Organizing a Good Football Practice

Structure

Practice is meant to prepare players and teams for competition. This can be achieved through a variety of individual, group, or full team drills. When practicing, it is okay to break skills down, but it is important to practice situations and scenarios that players will likely encounter during competition. Whole and part practice can both successfully be implemented into a practice plan. Closed and open environments are used as a setting, but the goal is whole practice in an open environment because that is what will resemble competition the closest. When the program is planning on performing a new drill at practice, there is typically an explanation in the pre-practice meeting to save valued practice time. When drills are explained in meetings, the athletes should be able to set the drill up and get it going immediately when the time comes during practice. Athlete to athlete interaction should take place during drills. These interactions can be opened or closed, depending on the goal of the drill. Athlete to coach interactions should be happening all the time. Coaches should always be coaching. Find a way to make things better in a positive way.


Drills and Assessment

During practice, coaches are always giving and administering formative assessments, even if they are not formally written. That is what coaching is, watching, assessing, and giving feedback to the participants. Every drill that is scheduled to happen in practice should have a specific goal the drill wants to accomplish. Coaches are assessing if that goal is being reached, and if not, what can be done differently to achieve the desired goal? Coaches should never schedule a drill just to fill time. There should always be a desired outcome or key take away from ever drill that is executed. A lot of the formative assessments that are used during practice have to do with the technique of a given position. The assessment cannot just be results orientated, there must be an emphasis on the process to get the result. For example, a player could be in perfect technique, but the other player just makes a great play and there is not anything else that could have been done. But a player can also be in poor technique but the other player or team does something wrong and does not exploit it. While there were no negative results, the technique must be corrected so it does not get exploited on future plays. Footwork and hand placement are techniques that are used by all positions in their own different ways and they must be assessed accordingly. For example, an offensive lineman keeping his weight back and not lunging in pass protection. Or a defensive back punching the outside shoulder of a wide receiver to funnel him to the free safety. Each position will have their own specific examples.


Five-Minute Segments

As far as the practice plan itself, breaking the practice into five-minute segments can be very beneficial. By breaking the practice into five-minute segments, it helps coaches stay on track and to follow the plan. If there is no time element attached to a drill, there is a lack of urgency and the drill could end up going long, cutting into other important drills scheduled for the day. Five-minute periods will also help keep all other position coaches who are not practicing together on track for the whole practice and will help let them know when and where their specific groups will be needed during practice. By doing so, time can be saved as there should be quicker transitions from drill to drill with position groups knowing exactly where they are meeting next.


Reggie