Off Season Preparation

I have been coaching for 6 years and last year was my first year as head coach and calling the offense. I have spent all winter evaluating my offense - run / shoot / with some option (midline and belly option).

1. I put all my midline on one tape,

2. I put all my belly options on one tape

3. I put all my FB carries (trap, draw, belly) on one tape.

4. I put all my 3 step passing on one tape.

By no means did I look at tendancies. I spent all winter making notes, coaching points, etc. and have evaluated our plays/players. It is obvious that the majority of our problems come from lack of execution or poor blocking - not the defense being in the RIGHT defense at the RIGHT time.

I guess mostly I come away with this idea - Our practices need to be more realistic in terms to what they see on friday nights. We have to create opportunities in individual, group and team drills to get these guys ready for friday night.

I really thought about adding some plays and formations, but the reality is that we have to just get better at the ones we already have and just believe in them.

I agree with GCTIGERS57,

I have a lot of the guys that assist me with the offense want to chart our plays to identify patterns, tendancies, etc. and I don't find that useful at all. I'm a self-aware man and I know what my tendancies are. If we have a mammoth right tackle and a monster TE, I'm running to the right C gap quite a bit. It's certainly not rocket science!

Anyway, I totally agree with breaking film down very carefully to find out why the play wasn't executed properly. Analyze each play and the techniques, decisions, and assignments of each player. Find out what you don't do very well, and devise a way to fix it (drills, techniques, etc.) next season. This is my absolute favorite way to spend a nasty winter. Also, if you can get your coaches in with you, they'll learn a lot as they go too. It's a great way to improve all aspects of your offense.

I have some charts we use during games and then I go back to them in the off-season. If anyone wants to see them I will email them out as a word doc. They have been evry helpful to us.

Message for Coach Nick: I tried to send those charts but it kept getting buzzed back to me. Is there another email address I can send them to?

Self-scouting is usually the best way to go. I never saw a lot of purpose of scouting last year's opponents, especially at the high school level. High school teams change schemes and personnel much too often.