Each week Coach Bass brings his 30 years of NFL coaching experience to USA Football. Email Coach Bass your question.
George sent the following question:
I have been coaching 9- and 10-year-olds for several years now. I feel that I need to do a better job during our games with play calling, game management and adjustments. My own football career ended at the middle school level. Do you have any suggestions on how I can make up for this lack of experience and do a better job for my players on game day?
Hi George,
Game day organization is an area that way too often is ignored by coaches. Somehow we feel that Divine inspiration will help us make the best call.
The more organized you can be and the more you have written down and at your fingertips, the easier it will be for you to contribute during the game.
As an offensive coach, I always felt that it was important for me to have a list of plays that I felt we could run successfully based on the down-and-distance situation and our position on the field.
I would make up a board that was laid out in the position of the field.
The field was divided up into three areas: coming out from our goal line to the 30-yard line, from the 30-yard line to the 30-yard line, and then from the 30-yard line to the goal line including goal-line plays.
In each section of the field I would write down my favorite plays for first and 10, second and 7+, second and 6 -, third and 7 +, third and 3 to 6, third and 1 to 3. These were the plays that I wanted our team to run and practice during the week. Each down-and-distance situation had the plays in a different color so during the game it became very easy for me to have the play ready to call.
As a defensive coordinator, I did the very same thing for my defensive calls.
One thing that is important is to have someone write each call as it is made, with the down-and-distance situation and the result. This information can be invaluable to you at half time when you have time to look over the plays you have called and make a mental note of the ones that are having the greatest success.
I tried to always have the board started in pencil before the first team practice each week. Obviously you will add and subtract from the list as you observe practice, but following your last practice you should be able to complete the board in color, cover it with clear plastic wrap or laminate and have it to study prior to the game.
It is a good idea if as a staff you can spend a few moments and talk about a plan to win that includes all three segments of the game. This discussion can include substitutions and how all timeouts should be used. The game management decisions during the game become so much easier if they have been talked out prior to the contest.
Coach, I congratulate you on wanting to be a better coach during the game. As coaches, we spend hours preparing our players for the contest and so very little time on making ourselves more productive during the same time.
Coach Tom Bass
Karl sent the following question:
We are well into our season and I wanted to know if should we ease up on the hitting drills and scrimmaging with full contact? I am a coach of 8- to 11-year-olds and I have been noticing that our kids are getting beat up. We have played nine games and have four left.
Hi Karl,
This is a great question, and one thing I learned when I started out my coaching career was that I did not want my players leaving their game on the practice field.
You need to maintain some contact, but it can be done in a very controlled way where only two players at a time are involved such as in a blocking drill or coverage drill. This keeps the players at a sharp edge and maintains their interest in your practice.
The key is teaching your players how to practice hard without full contact. We referred to this style of practice as a "thump drill" and used it in our team drills for both the offensive and defensive plays. It was also used when we had an inside or half-line drill.
Basically, we asked both sides of the ball to go hard for two steps. If we were working on offensive plays, we then taught our defensive players to let up and be blocked so that the offensive players could time out the play.
If we were running our opponent's plays and focusing on defense, we instructed the offensive players to do the same, hard for two steps and then let the defense win.
The one area that you may want to have live once during the week is when you work on goal-line or short-yardage offense.
It was always my belief as a coach that once a player proved to me that he was willing to hit, then it seemed important to me that I let him keep his desire for the game.
Coaches often think that taking players out of pads is what is needed but you have to very careful, at every level, that the players do not think that they have a day off from practice. Keeping them in pads but controlling the amount and duration of contact seems to me to be a much better solution.
Coach Tom Bass
Coach Tom Bass, the technical writer and advisor for USA Football, is a 30-year NFL coach who has also authored several books, including "Play Football the NFL Way" - the first "how to" book ever authorized and published by the NFL. Coach Bass is happy to personally autograph his books to you. Book ordering information can be found at http://www.coachbass.com/.
