? Toughest kid that EVER played for you, or with you. Got it? Picture him. Was he tough before football? Did a wrestling match over a football make him tough? What about running gassers til he puked, maybe that did it. Then again, we also toughen kids up with verbal abuse, hurling curse words at them. Did any of this really make that guy the toughest kid you’ve ever known? I doubt it.
You can bring up some example of a kid who wasn’t tough, went through all of that, and became tough. You can’t tell me that he didn’t just simply mature, though. Or that there aren’t a million kids out there who quit this sport, and many grew to hate it, because Vince Lombardi Jr. tried to toughen them up in the 8th grade.
I do not claim to be above guilt on this. Probably my biggest complaint about the whole idea is that it has somehow become a part of my mindset as well, and one that I have to consciously fight off. But I think that instead of trying to build toughness, we as coaches need to concentrate on building a love for the game, and a desire to excel at it. We should promote feelings of success in our players, not failure. Football, by nature, is a tough sport. We don’t need to spice it up.
K.I.S.S. Method of Football Defense
We can learn everything in the world about defense for football. We can have so much knowledge on paper, and in clinic season. However, how much can we really TEACH to our players?
Many coaches follow the K.I.S.S. philosophy of football defense – Keep It Simple, Stupid. Figure out how much you NEED, and stay with that. Other coaches just throw everything against the wall, and see what sticks. You are smart enough to realize that there is not a hands-down, best method. Rest assured that someone has won a state title, or national championship, doing something opposite of what we may believe is “best”.But for now, lets assume that K.I.S.S. is the way to go. What do you need? You need a base front. What is it that you’re going to feel comfortable in, no matter what the situation is? Last season, I felt comfortable in the 4-3 Under Front vs. the Wing-T. And vs. the I-Formation. I mean, really comfortable. We were by no means dominant, but that formation was good to us. Early in the season our Goal Line package was shaky, so we just ran Under. And had success. But on 3rd and 14? Dear God, are you mad!? Based on that, it is not a candidate for OUR base formation. If you are comfortable in that situation in the Under front, by all means, make it your base. It works for Pete Carrol, and I would listen to him before I’d listen to me, too. We made the 4-3 Over our base defense. I felt comfortable any time, anywhere on the field, goal line to goal line, side line to side line, running this formation.Next, we need a base coverage. We had our Quarters, with two checks. One coverage call, two possible coverages – and every possible situation was taken care of. Now, you need a change-up. If you base with a zone, you need a man-coverage. Simple as that, a Cover 3 is not a good enough change-up to the Cover 2. If you base out of Man, you need to add in Cover 3.You need a Short-Yardage Defense. Keeping it really simple? Make this a second front, that doesn’t involve personnel changes – so you can run it in the middle of the field in a pinch, too, on 3rd & Short. Or when the opponent decides to just line up in Power-I and march down the field. [Read more...]
Warm Up Drills for Football
This Friday I will be talking to our PE Department about warming up and stretching before athletic events. As the head Strength Coach at my high school for the past several seasons, I have done a lot of looking into the best, and most efficient, ways to warm up players and prevent injuries.
You of course know the attack that has been launched on the old school “Static” stretching style. You know the drill… line up… feet together… 1 – 2 – 3 … right over left … so on and so forth. Great stuff, we all lived! But it isn’t the best way to do things! That much, most coaches are in agreement over.
Studies have shown that stretching before physical activity is about as effective as doing nothing at all before physical activity in preventing injury. That’s right, your 20 minute stretching routine is helping you as much as it would to just head straight out of the locker room and into your first drill.
This past season we went to a dynamic stretching routine. The key in dynamic stretching is to start with small movements to warm up the muscles, and work your way up to larger movements. I like the example of arm circles that we all used to do, going from little circles to big circles. It gets the idea across, though its not something we do. I like the idea of starting off with a short jog, to get the muscles warm. Then we work through a series of butt-kickers, high knees, lunges, etc. Get everything moving, working, getting loose. The result? Not a single muscle pull this season. And I know we’re not the only ones.
The funny thing about muscle pulls that I realize this season, is they’re the most contagious injury in sports. One kid blows a hammy, he goes to the trainer. Trainer can’t SEE anything, he just has to kind of trust that the kid is hurt. By the end of practice, when its time for conditioning, that hamstring pull has spread to at least 3 other kids (mostly freshmen). This season? None of that. We didn’t even have kids faking injuries, they didn’t see any real injuries they could emulate. Broken bones aren’t contagious. You don’t have one kid get hit in the junk, and ten minutes later a second kid collapse after mysteriously getting a phantom nut-shot. They just aren’t contagious. Eliminating muscle pulls changes a lot.
Static stretching has its place, at the end of the workout. It is good to be flexible! But do it at the end, when the athlete is warm and loose. In addition, some studies have shown that stretching a muscle makes it weaker. In different studies I have seen, they found the muscle took anywhere from 7 minutes to 60 minutes to recover!! We definitely don’t need that before a game.
Don’t change everything right away. Do your research, plan it out. Use your off-season as a guinea pig test. But don’t keep doing it the old way because it’s what you’ve always done. Stretching isn’t like offense and defense, you don’t have to only coach what you know.
