Building Your Defense: Things To Consider

"Information is the absence of doubt" - Bill Gates

You can teach your kids everything in football, but if they don't know how to apply it (when they will see it and how it relates

• WHAT offenses are in your conference?
• WHAT defense are you going to base out of?
• HOW are you going to defend those offenses from your base defense?
• HOW ARE YOU GOING TO BUILD IT?
• And when does each piece fit?

Week 1 of camp
basics, alignment & assignment and pursuit
Week 2 of camp
formation recognition / checks / rules
Week 1 of regular season
game plan adjustments to fit that offense specifically
Week 2 of regular season
game plan adjustments to fit that offense specifically
Week 3 of regular season
game plan adjustments to fit that offense specifically

If you don't face a team you would use Cover 2 / 4 against until week 3, then there is not much need to rush to get it installed before then.

If you are facing a lot of teams that never pass the ball, then forcing a 'victory' 2-man coverage in doesn't make much sense.

Think economically to build a momentum for mastering the basics you can build off of, then install for a purpose (game plan).

In a nutshell, REVERSE ENGINEER YOUR DEFENSE.

Eliminate the fluff - are the kids in efficient positions to do their job? Eliminate the stuff that just doesn't matter. The fancy names, the kooky plays, the crazy blitzes, the laundry list of coverages, the slogans.....cut the BS

Do they know their job? Is it simple enough, without any major adjustments (what really changes for them?) Are we giving them clear TRUE/FALSE singular decisions they can make at the snap within a second? If not, back to the drawing board.

1) Recognize play-side assignment and where they need to be immediately. If they aren't here - things are going to be fall apart

2) Tempo to play defense - there should be a timer going off in their head once the ball is snapped, that they need to be in a certain (hole /fit) within 2 -3 seconds).

Through constant TEAM pursuit drills, defining hustle required to play, and seeing where everyone else is on the defense (to your left & right) to get a comfort level of the support-fits.

I think defining the TEMPO has everything to do with becoming 'faster' on defense. It quickens the decision making and builds an attitude of anticipation. Defense should be played with great intensity, so realize this isnt' something you can hammer away at for hours on end. Get in, Get out, and be done - short bursts of relentless intensity.

The clock should be ticking for defenders just like it ticks for quarterbacks. The longer a play 'lives' the greater the damage a defense will likely be exposed to.

Each second should be counted like a rhythm;
1-one thousand, you should be stepping playside
2-one thousand, you should be squaring up playside
3-one thousand, somebody is getting lit up / you're in the gap

Most coaches waste waaaaay too much time simply because they aren't organized, and there is a lot of standing around, killing the tempo / attitude of defense. Know exactly what is coming now, next, and 30 minutes from now - KEEP THE KIDS MOVING.

Muscle-memory conditioning.....Pygmalion impartation of how to play defense. If we expect it from the players, WE (as coaches) better be hustling in and out of practice - lip-service won't get it done.

3) Block Destruction - The biggest intimidator on defense that causes hesitation and delay is for a player to handle blockers. The better equipped a defender is at getting off blocks and understanding true leverage and body positioning, the more confident he will be at attacking a gap or taking on offensive players. If you can spend 5 minutes a day on block destruction leverage / technique your players will be considerably more aggressive in attacking the LOS to make plays.

What I'm directly talking about to make the defense "faster" isn't so much to do with scheme or technique, but more along the lines of a defensive R4 / C4 ala Darin Slack. Nothing ground-breaking, just streamlining the process of playing for better (quicker) performance. Call it Gestalt modality, or as Carl Von Clausewitz puts it, in On War, the strike of the eye. Taking the premise of the book as it explores Napoleon's strength, what made him such an effective general, was his ability to piece together previous engagements (having not fought) and see the end game of the tactics. Clausewitz calls this "the glance" that once seeing the pattern, the individual can piece together the successive moves. Something like 'intelligent memory applied to new situations' (new combination of previous elements).

This is why I HATE trying to take new players and immerse them into the 10 different nuances of blocks and such - it is sensory overload. Handle the main thing, TO & AWAY and the appropriate response. I would like to get to a point where we develop powerpoint flash cards of the 36" window run fits look like(train them to NOT look at the entire field and get lost), to train defensive players to train their eyes to see, specifically, where they are affected, and where their eyes should train to next.....so it is a;

• full picture of the half-man guard to the half-man tackle
• next slide is the half-man guard becomes a whole-man guard (reach)
• next slide is focusing on the far shoulder of the guard to attack the stretching gap
• next slide is into the backfield, locating the angle of the back en route to the D gap.

Training the MENTAL progression of where you need to be on specific action TO & AWAY, so there is no hesitation. This foundation of knowing location and player-to-field-position relativity, creates a structure of mastering these looks before even going out and playing them. A sort of deja vu, "I've seen this and how it was done before..." trigger, affording the player the creativity to deal with each situation that arises without being totally up the creek.

The bare bones of this thinking is found in the IN-AT-OUT drill for LBs
Instead of showing them THIS

We show the THIS

Which progresses to to


THIS is their offense...
THIS is why they do it....
THIS is what gives them fits....
THIS is how we can screw this up.....

It starts with compartmentalizing the looks you'll see out of base formation.
The alternative sets (what still is applicable and what ISN'T).
Then work the areas of the field, what they'll do and where (on the field).The scripted scout sessions are like;
2nd & 7+
inside the 40's
1st & 10
on their 20 - 35....

All the while keeping a consistent teaching method.

1. Call the defense to run
2. Call out the D & D.
3. Make the defense align properly to the formation

With the formation presented, you can have the players call & response the threats on that D&D and formation.[i.e.; Backed up in their 10, Power-I...."Strong Power!" or "Weak Counter!"]

It is conditioning your kids to say, "okay, X,Y, & Z....so P,D, & Q are irrelevant "(don't have to worry about Dig / Cross inside the 10 yd line......don't have to worry about speed option inside their 15)

This is best emphasized in understanding what, specifically teams run out of Pro, Twins, and Trips looks to the strong/weak side of your defense.

For example, by formation, the WLB should always be expecting Lead Iso versus I formation or I-weak split.....but not at all versus I-strong split or ace formation. Without having to worry about weak Iso, that WLB should progress his thinking to look for the expected primary threat (based on formation)

It is about teaching (pattern) recognition...when you SEE this, in THIS situation, EXPECT this

This is how you do it at the college level. Look at the NFL Scouting report PDFs floating around - that is how they do it. When you take your game log / scouting reports and put them in a pivot table, you can see the trends based the various factors. If you can plot / predict the trend, you have a good feel for that coordinator's fingerprint.Kids already do this extremely well intuitively......it is the basis of video games.

You can use the week of practice to get ready for your opponent OR you can use the week of practice as a "football camp" where you defend every offense and block reaction.....Which one will better prepare you for Friday night?

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).

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)

ID vs IQ: Proper Application of the Game

The game of football, likely more than any other sport, involves a degree of strategy that may seem unattainable without the superiority of dominant athletes or other ancillary aesthetics.

An interesting experiment demonstrates this principle. A novice and a chess master were allowed a quick glimpse of a chessboard in the middle of a game. The pieces were then removed and each person had to replace the pieces back on the board as accurately as possible. The novice was very inaccurate, but the master placed most of the pieces correctly. Next, the same pieces were placed on the board in legal but otherwise random positions. In that case, the master did little better than the novice.
What is the difference between the two situations? The chess master literally carries the organized memories of thousands of games both personally played and intensively studied by replaying famous games of the past. When the master looked at the first board, groups of pieces were seen in well-known configurations so that the board could be said, perhaps, to resemble a known defense of a familiar opening. These patterns were easily recalled from memory when the time came to replace the pieces of the empty board.
Clearly, much of what may seem to be remarkable intellect is more than anything else, the result of long hours of practice.
- How The Brain Works, Mark Wm Dubin

What are the cognitive psychological components of the abilities or talents that permit them to appear as outstanding - either speedily performed and quickly automatic, or performed in a qualitatively superior way?
Among the answers that have been proposed, is "chunking", as discussed in the literature on memory and chess playing, and "pattern recognition."
The Exceptional Brain: Neuropsychology of Talent and Special Abilities, Loraine K. Obler, Deborah Fein

Chess masters do not do well because they have superior IQs. They do well because they have mastered the domain of chess. This is simply because they know the facts and relationships between the pieces through an engagement with it. When you don't know the facts of football, or you have wide gaps in your knowledge, you can't enter that domain and know how it all fits together.

The first step in moving towards a mastery of the 100 yard swath, requires you to have access to the facts. The "facts" for all intents and purposes, are those elements that never change, that remain constant to essentially 'set the board'. Those facts would be a) formation b) coverage c) fits/seams/voids, and through these tenets we can build our logic-string outward. The second thing is, you have to have engaged in it so much, that it enters the level of your 'automatic' processes. In so that it comes out of you naturally.

Many times this never matures because, for whatever reason, we remain retarded by emotion(rah-rah), familiarity (comfort), pride(title-seeking), or our perspective becomes so focussed (position-centric) that we lose sight of what is established around us. The key to accellerating our maturity and growth in commanding the field requires us to challenge ourselves constantly (using logic, not emotion), and engage ourselves with the entire 22-man concert. The game can be so large and looming, filled with many variables, which is why it is required to take the Occam's razor to our beliefs and zoom-out to see the 10,000 foot perspective.

And in the grand scheme of things this really isn't ABOUT chess, which serves as the analogy for us to learn from. This was just a neurological study on chess players about WHY they are effective (pattern recognition).

you're running strong zone - WLB makes the tackle, what went wrong?

defense lines up with a press corner and the safety is deep and removed from the box - whats open/void?

immediately, you know what, who, and how things happen.

That is all that this is about.
Conditioning ourselves to see the blonde in the red dress


This same model applies to understanding current events - if you don't have a firm grasp of history your perception of what is happening today is distorted.

Rommel!
You magnificient Bastard!
I read your book!!
[pattern recognition]

This is why I figured I'd title it ID(identification) vs IQ (intelligence).
Being able to recognize patterns trumps however much you (think) you know.
Understanding how it all works together is the cog of functioning application of data.

Responding and setting up moves in chess is one thing, dealing with the incompetence of your opponent is another.

further reading;
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~athe0007/BNEsig/papers/NeuroscientificBasisOfChess.pdf

I would also opine about Wide/Tight shots - game broadcasts really only give you 1/3 of the game and views from the sideline (depending on the pitch of the field) can be almost worthless (IMO). As far as seeing the totality of the game, I would make the case for the pressbox view (live) to take in the alignments, and see / write the patterns in our head. So, when we are pressed into 'duty' in a game, we can peek at this;

and automatically piece it together and KNOW (with a certainty) how it all fits together, that this will be the total picture;


Speed up the logic algorithm to diagnose what is going to happen on a given down by what you are presented.

As we process through the image, we kind of already are piecing the rest of the picture together.....eliminating alignments that would be incongruent, giving us a defaulted picture (alignment ) which defines the likely assignments of those players.

Which would probably explain why so many more defenses (NFL in particular) are living in some variation of 1/4,1/4, 1/2. This process goes beyond just defenses, though, and can be as easily used to recognize offense (alignment leverage, etc) probability/advantage.

Carrying this a step further, we typically talk a lot about how to game plan or organize the off-season schemes in terms of thinking like an economist.....gather a large body of data and review it with meticulous analysis, then come to some conclusion.

We're talking about developing thought-in-action, an immediacy of perception, a heuristic approach at handling the course of a game.

This is not a linear, step-by-step combining of cues - we are allowing the mind to act as a magnet, pulling in cues from all directions.