orthodox drills that evaluate talent

fshamrock
Full Member

Posts: 784

orthodox drills that evaluate talent Feb 26, 2018 10:29:12 GMT -6

Quote

Post by fshamrock on Feb 26, 2018 10:29:12 GMT -6

I thought the other thread raised an interesting question
I feel like evaluating talent is one of the toughest parts of the job. When it comes to finding the best guys, it's hard sometimes not to allow our personal biases cloud our judgement. I can't count how many times I've seen crappy defensive players get to start early because they will hit hard when given the chance, kid can't key/read understand anything, or shed a block, but...he will throw his body in there so everybody thinks he should start

So...that in mind...what drills do you do that display an ability to excel at your position, what drill do your best players by position perform the best?

Once heard a DB's coach speak and he said they set up a drill with two cones a good distance apart and cone equidistant between

the player stood on the middle cone, a ball was throw toward either side cone, if the player broke on it and caught it, the cones were widened out and the drill was repeated

dude said that without fail his best players were the guys that were the best at this drill

I'd be curious to see if you guys have any

50slantstrong
Full Member

Posts: 992

orthodox drills that evaluate talent Feb 26, 2018 10:56:40 GMT -6

Quote

Post by 50slantstrong on Feb 26, 2018 10:56:40 GMT -6

When I coached OL, I felt the guys who could two feet in the ground and blow up the bag on progs, regardless of how small they were or how goofy their stance was, turned out to be good offensive linemen.

coachcb
Executive Member

Posts: 13,506

orthodox drills that evaluate talent Feb 26, 2018 12:20:34 GMT -6

Quote

Post by coachcb on Feb 26, 2018 12:20:34 GMT -6

Honestly, I can't really nail down ONE drill for each position that would tell us whether or not they're a quality player for the position. It really is a combination of successful completion of a series of drills that show us whether or not a kid can play ball at that spot.

We had a pretty good Mike LB last year who was aggressive, destroyed blocks, and punished ball carriers. He understood his run fits and his pass drops well. But, he couldn't read to save his life. He struggled to key the OL and his eyes were continually caught in the backfield and had a hard time defending simple plays like QB Counter out of the gun. He ended up starting for us over a couple of kids that could read the line reasonably well but struggled in other areas. His back-up read his keys well enough and played solid pass coverage but just couldn't get off of blocks. We worked with the kid all year long but he continually ran past blocks and gave up yardage.

chi5hi
Executive Member

The passing game lends dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar, disgusting, brawl.

Posts: 7,147

orthodox drills that evaluate talent Feb 26, 2018 12:26:07 GMT -6

Quote

Post by chi5hi on Feb 26, 2018 12:26:07 GMT -6

When you set up a drill and explain what to do, They'll ALL accomplish what you asked...some better than others...but a drill is NOT a game condition! Drills can't teach players how to think, only to react.

Drills should be a thing a coach invents in order to solve a problem the players are having. There are complete books written on 1000 drills you can run. You have to do things, sometimes INVENT one, to teach and evaluate.

As far as the DB coach drill you talked about...its only good when the passer DOES NOT look at the cone he's throwing to! Set it up like this:

...................................................D

....................................R...............................R

..........................D.....................................................D

...................................................QB

Have your passer LOOK AT (stare) at either receiver and throw to him. Every time, one of the defenders will get to the ball before the receiver makes a catch.

Now, have your QB LOOK AT the deep middle defender, then quickly step and throw to one (his choice) of the receivers. The pass will almost always be completed.

BTW...position the defenders 15 yards apart, and receivers 7 1/2 yards (half way) between the defenders.

Now, use that criteria for deciding who your passers and defenders and receivers will be.

Can the passer look off the Safety?
Can the receiver react to, and catch a quick throw he's not expecting?
Can the defenders recognize and react to a throw in his zone?

BTW...position the receivers 15 yards from the QB.

Last Edit: Feb 26, 2018 12:29:56 GMT -6 by chi5hi

fshamrock
Full Member

Posts: 784

orthodox drills that evaluate talent Feb 26, 2018 12:58:38 GMT -6

Quote

Post by fshamrock on Feb 26, 2018 12:58:38 GMT -6

Feb 26, 2018 12:26:07 GMT -6 chi5hi said:

When you set up a drill and explain what to do, They'll ALL accomplish what you asked...some better than others...but a drill is NOT a game condition! Drills can't teach players how to think, only to react.

Drills should be a thing a coach invents in order to solve a problem the players are having. There are complete books written on 1000 drills you can run. You have to do things, sometimes INVENT one, to teach and evaluate.

As far as the DB coach drill you talked about...its only good when the passer DOES NOT look at the cone he's throwing to! Set it up like this:

...................................................D

....................................R...............................R

..........................D.....................................................D

...................................................QB

Have your passer LOOK AT (stare) at either receiver and throw to him. Every time, one of the defenders will get to the ball before the receiver makes a catch.

Now, have your QB LOOK AT the deep middle defender, then quickly step and throw to one (his choice) of the receivers. The pass will almost always be completed.

BTW...position the defenders 15 yards apart, and receivers 7 1/2 yards (half way) between the defenders.

Now, use that criteria for deciding who your passers and defenders and receivers will be.

Can the passer look off the Safety?
Can the receiver react to, and catch a quick throw he's not expecting?
Can the defenders recognize and react to a throw in his zone?

BTW...position the receivers 15 yards from the QB.

I get what your saying, pardon my failure for not wording my question a little better. I was wondering if you guys had just happened to notice over the course of your career any drills that seem to display football ability better than others, I suppose I was hoping I might could put together some good tools for evaluating players in a more scientific way. I feel like there is a ton of human error involved in how we evaluate

I mean how many of us have lost a starter for some reason and had a backup come in and play better? Let's not forget that Drew Bledsoe had to get hurt for Tom Brady to come in and start...so what is it that coaches of the patriots missed in practice? They had the best QB of all time sitting on the bench, how did they miss it?

The weight room works a good barometer but what do you do when two guys close? I mean is there really much a difference on the field between a lineman who squats 400 and one that squats 425?.....and what about those powerlifting bros who can squat the world but have two-left feet?

...so let me rephrase the questions

If you had a pick starters at your position group, for a team of kids who you didn't know and hadn't been around, and you only had 15 minutes to figure out which ones were the best....what would you do with that time?