Post by bobgoodman on Sept 22, 2010 22:24:10 GMT -6
Things went much better today. HC Dave left me an opening, I took it, and I just hope things stay as good as they were at practice this evening.
Eric and I were there first, and for once (possibly in recognition of the shorter daylight we had) the administrators didn't get start the Warriors off with several minutes of stretches & warmups. So we each took charge for a few minutes, I giving them a little chop-your-feet-while-doing-other-moves warmup.
Dave came in much less aloof, warmer than previously. I had left with Brutus a phone message about something I wanted to do (see defense section, thread on taking out 2 for 1) which he got just before practice, so when we got a chance I described it to him in person. We started with some 3-on-3 run-to-daylight-between-cones scrimmages, which is what we've been doing the most of. (Is there a name for those? Triple nutcracker? Oklahoma plus?) They're getting a little better, and The Girl, possibly smelling the season opener, now finishes plays.
At the water break, I told Dave what Brutus had said he wanted, reminded Dave that he did want me to teach cut blocking, and, with Brutus pointing out we could sit 3 players from the 3-on-3s and still have 2 groups of 6, I asked to borrow our 2 projected DGs (The Girl and Mr. I Forgot About Practice) and one more player for 15 mins. of indy work on the shoeshine block. He acceded. I proceeded to a rotation where 2 of them would be landmarks. I wasn't actually going to let them be cut down in the drill, so I didn't have them step forward on the go signal, but just to get down into 3 point stance while the other one started out angled toward the nearer of them and shoeshined into where they would be.
First I demonstrated. I can report that although this artificial surface is soft against impact, it's still scratchy against friction. I didn't realize until I got home that I was bleeding from just above my elbow.
After a bunch of quick reps, The Girl was good, but Mr. I Forgot Practice was great, really throwing himself out & rolling well. Unfortunately Dave called us back before I had time to rep the 3rd player or to practice everyone in both directions.
Then we started scrimmaging the whole bunch. When I put the shoeshine on, The Girl, on the center's nose, moved to the wrong side (I'd asked her just previously if she could do it from both sides, she said yes) and only really crabbed rather than laying out, but she took out one of our most athletic and versatile players playing center. The offense had on a QB sneak which then went to the opposite A gap (which she'd've stuffed had she come in from the side I asked for), but the other coaches and everyone was highly impressed at her accomplishment. Suddenly I was a genius, I guess.
I thought for sure Mr. I Forgot was going to take out 2 OLs with his shoeshine. I told him and the others on the DL that the signal was now "Superman" rather than "shoeshine", and that would give him a chance to do what we'd just practiced. They properly ignored my dummy "shoeshine" call the next down, but when I called "Superman", Mr. I Forgot ignored that one too, saying, "You told me the signal was `Superman' but didn't tell me what it meant." So as I guess you could predict from his having forgotten to attend practice for 3 weeks, he may be athletically good but his head isn't in it.
Admin. has now given HCs the option of calling practice for 5 PM instead of 5:30, and Dave had said that he might be interested in that. So when he called the players together after some "suicide" conditioning at the end of practice (our usual), Dave told them how important it was to be on time, and I interrupted to ask "5 or 5:30". Dave went from peeved for a split second at my interruption to "good reminder", because he did decide to make them 5 PM.
Afterward Dave was much more interested in talking football with me than previously. He'd like me to teach some starting OLs to cut block too. I told him I could teach either crab or shoeshine/Superman technique, probably not time for both, and he said that during the season now that we're going to continue 3 weekly outdoors instead of going to 1 weekly gymnasium session after the 1st week of Oct., there might yet be time. I told him about Mr. I Forgot, suggested he might have a learning problem that Dave as teacher might be able to recognize...we hit it off OK, instead of it seeming cold & diffident. He hoped I wouldn't mind being there during games mostly to herd our players, but he thought that pre-game I could work on their form more. That would be a good time, considering we don't want to tire them out with conditioning drills then. I asked for a copy of the wristband our QB uses, and he said he thought he'd given one to me the previous session, but he hadn't so he did this time. Plays are pretty self-explanatory once you know we have one player who was taught to pull last year and would be inserted as a kind of wild card pulling lineman.
I think I've broken the ice for good this time.
Meanwhile I looked around at the other Pee Wee teams practicing, and Brutus was right. They all use basically the same method of scrimmaging and lots of live, scrimmage-type drills. Whether they ever worked on form since setting their rosters, I don't know. But it means our own players probably won't suffer greatly at the hands of our opponents in terms of form.
Eric and I were there first, and for once (possibly in recognition of the shorter daylight we had) the administrators didn't get start the Warriors off with several minutes of stretches & warmups. So we each took charge for a few minutes, I giving them a little chop-your-feet-while-doing-other-moves warmup.
Dave came in much less aloof, warmer than previously. I had left with Brutus a phone message about something I wanted to do (see defense section, thread on taking out 2 for 1) which he got just before practice, so when we got a chance I described it to him in person. We started with some 3-on-3 run-to-daylight-between-cones scrimmages, which is what we've been doing the most of. (Is there a name for those? Triple nutcracker? Oklahoma plus?) They're getting a little better, and The Girl, possibly smelling the season opener, now finishes plays.
At the water break, I told Dave what Brutus had said he wanted, reminded Dave that he did want me to teach cut blocking, and, with Brutus pointing out we could sit 3 players from the 3-on-3s and still have 2 groups of 6, I asked to borrow our 2 projected DGs (The Girl and Mr. I Forgot About Practice) and one more player for 15 mins. of indy work on the shoeshine block. He acceded. I proceeded to a rotation where 2 of them would be landmarks. I wasn't actually going to let them be cut down in the drill, so I didn't have them step forward on the go signal, but just to get down into 3 point stance while the other one started out angled toward the nearer of them and shoeshined into where they would be.
First I demonstrated. I can report that although this artificial surface is soft against impact, it's still scratchy against friction. I didn't realize until I got home that I was bleeding from just above my elbow.
After a bunch of quick reps, The Girl was good, but Mr. I Forgot Practice was great, really throwing himself out & rolling well. Unfortunately Dave called us back before I had time to rep the 3rd player or to practice everyone in both directions.
Then we started scrimmaging the whole bunch. When I put the shoeshine on, The Girl, on the center's nose, moved to the wrong side (I'd asked her just previously if she could do it from both sides, she said yes) and only really crabbed rather than laying out, but she took out one of our most athletic and versatile players playing center. The offense had on a QB sneak which then went to the opposite A gap (which she'd've stuffed had she come in from the side I asked for), but the other coaches and everyone was highly impressed at her accomplishment. Suddenly I was a genius, I guess.
I thought for sure Mr. I Forgot was going to take out 2 OLs with his shoeshine. I told him and the others on the DL that the signal was now "Superman" rather than "shoeshine", and that would give him a chance to do what we'd just practiced. They properly ignored my dummy "shoeshine" call the next down, but when I called "Superman", Mr. I Forgot ignored that one too, saying, "You told me the signal was `Superman' but didn't tell me what it meant." So as I guess you could predict from his having forgotten to attend practice for 3 weeks, he may be athletically good but his head isn't in it.
Admin. has now given HCs the option of calling practice for 5 PM instead of 5:30, and Dave had said that he might be interested in that. So when he called the players together after some "suicide" conditioning at the end of practice (our usual), Dave told them how important it was to be on time, and I interrupted to ask "5 or 5:30". Dave went from peeved for a split second at my interruption to "good reminder", because he did decide to make them 5 PM.
Afterward Dave was much more interested in talking football with me than previously. He'd like me to teach some starting OLs to cut block too. I told him I could teach either crab or shoeshine/Superman technique, probably not time for both, and he said that during the season now that we're going to continue 3 weekly outdoors instead of going to 1 weekly gymnasium session after the 1st week of Oct., there might yet be time. I told him about Mr. I Forgot, suggested he might have a learning problem that Dave as teacher might be able to recognize...we hit it off OK, instead of it seeming cold & diffident. He hoped I wouldn't mind being there during games mostly to herd our players, but he thought that pre-game I could work on their form more. That would be a good time, considering we don't want to tire them out with conditioning drills then. I asked for a copy of the wristband our QB uses, and he said he thought he'd given one to me the previous session, but he hadn't so he did this time. Plays are pretty self-explanatory once you know we have one player who was taught to pull last year and would be inserted as a kind of wild card pulling lineman.
I think I've broken the ice for good this time.
Meanwhile I looked around at the other Pee Wee teams practicing, and Brutus was right. They all use basically the same method of scrimmaging and lots of live, scrimmage-type drills. Whether they ever worked on form since setting their rosters, I don't know. But it means our own players probably won't suffer greatly at the hands of our opponents in terms of form.