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Post by coachsticks on Nov 16, 2010 7:53:45 GMT -6
For those who have done it successfully, what are some tips as we move into winter workouts and spring ball? How do you segment your practices? How do you condition? Do you make one side of the ball's gameplan incredibly easier than the other? Any tips and stories of success would be incredible
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Post by Coach.A on Nov 16, 2010 8:22:49 GMT -6
If possible take any full time 2-way players off all special teams.
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Post by mariner42 on Nov 16, 2010 8:27:11 GMT -6
We try to make kids "1 and 1/2" way players. So they start on one side and play significantly on the other. For example, our best FB this year is also our best ILB. We consider defense to be more important, so he plays every down of D, but gets spelled during non critical moments at FB.
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Post by bluedevil4 on Nov 16, 2010 11:10:05 GMT -6
We try to make kids "1 and 1/2" way players. So they start on one side and play significantly on the other. For example, our best FB this year is also our best ILB. We consider defense to be more important, so he plays every down of D, but gets spelled during non critical moments at FB. We like to refer to this as a "six quarter player." Play four quarters at their best position and give us two (accumulated) quarters on the other side of the ball so our other players can rest. In terms of practice, we do it in two ways, we split practice and pregame practice in half for offense and defense, and one day a week is all offense, and the next day is all defense. If we have to add extra practice time, we try to make it for our defense. |
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Post by phantom on Nov 16, 2010 11:50:45 GMT -6
We try to make kids "1 and 1/2" way players. So they start on one side and play significantly on the other. For example, our best FB this year is also our best ILB. We consider defense to be more important, so he plays every down of D, but gets spelled during non critical moments at FB. That's what we do. Like you, it's not always what position is better at but where he's more important. Our TB was the league's offensive POY and averages over 10 yds. per carry. But, FS is a critical position for us so we limit him to 15 carries a game so that he can play defense. One thing we do is if we have a really big guy he only starts one way and MAY spot in on the other side of the ball. We've seen too many 300 pounders who should be GREAT OL or 3 techs become mediocre 2 way players. We also keep the 2-way guys off STs unless they're returners. Practice: Monday is light (weights, film, game plan, very light running), Tuesday-offense, STs (plus a 10 minute defensive period), Wednesday-defense + STs (10 min. offensive period), Thurs- walk through STs, O, and D. |
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Post by lochness on Nov 16, 2010 11:57:44 GMT -6
We've always had guys going both ways for as long as I've been coaching. Here's some advice:
1. Make it status-quo. The more you talk about it and the more you project an image to the players that it is an "issue," the more excuses they have to not be onboard with it. It has to become the norm if you're going to be successful with it.
2. What mariner42 said about "1 and 1/2 way players" is a good way to go. We had a number of guys we could sub at skill positions on offense. Even thought they were a drop-off, they could still get the job done. On the line, we rotated more on defense. So, you may have a kid starting at OT and subbing in part time with another dude at NG. But, on critical downs, you make sure your stud is in there.
3. Conditioning is important. Make sure you do football-specific conditioning early and often during August, and make sure you maintain it on Monday-Wednesday during game weeks.
4. Build a culture around it. This almost goes back to my first point, but we have it so we have kids who WANT to go both ways and get irritated when we sub them out (harmlessly so, but still irritated).
5. Why simplify the game plans? Why is that necessary? Teach the kids football. Don't dumb anything down simply becuase you have a 1-platoon team. We've never simplified anything. We had more 2-way players this season than I can remember in a long time, and our O and D were same as always. Don't give them excuses...expect results.
6. Practice schedule was:
Mon: Light O and D, conditioning, film, weight room
Tue: Heavy O, KO and KOR
Wed: Heavy D, weight room, Punt, PR
Thurs: Light O, Light D, All Specials
Fri: Game time
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Post by ajreaper on Nov 16, 2010 12:14:19 GMT -6
We've been doing it for years as well- not ideal I'd guess however it's what we must do to compete with the people we play. Monday is fairly light practice wise but we condition hard and the players lift in the morning. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we condition in their str/cond class (99% are in the class). A typical practice is divided as follows 20 minutes a day on special teams (2 10 minute segments) and an offensive and defensive segment that is 40-50 minutes in length (depends on day or need). Thursday is review and walk through for all aspects of the game plan. We'll rotate players on the side of the ball we have the best 2's and 3's to do so but as a rule we almost never rotate the O-lineman. And in our situation many of our 2 way guys also must play special teams (why get your best guys on the field on both sides to put them in a bad postion due to a long return or blocked punt?).
Biggest thing we have found is you clearly cannot have real physical practices every week once games start- if kids are playing 90+ snaps in a game then pounding on each other during the week you'll have a team that is physically done by game 5 or 6.
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Post by jml on Nov 16, 2010 19:19:40 GMT -6
I think it depends on your school size and number of talented players that you have. Worst year I have had 10 2 way players and best year 1-2. The fewer the better. I think the biggest thing with 2 way players is you need either a very simple offense or very simple defense. Cut back on the physically of practice too.
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Post by mariner42 on Nov 17, 2010 0:00:57 GMT -6
Our experience has been that you don't need to soften your practices, nor simplify schemes because of 2 way players in practice. We taper their conditioning during the season, but we don't really lighten up the load in terms of how much we hit in practice.
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Post by Coach Huey on Nov 17, 2010 9:36:22 GMT -6
package things ...
the starter on defense that plays 20 snaps on offense doesn't need the whole offense ... just a package of plays.
start putting together "packages" where these sets of skill players know these sets of plays ... the next set of skill players knows this set of plays.
rotate during the game by packages.
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