“Flipping” the classroom or practice field refers to the concept of using technology to flip the traditional classroom/ meeting time; using online, shared content to provide student-athletes with learning opportunities traditionally reserved for classroom presentations, freeing up that time for more in-depth, hands-on, interactive learning opportunities.

A recent article in the THE Journal (Technological Horizons in Education) provided 10 tips for a better flipped classroom.  The article dealt specifically with the classroom, but most of these tips easily translate into the arena of athletics and coaching as well.

1) Devise a flipped strategy. Will you make your own videos, curate material from other sources or do a combination? What video-creation software will you use? And what will you do with class time when you reduce or eliminate lecture time? I wrote about the nuts and bolts (including software) of making a screencast in my post, Making a Screen Recording

2) Start small. “I jumped in all at once and nearly drowned,” says Sherry Spurlock, an Illinois chemistry teacher who tried to flip all four of her classes at once. “Making the videos was a very big time commitment. I would recommend doing it in smaller chunks.” In my post, Flipping the Practice Field, I suggest each position coach start my making a teaching video of their most important drill.  Check the post to see some ideas on what that video might include.

3) Get student buy-in. Student-athletes may initially resist the idea of watching videos and doing other work outside of practice. The rationale for flipped pedagogy needs to be explained well.   I think most athletes will understand and relish in the fact that doing their “homework” will lead to more actual on the field coaching and teaching… the end result is that they will be more successful come game time.

4) Teach students how to watch videos. “You don’t watch instructional videos in the same manner as a popular film,” explains Jon Bergmann, a flipped learning innovator. Students need pointers on when to hit the pause button, when to go back and watch something again, and how to write notes and questions as they watch.  We try to educate our athletes about how studying film on Hudl is not at all like watching an NFL game on Sunday.  The same is true for your instructional videos.

5) Reach out to parents. Spurlock reports that her biggest roadblock at first was parents who didn’t understand what flipping was all about. She held parent conferences, created a short video, and sent an online newsletter to parents. Gradually parents became excited and supportive.  Many new platforms are helping with this process… with communicating safely with both students and parents and posting online content.   A relative newcomer to the field, Dewsly, has some great built in tools to help streamline this process.

6) Encourage (don’t punish) students. “If half of your students don’t watch your video content, don’t rescue them by teaching what is already in your video [in class],” says Bergmann. “All that will accomplish is to tell the students who did the work that they wasted their time.” A better solution is to have homework slackers watch the video at the back of the room while the rest of the team gets face-time with their coach going over higher-level material.  Like anything else in coaching, if you are clear with the expectation that they need to watch the “homework” video to see the field, then this should not be an issue.

7) Don’t use videos as the only engagement tool. Using the same blog format may become stale to students. Many students prefer to watch videos on their smartphones.   Some school districts have implemented a 1-to-1 philosophy, providing every student in their district a computer or tablet device.

8) Make videos short and interactive. Bergmann and his colleague Aaron Sams started with full-length lectures in their videos and quickly learned to limit each video to one discrete objective.  Videos should also be broken up into sections, have a table of contents, and if possible, have interactive features – for example, a quiz that takes students who get questions wrong back to the relevant section of the video.   There are many apps available to help with this process… several are described in Coach Grabowski article on flipped coaching, Making an Impact with Flipped Coaching.

9) Find fellow flippers. “I jumped on Twitter and blogs and ran things by people so I didn’t feel like I was stuck in my own little world,” says math teacher Chrystal Kirch. “You can feel like you are alone, but there are people out there that are willing to share.”  Here are several coaches that you can follow so that you will not feel alone:

• Keith Grabowski – Offensive Coordinator Baldwin Wallace University
• Blog – Coach and Coordinator
• Twitter – @CoachKGrabowski

• Jeff Floyd (Me)
• Blog – YouCanDoMore.net
• Twitter – @youcandomore1

• Jason Hanstadt – Assistant Coach- New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL.
• Blog – The Flipped Coach

• Jay Mathews – Offensive Coordinator Briarwood Christian School in Birmingham, AL.
• Blog – Football by Jayopsis
• Twitter – @jayopsis

• Dewsly - dewsly.com
• Blog – Dewsly Blog
• Twitter – @dewsly

10) Focus on what happens during classroom time. “A big misconception is focusing too much on the video,” says Kirch. “Video is valuable, but it is just one tool. Flipping is defined by what you do in class and student-centered learning.”   It’s not all about the videos… it’s about the extra in-depth classroom time, or on the field learning time you get by using this method.

More posts about Flipped Coaching:

• What is Flipped Coaching – Hanstadt
• How we do Flipped Coaching at BCS – Mathews
• Making an Impact with Flipped Coaching – Grabowski
• Flipping the Classroom (Flipped Coaching) – Grabowski
• Defensive Game Planning – Flipped Coaching – Floyd
• Flipping the Practice Field – Floyd
• On Edge Coaching – Grabowski
• Practice – Not a Minute to Spare – Floyd

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

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

That is the tagline for the new Heineken Beer ad campaign which features…

• A legendary rope climber…
• A legendary bird caller…
• A legendary bottle opener…
• A legendary rail slicer…
• A legendary eyebrow raiser…

And so on… 20 different guys on a cruise ship legendary at something. (You can see the ad in its entirety, including all the legends casting video at this link: Heineken – Odyssey Interactive

Everyone is legendary at something…

So, Coach… what is your legendary skill?

• Tech?
• Presenting?
• Strategy?
• Writing?
• Organization?
• Data?
• Motivation?
• Humor?
• Film editing?
• Word?
• Problem solving?
• Excel?
• Hudl?
• iMovie?

Now, just as important… how can you share that legendary skill?  That is why you got into coaching and teaching… correct?  Because you want to share/ teach/ coach/ help … other people.

Can you…

• Present at a clinic?
• Host a clinic?
• Present at a clinic that you host?
• Write an article for a coaching journal?
• Write a blog?
• Share something via email to your staff?
• Share something via email to 100 staffs via an email clinic?
• Make a screencast of drills for one of your drills?
• Make screencast of drills for all of your staff?
• Make a digital playbook for your program?

When you share your legendary skill… your art…  it will come back to you… be selfless, not selfish.

From a Seth Godin post:

“The irony, of course, is that selflessness (not selfishness, its opposite) is precisely the posture that leads to more success. The person with the confidence to support others and to share is repaid by getting more in return than his selfish counterpart.

The connection economy multiplies the value of what is contributed to it. It’s based on abundance, not scarcity, and those that opt out, fall behind.

Sharing your money, your ideas, your insights, your confidence… all of these things return to you. Perhaps not in the way you expected, and certainly not with a guarantee, but again and again the miser falls behind.”

Everyone is Legendary at something!

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

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

The idea was started a couple of years ago my Coach Scott Bailey from Lamar High School, Missouri State champions in 2011, 2012, and 2013.  Here is Coach Bailey’s explanation of the concept, which he includes for each new Email Clinic.

“…all you have to do to participate is reply to everybody in this email with your comments.  That way we all get a chance to learn from each other.  Included in this email are administrators and coaches of all sports, small school and large school, public school and private school, all parts of Missouri and other states as well.  If you have someone that you think would benefit from this email clinic simply add them to the list when you reply.  Again, if we all contribute then we all have a chance to learn and improve…”

Currently there are over 100 coaches and administrators included on the list, representing almost 50 schools.  I have tried to display the schools location as accurately as possible on the accompanying map.

Coach Bailey begins the thread posing a couple of questions, and any coach who chooses, responds… sometimes taking the clinic in a different direction all together.

I was sent the email after it being “live” for only three days… already there were 10 contributions from 7 different coaches…. excellent, thoughtful responses covering these topics:

• Training toughness
• Mental toughness
• The importance of the Coach/Player relationship
• Off-Season philosophy
• Confidence
• Weekly work schedule
• Character education
• Summer contact days
• Developing a winning philosophy

Here is why I think this is genius… and why it is working so well.

• There is an honest collegial feel with the coaches in this group… everyone that has been added was done so because they were “recommended”… someone thought they could add to the discussion.
• Coaches want to share, and most have an area of expertise… an area they feel confidant and comfortable teaching.
• The coaches feel comfortable responding… there is no formal presentation which eliminates the fear factor… fear of failure… fear of rejection… fear of public speaking… fears that are natural and present in most humans
• It is high tech enough to be easy and quick… low tech enough to be cross-platform … no special software or expertise needed to participate
• There is no time crunch… Coaches can add and view at their own leisure.

This is a simple, elegant idea from an amazing group of coaches that are not letting budget constraints, technology limitations, geographic distance, or selfish motives stop them from sharing and learning some really great ideas.  They are truly Doing More!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

But it is the nature of the game that each year one class moves on (graduates) and another “new” class of players joins the team.  Top tier programs will graduate most of their starters at the end of each season.   Maybe the best way to keep continuity in your program is not looking at the experience of your returning players, but concentrating on the joint experience of your coaching staff.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Robert Huckman (Harvard Business School) and Bradley Staats (University of North Carolina) cite evidence from a number of different fields that team performance improves when team members work together over time. “Team familiarity – the amount of experience individuals have working with one another – can influence how a group performs,” say Huckman and Staats. In most cases, the less team turnover, the better the results.

We know, perhaps only anecdotally, that this is the case with our coaching staffs.   Huckman and Staats examine why… specifically five key factors.   I have seen evidence of  each of these factors on high functioning coaching staffs that I have been a part of:

Coordinating activities – Teams whose members have different specialties are sometimes inefficient because of poor communication, conflict, and confusion. “Members new to each other simply don’t understand when and how to communicate,” say Huckman and Staats. “Familiarity can help a group overcome this obstacle; once a team has learned when and how to communicate on one project, it can carry those skills over to the next.”

Learning where expertise lies – Each individual brings knowledge to the team’s task, but it takes time to learn who has useful information.

Responding to change – Teams have to respond to changing circumstances and new demands, and familiarity provides a common platform from which members can adapt and meet new demands.

Integrating knowledge to innovate – “Innovative solutions typically come from new combinations of existing knowledge,” say Huckman and Staats. “Because familiarity helps team members share information and communicate effectively, it makes them more likely to integrate knowledge and come up with coherent, innovative solutions.”

Staff continuity is critical, but not always an easy thing to accomplish.

I want coaches on my staff that aspire to be coordinators and head coaches.  I have been fortunate to have some great assistants that have worked with me in the past.  The difficult thing,then, becomes keeping them… they are constantly being poached away.  Position coaches becoming coordinators and coordinators becoming head coaches.

This leads to the final key factor cited by Huckman and Staats:

Capturing value – In a stable, cohesive team, “Each member’s performance is dependent on that of the others,” say Huckman and Staats. This means the loss of an individual won’t do grievous harm to the productivity of the group. It’s also possible that a valuable employee considering another job offer might decide to stay because of the warm embrace of the team.

So, possibly one of the best ways to keep a high functioning team (coaching staff) together is to consistently recognize the value of your teammates (coaches).

How are you presently doing this with your staff?  Do you make it hard for a staff member to take another job because they feel the “warm embrace of the team”?

Tomorrow more about staff continuity and how some championship programs accomplish it.

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

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

• Data has always driven my game planning preparation
• Data has always driven my practice preparation
• Date has always driven my strength and conditioning curriculum and schedule

Looking at the data for this blog gives me some insight as well.

Besides providing information on the posts that are most popular (see post “Top” posts “Best” posts ) it also lists who the top referrers are… people and web sites that have sent readers to my blog:

• Coach Keith Grabowski
• Kansas Prep Football
• PrepsKC
• The X’s and O’s of Football Coach Huey
• Washington Post
• Football by Jayopsis
  

I would like to take this opportunity to thank these people, and in turn recommend them as a source of football specific information… just click on any of the above links for some great information!

Many times readers arrive at my blog, not due to being specifically referred by a trusted source, but by typing a search term in Google, Bing, Yahoo, or some other search engine.  Over 4,000 page views have been from people who have landed via one of these search engines.

All told, there have been over 500 different search terms that readers have used to land at my blog.  The most popular search criteria were from coaches who were specifically searching for some form of defensive game day call sheet…. Over 360 views with 60 variations of that search term.  This data tells me that there a was a large group of football coaches looking for a good tool to use on game day, and my game planning posts resonated with this group.

There have also been some very specific search terms from coaches wanting to find a particular item:

• youcandomore Jeff Floyd
• 40 yard dash fitness test
• hang snatch technique
• percentage based football strength training program

These searches landed them (eventually) on the pages linked above, and hopefully provided information that was helpful to them.

Another group of terms looking for some very specific tech advice:

• How to telestrate in imovie
• PowerPoint telestrating
• Telestration from Hudl to iMovie
• Can I use iMovie with Hudl
• Can iMovie screen record
• Hudl with iPad

Other searches were a little less specific… a little more general:

• What happens during a football recruiting home visit
• What to do in a defensive press box
• College football recruiting information
• How do I gauge a college coach interest in me

Typically these turned up several pages of my blog as possible sources of information.

Others still were a little absurd:

• Steel smelting
• Sasquatch
• Yoda lifting

These landed them on pages of mine that DID mention these things, but they were used as analogies … sorry to those I led astray.

Some general observations and reflections:

• There is a lot of information available on the Internet
• There are a lot of coaches, athletes, and parents looking for help, be it very specific, or more general.
• Some people are hungry… ready to dig deep to find information that they want.  When I typed in some of these search terms, my blog did not always show up on the first page… often not even the second or third page of results.
• Pretty much everything I have shared, was shared with me at one point in time…. that is why I freely share… that is what the “coaching fraternity” is all about.

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

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

Before Faceoook…

Before Twitter …

Before LinkedIn…

Before Instagram…

Before Texting…

…there were thousands of coaches that yearly covered the Hotel Lobby floor at the AFCA convention, with a pocket full of business cards, a drink in their left hand, and their right hand poised… ready to shake the hand of the next coach they were introducing themselves to.

Networking… the old fashioned way.

This will all begin anew next week in Indianapolis as the nations coaches descend upon the Indiana Convention Center.

If you have not ever had the opportunity to attend the national convention of the American Football Coaches Association, I would put it on your bucket list.

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

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

All Christmases were memorable at our house… with 6 kids it was always a ruckus.

But thinking back to 1969 it was both memorable and prescient.

More memorable in part because the KC Chiefs had just defeated the NY Jets (who were coming off their Championship 1968 season) 13-6 in the AFC Divisional Playoff game, and were on their way to winning Super Bowl IV.   Our family had 2 season tickets and we were all Chiefs fans…. even though my older sister was somewhat a closet Jets fan, and a not so closet Broadway Joe Namath fan… in fact my Christmas present to her (Joyce) that year was a Joe Namath GI Joe type doll that came with full pads, a uniform and a white fur coat.

My wish list for that Christmas was short… I was going for the “All In” approach… asking for a single, yet somewhat extravagant present… The wish was for a game called “Computer Football” made by the company, Electronic Data Controls.  Now this was not the old electric football game where the field vibrates and the players move (normally in circles) down the field.  In the Computer Football game each player was a “coach” and could select an offensive play and call a defense.  You did this by pushing a couple of buttons.  After the play and defense were selected, a bulb would light up on a large grid, which would determine the outcome of the play.

The game was very complex looking… on a large wooden board with dials and buttons and light bulbs…. it was also very expensive.  For some reason I remember the price being $39… figuring inflation (there is a calculator online) that would be equal to nearly $250 today.  Being in a family with 6 kids it was a long shot that “Santa” would be able to deliver.

Well, Santa did deliver… which is why along with all else, Christmas in 1969 was memorable and prescient…. Over 40 years later I still love football, coaching, strategy and using technology to pull it all together.

Happy Holidays!  Go Chiefs!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

No, not that list… that “naughty or nice” die has already been cast at this point in time.

I am talking about a To-Do list… the simplest/ quickest way to become more efficient and productive.

I am an organization “junky”… but have not always been.  In my first teaching position at Blue Springs HS years ago (1979) I was an unorganized mess…. teaching five different preps and coaching two sports.  I was floundering and knew I had to change some things… knew I had to get more organized or fail.

I am also a tech “junky”… I have used computers since 1982… I actually owned an Apple IIc (the first “portable” computer) in 1984. I have tried and experimented with nearly all of the organization and productivity apps out there.  I have tried probably six or seven “To-Do” list apps, and even though I am a techie, I don’t use any of them.

For some reason, for me, I find that I am the most productive… the most efficient… when I make a simple, hand written list each day of tasks that I need to do.  I get great satisfaction marking through the tasks when I finish them.  On days that I neglect to make the list… I am not as productive.  The list keeps me focused, on task, and prevents me from drifting into endless “time sucks” that are out there lurking … like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

It is the simplest and quickest way to become more efficient and productive.  If this habit is not currently in your repertoire, maybe you should put it on your Christmas List, or make it a Resolution next week!

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

The presenter was explaining that in each discipline, there were a set of vocabulary words that students had to master to continue learning on the next level.  She said that just giving a list of vocabulary words with definitions, and asking the students to learn, was NOT an effective teaching method, but the following were:

• Ask students to restate in their own words
• Using pictures or video
• Repetition

It struck me that, as coaches, most of us do this all the time!  In our discipline (football, basketball, softball, etc) we have a “vocabulary” that our athletes must master.  Most of us use ALL of the recommended effective ways to teach the “vocabulary” of our system… and the better and sooner we teach our “vocabulary” the sooner our athletes are ready to function in our program.

This vocabulary includes basic words that are important for athletes to understand early if they are to progress in our programs… words and terms such as, line of scrimmage, stance, hash marks, block, etc.  Can you imagine trying to teach more advanced words, terms and plays without your athletes having an understanding of this basic vocabulary?

All of our programs also have a set of more advanced, words, terms and phrases that our specific to our system.  We talk to our student-athletes all the time about “learning our language”.   The sooner they learn to speak the language of our system, the sooner they can play… they must know and understand our vocabulary…. Force, 3 technique, single high safety, lane of ball, etc

So how do we teach these concepts… this vocabulary?  Using the proven effective techniques the presenter described.

For example, when teaching our concept of “FORCE”

• A written definition of FORCE is given in the playbook:  “The defender responsible for FORCE will re-establish the sideline as close to the ball carrier as possible.”
• We include a diagram of FORCE in our playbook.
• 

• We orally explain the concept of FORCE using similar words and phrases – “You must FORCE the play to go inside of you”, “Set the Edge”, “Nothing gets outside of you”, “You need to squeeze down the play, eliminating a big inside pipeline”
• We demonstrate on the field how a defender would FORCE a perimeter run play.
• We show video examples of FORCE being executed correctly.
• We quiz the players, asking them to explain the term FORCE.
• We check for understanding daily using film at practice.

Quickly, most of our new athletes understand completely the concept of FORCE, and all of our veteran players are ready to incorporate their understanding into more advanced defensive concepts and coverages.

I have never seen a great coach that was not a great teacher…. teaching vocabulary, or teaching character, or teaching a specific skill

Great coaches are great teachers… period.

Thanks again to PrepsKC for running this column both online and in their weekly print magazine. If you get a chance to go and visit their site and “Like” this post, I would appreciate it!

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

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

• 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