Simulating Live Action

Challenge the kids in practice by making them think about their assignment and allowing the kids to ask questions. Walkthrough, walkthrough, walkthrough, plays multiple times, no 5 or 10, but 15 to 20 times in a row, until all kids know their assignment. If a kid makes a mistake, do another rep.

Are you 100% sure they were doing it correct in practice? Sometimes coaches get caught just watching the ball and not the secondary and wide receivers, I know I get caught watching the play from time to time.

But good news is that it is early so you have plenty of time to fix it.

Offensively, I think they are minus the WRs, but defensively I think you are correct in that they probably aren't getting it 100% correct. I like your idea of getting mass reps though. That seems like it will help.

Do you watch film as a team? 

A guy I work with does one thing really well and that's run his meetings by using a hudl playlist. He would take the stuff you have from your scrimmage film and match it to film of your teams in the past doing it. So you can compare and contrast and they will see what it should look like.

So for us what he does is he puts the scout clips from previous games on there of their top plays then he cuts in reps of us playing the same plays at practice. Goes over the adjustments and critiques technique. I sat in on one of his meetings last year and I thought this was one of the best things he does.

I also agree getting mass reps is huge for us. Something we doing in pass coverage to speed things up instead of running routes our "receivers" point out where they are going. Vert, in, out, you can add body movements like turning around for a hitch. (have them keep their hands up so you can tell if your guys communicated and reacted right.) You can go half line if you only have one coach and need to see everyone work. you can do this at different tempos too (walk thru, half speed, full speed) and use it to teach them or rep them. One tip have your "receivers pump their arms for a second or two then point. If they point right away its often a quicker trigger then a route would be.)

That makes meetings so much easier. Especially for anything unusual, or to go over adjustments that distinguish our stuff from the opponents.

You can do the same thing if you build a library of drill tape, and reuse the best stuff many times over.

We have made certain pass drills more efficient by cutting out the stems. Obviously it only works on concepts that are largely vertical but you can save a lot of needless running if the receivers are just being used to facilitate someone else's drill.

High School, Varsity Level, 400 kid High School. It was a 7 on 7 and 11 on 11. More worried about what happened in 11 on 11

Helmets and shoulder pads.

System wise, we had 3 run plays: Power, Counter, and Outside Zone.  Power and Counter use the same rules. Power looked good, counter, not so much. Outside Zone was ok. I knew it wasn't going to look good as we're still working on getting the feel for it.

Pass wise, we had 5 pass plays. 3 were 5 step/play action. I carry them over for both to reduce teaching, and 2 quick passes. Of the 5 steps, they are only half field reads and the backside WRs have either a Post or a Drag.  The quicks are mirrored. We've spent a lot of time doing routes on air with the QBs going through their progressions and throwing to a different WR in the pattern. We've repped the heck out of this and this is probably what I'm most disappointed in. Mostly because WRs didn't know which routes to run. Not sure if it's a lack of effort in knowing what to do, they're a little slower upstairs, or the game atmosphere really shook them.

Drill wise, I'm guessing there is some of the running drills to run drills. This is something I'll make sure to focus on more with the coaches. My guess is that the DBs aren't working reads and reaction. Their coach is a rookie coach. so I'm guessing it's not something I've made clear for him to do. Totally my fault.

We do work on handoffs in indy, but not everyday. The guys I've inherited have some wicked 3/4 or side arm deliveries that make it tough to consistently throw the ball accurately. I've been trying to focus more time on mechanics to fix this, and it is helping, but you're probably right in that handoffs have suffered as a result.

I do want to say thanks for your post. It really has me thinking in terms of how we are structuring practice and the whys behind some of the things we were doing in the scrimmage.