Developing Effective Practice Plans

How to structure and organize practice sessions to maximize skill development and team cohesion.

Developing effective practice plans for high school football requires an idea of what your opponent likes to do, which will come from watching film or getting data and insights from some of their previous games. For example, if you know they’re susceptible to giving up a pass along the right sideline, then you’ll probably want to work that into your practice plan for the week leading up to the game.

After you’ve developed an idea of what the opponent does well, you’ll want to devise a game plan against that, using your strengths as a team. This could include stuff that you’ve already installed within your system, or it could include new strategies and plays that you will have to install during the week.

If it’s the latter, you will want to carefully work in an install period in all of your practices and then also make sure you’re showing what it should look like on film before or after practice using film from it being ran successfully by another team or using the film from that day’s practice to showcase the right / wrong way to do it and coach it up based off what your actual athletes put on film that day.

Developing a great game plan can maximize skill development and cohesion amongst the team because everyone gets a sense for how something is done and they can assist each other on the fly when the coach(es) are busy coaching something else, increasing camaraderie.

iQSports can assist with the insights aspect of this, providing real-time insights during the game so that coaches have the ability to coach on the fly and make informed decisions that could affect the outcome of the game. Moreover, with the addition of features on the horizon, we will be able to provide insights on upcoming opponents seamlessly so that going into your gameplanning meeting, you will already have an idea on what you want to do for the week’s practice plan so you can focus more on athlete skill development rather than game planning.

Player Development and Skill Training: Techniques for Improving Individual Player Skills

When focusing on player development and skill training, it is essential to concentrate on techniques that enhance specific skills relevant to each position. Core skills include passing, catching, blocking, and tackling. However, the effectiveness of training lies in its relevance to the player's role and the system they operate within.

Assessing Skill Levels and Position-Specific Training

To accurately assess the skill level of any position group, it is crucial to teach practical skills tailored to the demands of the position. For instance, offensive linemen do not need extensive training in catching passes or fielding punts, as these skills are outside their scope of responsibilities. Conversely, quarterbacks and receivers will benefit greatly from drills focusing on these aspects.

Understanding Offensive and Defensive Systems

Determining which skills are practical or impractical requires a deep understanding of your offensive or defensive system. The system's requirements provide a solid foundation for identifying which skills to emphasize during practice and which traits to develop.

For example, in an offensive system that frequently utilizes rollouts, it would be highly beneficial to invest time in teaching the quarterback to throw accurately on the run and from off-platform positions. This skill is crucial in such a system, where the QB often needs to make quick, precise throws while moving.

Position-Specific Skill Development

Quarterbacks

• Passing Accuracy: Drills focusing on improving precision in various game scenarios. You can do this in several ways. One of my favorite things is practicing concept throws. What this entails is during a practice period, split the field into 2 “halves”. On one side of the field, you will have a certain route combination, either two or three receiver combinations, and the same thing on the other side. You can now do this in 1 of 2 ways:
  • On one hand, you can have 1 quarterback work on making the correct throw to the player depending on a dummy defender. This will build decision making, but also assist with *quick* decision making which will lend itself to your player being more decisive.
  • On the other hand, you can have multiple quarterbacks throw to one receiver each and then rotate so they get the practice and the timing on each route individually.
• Mobility: Techniques for throwing on the run and evading pressure. Again, there are multiple ways that you can do this to make it fun for your quarterback. There are drills that can build mobility, but there are also ways you can incorporate mobility into the practice plan to allow your quarterback to work on multiple skills at once. One drill that I enjoy running with my quarterbacks requires blocking bags. You will lay them down in the path or track that a rollout play requires and then you will need the quarterback to run through the play as if there was nothing in the way.
  • What this will do is it will require the quarterback to be conscientious of “trash” in the way, developing his footwork and mobility in the pocket or on the rollout.
• Another drill you can run that takes a little more to set up, but it’s effective for diagnosing defensive players paths. This is how it goes:
  • You will have your QB close his eyes or turn around to where he can’t see you, and behind him (the way he will be eventually facing the ball), you will have 3 players that will act as defensive players. What you will do is you will point to each of the dummy players and you will give them a ‘track’ to go on when the drill is started. After you’ve given each of the 3 players a track, you will tell the quarterback to open his eyes and begin the drill. The purpose of this drill is to create an escape lane for your signal caller and for him to be able to quickly diagnose pathing and the escapability of any given path. After you run this a couple of times, you can start seeing where his mindset is on things which will allow you to coach him better.

Wide Receivers

• Catching: Techniques for reliable hands and catching in traffic.
  ◦ One drill you can do this involves 3-4, more if you want to make it harder. How the drill is set up is you will have one player throwing the ball and the receiver doing the drill 5-10 yards away. The other players will then position themselves around the receiver and put their hands out around the vicinity of where the ball’s flight will be, to add chaos. The receiver doing the drill will be tasked with sorting out all the other hands and then catching the ball throughout all the chaos. This drill is intended to assist with working out and blocking out the chaos that is involved with any given play and when a pass is contested.
• Route Running: Improving speed and precision in route execution..
  
  • Cone drills are a big help here because you can position the cones in such a way mimics the path of a route. Then, have the receiver run through the cones and see how tightly they adhere to the cones during their pathing. This will tell you how crisp their routes are or if they are diagnosing their routes, which would in turn tip off the defense as to what they’re trying to do.
  • Another helpful drill for this is to run the concept routes as mentioned earlier. Being able to run routes in tandem with another player will improve timing, precision, and chemistry with the receivers. You could also shake up the drill by adding a dummy player to take a route out by dropping into coverage, which would then aid in quick decision making.

Offensive Linemen

• Blocking: Skills for both pass protection and run blocking. The best way to do this really is to just practice your gap scheme responsibilities, zone blocking tracks, and your footwork. This will help the chemistry with the entire offensive line as a unit.

The list goes on and on for each position, for each drill, etc.

Practical Implementation

When implementing these training techniques, it is essential to tailor drills and exercises to mirror game situations as closely as possible. This approach helps players translate practice skills into on-field performance effectively. Coaches should also provide continuous feedback and adjust training methods based on player progress and changing game dynamics.

Conclusion

Effective player development hinges on understanding the specific needs of each position and the system in which the players operate. By focusing on relevant skills and practical training techniques, coaches can significantly enhance individual player performance and, consequently, the overall success of the team.