Importance of Football Play Execution
Nov 4th, 2008 by Coach DeLorm
The third installment of Coach Dan Levin’s series on football coaching tips for American football coaches. If you are a coach and you have some tips that you would like to pass along then please drop me a line using the contact form.
It’s amazing how important play execution is, and how much a coach can take it for granted, until players do exactly what they’re not supposed to be doing.
Most coaches I suspect, will never be too upset if their team gets beat because they’re simply over matched with speed, strength, or talent. There’s only so much you as a coach can do to get your
players physically prepared for a game. However, the one aspect that drives myself and I suspect everyone else bonkers, is players not doing what they’re supposed to be doing when they’re supposed to do
it.
The phrase “keep it simple stupid” should be in everyone’s mind when dealing with people new to the game, but even simple can be complicated for players if they don’t practice enough.
It’s very easy for a coach to fall in love with technique and hitting drills until sunset, with the expectation that because you know what each person is doing, and they’ve been given a playbook, they should know. But until they actually get out onto the field and run their plays against different types of fronts and formations, all the technique and aggression in the world won’t save you from being beat. As they say, there’s nothing more valuable than on the field experience. The same holds true in practice.
When practicing, I’ve found that it helps to run the same play against an offense/defense at least 3x in a row, possibly 5x, so you as a coach can see different aspects of the same play. Running a play every so often (especially against air) doesn’t give you a good idea of who’s doing what and when. Some players may think they’re doing the right thing, until you actually see them screwing up - only then can you fix it.
That brings me to my last point this week - player pride. Most players won’t tell you they don’t know what they’re doing, out of fear of looking bad to you or their teammates, and will leave the huddle clueless as to their assignment. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. Make sure that players have the self-confidence to ask if they don’t know, to avoid having blown plays or worse, injuries. I tell my players that if you THINK you know what you’re doing, you probably don’t. They either know for certain, or they don’t. It never hurts to ask, but it always hurts to do it wrong!
