Glazier Clinic

If you're on a staff, attend the sessions that will help you perform your role better within the scheme you run. If you're a defensive coach, it wouldn't hurt to attend the presentations of some offense that you know you'll have to defend. If you're not on a staff, go to whatever you want to learn about. No session could hurt you at that point.

I just finished my first season as a youth football coach but at some point in the future, I'd like to make the move to HS.Having never played organized football or coached before this season, I feel like attending many of the fundamental / technique clinics would benefit me the most with a couple of schematic ones thrown in to improve my X and O knowledge.

My decision is not necessarily which location to go to, but which speakers to listen to at the Nashville location.

I also plan to attend the Nike COY clinic in Louisville so there is an additional opportunity to hear about some schemes or techniques. I've also talked with a friend that coaches at a local college and he offered to let me come during spring practice.

On deciding which speakers to see, I usually print out the schedule and go over it, scratching out anything that holds no interest to me. I really hate the fluffy ones, since I have a limited number of opportunities to go to clinics and they're a fair expense given how far I have to go, so I'm not going to spend an hour on "motivating your players." I tend to find them vacuous and I can get the same thing by buying a 50 cent Tony Robbins tape at Goodwill. I circle anything I really want to see, such as "kickout blocks by guards." I go in for the more specific talks.

Then I look at each session individually and start narrowing it down. It's a balance between going to stuff where you already know something or going to ones where it's a new experience for you. If you go to a speaker discussing something you already know a little about, go to the more specific talks, or you risk wasting your time being told what you already know. If you go to someone discussing something you are unfamiliar with, look for a broader topic, or you risk being over your head as they discuss the minutiae of something you've never seen.

If you're caught between two, go with the speaker who doesn't make sense, he's probably there for a reason.

If you plan to go see one of those multi-session speakers, which can be absolutely great, have a bail-out plan if the first session sucks. You can walk out of the session or tough it out, then find something else.

Many coaches may find I'm overthinking this, but clinics for me are far, expensive, and a pretty big hassle to get to, so I need to get something good out of it.

When I was a young coach I found the most value in attending the dicussions that would provide drills. I tried to avoid speakers presenting schemes and focused on techniques. I didn't focus on the details (I would attend OLine Play in the Wing-t even though we ran I) I saw my position and went with it, there was always good stuff! This allowed me to build a series of drills I found most valuable.

That being said, scheme speakers will provide drills, however, probably not as much.

Correct.

I compiled a binder of clinic notes and quickly developed a base set of drills, most of which showed up in most every clinic speech.