Grading against "studs" or "great plays"

Exactly why I continue to do it even though it breaks my balls to watch each play that many times (OL & LBs, Special teams)

I have graded my kids even though it is very tedious. I ask my coaches to grade the kids even though it is tedious. I don't care so much about the grade that they get, but each position does have a standard grade that if they fall below, means their job is open the next week in practice. Like someone said before, it is an emotionless way to make sure you are playing the kids that are performing well, not just the ones that look good in their uniform. And also, in times of a controversy, like two QB's battling it out for playing time, grading will help a coach make a decision on who is playing better.

Our grading is VERY simple. A "2" means great effort and execution. A "1" means one or the other, but not both. A "O" is bad- blown assignment or poor execution. A negative score is a loaf. It could be any negative number, but we stick to -1 through -3. If a kid can't be seen, or otherwise had a very average effort, we just scratch in a 1 so it doesn't hurt or help the score. We take their total number of points they earned, and divide it by the plays they were in.

Each position will have different benchmarks. For example, we expect our QB to be in the range of 1.5. The rest of our offense is usually between 1.0 and 1.4. Any defensive player that averages a 1 or better has had a good day. But again, we don't care as much about what the score is, as much as we gain from the details involved on what players are doing well and what they are not- focused mainly on hustle/effort, and execution/assignment.

Since we are all busy, there are times where my coaches don't get their grades done. I think it has a definite impact in terms of the coach being prepared and making the players at their positon better, because they know exactly what to work on in practice.

For example, I had two young volunteer coaches this year....one watched a lot of film and graded his players, and the other did not do a good job. As a result, the one who watched film and did the grading, knew exactly what types of things his unit was weak at, and designed the Indy time he had around making sure they got better and eliminated weaknesses. The other coach who watched very little film, fell back on old-school type of drills that weren't really addressing problematic areas that kids in his unit were seeing in the games.

Watching and evaluating film is the key. Grading is extra, but I think it makes you focus a little more on the finer points. Hudl has been great about throwing the notes right on the play, and then sharing with the players. We also put our grading right into Hudl. We created custom columns for each position, and the coach puts his grade for that player into the spreadsheet for that play.

To me the value in it is not in giving a percentage grade, but the opportunity to write down feedback on each play for each player in my position group. This way I can discuss the issues with them after the film, and I don't run the risk of missing something with one person in my group because I was discussing something another player in my group was doing on a specific play.

Of course, there is no guarantee that the player is actually reading the feedback, but it's pretty easy to tell by striking up a conversation with them about the general feedback they were given.

I'm not opposed to giving out grades. Just, for us, what purpose does a numerical grade do for us? We are more about learning, getting better, correcting, etc. Just felt like assigning a 'grade' didn't really get us any closer to our goals. Just our way....

That doesn't make sense to me. What's the point of filming if you're not going to watch it with the team?

I give a try to grading sheet a while back... Being an Euro Coach with only 2 practice per week, this is too much work.

So we decide to work differently:
We do not have hudl but we send a weblink to all our players the night after the game so they can watch it at home.
The very next practice start in the film room. We watch game tape (not full game) with players, then we go to the field to work on techniques.

fantom

I didn't say whether or not we spend too much time with certain plays or not. Some of our staff still needs some work on that. (me included)