Category Archives: Resources

The Choice is Yours

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I get asked this question…

A LOT.

“What can I do to get a college to notice me… what should I do to get recruited?”

Often the student-athlete does not like what I have to tell them.

First, let me say, that if you are an “elite” athlete, you are going to get noticed.

But, if you are like the majority of student-athletes that get recruited… and are NOT an “elite” athlete, then the margin between getting recruited and not is relatively small.

It really is a fairly simple concept… how to get recruited.

The actual doing tends to be much harder… but here is how you do it.

choiceYou have to make good choices.

Throughout the four years you are a student-athlete, there will be literally a thousand different choices you will need to make…

  • In the classroom
  • In the weight room
  • At home
  • During practice
  • In the halls at school
  • During games
  • Socially
  • With your friends
  • By yourself

Now, you don’t have to make every correct choice in your lifetime… everyone makes mistakes. But know that the more good choices you make… choices that have your end goal of being a collegiate athlete in mind… the greater your chances of success.

And know, too, that there are some choices you simply have to make correctly or you are done.

I see it happen every year…

  • A great athlete, in their senior year, that is missing too many core courses.
  • An off the field “incident” gets reported on by the local paper.
  • A recruitable athlete neglects to take the ACT until their senior year.
  • An athlete gets an offer rescinded because of an inflammatory tweet.

What should you do to get recruited?

The choice is yours.

More information for athletes, parents and coaches regarding the collegiate recruiting process at these links:

Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Little Things = Big Fixes

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Do you need to make some BIG fixes to your squad?

My suggestion is … focus on the “little things”.

I think many times as coaches it is easy to get caught up thinking that some “shiny” new scheme might be the answer to woes your team may be experiencing… maybe adding a play… introducing a new “wrinkle”… a different pre-game routine… any enticing “magic bullets” that might be available.

But alas, there are no magic bullets.

If you examine what successful teams are doing, and how they are doing it, I think you will find that regardless of scheme, the good teams… the GREAT teams are well coached. Well-coached teams do all of the “little things” very well.

Here is a checklist of “little things” that I have used as a self-evaluation at different times during the season

Penalties

  • How many are you accruing?
  • What type?
  • How can you improve in this area?
  • Are you allowing or correcting these things during practice?

Film… examine/ study and GRADE film of your players… of both practice and game.

  • How is their technique?
  • Are they aligned correctly?
  • Do they execute their assignments correctly?
  • Do they give good effort?

If you are not examining these things during the week by evaluating practice film, do not expect much improvement during the game.

Here is a link to my thoughts on grading film – Film Grading

And here is an editable film grading tool that you can download and use to streamline your film grading and evaluation: Film Grading Tool

And here is a video that explains the features of the tool and how to use it:

Game plan

  • Was it correct… did your opponents do what you anticipated?
  • Did your coaches have input, understand, and buy into the game plan?
  • Did your players understand the plan?
  • Did you execute the plan… if not, where was the breakdown?

Here is a link to all of my posts on game planning: Defensive Game Planning, All Posts, Forms, and Videos

Practice Time

  • Are you efficiently using your practice time?
  • Do you set a daily practice schedule?
  • Do your coaches know what to expect prior to practice?
  • Do your players know what to expect prior to practice?
  • How much time are you allocating in each area… fundamentals, game plan, special teams, etc.?

Here is a link to my thoughts on practice planning: Practice, Not a Minute to Spare

Here is a post about our weekly work schedule: Weekly Workflow

And a practice schedule template you can download: Practice Template

Coaching staff

  • Are you efficiently using your coaches during practice?
  • Are you efficiently using your coaches during the game?
  • Do your coaches understand your scheme?
  • Are your coaches doing a good job of teaching your scheme and techniques?

How is effective is your communication from coaches to your players?

  • Play calling
  • Signaling
  • Sideline adjustments
  • Substitutions

How effective is your communication between your coaches?

  • Press box input
  • Between each series
  • Adjustments

Here is a post on Game Organization – Game Procedures

How effective is your kicking game? How much practice time are you allocating to special teams?

Often fine-tuning and focusing on a few of these “little things” can give you the BIG fix that you are looking for.

Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

 

The YouCanDoMore YouTube Channel

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There is a very detailed explanation of my new YouTube channel project at a previous post,  Project Launch!, but this will be a little more succinct description with links to the videos that already reside on YouTube.The channel will have a series of tutorial videos, each 6-8 minutes, that will discuss some aspect of the collegiate recruiting process.  There will eventually be around 30-35 videos on the channel.

Some of the topics will be:

  • Why the playing field is not level
  • How to market yourself
  • Expanding the scholarship pool
  • NCAA Clearinghouse
  • Gauging level of interest

… and many more!

This video is the latest episode, Episode 19 – Size – Does it Matter?

Here is a playlist that includes all of the YouCanDoMore channel videos.  Right now there are 20 videos in the playlist… more will be added at the rate of about 2-3 per month.  I recommend that you watch in order, as many will build on previous knowledge/ episodes.

In this video I explain the platform, Patreon, and how it works.

The content on my YouCanDoMore channel is and will always be free.  If you choose to become a Patron of team YouCanDoMore you can join here : The YouCanDoMore Patreon Page.  Becoming a Patron will unlock additional content and services that will not be available on my YouTube channel.

A few simple ways to help me with this project:

  • Subscribe to the YouCanDoMore channel…. Just click on the button in the right hand column of this page and you are finished!
  • “Like” (thumbs up) the videos that you watch
  • Leave a comment or ask a question on the videos you watch
  • Share the YouCanDoMore YouTube channel with your cohorts via social media
  • And… the ultimate support, of course, would be visiting my Patreon Page and becoming a Patron!

As always, thanks for your support!

Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Project Launch!

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I hope you take the time to read this post… it is important to me.

Since I started this blog several years ago, I have written over 400 posts… with the intent of helping colleagues and their athletes by sharing some of my experience.

Many of the tools (film grade template, defensive game plan material) that I have shared via this site have been downloaded nearly 50,000 times!

I have not asked for anything in return… that is the nature of our profession.

Today I am asking for some help with a new project of mine that I think will be of interest to you, and hopefully gain your support

Today I am launching my YouTube Channel, YouCanDoMore.

Level the pLaying field!-23This channel is for Coaches, Parents, and Athletes, and will deal specifically with the recruiting process.  It will essentially be the same information that is contained in the presentation I have given many times (and is on my blog), only in bite-sized segments … probably 8-10 minutes.  Each segment will deal with a different aspect of recruiting (ie gauging level of interest, making a highlight video, ACT testing, etc) and I plan on airing about one new segment each week for a total of around 25-30 videos.

The videos will be professionally done, and will include great content and information.

This is not a recruiting service… quite the opposite.  It is intended to teach athletes and parents how to use various tools and concepts I will supply, to do the work that a recruiting service would ask $100’s to do.

I have chosen this format for a few reasons.

  1. It extends my reach
  2. The video format allows for better understanding than just the printed word (my blog)
  3. This format will allow for comments and questions after each segment.  As you know in a large auditorium setting, students (and parents) often feel intimidated/ inhibited asking questions.  I WILL answer every individual question after each segment airs.
  4. When I have given this seminar, it is an “all day sucker”… lasting about 4-5 hours. Being bite-sized chunks allows for consumption and digestion at the viewers own pace.
  5. I am also planning on including interviews with current coaches (College and HS in a variety of sports) regarding the recruiting process.

ExampleThe channel itself will be free,  BUT I am also including a way that viewers can help compensate me for the videos… if they feel the content is worthy, and the are financially able.  I will be using a platform called Patreon that allows viewers to become Patrons (for a really small fee) of my work.  The Patrons WILL have access to additional content.

How can you help?   Here are a couple of ways….

  • I always welcome your input, and will be calling on some of you to share your expertise regarding the recruiting process via video interview.
  • Please share links to my YouTube Channel (YouCanDoMore) and encourage your athletes to begin the video series.
  • Use your social media connections (Twitter, Facebook, Hudl, Instagram, etc) to help get the word of the channel out to your players and colleagues. ReTweet, Share, Like…. All of the above.
  • Visit my Patreon page and consider becoming a Patron of this project.

What’s in this for you as a Coach?

One of the main points I make in the series (to both athletes and their parents) is that although your coach will be the main conduit to college recruiters, they will not GET you a scholarship… It is up to the athlete to do everything in their power (off-season workouts, practice, academics, character, etc) to make themselves a remarkable, recruitable athlete in their coach’s and recruiter’s eyes.

This information will be applicable for athletes, parents, and coaches in all sports. I make the point that if you are a senior, it is late in the process, but there will still be information in the series that can help you… if you are in 8th grade, it is not too early to start thinking about the collegiate recruiting process, and what it will take to realize your goals.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, and thanks for your continued support of this blog… nearly half a millions views!

Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!

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Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Running an Effective Drill

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ucmoIn my first season as a coach at the University of Central Missouri, during one of our first staff meetings, our Head Coach, Terry Noland gave us some advice.  His instructions regarding how to effectively run a drill were not only good advice to a young coach with eight years experience (me), but lasting concepts that have served me well for over thirty years.

  1. Have a name for the drill – that way when you run it successive times, you don’t need to spend as much time explaining it.
  2. Teach the athletes what technique(s) you are trying to improve with the drill.
  3. Have the drill set up prior to the athletes arriving at your station.
  4. Have an organized progression as to how the athletes move through the drill – for example “the first person in line will be the ball carrier.  You will go from being the ball carrier, to tackler, to the end of the line.”
  5. Don’t be a part of the drill – Coach!
  6. Give the athletes specific instructions regarding the speed of the drill – Is it full speed, ½ speed, or walk through.
  7. Give the athletes a specific start point for the drill.
  8. Give the athletes a specific end point for the drill.

These are simple concepts that make for effective daily teaching.

Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It! 

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Share a Day With a Pistol Expert!

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I am extremely excited to announce the following:

coach-bA longtime friend, great coach, and awesome clinician, Coach Scott Baumgartner, will be coming to the Kansas City area to hold a one-day clinic on Saturday, March 4.  Coach Baumgartner and I were on staff together at UCM where he coached receivers.  He is currently coaching RB’s at the University of New Mexico under head coach Bob Davie.  The Lobo’s pistol offense led the FBS in rushing this year.

coach-b2This is truly a rare opportunity.  Coach Baumgartner is considered one of the top experts in the country regarding the Pistol Offense.  He was on staff for 9 seasons at the University of Nevada under Chris Ault, and was QB coach there the year (2005) the Pistol was invented by Ault and the Nevada staff.

The clinic will be held at the Lecture Hall at Truman High School in Independence, MO, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Many of the KC area coaches know Coach B.  He is a regular on the Glazier circuit and is a polished presenter… sharing very good information from drills, game cutups, philosophy, etc.

The cost of the clinic will be $10 per coach.  You can pay with a Credit Card via the PayPal link on my site, or cash/ check (made out to Jeff Floyd) the day of the clinic.

Here is some additional information regarding Coach Baumgartner and his coaching experience:

Considered one of the leading experts on the Pistol Offense, University of New Mexico running back coach, Scott Baumgartner has over 20 years of coaching experience.

Baumgartner has roots in the Kansas City area through his years as wide receiver coach at the University of Central Missouri from 1996-2003 … this prior to his stint as QB/WR coach at the University of Nevada under Pistol Guru, head coach Chris Ault from 2004-2012

NCAA Football: Gildan New Mexico Bowl-Arizona vs New MexicoCoach Baumgartner begins is fourth season at the University of New Mexico, and his second year of coaching the running backs. The Lobos led the FBS in rushing this past season, his first with the RB’s. Prior to coaching the backs, Coach Baumgartner guided the wide receiver corps that established record production in the UNM pistol offense during the Bob Davie (head coach of UNM) era.

nm-bowlThe Lobos have earned bowl berths the last two seasons under Davie, their first since 2007. Davie has turned around the New Mexico football program that had won 3 total games in the 3 previous seasons prior to his taking the helm.

Before arriving at UNM, Coach Baumgartner was an assistant at the University of Nevada under head coach Chris Ault for nine seasons. Baumgartner was a member of the Nevada staff (QB coach) that in 2005 invented the pistol offense. During his tenure at Nevada, the Wolfpack had seven finishes in the top 15 nationally in total offense.

I hope you will be able to join us for this single day of offensive football learning.  I know this is fairly short notice, so I am hoping you will help me in disseminating this information to interested coaches!

  • Coach Scott Baumgartner – University of New Mexico RB Coach
  • Truman High School, 3301 S. Noland Road Independence, MO 64055
  • Lecture Hall
  • Time – 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
  • Cost $10

Any questions, contact me via phone (214.385.8695) or the twitter or email links below!

Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

The Process is the Key

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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.

LUCall

Here are brief descriptions and links to each post that will take you through this process.

Genealogy

This post looks at the people and programs that shaped our Defensive Game Planning process at the University of Central Missouri.

Weekly Workflow

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

The Ready List

How THE key component of a successful game plan is developed

The Play Grid

How we chart and opposing offense, taking into account down, distance and formation

The Call Sheet

The final product of this process and the tool we use to select our defensive calls on game day

Game Procedures

How we man the press box and sideline, and delegate duties and responsibilities to each coach…. Includes game day chart templates that we use

FAQ

Questions that have been asked and answered over the years regarding this process

Flipped Coaching

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

Player Ranking Process

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As coaches, we always want to make sure our best people are on the field at the correct time. Personally, I also want to make sure, as much as possible, that these decisions are based on good data and accurate information… that personalities and biases are not included in the equation.

To help insure this, when I was at the University of Central Missouri, we started a procedure to that end… a Player Ranking system.

Here is how it worked.

Immediately after every practice each position group coach would rank every player in their position group, assigning them a number (if you had 10 players in your position group then 1-10) based on their performance at that practice. I always tried to mentally go through each period and recall how each individual did… both good and bad for each period… and then assign the ranking after that thought process.

The important part of this, which we stressed to our players, was that the practice ranking was for their performance at that practice only.

It was not an indication of…

  • how good a player they were
  • who the starters were
  • what we thought they were capable of
  • how we thought they practiced yesterday
  • if we “liked” them
  • their potential
  • how they did at the end of practice

It was based on that practice … that entire practice… only.

As defensive coordinator, I collected all of the coach’s rankings and entered them on a spreadsheet. We sorted each position group by the rankings for that day, printed and posted them in our team room. We also had a column for their average ranking each week.

This process, tedious as it could be during double day practices in August, gave us some valuable information, and forced our coaches and players to be more accountable on a daily basis.

The players knew they were going to get ranked, and their rank was based on the entire practice… period by period… and those rankings would be printed and displayed.

The coaches, too, knew that their position group rankings would be displayed… and that they must be able to discuss the “whys” … the specifics… with their players.

As coaches by noting any variance in our player’s weekly average, we could see and spot (hopefully early) any trends that were developing and address them.

And, of course, it also became a valuable tool to fall back on when setting our weekly depth chart. We had very few discussions when the depth chart was posted as to players positions on the chart… there were few surprises.

This process was independent and separate from our film grading (see post – Film Grading Tool) procedures which we used during game and scrimmage situations.

Here is a sample player-ranking template for the Linebacker defensive position group at Anytown High School… made up names, but this is pretty much what it looked like in the day.

Defensive Player Ranking

You can download the template by clicking this link – Player Ranking Template.

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Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Drill, Drill, Drill

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The Internet…

You can have your own personal clinic every day.

Earlier this week an online call came from Lee Weber (CSIC and head football coach at Wamego High School, KS) asking coaches to send in their favorite drills so he can compile a “best of” Twitter #fbchat drill guide.

I have become a virtual colleague of coach Weber via Twitter and the various football coaching chats (see post #TXHSFBCHAT… the Fastest 60 Minutes on the Internet) that take place weekly online.

I immediately responded to his collaboration call, and in the process realized that, although I have written many posts regarding football drills, and detailed many of my favorites, they were spread over a time period of three years and nearly 400 posts… not the easiest navigation to find some good ball drills.

Here is a compilation of articles I have written about drills including philosophy, terminology and diagrams… hopefully a little easier for you to navigate.

step-over-dummy-0811Please consider sending one of your favorite drills to Coach Weber (gcwarrior@gmail.com) for inclusion in his drill guide. As you can see from my drills, they were all learned from colleagues in our profession that were willing to share.

The coaching profession benefits when we collaborate.

Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Attributes of a Champion

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What does a champion… a winner… look like?

They come in all sizes and shapes.

There are many attributes that make up a champion… some tangible, but many not easily quantified.

A couple of years ago, through a connection made possible by LinkedIn, I found a chart that provided an awesome visual that athletes can use for self evaluation.

Evaluation_of_Performance_Chart

You can read about how Coach Tony Courville (who I got the chart from) uses this tool in the Teurling Catholic Football Program in this post – Evaluation of Performance Chart.

I really like this chart… I think it brings into focus many of the abstract qualities related to being a winner.

In fact, I liked the chart and the concepts behind it so much that I converted it to a Word document so I could use it in my program, with my athletes.

word evaluation chart

You can download the chart through this link… editable Evaluation of Performance Chart… or clicking on the image above.

The document should be easy to customize, so you can add, delete, edit… do whatever you choose to make it useful to you and your program.  It is a series of grouped Text Boxes in a Word document.  You can drop in your own logo, edit the school name, and change the font or any verbiage that you want to make it your own.

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Remember – You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com