It is that time of the year, and that time of each week during the season… game film evaluation.  I have always believed in the value of grading game film.  As a coach, it gives you a tangible, quantifiable idea of what your players (and you) did well, as well as what they (and you) need to work on.  I have written about the film grade template we have used in our programs… grading each athlete on every play.

• You can read the post at this link – Film Grading Tool
• Download the Excel Template at this link – Film Grade Template
• Or watch the video below to see how to use the Template.

It is easy to then use the data on this spreadsheet to determine what your coaching emphasis needs to be for the upcoming week.  It is a great tool to give the athletes, which helps regarding accountability… both yours as a coach, and theirs as a player in your program.

I have also had serious internal dialogues with myself about the value of watching the entire game, either as a team, offense or defense, or as a position group.  Is it really the best use of 60-90 minutes having your entire position group, starters, subs, role players, and non-players, watch the entire film?

Here is another method that we have used in the past, and which I believe has merit.  Every position coach, after grading the film, determines what their players did well, and what they need to work on to improve as a position group.  By using the film grading template, or something similar, this process is relatively easy.  Once the area(s) of emphasis has been decided, the coach then makes a 20 play (or so) cutup, showing 10 plays that his position group played well, using correct technique, great effort, angle, pad level, etc.  He discusses how these factors led to a positive outcome on the play.  He also includes 10 plays that highlight mistakes (ideally the most common mistakes of the game, and what they will be emphasizing during the next week) and explains how these missteps led to problems on those plays.

The position coach can easily focus, teach, and explain to his position group the main emphasis for the upcoming week by showing these clips… and can do so in a time efficient manner.   It becomes easy for the coach to say, and show, “When we do things right, here is the outcome, when we make mistake _______ , here is the result.”

The players will still have the film grade sheets, and can watch the video on their own to see how they played individually.  It is another example of “flipping” the traditional classroom.  For other posts about this concept see:

• Flipping the Practice Field
• Defensive Game Planning – Flipped Coaching
• AFM article by Coach Grabowski on Flipped Coaching

Have a good Labor Day … don’t work too hard…. ironic, isn’t it?

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Follow @youcandomore1