Dum Coach Questions

They say you can't coach speed, but I do it every year. I invest 20 minutes in it a night and it takes about 5 weeks for it to begin to show, starting from your first practice. After 8 weeks, my guys can line up backwards and outrun the other teams. Speed drills are always run at the end of practice, never at the beginning, so that no one arriving late can get out of them. The drills are intended to 1) increase acceleration 2) increase top speed 3) increase braking and turning ability and 4) promote short term endurance. Think of each player as a "Mustang" fighter plane. To get increased acceleration you need more horsepower. So you have to strengthen the muscles used in running. To increase top speed, you need to be able to adust the trim and propeller pitch. A runner adjust his trim through proper running form. A fighter has to put on the flaps and bank in order to turn. A runner puts on the brakes and drops one hip to turn. To promote short term endurance, a fighter will either inject ethanol into the fuel or at least use 100 octane gas. Our players need enough energy to finish out every play. These are the performance points you have to cover with a combat fighter and I consider football to be a combat sport. The first thing we do is develop acceleration, braking, turning, and the ability to finish out the play at full speed. Have your kids line up on the 5 yard line. On signal, they will run to the 15 yard line, touch the line with the RIGHT hand, pivot RIGHT, and run back to the 5. At the 5 they will touch their LEFT hand to the line, pivot LEFT, and run to the 25 where they will touch with their right hand again, pivot right, and come back to the 5 again. After touching with their left, they race to the 35, touch, and return to the 5 for the finish. That's 120 yards. Nobody runs more than 120 yards on a play in a football game so now you stop, allow them FORTY SECONDS (time it) to catch their breath and run it again. You must allow your players that 40 seconds to reoxygonate their systems or lactic acid builds in their systems. This also comes very close to the amount of time they get to rest between plays during a game. Run this drill for ten minutes. Players who fail to touch the line, touch with the wrong hand, or pivot the wrong direction, must go back and touch the line again. False starts or goofing off will result in the drill starting at the goal line instead of the 5, which makes the run longer. Your players are learning to brake, to drop hips, to turn in multiple directions, and to accelerate. You, as a coach, are watching for the "spread" as the players come across the finish line. You want to know the difference in time between when the first place kid comes across the line and when the last kid comes across the line. So time the spread with a stopwatch. Do not time the winner (but the first two kids that come across should be your running backs - particularly WB if you're running wing T). The clock starts when the winner comes across the line. It stops when the last kid still running finishes. Do not time kids that finish walking. The last place players who finished walking must go through five minutes of "tennis ball" drill at the end of practice (Everyone else can go home.). Your goal is to 1) reduce your spread time and 2) have everyone finish running. The amount of time you spend on this drill is 2 minutes over your quarter time. If you have 8 minute quarters, run this for 10 minutes. For 10 minute quarters, run for 12 minutes, etc. Okay! Give them another 40 seconds rest and move on to the speed drills. These are the ones that strengthen the muscles and develop proper form. These drills last 10 minutes and are run over 27 yards except for the last drill, which is run over 40. I'm out of time so I'll have to post those drills later. Ask again if I forget. Keep tabs on your spread time to see if you're getting improvement. This season, I had a "Taco Bell" lineman who started out finishing dead last walking at the beginning of the season, manage to finish the season running across the line and ahead of another player still running. Without this drill, that improvement never would have happened.