Bye Weeks

Inevitably, there will be a season where you're in a league with an odd number of teams - this can lead to either double-headers, or bye weeks. Bye weeks are those times when you are not scheduled to face an opponent, for those who may not have understood the term.

I have never been a fan of bye weeks. Not in the pros, and certainly not in youth sports. It seems that kids thrive on a regular schedule... you've probably noticed this - they get used to bed time, going to school, etc. Bye weeks break the normal schedule of sport.

During the last soccer season when we had a bye, we went ahead and showed up anyway - and played a scrimmage within our team. I typically will run a regular practice during a bye week, and - as with the soccer league - sometimes try to get in a scrimmage to keep the kids used to the competition. If your team is competitive in the league, the scrimmage can fine-tune the skills in a game-like environment. If your team is not as competitive, the extra work may encourage them, and perhaps give them a better chance the following week.

You'll have to deal with the dreaded bye week at some point. Make the most of them, and use them to keep the pace as normal as possible for the team.

Practice Facilities

Hopefully you are lucky, and you're associated with a program that has adequate practice facilities for you and your team to use at a reasonable hour, and at a cheap price (or free). If so, go ahead and spend some time looking over some of the outstanding prior blog posts :)

Assuming you're among the majority of coaches leading the younger kids, you do not have a practice facility provided, and must seek one out. This can be more difficult than it seems, what with our litigious society, and many people looking only to their own liability exposure.

What do you need in a place to practice? This depends on the sport, of course. For football, just about any open space will do, provided there's some room to run. Parks, schoolyards, open lots likely all do fine - watch out for rocks and large divots and holes. Pretty much the same is true for soccer, although if the grass is to tall it may impact soccer more than football. For tee ball and coach-pitch baseball, a diamond is a luxury - but again, most any space will do (unless you have big sluggers). When you get into Little League, and into the 6-7 year-old range, it's getting to the point where a diamond with an appropriate backstop is the only option.

Basketball can be a little tricky - especially for the very young kids (up through 7). At these ages, it is typical to use a 6-foot or 8-foot hoop. Some schoolyards, and even some parks have these lower hoops in place, but many do not because of vandalism or mis-use. There are special attachments that can be made to standard hoops, but these typically require a ladder and some tools. When hoops aren't readily available, I have run practice without shooting. Surprisingly, many kids who play basketball understand very clearly that the goal is to shoot the ball in the basket... Let this work to your advantage, and focus on dribbling, passing, and defense instead. If you go the basket-less approach - be sure to get some shooting in before the game if you can.

All practice facilities should be in good repair, and yes, you should ask permission first. At a park, you're likely hassle-free unless something else is scheduled... schools are typically accommodating (especially outdoors), but can be a bit trickier at times.

Once you've found a good place - stick with it. You might even see what you can do to keep the fields or courts in order, or volunteer to help when funds are needed for repairs or rebuilding. Above all - treat practice as an important part of the sporting experience. It surely is.

FUNdamentals!

One of the things I've noticed is that some coaches try really hard to be fancy. Fancy is not a bad thing, but it's not as effective when you haven't covered what's essential.

My first experience with this was a few years ago when my son was playing soccer. He was probably 5... The kids on the other team had the most amazing choreography on kickoff plays - making all kinds of bizarre moves, but not really accomplishing anything. As it turns out, they had plenty of time to do what they did on kickoffs, because they couldn't score or defend at all! Frankly, the kids really seemed to enjoy the little kickoff dance (as I named it in my head) - which is great, but was that really the best thing for the kids?

Since my first experience with coaching 15 years ago, I've seen the value in stressing the basics of the game. If you can't hit the ball, catch the ball, and make accurate throws, you will struggle with baseball - regardless of your knowledge of the infield fly rule. If you can't dribble a basketball, forget about a full court zone-trap press.

Coaching younger kids gives you a tremendous opportunity to make a huge difference. Not only is teaching fundamentals fairly easy, there is huge benefit. The kids will get frustrated running plays if they aren't able to perform the skills that are assumed in creating the strategy. The basics are different per sport, but here's my suggested foci (focuses? focus? ...I mentioned I really wasn't a writer - you were warned).

Basketball: Dribbling (with head up, with one hand, while moving), Passing (bounce, chest pass), "Triple Threat Position" - more on that in another post, Shooting (w/ proper form), Defensive position (man-to-man).

Soccer: Dribbling (both feet), Ball control (stopping, starting, changing speed), Defensive position (including goalie play, if applicable)

Baseball: Contact hitting, ground-ball fielding, basic throwing and catching. For baseball, I'd throw in a quick discussion about baserunning, if applicable.

Football: This one depends a lot on how you're playing the kids - fixed position vs. playing all positions. I focus on throwing with proper form, catching (with hands), and defensive positioning. For flag football - focus on flag pulling, which you'll find to be vitally important. For tackle, obviously tackling technique would be important.

Don't out-fox yourself with the youngsters. Focus on the basic skills first. If they've mastered that, you're ahead of the game and have free reign to do whatever else you'd like.

Drill of the Day: 3 on 2, 2 on 1

I am still wrapping up the current football/soccer seasons, however I couldn't help but think ahead to one of my favorite drills (for basketball).

3 on 2, 2 on 1 is a fast break drill which teaches decision making, and stresses quickness.

Setup: You'll need a full-court with hoops on both ends. Line up at least 3 kids on one end across the baseline - they start out with the ball. Two kids will start out on the far end of the court playing defense. Line extra players up behind the 3 along the baseline - they will make up the next group.

Drill: The three players head down the court on a fast break. The defenders attempt to stop the break. After a basket is scored or the defenders get the rebound (or the coach calls time), the defenders take the ball down the court the other way for a 2-on-1 break. The defender is the middle player from the original 3. The two remaining players from the 3 stay on the far end of the court to play defense as the drill continues.

In thinking about this post, it could work for soccer, too - maybe kids 7 or 8 and up. For the basketball version of the drill, I'd recommend it for 7 and 8 year olds, but it might be a little rough for younger kids. An alternative for the younger kids may be to remove the defenders.

Encourage your offensive players to make quick decisions and take the best shot available to them. On defense, you can stress how you'd like players to react to fast breaks. The most common reaction would be to have one defender commit to stopping the ball, and have the other pick a passing lane and/or choose an offensive player to guard. On a missed shot - stress to both sides the importance of getting the rebound.

Good luck with this one. It's fun to see it in action when it keeps rolling...

Rules

For as much as I want to encourage parents - or anyone - to volunteer their time to coach, you have to really want it. You have to be the "authority" on the team - the example for everyone to follow. And, you have to know the rules... of the sport, and of the league you're playing in. It doesn't matter when you learned them - just that you know, and adjust your coaching and strategy accordingly.



Why isn't this just really obvious? Because there are a lot of other things to think about. Equipment. Emails to the team. Dang, work was really bad today... When is practice? Little Johnny can't make that day, can you please move it to Tuesdays? In fact, that's the only day he can make it... But, you've seen soccer on TV - it can't be that hard, right? No hands, 11 players per side...?


Nothing is more embarrassing than to show up having practiced with goalies and now you can't use them. Or finding out that the basketball hoops are really 8 feet and not 6. Or that your team missed out on scoring a touchdown because you didn't realize you only had 2 timeouts per half. I've seen all of this happen, and none of it was positive.


Reading the rules literally takes a few minutes. It's ok to have questions. Every coordinator I've ever worked with was more than happy to follow up on any questions I had. Once you've read and understand the rules, don't let anyone else dictate the rules as they understand them to you (not parents, and especially not other coaches!). You will have practiced skills and put in strategy around the rules to give your kids the best chance of success (RIGHT?!). This is not to say you shouldn't agree to minor rule modifications with other coaches or officials as individual situations dictate! But knowing the rules puts you in that authority role that coaches should be in. Your parents will respect this, and the kids will rally around it.


Rules are your ally. They are in place to put the kids in the best and safest environment to succeed in the given sport. Knowing them well gives you an advantage, and it is difficult to argue what's written in the coaches' packet (vs. what you've "heard" or assumed about the league). This simple action can make the difference between great and not-so-great experiences on the field.


For my friends who may be reading - or for those of you who enjoy "The Big Lebowski" - yes, the scene with Smokey and Walter was the inspiration for this post.

What to do when...

As a coach, you will eventually have a blowout game. Hopefully, it is your team piling it on, and not being piled upon. This can be a difficult situation either way. If your team is having a great day, it may be difficult to encourage them to keep playing hard - even if you're not keeping score, they "know" how the game is going. If you're getting stomped, it may be quite a chore to keep the kids engaged in trying and playing when they "know" the score.

There's a few things I stress at every opportunity throughout the season. Number one is to play hard - try your best - all the time. The second is forget about the last play because, good or bad, it's in the past and the next play is at hand. I also emphasize defense over offense at every turn. If you limit the other team's ability to score, it makes your job on offense that much easier.

You can see where these can be in conflict with a blowout score... it's not easy to forget that you've scored 8 (or was it 9?) goals, and the other team hasn't scored any. It's also not easy to keep working hard when the other team is beating you in every aspect of the game. And who needs defense on either side of a blowout?

If you're getting beat handily, try a few things. First - don't be calling timeout and stopping the clock. Get the game over as quickly as possible. Next, try to focus on the positives - try to get a few quality possessions, or get a few plays in to move the ball effectively. If the kids are younger, you might arrange a little "success" with the other coach. All of these are avoidable - is it obvious that you should try to NOT be blown out?

If your team has the good fortune of being on the right side of a lop-sided score, it is your obligation to show sportsmanship. These are 5, 6, 7 year olds - not in high school, not pro athletes. When you're up 3 or 4 touchdowns, think twice about calling reverses and other gadget plays. If you're up 5 or 6 goals - tell the players to focus on passing to teammates. This will both kill time and keep you from scoring a lot more (even if scoring is inevitable).

I hate telling kids not to play hard, because that goes against what we've talked about all season. But, in some of these cases, it may be effective to distract the kids by suggesting you'd like to see other aspects of the game.

However the game turns out, be sure to send a positive message to kids at the end. There's nothing wrong with doing a great job. That's exactly what you've worked for... And if the other team got you that day, it gives you (obvious) talking points for the next practice. Few things have motivated me more as a coach than getting it handed to you. I am always prepared the next time...

Anatomy of a Practice: Flag Football

The 6-8 year olds are 6 games and 7 practices into the 8-game season, and we've established a pretty regular routine. Here's a brief overview of how we spend 45 minutes once a week.

Stretching and Running - Each practice starts up with a brief warm up period, followed by some sprints. Keep in mind, these are little kids, not high schoolers. I'll usually have them do 2 sets of sprints, and then we'll get started with the rest of practice.

Next up is route running practice. I have installed a basic route tree, with 9 patterns. We spent much more time on this for the first few weeks as the kids were learning the routes. Now, we go over them as a review, and to try to run them more precisely. I'll talk more about the routes and plays later on.

Now that we're probably 15 minutes into practice, it's time for a break. I like to stop every 10-15 minutes so that the kids aren't distracted by needing a quick rest of being thirsty. There's plenty of other distractions for them.

For the next 10-15 minutes, it's usually a drill or two. In earlier practices, we did basic throwing and catching. At this age, it's important to stress the mechanics of throwing, and watching the ball all the way in on a catch. I also try to stress catching with hands (if they can), versus catching against the body. This will help them later on, but may lead to a lot of dropped passes in the present. In practices later in the season, I've also run center-quarterback snapping drills, as well as some flag-pulling drills. As you can imagine, pulling flags is vitally important...

After another quick break, the last 15-20 minutes is on offensive and/or defensive strategy. We've installed a zone defense scheme (more on that later), because the kids struggled with 1-on-1 responsibilities. We've also had some difficulty running plays correctly, so it was important to me to get 2-3 plays down. I'm not sure we did, but it was worth a shot.

Running through all of this can easily consume an hour. If the kids seem distracted, move on to the next activity - or - if they are acting up, you can always have them run more.

Football is a strategy-based sport. There's a lot of teamwork involved... be sure to use practice time wisely to give yourself and the team the best shot at success during the games.

Drill of the Day: Follow the Ball

This is a drill that works for basketball, football, and soccer... I'm sure there's some way it applies to baseball, but I haven't convinced myself of that yet.

Setup: Have the kids face you, and space themselves out. Explain the drill.

Activity: The coach moves the ball in one of 4 directions - left, right, up, or down. The kids follow by moving 2 quick steps in that direction (up is backward, down is forward). Adjust speed of movements to the age of the kids.

This one applies to pretty much all ages, and can be used to get the kids to focus on watching the ball and reacting to it. I've used it extensively in football this season, because we were having a problem tracking the ball on handoffs.

This one can be tiring for the kids, but it also can emphasize quickness and agility. To increase the intensity (for older kids - middle school+) - have the players use "happy feet" between movements.

Basic setup, simple drill... Good luck!

Drill of the Day: "Butch Lee Dribble"

Despite it being my favorite sport to coach, thus far I have paid very little attention to basketball. That's unfortunate, but it all changes now.

Today's drill is great for ages 7-8 on up, and it's called the Butch Lee Dribble. I can fondly remember back to my youth, when Pulaski High School head coach Fred Kesley introduced me to this drill at a summer basketball camp. I thought it was really dumb, and I didn't even know who Butch Lee was... but it turns out, this drill has grown on me a lot.

The player will start out with the ball in a low, strong dribble with their right hand. Then they take two short, quick steps forward. After a brief pause, the player maintains the dribble and takes two quick steps back. The ball is then crossed over to the left hand, and the action is repeated there. The player should move in a slight "V" pattern during the drill as they move back and forth, then cross over to the other side.

I like this drill for younger players because it lets them control the dribble going both forward and backward with each hand. It also gets them taking quick steps with the ball and switching hands in rhythm. Stress looking up and defending the dribble with the off-hand. For older kids, this is a good quickness and agility drill, especially combined with other speed dribbling drills.

In case you were left wondering, Butch Lee was an All-American point guard for Marquette in the late 1970's, and was an integral part of their 1977 NCAA Championship team. Born in Puerto Rico, he was an excellent ball handler and had a brief NBA career.

Drill of the Day: "Monkey in the Middle"

From time to time I'll share drills or practice activities which I've found to be successful... I'll mainly focus on drills for the littler kids, but I'm sure there's ways to adapt any drill to various ages.

"Monkey in the Middle" is very popular with the 6-7 year old crowd, and it is effective at teaching both defensive and passing skills in soccer and basketball. This is a great thing to do when practice isn't going that well, no one is paying attention, and you're getting frustrated.

The drill: Have all team members stand around in a circle - this works best with 6-10 kids. Designate a "monkey" to go in the middle of the circle and steal or at least alter the path of the ball as it is passed to the members in the circle. When the monkey makes a steal (or deflects the pass for younger kids), they replace the passer on the outside of the circle, and the passer becomes the new Monkey. No passes to the person right next to you on the circle, and if you throw a pass someone has to run to get, you're in the middle... If a child holds the ball too long, warn them to keep it moving, or move them into the middle.

This will seem a little chaotic, but the kids really like it. This is a great drill for stressing fakes, quick decisions, and accuracy for the passers, and defensive skills (blocking passing lanes, watching the ball, etc) for the Monkey.