By the time this post goes live, Missouri High School football squads will already have one game under their belt with most other states following suit this week. For the next 10-15 weeks coaches across the country will be knee deep in the demanding but exciting grind of the high school football season.
As coaches, we have a lot on our plate each week…both on and off the field. One of the biggest time consuming jobs in this process, is of course, game planning…. making sure that we have done everything in our power to insure that we put our athletes in position to be successful offensively and defensively against the upcoming opponent.
My most popular series of posts, by far, are the eleven pieces that detail the game planning process our staff honed while at the University of Central Missouri. Posts in this series have been viewed over 20,000 times. The series was featured on the Washington Post’s Insiders Blog that had this to say:
For anyone who’s ever wondered how a defensive coach assembles a game plan, youcandomore.net has a whole series on the thought process behind it. This particular link is to the call sheet, how a coach picks what works against the opponent’s best plays in certain situations each week, and has them handy so he can call his defense in a matter of seconds.
A tool we developed (the Call Sheet) that is included in these posts, has been downloaded nearly 10,000 times. But really, more important than any single tool, spreadsheet, chart… more important than any “magic bullet” you are trying to find… is the PROCESS that we developed and that is outlined in these series of posts. A data driven… thoughtful… efficient …time tested… PROCESS. A process that you may be able to use “in toto”, or incorporate pieces into what you are currently doing.
Here are brief descriptions and links to each post that will take you through this process.
This post looks at the people and programs that shaped our Defensive Game Planning process at the University of Central Missouri.
The day-to-day sequence of designing and implementing the game plan, including practice plans and scripts is outlined in this post
Film Breakdown and Formation Analysis
How and why particular game film is chosen and the tools we use to analyze an opponents offense
How THE key component of a successful game plan is developed
How we chart and opposing offense, taking into account down, distance and formation
The final product of this process and the tool we use to select our defensive calls on game day
How we man the press box and sideline, and delegate duties and responsibilities to each coach…. Includes game day chart templates that we use
Questions that have been asked and answered over the years regarding this process
Some ideas on how to “flip” meeting, practice, and study to better utilize time
Defensive Installation Progression
Some considerations and ideas when planning your defensive installation… includes a sample form
All-in-all over a couple dozen charts and videos to help explain the game planning process we developed.
For those of you that have been following my blog (over 400 posts) for the past three years (nearly a quarter million views!), a heartfelt thanks and a couple of requests…
- If you have found the blog helpful, interesting and/or entertaining… please share youcandomore.net with your colleagues…. AND …
- You will notice a new feature on the blog this week… a way to make a monetary donation… A “donate” button in the right panel… if you feel so moved.
Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!
Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com