Game Communication

One of the most under-utilized facet of managing a game occurs in exchanging useful information between staff and players. Like a winter door left wide open in a heated house, nothing saps peak performance faster than an inefficient data stream during the 60-48 minutes of a game. To do this, there are several KPIs staffs should strive for to protect this information link. Ensure the link and you will protect the quality product that will propel your unit toward (consistent) success.

While there are several avenues to take and much of it is based on personal preferences or comfort levels, I will touch on a few key tenets that one should keep in mind when preparing to use ALL their resources to win.

First thing first - recognize what is important and what isn't when fulfilling game night roles. Play-calling done by coordinator's decisions should be the central focus. This is aided by a few basic standards, regardless of which side of the ball we're dealing with;

1. Condition the calls through the week - You should already know how you plan to respond to your opponent in various scenarios heading into the first practice. This is what game planning / scouting is all about. When implementing, be sure to ridiculously exaggerate the packaging of reps through the week. Call out the down and distance, the situation, the coverage/formation, etc and yell out the play you are repping - be precise and specific. Not only are you training the execution of the play but you should also be conditioning mental focus, how your players frame a given down, so that by game night they have seen this situation a thousand times in their head.

"3rd and 6! 3rd and 6! Right Hash....

we are going to get Cover 2 when we present twins to the boundary.

Our call here is 'veer follow-check with me' into the bubble, away from the 3 tech".

Your kids don't have to memorize it, but the conscious declaration and rote patterns will build a foundation that they will package all situations into (to find the rationale).

2. Have a plan - no kidding, right? Along with #1's game planning theme, 'having a plan' entails paring down your playbook to assess just what will and what won't be used. This is what you need to have in order to efficiently utilize all of your practice time. This prevents you from repping plays you won't be able to take advantage of during the game. This prevents you from blinding and aimlessly drilling 'plays' against fronts, coverages, formations, and routes you'll never or infrequently see. Without completely plagiarizing Brian Billick's first chapter of "Developing An Offensive Game Plan", breakdown the time, quarter, areas of the field, down and distance(s) and allot your practice plans accordingly. Reassess how well you were able to keep to that 'preparation diet' after the game - did you spend too much / too little on certain elements? How can you improve?

3. Assess the situation and the play that you need - refining the above approach, begin chopping up the plays you have repped during this week. What plays that you thought would work, can now be completely thrown out? Drill this down to the bare essentials - build it up, tear it down, and build again - be bullet-proof. What will you call in the 'best case' / 'worst case'? What is your answer for backed up/going in? How does this fit your opponent's counter move? If you were them, what would you do?

4. Distill the 'menu' - By Wednesday, you should not only have your scenario scripts, but also a great feel for your opening script (script, yes, even if you're on defense). Be sure to consult with your players, see what they feel confident in. Allow for the 'comfort plays' to help them set their rhythm (could be a shut-up-and-play-Cover-0 check blitz or a fail-safe fast screen on offense). Don't be afraid to throw things out here, think tactical - your best 10-15 plays for this opponent. I say this because the 'menu' should be presented for ARM BANDS. Primarily, this is geared for a defense because most offenses, using arm bands, you may have your entire playbook on a band and never change all season.

For a defense, you must adjust for each opponent, some things will work better than others. You will likely be limited to 20 -30 defensive plays, so you'd better make them count. If your defense is worth any salt, you can burn up those 20-30 plays with multiple fronts, blitzes, stunts, and coverages. For brevity's sake, 1 call would specifically declare one defense (coverage,front,stunt/blitz), so you may end up with 12 calls of the same coverage. For examples of this type of paring, see an old sheet.

This disciplined framework for your attack also prevents the usual emotional spaz-out on most staffs. When you are faced with the pressures of the clock and momentum, the last thing you need to do is lose your wits like Jo Jo the Circus Chimp - Get Back To Fundamentals - work the plan.

When you have already accounted for (and believe in your answers) all scenarios, you can readily access the solutions. Anger/Frustration are a direct result of the sensation/interpretation of not having the resources to handle a situation (panic sets in). There is no room for thinking-on-the-fly or shooting from the hip if you want to win regularly (and actually teach your players something about structure, organization, reaching goals, etc).

5. (Game Night) Get the play in - Now that we have gotten the basics taken care of, this part is likely one of the most important, as tradition, emotion, and/or ego prevent us from streamlining this approach. You had 4-5 days to put the work in so if you didn't you'll be up the creek by now trying to change it. Your job now (as a coordinator) is to correctly assess the situation and rationally play the odds with a level-head. How do you get that 'perfect call' communicated to your players to execute as fast and without any room for error?
Nothing is more frustrating than short-changing your players in crucial situations with little time to transition (see 2009 LSU's Les Miles).

The more time a call has to be repeated/regurgitated the less time your players have to respond. Calls should be short and concise (terminology), as well as delivering that information quick and error-free. This is why arm bands will beat out shuttling players and sign language gesturing - direct them to the (play) 'menu' and immediately everyone is on the same page. Rather than calling, "Strong Right - Flip Left - 21 Zone Sucker - Z drag boot" (and repeating it from a coach-to-player, player-to-quarterback, quarterback-to-huddle-twice), just call "R7" (the grid location of the same play) and now everyone on the squad is ready to execute (saving you 8-13 seconds).

With this, because you've done your homework beforehand, all you have to do is call up your situation and match it up with your pre-planned response. If you're a coordinator in the box, all you have to respond on the phones is - "R7". It truly isn't imperative the assistant on the sideline signalling the call in know what the call is - he just has to relate the "R7" call. Once the call is received (on the field), the coordinator in the box can let sideline phones know the play (or they could simply look it up themselves on their own arm bands/play sheet). Cut out the BS - just transmit the data.

Once again, this does put tremendous pressure on the coordinator and staff to do significant planning and assessment during the week. After all, isn't that what the position is about, though? Game night should be completely free from emotion. If your kids "need you" on Friday night, if you need to "feel" the game and get hyped up, then one could seriously argue that you really weren't being efficient (in teaching the game plan) during the week.

6. Just The Facts, Jack - If you're in the box and on the phones, whether you are the coordinator or spotter, make sure you are concise, to the point, and deliver the required data. As we approached above, presnap 'concision' only further fuels momentum for your players. To aid in this regard, here are some basic press box guidelines (based on role) to keep in mind;

• Coordinator: If just the coordinator is in the box, obviously all that is required is that the play call is relayed to the on-field signaller. In addition, passing coaching points to his position coaches, reviewing 'executive decisions' for the Head Coach (timeouts, special team fakes, 4th downs, etc), as well as reiterating mental queues for key players (to position coaches) all play a part in managing players through his staff. In lulls, repeating and coaxing the assistants through a game can prove instrumental in grooming those assistants in understanding relevant data/tendencies and how to monitor player performances.

• Spotter: A spotter can be anyone from a trusted position coach to a volunteer booster dad. The information required can be basic or serve as the right-arm of the coordinator.

BASIC [anyone can fulfill this role - if you can't provide this info, you have no business being in the box]

• spot: getting a good spot would seem trivial, but when on the field sometimes the crown or external environment can overwhelm a moment. Deliver the spot of the ball, which leads to the corresponding down and distance. Never mind your opinion of the play or how hard of a hit you just saw - just say, "ball is on the 34.....3rd and 2, coach"
• down and distance: touched on above, but be sure to reiterate the scenario verbally. Condition the review of pre-planned scenario (for this situation).
• relevant substitutions/injuries: In HS, you will always have teams with 1-3 studs to monitor. Be sure to let the coordinator know if "their guy" is in or out of the game (which present unique targets of opportunities).

HELPFUL [any coach within the program (MS-Var) should be able to do this]

• Stating the Obvious: You may be whomping the hell out of a defense or bashing your head against the wall, but sometimes a coordinator needs a nudge for a change-up or hint to use the obvious. Sometimes the simplest solution can be so far away when you are desperate for answers ("hey, they are playing real aggressive, keep them on their heels with slo-screen / freeze" - "they're in the red zone - watch option" - "you're getting 2 high here, coach, middle of the field is open").
• Auto Reminder: There may be elements that you know you need to use certain players or plays. This helps prevent the game from getting away from us. This can range from "remind me to throw screens" to "make sure we throw field pressure at them before the half" to "reverse inside the 40". Don't be afraid to chime up with what will seem like a silly comment here.
• Who Made the Tackle: as silly or meaningless as this might sound, it is crucial in determining where the 'hole' is in the ship. If the backside linebacker is always making the play on your back on stretch, the culprit is probably your backside tackle (symptom leads to the diagnosis).
• Distribution: who is getting the ball? who isn't getting the ball? Are we forgetting someone? Keep track of touches/throws in a very basic sense to be mindful of where you are in the game plan (as our memory often fails us).
• Play Charting: Even if you can't keep up with it all, this really helps out at half time (when you can catch a breath) as well as at the end of the game. Simply sequentially chart the plays called (even if it is just the arm band call) so there is no question what was called on what play (i.e. "#1-B1, #2-A9......#35-D4"). It may look like like a game of Battleship, but it makes post-game breakdown and grading so much easier. At half time, this helps serves the distribution charting, noting what you've been going to (and how it measures up to the game plan)

PIVOTAL [usually offered by member of the staff that is a big part of the game plan]

• Tendency: This is hard to come by if you're not watching as much film (or more) as the coordinator. The press box is also where they film the games, so the same vantage you've watched a thousand times on the television is replaying right before your eyes (live). You should be able to call up the pattern (recognition) you've learned, as well as consulting with your scouting report (in the booth) to give a confident and timely prep to the coordinator on the field for the play that you'll see next. That same game plan/tendency sheet you formulated on Sunday will likely be what you can have as a quick reference for Friday night ("Coach, this is their 2nd & 6 situation inside the 35.....remember if we get 21 personnel, be looking for fly sweep to the field").
• Clues: This could be anything from stealing signals, to player fatigue, to personnel packages. If YOU were calling the plays, what would be tipping YOU off on the anticipated opponent play call? Are they preparing that killer play they've used maybe 4% of the time on you? Unbalanced / counter / etc is that 'sucker play' ready for them to use? Keep your coordinator frosty and alert by knowing what they like to do. This could be for monitoring your opponent or your own team. Knowing the ebbs and flows of certain players can help neutralize potential road bumps.
• Target of Opportunities: Have you lost/gained the momentum? What is your money play here? Their DI offensive tackle is cramping up under a pile, is it a good time to use your MARS stunt? Staying tapped into the game and the subtle events on the field will give your guy on the field the edge he needs.
• Real Time Stats: Largely stats really do not matter, however, they do provide a quick snapshot of where you are at in the game. Many times the numbers are there to justify or galvanize decisions that may otherwise be hedged. Half time updates are the most crucial and can help understanding where the coordinator is measuring up to his original game plan (keep going? make a change? etc). This can be tricky to do all of this at once, so if you can get a stat guy to do this impartially, the better off (and more accurate) the data will be.
  

don't be this guy up there drinking Cokes and eating popcorn polluting the decision-making process with inconsequential bullshit.

** for a great place to start, Coach Casey Miller has a host of great press box / program documentation to get you started.

A Note on Scouting.....

"You can't herd cats....but you CAN find a little bit of catnip and
have them follow you to the ends of the earth"

Important things to consider when disseminating information to your players.
Areas of the field (+20, 40-40,-35, etc)

1. top 5 formations and WHY they use them
2. top money plays between the 30s out of what formation
3. red zone matchup plays (inside the 15)
4. kids should know what players do what (how the OC uses the players) and the weak links in the OLine and tips those players give pre-snap ("look to #65 presnap for a run/pass key")
   If Steve Smith is on the field, you had better know where he is at.
   If Steve Smith is lined up outside the numbers, look for this....
   If Steve Smith is lined up in the backfield, look for this....

That may be authentic coaching clinic gibberish, but it doesn't help us play on Friday night!

Explaining WHAT works and WHAT doesn't work based on the game plan. The point of the scouting sheet is to inform your players on what the offense is trying to do. Letting them know what they are seeing on a down and becoming familiar of the strengths and weakness of said matchup (formation / personnel).

It is important to hammer away at what is most important on a given down or formation or field area.

Compartmentalize what is important.

• Defend the endzone, field, and down conversion on a given series.
• Ensuring the proper matchups (secure numbers, minimize liabilites, exagerate opponent's weakness with formation).

If you can put together a comprehensive overview of your opponent's offense, chances are, you have a pretty good idea of how to defend them. If you just spit out numbers based on some tendency calculus, chances are you are just going to shoot from the hip on game night. DC'ing on game night should be analytical and surgical in its application.
Practice week should be sharpening your tools to operate with.
The 'scouting report' should just be a crib sheet of what you ALREADY GO OVER IN FILM/PRACTICE.
The paper version is just something they should reference, something to read on the toilet.
Sending home a cheat-sheet scouting report and video cutups of the game is all a part of the job of TEACHING the game.

Scouting Formations / Player Education

With six weeks from our first opponent, the focus is now on orientating ourselves to defending what we'll face.

The following is an example of drilling formation recognition for our defenders. This is the first step in pattern recognition (this formation = these plays & location of the field).

Players will receive a DVD with each formation presented as a different chapter with the top plays out of each formation (the unbalanced trips becomes pretty obvious).

Offensive Formation ID (for defense)

for an editable powerpoint of offensive formations, have at it;
http://sitekreator.com/brophyfootball3/main_page.html

Ghost Coaching....sending it home

With limited practice time and with having players going both ways, cramming extra coaching points and ideas into player's heads has become more challenging. More so than ever, I have been experimenting with video cutups on DVDs to send home with the players by position.

This can be real simple or pretty in-depth. I have sent out a total of 6 different DVDs since April to my positions with the benefit of;

1. a better visualization of technique and concept is formed
2. repeated viewing (= conditioning message)
3. tracking curriculum covered

The first DVD was a consolidated collection of NFL/NCAA cuts of our coverages (1,2,3,4) for the DBs to get a understanding of how to play, how players fit within that coverage (run & pass), what breaks a coverage, and playing route patterns.

The next DVD was a break-down of our first intrasquad scrimmage, both OL and DBs.

For the Oline video, I included NFL/NCAA cuts of our zone and 90's vertical set protection for the players (since OUR footage was not a good example to use), illustrating individual work (2 steps), group work (6 steps), and team work (game film) of what these concepts actually look like (what's important).

For the DBs, since alignment was crucial to many of our technique work, I included a 45 second prelude of pre-snap snapshots of our scrimmage. This made sure we highlighted how and where we align based on our coverage rules. This was done for the corners, then the FS. Lastly, I wanted to make sure we covered one of the most important concepts that we struggled with, which was handling the smash concept from C3. I included all the clips of 4 verticals and smash so it could provide a clear picture of what we did versus how we should be responding.

For both of these DVDs, I recorded a voice-over narration from a Sansa voice recorder and my Blackberry, piecing the audio and video together with Nero.

I will probably do this during the season, as I do not anticipate us doing much real film time or providing coaching points from film (so the DVDs will suffice for that).

When the season comes, I hope to be able to use more team footage than NFL/NCAA cuts.

A gimick I've used in the past (with printed handouts) is to put an 'easter egg' within the video to gauge who is actually consuming the material. With handouts, I'd give a reward to anyone who could spot 3 spelling errors. First one who brought it to me would get $10. This can be fun when you are taking a long bus ride on those summer tournaments (plus, spelling errors are my biggest pet peeve). With video, I suppose I'll bury a break 10 minutes into a video, claiming the first player to call me gets $20. We'll see how that goes.

Minimize Liabilities (Defending Formations)

There are smarter people than I to get into detail, but my experience (shaping the philosophy) has shown.......

Nothing set in stone, but generally speaking;

even formation = even shell support

• 2,4 immediate vertical threats (twins, doubles)


• Cover 2, Cover 4


• wings are not considered vert threats (slots are)

odd formation = odd shell support

• 3,5 immediate vertical threats (pro, empty, trips)


• Cover 3, Cover 1, Robber C6


• ** C6 is the loaded zone that bridges the gap between C3 & C2 for (me)

WHY?

...because the whole point is to contain the gimme-candy shots (easy), bottle it up and let our players play for the most part (keep their roles simple). If the candy is gone, then now earning those yards becomes a little more challenging.


Game planning by Areas of the Field:

out of the 10; momma! (open it up, because their back is against the wall)
out of the 20 - 35;C3 / Robber - keep you from running / work the perimeter game
between the 35's; more C2 / C4, but the entire playbook is open for both the off & def - love fire zones here
inside the 35; C3 - C0, more pressure is required (with less emphasis on the deep threat)
inside the 20; C2 the vertical threats have been truncated
inside the 8; C0 gap 8

Now the EASY part.........the front.
What fronts can you support from these coverages?
Just fill in the freaking blanks
1) Coverage is dictating who your force players are (flat player)
2) Coverage is dictating your alley player is (Curl, Deep hole)
3) Coverage is dictating who is removed from immediate run support (deep halves / deep 1/3 / ANY 'man' player)
4) fill in the blanks with kooky alignments based on immediate run responsibilities (gap)

Just make sure you call them really cool names so people will think you are awesome

An example;
The formation below, is it an odd or even formation? 1,2,3.....odd

Cover 3, Robber puts you in a real good spot to take care of both those threats.field position is essentially trumped by the formation (for me at least), which is why we (players) are keenly aware of what formation is presented (whats important NOW).

There is nothing 'bad' about C2 to pro, and I really like it (against any set).It comes into the amount of 'stress' you put on the deep defender.

Versus C3 the FS can nullify the Y and the CB can nulify the Z.

Versus C2 the FS has to manage the Y attacking MOFO or the Z going vertical - it puts considerable stress on his ability to do his job.

I'm not saying it is impossible or unfavorable based on certain matchups - just a general rule of thumb.

Is there a real nead to re-route (+1) the X inside (+1) AND cover him over the top deep (+1)?

Or can you get away with just covering him deep with only 1 defender and a support player in the curl (curl-to-flat) player?

Is one player worth 3 defenders or 2 defenders?

It just boils down to the 'economics' of the numbers....how much are you willing to spend (in player numbers) to pay for defending each side of the field? How do you justify the cost?

The bottom line becomes an algorhithym of;

1. Defend the end zone
2. Defend the field
3. Defend the formation
4. Defend the personnel
5. Defend the tendency
6. Attack the tendency
7. Attack the personnel
8. Attack the formation
9. Create a takeaway
10. Score

And follow that basic calculus in simple, modular concepts to play FAST

Scouting with MS Excel (Pivot Tables)

I get asked about this quite a bit, so I figure I will throw it up here for an easier way to share this information.

This is a real sexy (and cheap) way to make it look like you actually know something.

There are several Football applications available (for purchase) to consolidate tendency information for use with scouting opponents (or yourself), but if you're cheap like me (or have no school budget), we can accomplish the same darn things with software everyone already has (free).

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF USING EXCEL FOR SCOUTING, THEN CONSOLIDATING THE INFORMATION WITH A PIVOT TABLE....





click the data you want to include (it MUST have a header in each row)

Click Data>Pivot Table

just click "finish" at the wizard and start dragging the columns (of info) you want to look at

here's the fun part - start dragging the column headers in the order you want over to the left side of the pivot table.....include a unique identifier like "yards gained" or "play number" in the 'Data Items' field

BAM! You're done.

Pivot tables work because they are simple when you're exploring a few different (about 6) categories.

If you want an expanded report based on seven or more different variables, you are better off just importing your data as a table into Access or some other database compiling application, and writing queries.

For me, I just basically want to get a good understanding of what a team will do out of what formation, based on D&D.......if you want to worry about hash, score, weather, what color socks the team is wearing, etc.- then you'd better throw it in a database and write a query.

Pivot Tables get what you want done in a manageable fashion, without "losing" information like a filter would do (all a filter does is just hide the data).

Let's say you want to know all the plays that were
PRO RIGHT
1st & 10
<40>

Lets say you just want to get a general idea of your data......

From the data, I could see their big-hitting plays on 2nd down and the bad calls on 3rd down (yardage average)
Now I want to know ONLY 1st down plays based on field position

 Now let's say I want to see ALL the plays that featured Trips Right (I'd double-click on the count of the formation of Trips Right)