PAUL BROWN ONCE said, “Leave as little to chance as possible. Preparation is the key to success.” At Plainville High School, we know that football games aren’t won simply by our performance on Friday nights, but rather it’s a comprehensive process that starts the day the previous season ends and runs through every minute we with spend with our players in the off-season, preseason and practices. A winning football program strives to make its practices as productive and enhancing as possible.
We will practice everything that we expect from our players — from how to line up, to proper stretching techniques, to the procedure for entering and exiting the field of play and even the expected player reactions to a perceived poor call by the officials.
Practices should be built to make your football team as proficient as possible in playing the game and executing the schemes designed by the coaching staff. Time must allotted to skill and physical development.
The bulk of your conditioning, strength training and skill development should occur in the off-season strength training and conditioning program. Focusing on the physical attributes that a football player needs to be successful in the off-season is crucial to the development of a team.
Two-a-days should not be the time when a team gets in shape. Players should already be in shape from the off-season conditioning program. The focus during these practice sessions should be on repetitions and the mental and technical skill needed to succeed.
Our plan of action to build the football team during the course of a year is based on the following four stages of practice.
GROWTH STAGE
School-Year Off-Season Preparation. Off-season preparation starts immediately following the previous season. The players must set goals for their off-season strength and conditioning program, while the coaches strive to design a training program that strengthens the specific physical weaknesses in the next year’s team.
The coaching staff must also comprehensively evaluate the prior season and develop an overall offensive, defensive and special teams plan of action for the coming season. The coaching staff must seek to broaden its base of knowledge with study and clinic work during the off-season.
Summer Preparation. The coaching staff and players must evaluate the progress of the school-year off-season program and reset the goals for the summer strength and conditioning program.
Players should be encouraged to improve skill level through individual efforts and attendance camps and passing leagues.
This is also the time of year when the coaching staff must finalize the plans of action for the coming season.
PREPARATION STAGE
Summer Camp Practice. Your summer camp practices serve multiple purposes. The summer camp:
1. Serves as a “get-to-know-each-other-again” experience for the players and coaching staff.
2. Is a great audition period for non-returning starters.
3. Encourages team-building and should be a fun experiences for players.
4. Is a great player-evaluation period for coaching staff.
5. Is an ideal time for the installation of the coach’s base plans of action for upcoming season.
6. Serves as a time for base skill development for all positions on the team.
Preseason Conditioning. Players will be asked to report the week before the season for voluntary workouts. The workouts are designed to help players reach an optimal level of conditioning before the season and therefore decrease the amount of conditioning needed during regular practice sessions. This also allows you to increase the amount of team and individual-position skill development during the aforementioned seasons.
Preseason Practice. This portion of the yearly practice plan of action should place the finishing touches of your team-building exercises which started the day after the last season ended.
During preseason practice, the focus now turns to:
• Pushing and motivating the team to the up-most level of competition.
• Developing the team’s image and attitude for the upcoming season.
• Building and enhancing the core fundamentals of your team’s style of play.
• Installing the complete plans of action for offense, defense and special teams.
• Providing intense work for developing the skill level of the players at each position.
• Letting the players shine and prove themselves ready to excel at their position and within their unit.
EXECUTION STAGE
In-Season Practice. Each week’s practice sessions and preparation are vitally important to the success of the football team. Focus and execution must be stressed constantly and consistently during this phase.
A typical week for the coaching staff and players consists of the following:
Friday (Post-Game Following First Week):
Immediate focus on the next opponent and strengthening weaknesses from previous week.
Coaching staff pre-evaluates Friday night film and plants seeds for game plan of action for next week.
Saturday:
Film trade with next opponent.
Coaching staff reviews and grades Friday night film at 8 a.m.
Coaching staff reviews next opponent’s film and sets basic game plan.
Player’s report at 10 a.m. for injury check, light conditioning and stretching, and previous game film review as a team and with position groups.
Sunday:
Coaching staff meets and develops final game plans for the next opponent, including strengthening our weaknesses and a plan of action to attack the weaknesses of the upcoming opponent, including formation changes and additions and play changes and additions.
Coaching staff develops comprehensive scouting reports for players’ use, including personnel, key points for success, changes and additions in the game plan for this contest, and expected game plan for opponents.
Monday — Pro Gear (Helmets Only):
Stretch and flexibility work.
Study and on-the-field walk-through work based the scouting reports.
Offensive and defensive walk-throughs.
Passing-game work — 7-on-7 and individual drills.
Special-teams review and run at half-speed.
Individual-position work.
Aerobic conditioning.
Post-practice includes an overview of the written scouting report and film review.
Tuesday — Full Gear:
Stretch and flexibility work.
Team skill development.
Blocking skill development and group work with each position coach.
Offensive individual position work.
Offensive small-group period with 7-on-7 and the inside drill.
Offensive team period with focus on specific situations such as 1st-and-10, 2nd-and-medium (or short), etc.
Special teams skill-development work.
Punt and punt-return team period.
Defensive individual position work.
Defensive team period focusing on regular situations such as 1st-and 10, 2nd-and-medium (or short).
Anaerobic conditioning — medium duration and performed with high intensity.
Wednesday — Full Gear:
Stretch and flexibility work.
Team skill development.
Tackling skill-development with position coach.
Turnover skill development with position coach.
Defensive individual position work.
Defensive small-group period — including 7-on-7 and inside drill.
Defensive team period, including backed-up and short-yardage situations.
Special teams skill development.
Kick and kick-off return team periods.
Offensive individual position work.
Offensive team period including backed-up and short-yardage situations.
Field goal and field-goal block team periods.
Anaerobic conditioning — performed for short durations and with high intensity.
Thursday — Half Shell (Helmets and Shoulder Pads):
Silent locker room.
Pre-game warm ups.
Special-team’s roll call.
Special-teams run-through.
Offensive small group period with 7-on-7 and linemen position work.
Offensive team period including long yardage and red-zone situations.
Defensive small-group period with 7-on-7 and linemen position work.
Defensive team period with focus on long-yardage and red-zone situations.
Fire-up drill.
Post-practice — closed-door meeting with players only.
Team meeting — Review the reminders, the keys to victory, special teams roll-call overview and complete game plan review.
Friday — Game Day!
Pre-game walk-through immediately following arrival at the school or travel.
Pre-game warm up.
GAME TIME!
Half-time
• Coaches meet with position groups.
• Coaches meet as a staff.
• Coaches develop half-time adjustments based upon meetings with players and other staff members.
• Present information to the team.
DOMINATION STAGE
Post-Season Practice. After the season, you'll want to focus on a variety of factors, including:
Constantly and consistently focus on fundamentals and strive to turn all former weaknesses into strengths — and all strengths into dominating factors for your team.
The coaching staff must develop simple plans of action to reduce confusion and maximize execution.
Practices must follow a normal week of preparation when time allows.