Clinic Season is in full swing. It’s the second greatest season of the year! For coaches who had a great season last fall, you get to go out and speak to your fellow coaches, giving back to our great profession. For those who did not, we get to listen to the successful guys. We get to spin hundreds of ideas through our heads and think, “Our kids can do that next year!”

This year, I will attend 5 or more clinics. So far I have already been to two, and we’re not yet halfway through February. I love football clinics. But I attend more than the average person, since this is my job.

So if you only get to visit one or two clinics every year, how do you get the most out of them? What are the secrets to really getting the most bang for your buck? I’ve put together a list here, and StrongFootballCoach.com has a few suggestions for you here as well.

Plan Your Strategy

If you have no purpose for going to a football clinic, I’m not sure why you go. If your school is paying for the hotel and you just want to get away for a weekend that’s great. Don’t read this.

Decide what your purpose is for attending the clinic.

Is your team installing a new defense this season? Obviously, you need to go to as many presentations on that defense as you can find. We’re toying with our defense, so in one clinic I hit as many Even Front, Quarters Coverage talks as I could.

Are you going to be coaching a new position this fall? Maybe you’ve never coached the secondary before, but your secondary coach left for greener pastures. Better get lots of drills and technique.

Maybe your staff isn’t changing anything, but you just want to become a more well rounded coach. Maybe you’re the Defensive Coordinator for a team that got toasted by the Pistol Spread Option last year. You may find one guy talking for an hour on defending it, but at most Glazier Clinics you can find someone talking for 3 to 9 hours on running the Pistol Spread Option. Listen to him, not the guy who thinks he knows how to stop it (because he may have just stopped a really crappy PSO team).

As a side note, I went out this year looking for ideas on the 4-2-5 Defense. After two clinics, I will probably avoid 4-2-5 Defense speakers at the next one. Everyone’s defense looks shiny and new, but at some point we have to settle on something.

If You Like it, Put a Ring on It

When you find someone who’s a good speaker and fits what you need, don’t make it a one-hour stand. Marry them for the weekend.

I love Glazier Clinics because most speakers are talking for at least 3 hours. Even better are the guys who spend 9 hours talking about their system. Look for those guys. Spend all day, or all weekend, listening to them. Really get to know their system and get to know the reasoning behind their system. That can help you build your own, down the road.

I almost never plan to attend multiple speakers in a 3 hour block at a Glazier Clinic. If I get in to the first guy and don’t like it, I’ll get up and head to my second choice as soon as possible (and don’t feel bad about walking out, you paid money to learn). I want to sit with someone for 3 hours and get the full plan. Most guys are giving a 3 hours speech, with breaks in between, not 3 one hour talks. If you miss the first hour, you’re either A) lost when you show up in the 2^nd or 3^rd hour or B) the guy who’s pissing me off because you’re asking questions he answered in the 1^st hour (you should ask questions, but if you just showed up, you should wait and ask them during the break. Just my opinion, but I’m a jerk).

Not every clinic has the same structure as Glazier Clinics. Smaller clinics may not have the ability to, but you can still find a way to have a meaningful relationship. At smaller clinics you often get High School coaches who do not have a book out, and do not usually get people hammering down their door for a copy of their playbook. They’re regular coaches. Talk to them after the session, ask them if they’ll be around all weekend, and make some plans to sit down and talk. If your schools are close, you can make plans to visit with their staff. Unless they’re on your schedule, most coaches are open to that.

Take Excessive Amounts of Notes

Maybe it’s just my learning style. But I can’t just sit and listen to a guy. If someone hands me a copy of their PowerPoint, I politely accept, then put it in my notebook. I almost never look at it again. My notes are better than his Power Point. Taking notes keeps me focused on the talk and engaged. I’ve seen a lot of people nodding off around me.

Process the information, both from the slides and from what he’s saying, and put it down on paper the way you need to see it. Often, I use my own words and not his (though I try to use their terminology).

Do not copy the words on the PowerPoint slide word for word. The vast majority of guys will send you their presentation if you just email them. I just don’t see the value in copying it down. I write down what he says, knowing I can get the Power Point any time (for Glazier Clinics, most of the presentations will be online as well).

In a 3 hour session at a Glazier Clinic, 9-12 pages of notes is pretty average for me. I normally use up more than one notepad in a weekend. Not everyone is like that, so do what works for you.

Use EverNote to Get the Most Out of the Clinic

My latest trick involves an iPad and the Evernote app. Evernote is available for almost everything, by the way, but I use iPad.

I open up the app, start a new note, then click the microphone button. The iPad records the clinic talk, and I type my notes in at the same time. When I’m done, they’re already formatted and easy to read. Plus I’ve got the talk recorded as well, in case I miss something or need clarification later. Evernote syncs it between my iPhone, iPad and the web based application.

If you set your entire staff up with Evernote accounts and link them together, you can share all of your notes plus the recording with everyone quickly.

I use a separate app, Pages, to draw diagrams. I’m just sure to label those diagrams and put a note in my Evernote document that there’s a diagram to accompany that part of the talk. Pages will actually export directly to Evernote.

Glazier Clinics, and most others, do ask that you don’t record the clinics. I choose to operate within the spirit of the rule, which is don’t record the clinics and distribute them around the world (don’t bother asking me to send you a recording of anything, I won’t do it). My recordings are for my use only.

Ask Stupid Questions

If you’re a teacher then you know this one. There are no stupid questions!

Except, of course, if the question was already answered, but you came in late. Remember what I said earlier. If you weren’t there at the start, wait and ask your questions after the session. Presenters have a short window and they have plans to fill the whole thing. If they have to back-track constantly, they’ll never get through it all. There’s nothing wrong with coming in late. I routinely leave a session after the first 10 or 15 minutes when it’s not doing anything for me, and skip to another. Just be courteous.

Moving on, if you’re in a session from the start and you need some clarification, ask it. Ask questions that are on topic if you’re asking during the talk. If you have something that’s a little off topic, wait until the end when the speaker usually opens it up for questions.

Here are two examples from this past weekend. I’m not meaning to attack or embarrass anyone, by the way, so if this sounds like you then… eh.

1. In the middle of a talk about aligning to 21 Personnel, someone asked a question about defending Doubles and Trips sets. Now, the next session was clearly labeled as “Defending Spread Offenses.” The speaker was polite, and briefly touched on it. Then he went 10 minutes over on his talk, hardly even having a chance to show film much less answer questions. Bad question.
2. Another speaker, an Offensive Line Coach, was giving a presentation on Power. In his mind, Power was the simplest play in football. Block down, kick out, roll the hole. We all run it. He’s an Offensive Line coach so he quickly glazed over the Fullback kick out. After all, he doesn’t even coach that guy. A coach in the audience, who seemed fairly inexperienced but not at all afraid to ask questions, raised his hand during the film. “So the fullback will kick out the Defensive End on this play?” My first reaction was, WOW! I remember when I was that guy! My second thought was, Good for him. There’s probably 30 people in this room who just went DUH! in their heads, but this guy will understand how to run Power. And chances are, someone else in the room was thinking the same question, so we got two guys to understand one of the best plays in football.

Ask questions. Speakers assume too much, because what they are talking about is second nature to them. The O Line coach in the second talk runs Power for a living. He’s got rings to prove it. In his world, everyone knows block down, kick out, roll the hole.

I listened to a phenomenal Wing-T Coach who assumed everyone in the room was an old hand at Wing-T Offense. If you didn’t know what Buck and Belly meant, you were screwed. That’s his world, so if you want to learn about it, you have to ask.

Do take into account the level of the talk, though. Glazier Clinics label many of the talks as Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced. If you’re not pretty knowledgeable on the Double Wing, please don’t plop down in an Advanced Double Wing talk and ask where the receivers line up.

Assume the Speaker is a Good Football Coach

It bothers me when people in the audience need to prove the speaker is incapable, or that they are a better football coach. Assume that the speaker is a good ball coach who can teach you things. If you don’t think so, don’t go.

First, just because he has great athletes does not mean he can’t coach or you can’t learn something from him. Trust me, they know if they have really good players. Not many coaches have spent their entire career coaching State Champions. Almost everyone has had that 0-10 season when they didn’t have a single kid get recruited by even the worst Division III school in the country.

You do not need to suggest changes to his scheme or a new drill to try, either. We came to hear how the speaker stops the Zone Read, not how you do it. Personally, I’d love to talk to you about it. But not during the speaker’s 50 minutes. He probably wants to hear it too, but after the session.

Talk About it Later

Sitting in a talk with other coaches from your staff? Have a great idea or think what the speaker is talking about can really help you? Take it outside or, better yet, talk about it during the break.

I get easily distracted. If you’re talking about something, even in a hushed whisper, my mind wanders to that pretty quickly. No matter how hard I try to focus, I can’t help but hear your conversation and drift off to a Shut the #@$* UP! mental process. Once again, be courteous. I know that teachers are the worst at this, because it’s a learned behavior from the students (remember, I taught for 10 years). Fight the urge!

We won’t even get started on the cell phones. If you get a phone call you just have to take, get up and step outside. The height of rudeness is to sit in a clinic and talk on the phone. I’m amazed every time I see it. Who raised you!?

Thank a Good Speaker at the End

This is an easy thing to do, but not one that I always did. Last year I gave my first clinic speech. The room was empty. There were maybe 12 attendees. Okay it was 12, I counted. It was only the fact that about half of them came up and thanked me or complimented my presentation that kept me from breaking down and crying.

It doesn’t matter how important the speaker is, they won’t be offended by a quick handshake and a “Great job, Coach.” And if you have to jet out of there, or you can’t wait on the line of people waiting to ask a question, then take note of the speaker’s email and send them a thank you that way. We all get too many emails every day, but most of them are junk. No one ever said, “My inbox is just flooded with appreciative notes and Thank You’s every day. I just can’t take that crap anymore!”

By the way, your thank you is a little watered down when you follow it with, “Can you send me your power points?” So if you know you’re going to ask for them, try your best to say thank you in person.

I hope you’ll be attending as many football clinics as you can this year. We can always learn more from them. You can tell that I prefer Glazier Clinics, but I also love small local clinics. I have not attended any Nike COY clinics, so I have no opinion on them. Check out FootballClinics.net for a comprehensive list of clinics all over the United States this year.

If you’ve seen a great clinic speaker this year, give them a little extra props – and a recommendation for the rest of us! Tell us about them in the comments. Thanks

This morning we are less than 12 hours removed from what will surely become one of the most famous bad calls in NFL History. The Seattle Seahawks chalked up a victory on Monday Night with a Golden Tate Touchdown that never should have been. The Green Bay Packers were, well, completely screwed.

Coaches, let’s take a step back and look at what we know about our own officials. Then we can gain some perspective on what NFL players and coaches are dealing with.

No matter what level you are at, your officials are terrible. That’s a fact. Maybe not on a night in, night out basis. But as some point, the guys officiating your games make terrible calls.

We have good one’s and bad one’s.

We give them nicknames (mostly in reference to their weight, eye wear, or mannerisms).

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, our officials must pass a test in order to officiate games. They must score a 70% on that test. The test is open book, and if you fail the test you can take it again.

So your guys have to know just over two-thirds of the rules, if they have their rule book in front of them. Ever see those guys pull it out on Friday night?

That’s what we’re dealing with.

The Facts About Replacement Officials

As of last week (no stats yet which include this weekend), the number of penalties that replacement refs are throwing is just about in line with previous year’s numbers. We think differently because we are looking for mistakes, but facts are facts.

Fewer penalties were called in the first two weeks. Only slightly more pass interference calls were made.

So what’s the problem?

Until this Sunday, I was in the minority of people defending the replacement Officials. The numbers don’t lie. It took a little longer to get things done, but when you have a whole crew who is new to the speed of the NFL, they should be conversing to get things right.

This weekend, however, was a disaster. And Monday Night’s final play was just the cherry on top of that awful Sunday.

The Real Problem

The replacement Officials are not throwing more flags. They’re just throwing them at the wrong time, and mismanaging the game entirely. Referees are also being bullied by NFL Coaches and Players, not to mention NFL Media and Fans.

The flags for personal fouls that make no sense. A player dives at the Quarterback late in the Monday night game. He is in mid-air (because he’s an NFL Defensive Lineman, they stay in mid-air longer than humans) when the ball is released. He crashes down into the leg of the Quarterback, and gets a Roughing the Passer call. How can he pull up? Meanwhile, at other times during the weekend, the QB was clearly hit late, with no flags. I chalk this up to officials sometimes watching the game, rather than doing their job. Anyone who has worked with young coaches on staff knows that this is a common problem.

The atrocious Sam Shields pass interference call is another example of the wrong time to throw a flag. There are not more pass interference calls being thrown, nor are there more Offensive Pass Interference calls being thrown. But the NFL Receivers and fans have been up in arms over Offensive Pass Interference being called. When a clear example of two guys getting tangled up in a crucial moment happened, the Official was scared to throw that Offensive Pass Interference call. He doesn’t want to prove the stereotype. So he throws a Defensive Pass Interference call despite Sidney Rice being all over Shields.

I attribute that call to the referee being bullied into his decision by thousands of irate media members and fans. His call was affected by external forces, which should never happen.

Another example of this comes from that final Golden Tate reception. The official should have never signaled Touchdown. Once his arms went up, there was no way to go to the replay and right the ship.

Finally, look at the excessive chippy play on the field. Maybe I am looking for it now, and seeing something that is not there. But the replacement Officials seem to have no control over these NFL players. I have seen more punches thrown without an ejection, often with a flag, than any other season. And once a little shoving match happens in a game with no repercussions, it happens again and again. NFL Players, violent and powerful men, with no one to control their actions other than a few coaches that are up to 50 yards away, is not a good thing.

For this one, I go back to my teaching years and compare the breaking down of the class to the Substitute Teacher principle. The kids are testing to see what they can get away with. Someone throws a piece of wadded up paper, nothing happens. Another kid pulls a girl’s pigtails. 30 minutes later the building is on fire, if the Substitute Teacher can’t step up and take control.

Most of the current replacement Officials have not shown the ability to take control. There are some who have done an excellent job, while others have make glaring mistakes.

What Should Happen

Let’s face facts. If the current replacement Officials have to officiate the game for the entire season, they will get better. But at what cost? The seasons of the Packers and Seahawks are already clearly tainted, and how many others could be?

On Friday Night I will stand on the sidelines, and watch another group of guys muck things up. They are doing the best they can, and I know that. I do not honestly believe that a call was made because the sideline official is somebody’s Uncle on the other team (I may say it, though).

The ball will be spotted on the wrong hash – frequently. A penalty will be marked incorrectly. A blatant holding call will not be flagged, while a ticky tack Pass Interference call will be thrown. I am a High School Football Coach. I repeat to myself frequently during games, softly, “I will not allow a High School Referee to give me a heart attack at 32 years old.” Then I give him a sarcastic comment to our sideline official about how it must be hard for such a professional to work with all of these amateurs.

Meanwhile, the best Football Referees in the world are sitting at home. They are hired as part time employees to do the hardest job in their industry (possible exception: MLB Home Plate Umpire), officiate NFL Football Games. No one is more scrutinized, on a bigger stage, with larger and more intimidating men running around them.

It has been long enough. Three weeks of replacement officials has finally brought me around, and I now have an appreciation for the real NFL Officials.

I’m not boycotting the NFL. I don’t get to watch the first game or the first half of the second game because of staff meetings, anyway. But when I get to sit down and watch a game, I want the calls to be right!

More often than not, anyway.