Indy vs Group/Team

From a defensive perspective, during the season we will spend 10-15 on individuals (we practice offense and defense every day). On an offensive day we will definitely do group. On a defensive day we will have individuals, group and team.

Offensively speaking, on a defensive day, we might divide our group time and have short group and team periods. Sometimes we skip group and simply have a team period (on a defensive day).

I've always felt like Indy was very important and that most teams do too much team...a lot of people standing around watching (unfortunately that includes coaches), 22 getting reps while the rest hang out and tune out...not a whole lot of technique going on. I want Indy and group all I can get and I want team limited to 10 to 20 minutes a day. That is just my opinion. Last year I got around an hour a day with the OL in Indy and I used every second of it and could have found plenty to keep me busy if they had given me more. By the way, we never installed blocking assignments during Indy, it was all technique. All of the technique work DID pay off throughout the season.

I took a bunch of my philosophies from Don Markham. We are a double wing school and believe that football in a phone booth takes lots of team time.

What I do is this:

we do mandatory study hall from 230-300
at 3pm we send the line to the wt room and the backs to the gym.

the backs will skill and drill or rep backfield actions while we coach the skills up
at 330 we switch, the line goes to the gym, backs lift

the line then works on schemes and skills for a half hour

then we dress and hit the field
we flex and form run for 10 minutes tops
we take care of make up discipline
then we tackle and block in a county fair type set up with stations around the field
then we punt
then we do defense for a half hour, all indy or group
then we do team defense for 15 minutes
then its team offense for however long it takes, inititially it will be 500ish til 6 ish...later it will be trimmed to about a half hour

now, ever wednesday instead of wts, our backs and backers will work 7 on 7 for an hour while our line goes back to oline school and work the heck out of schemes and skills.

About 15 mins indy, 15 mins inside drill, 15 mins pass skel, 25 mins team. Rest of time is warm up, tackling circuits (whole team, except QBs) do these, and special teams. Small modifications in time, but generally never changes all season.

Indy for Oline can carry over into the seven on seven session.

I found that thud on bags for 15 minutes after stretch and special teams, to be very beneficial for the run game.

I am guilty of always running over on my OL Indy time. We schedule 15, but it's always 20 in the end. I usually do walk through before or after practice to get some extra reps/time. I value this time just as much as team. If I didn't, I'd have to take a hard look at what I was doing.

15-20 of team is more than enough for me. I want my coaches to be technitions...drill, drill, drill, technique, technique, technique. Don't know enough technique or drills, then learns some more.

Pre-Practice 10m of Special Teams Fundies (snap, kick, catch, block punt drills, open Field leverage, Qb's get loose, OL start Indy)
10m Flex
20-30m Special Teams (OL and Qb's in Indy)
10m Team Pass (11 on 11 down and distance, gets competitive, draws and an occasional trap thrown in to keep them honest)
10m Blitz Pick Up
15-40m Indy
10-15m Inside Run
10m Screens (all 11 on offense)
10-20m 7-on-7
15-20m Team Scrimmage

Sometimes we will throw in a little 11 on air time just to work tempo and signals.

During two-a-days we also have periods of "throw vs. air" that we will do during indy time once we get to game week. During that time we focus on installing the details of our two plays a day. We will also have a run install period where we teach two run plays a day (THERE WILL BE NO TEACHING WHO TO BLOCK DURING INDY).

During Indy the OL stays by themselves the whole time. The Qb's will work a mesh/run reads drill with the Rb's for 10m every day and we will run a routes drill or a pass read drill or an uncovered drill with the Wr's for 10m.

During inside run we will have Wr's go 1 on 1 with Db's and either stalk block or run routes vs press man. During 7-on-7 the OL works on pass pro fundies.

OL averages just over an hour of Indy per day.
Wr's average over 30m indy per day. My Wr coach is great and he is always protecting his teaching time and wanting more indy. He really teaches route running, stems, leverage, stacking, getting off of press, route adjustments, blocking, etc.

I have practice schedules, drill manuals, drill circuits, etc. that I would gladly share for those of you that can't see the usefulness of so much indy time. It makes all the difference for us.

I am not sure how you can have 20 minutes for Indy Oline every day. That is not enough time.

Our offensive linemen have a 20-minute individual period for working on individual (run) blocks. They are also together during the 15 minute Specialty period (combination blocks, review assignments or pass pro), and for our Group period(s). That's an hour of time each day before we go 11-on-11, which should be plenty of time if the coach is organized and not putting on a clinic on the field.

45 minutes would be preferable. As some have pointed out, 15 to 20 minutes for indy and work in the rest during other periods (skelly, special teams, inside run etc.)

I think we may have to go to an all defense day and an all offense day.

This is what I am thinking about switching to:
15 minutes specialties
15 minutes warm and stretch
20 minutes special teams Kickoff/Return
20 minutes Tackling Stations
20 minutes Defensive Indy
20 minutes Defensive 7 on 7
20 Minutes Defensive Team
10 Minutes Play Review (thud on bags)
10 minutes Offensive 7 on 7 (Oline indy)
5 min conditioning
Tuesday
15 minutes specialties
15 minutes warm and stretch
20 minutes special teams Punt/Return
20 minutes Offensive Indy
15 to 20 minutes Offensive 7 on 7
20 minutes Inside Run
20 Minutes Offensive Team
20 minutes Defensive Team/Skelly
5 min conditioning
Wednesday
15 minutes specialties
15 minutes warm and stretch
20 minutes Goalline and PAT
15 minutes play review thud on bags
20 minutes Offensive Indy
20 Minutes Offensive Team
10 minutes defensive Indy
15 minutes defensive Skelly
15 minutes Defensive Team
5 min conditioning
Thursday
Pre-game

We are having a problem with kids knowing what to do/where to go. I felt that if I cut some indy time and added group/team time we would be better at scheme recognition. Our technique is pretty good, our scheme knowledge is poor.

I guess the only answer is to change the scheme rather than cut indy time. If the kids know what to do but dont know who to block then thats a coaching error.

If you teach only technique during indy, when do you teach scheme/rules?


Thanks for the input

That is why I love play review thud on bags.