Its a lot faster down here!

Did you ever notice when you sit up in the stands how the game seems to slow down? There seems to be a lot of time for the coach to make decisions, adjustments, and the game just seems to be easier to read from the stands. I've noticed it many times. But I also know that down on the bench, or sidelines, that the game seems to be going at a faster rate and theres not much time to make decisions or evaluations. Did you also ever notice that a lot of teams have a coach up in a booth,or a spotter in the stands or on the clubhouse roof that communicates directly with the bench? Why? Because the game seems to slow down, you see more from above, your away from the pressures of managing the bench,your more focused and can make good decisions without any distractions. As well, you can see more clearly team play which sometimes is harder to evaluate at court, ice, or field level. Most team now tape their games from the stands. This has become a valuable tool for the coach to view the game afterwards from the comfort of his couch, with no game pressure and evaluate his team play. Kinda like sitting up in the stands!

Cheers!

Football Practice Plan: Be Organized!

Your first practice is a few days away, you're excited about getting out there and getting things going, working with the youth in the hour plus time allotted. Wait a minute... an hour... how do you fill the time in? Well, let's get started. You need to be organized and you need to have a practice plan. You cannot do it off the top off your head. You need to have a practice plan that accounts for every minute of your planned practice. A good practice plan will cover all aspects of your specific sport: warm-up, conditioning, fundamentals, skills, team play and systems. Account for at least a minimum of 10-15 minutes per category. Too much in one area and the players will lose interest and you will lose out in the other areas that you want to cover. By having a practice plan and following it, you will have good flow to your practice, maintain player concentration, and get the most out of your practice by covering all aspects. A poor practice plan and you will have down time which invites fooling around and lack of focus especially at the youth level. Follow your plan! If you are working on a specific fundamental or system and things are not working out after your allotted time frame, move on to the next scheduled assignment, and after practice make a note of how each session went and what you need to continue to work on in practice. Keeps a practice log recording your thoughts, ideas, and player evaluation and development. Refer to the log prior to planning the following practice so you know what you need to schedule. It's important that you work on fundamentals of some sort for each and very practice, do not omit this in order to work on something else. Solid fundamentals such as passing, shooting, tackling and blocking are very important. You need to do fundamentals well in order to be good in your systems. Remember you play like you practice!

Cheers