EFFECTIVE PRACTICE sessions are the key to winning football games. Our coaching mission statement is to improve every player, in every skill, at every practice.

Why have your players perform tackling drills if it isn’t going to make each player a better tackler? Why do agility drills every day if you’re not going to improve the players’ movement skills?

Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Knoll once said, “Practice without improvement is meaningless.” 

Pre-Practice Meetings
In our program, we spend a great deal of time preparing for our pre-practice meetings. They should be short and concise, yet still cover all the important aspects of our team goals. This is also a good time to go over any corrections that need to be made from the last practice or game.

If a new play is being added, go over it in detail and make sure all your players are aware of their assignments before leaving the meeting.

Go over the practice schedule for the day — there should be no explaining left to be done on the field. All players should know exactly what’s to be done and in what order the drills are to be done. Of course, taking time out for corrective feedback is always appropriate.

Imagery
Imagery is one of the most studied and conclusively proven techniques to improve performance in all of sport psychology. Not a lot of teams do this and it’s an area where your team can gain a competitive edge.

Simply take 10 minutes before each practice and you’ll see impressive results. Players should remain sitting at their lockers or on the chairs in the meeting room. Have all your players close their eyes and perform 2 to 3 minutes of relaxing breathing exercises (breathe steadily in through the nose — pause — then steadily out through the nose — pause).

For the next 5 minutes, have your players imagine themselves performing the drills that are going to be used in that days’ practice.

The last 2 or 3 minutes can be devoted to review points of emphasis that the coaching staff is trying to stress (poise under pressure, playing with confidence, etc.).

Warm-ups
Our program also spends a fair amount of time on warm-ups, but we make sure these are done as efficiently as possible. Time is precious. We schedule it so that warm-ups lead right into our speed and agility training.

There are some position-specific movement skills that must be worked on during individual periods, but drills for speed, quickness, acceleration or agility that we want to do as a team are done right at the end of the warm-up. This provides a smooth transition to the main part of the practice.

Key points for an effective warm-up are:
-  Increase the body’s core temperature.
-  Improve balance and coordination (these are often overlooked aspects of physical training).
-  Increase range of motion.
-  Improve technique (primarily movement skills which we directly address, but quarterbacks and kickers need to do additional warm-up exercises to enhance their particular skills).

Main Body Of Practice
Each phase of practice should build off another. Having pre-practice meetings, imagery sessions and providing proper warm-ups will greatly enhance the effectiveness of the main part of your practices.

The main body of practice is where actual football skills are put into place and where the other phases begin to pay off. If you’ve done your job, you should have players who are physically and mentally ready to contribute.

Fundamentals. There’s little debate that you win with fundamentals. While fundamentals are generally taught during the individual periods of practice, it’s necessary to sometimes teach tackling to the whole defensive squad during the early part of camp.

Most fundamentals (including tackling) are worked on during individual periods because different drills may be needed to simulate the conditions under which the fundamentals are executed from different defensive positions. The important thing to remember is that fundamentals must be practiced every day.

Technique. This is where your players start to apply the fundamentals they’ve learned in games. This is usually done as part of the individual period, but sometimes certain combinations can come together. For defensive players, this is primarily a key-and-read period.

Offensive lineman will move from doing work with boards, chutes and sleds to combination blocks and scheme development.

Group Work. This section of practice consists of interior, perimeter or half-line drills. During camp week, use these drills extensively as they are invaluable in your player’s ability to bridge the gap between individual and team skills.

During the regular season, have your players perform these drills once a week. The drills that you decide to use should be determined by need. If a certain skill is being performed incorrectly during games, but done properly during the individual periods, then group work may go a long way toward correcting the problem.

Team Drills. Team drills should simulate live-game action as much as possible. It’s important to remember that the team periods are still fundamental periods. If your assistant coaches aren’t making sure the fundamentals are being performed efficiently during group and team periods, then why bother practicing them at all?

Cool-Down Period
The cool-down session is another often overlooked, but critical period. It’s important to do some light activity, such as jogging, to begin the slowing-down process. After that, this is a great time to do static stretching.

This type of stretching will help relax the muscles and increase range of motion. Because static stretching relaxes the muscles, most people don’t recommend it during warm-ups. However, it’s perfect for the cool-down period.

Post Practice
Once your players have finished stretching, depending on how much practice time you have left, there are some final areas that need to be addressed.

Debriefing. Your players need feedback about how they are advancing, or not advancing, toward their goals. This period should focus on team concepts.

Point out good examples of players who are meeting or exceeding your team goals. Individual negatives should be addressed later, one-on-one, with the player by a coach.

If your entire team needs to work harder, then be sure to address this, but don’t forget to focus on some positives.
Post-Practice Imagery

Time doesn’t always permit post-practice imagery at the high school level. When you have a chance, try to perform imagery after a practice and also encourage your players to spend time imaging on their own.

The day before a game you’ll usually have a shorter, less-demanding practice and that’s a great time to perform post-practice imagery.

Before big games late in the season, provide back-to-back lighter practices to make sure your players are fresh for the game, and perform post-practice imagery on both days.

Allow players to lie down on their backs and get into a deep relaxation mode before beginning the imagery. If time permits. do this for 15 to 20 minutes. This is an invaluable process for improving your team’s focus.

Devise A Plan
This article should provide you with an outline of how you can apply specific practice ideas in a structured way and merge them with your own practice strategies.

Simply taking the time to plan the practice as a staff and explain it to your players before taking the practice field will go a long way toward improving your practices and game performance.

Be as detailed and specific in your practice preparation as possible and you will see positive results.