Transferring knowledge from practice to game

Have you explained how and in what situations these drills are useful? For example, I can do wrong-arm drills all day long, but if I'm assuming that the kids know to wrong arm kickout blocks, it may be all in vain.

Do you transfer drills from individual settings to group to team? Again, if I work DL wrong-arms in indy, do we run plays in inside run that force the DL to wrong arm? And again in team?

Just some thoughts.

Coach,

Fantastic topic, I've struggled with this in the past as well, and again a bit this year. I hate to say it, but a lot of it for us seems to be a need to do more "Team" periods during practice. I never liked going team, I always thought you just drill the heck out of the fundy's and everything else took care of itself. Coaches and players get lazy during Team, fundys suffer, etc. I've come to a compromise where the first and last thing we do now every practice is full contact 11v11 best on best. Especially with blocking and tackling, there's something about doing it in a live situation (ie scraping off a block, stumbling, getting spun around then finding the ballcarrier and being able to make a tackle) that can't be replicated fully during drills. Plus, starting with 11v11 is a great way to set the energy level for practice. Kids want to know if they made the 11v11 lineup for that day, etc.
The other thing I've run into in the past is the kids taking "instructions" from the coach more as a "suggestion" for how they could play something if they so choose. A lot of this was due to my personality and approach during the week, and sometimes a nutty has to be pulled to help these young men realize that if I #$@!ing tell you to do something, that's how it is to be done, end of story. Just my 2 cents,

Grouch

Have had some of those issues ourselves. I think the theme of the thread states it, keep reinforcing why you do things, and how they fit into the "grand scheme" of things. You have to realize that when the lights go on it becomes "survival of the fittest" and sometimes tech. suffers. You need to rep these skills enough, and in live situations that the tech. YOU want comes out when it's survival of the fittest!

Duece

Glad it's working for you but I can't endorse this method. I don't believe that Oklahoma improves technique. I believe that you improve technique through repetition of doing it right.

Think like a teacher. When I introduce a lesson, I go WHOLE, PART, WHOLE.

How you break down the practice schedule should follow this schema.

If you want to focus on traps and counters, then you need to introduce it to the whole defense: formation and alignment, front/stunt, and secondary run fits.

Then go to indy and have each position group work on defeating traps and counters.
-DL wrong arm and spill
-LB scraping and filling
-DB covering reads and support

If it is a total scheme point of view, then first make sure you are aligned properly, then make sure you don't get out flanked, then stress getting to the ball.

From the OP, it seems to be a technique transferral. However, we talked last week about something like this as being a big part of defense: PURSUIT. An anecdotal story about playing the option was about who had pitch..... pursuit had pitch. The point being, defense is about getting at least as many if not more than the offense has at the point of attack.

Can you give more info?

I can see the usefulness of starting practice with a competitive drill but I certainly don't see them as a replacement for time working on fundamentals.

33coach,

It's an old cliche but it's true: it's not what you know that matters, it's what the kids can execute. I lost sight of that in week one and paid for it. Don't want to make that mistake again...

I was using trap as just one example of a technique.

The whole (1st) is the general over view: formations and plays. It is the introduction.

The part is the individual technique work that you focus on for that day. It is the indy, inside run, perimeter, 1/2 line, option read, etc... periods.

The whole (2nd) is the team segment where you rep plays.

So a kid hears this
1- "They line up like this and like to run trap."
2- "This is how work on defeating traps."
3- "Good job of wrong arming the puller on that trap."
Or,
"WHAT THE HADES ARE YOU DOING THAT IS NOT WHAT WE JUST SPENT 20 MINUTES WORKING ON!!!!!!!!"

In my last stop, we had a new HC come in and totally change the offense from a Pro I/spread team to the Wing T. He had a unique way of installing the offense
1-Indy was nothing but the buck sweep
2-Group was nothing but the buck sweep
3-Team was nothing but the buck sweep.
Total time was about 20-25 minutes

We went back to Indy and then did the same thing with waggle. That is how he progressed the team through the play book.

Duece granted, we have several position coaches, so while we are doing pre-practice and the DC is talking about trap, I do a quick reminder about run fits with the DBs, but I might also fill in the dead time with some more relevant things for my DBs like play action, alignment ques, WR's speed, etc...

The main thing that we look at the big picture, focus on the individual components of the big picture, then put the big picture back together.