PLAYBOOKS TO PLAYERS?

Coach,

I abandoned the practice of playbooks being "given out" after coaching for the first three years of my career (now in my 41st year) and hit upon the practice of having each player build his own book. I require my players, and did the same thing when coaching HS ball, to bring a three ring hard cover note book and 2 sharpened pencils to each class room session (we have two a week). In each class session we will diagram plays, outlining each players responsibilities, on both offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Each player is required to diagram the play being discussed, write in the instructions for each position player on that play, as well as his own. At the end of the season each player has constructed his own play book, he has a complete understanding of the concept of the play, the actual notes on execution to make the play successful, and not only his assignments but the other ten men on the field with him as well.

COach Easton

TIGER ONE,

Great idea. I'll use that one in 2005. Thanks.

kc361

FGS,

My play book has pre-printed sheets in the front also. They include number of formations, base numbering system, gap and technique terminology for defense, etc.

Coach Easton

Superchief - What we will give our plays is play manager an animated playbook. Coach CAmpbell

Coach,

Just a suggestion, but I make a video playbook for our quarterbacks. With a simple editing system, you can overlay text with video and create a pretty effective playbook. Plus, students these days will watch a video over reading a book almost every time.

I don't know how into video games you coaches are, but football players play the Madden games obsessively! The neat thing is, you can make your own playbook, save it on a memory card(yours), and transfer it to another memory card (your players). As an obsessive Madden addict/football player I can tell you it's amazing how quickly we can memorize entire playbooks while playing the game. The downside is, not every kid is going to have a ps2 or xbox.

Coach,

Players have been questioning coaches calls since football first began. It's just a natural progression as a player starts to learn the game. IMO, that is what discipline is based on. You can't stop players from having their own ideas, but what you can stop and stop it quick, is making their opinions known verbally in front of the team, media, etc. This soon becomes a cancer and detrimental to the entire organization!
Just my opinion, as always.

Coach Easton