Keeping Things Simple For Your

Position Group
K.I.S.S. – KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID

By this time toward the end of the summer period youʼve maybe had some
small group workouts, 7 on 7ʼs, and possibly a mini-camp to get some early
install done. Your coaching staff has a plan in place and everything on the
whiteboard looks good. Youʼve read articles, watched videos, and picked
the brain of college coaches. Your latest and greatest RPO works against
any defense, and your new defensive front will surely baffle the OCʼs in your
league.

However, at this time of the year especially, we all need a reminder (myself
included) of one of the main tenets of the “coaching creed”:

“Itʼs not what YOU know… itʼs what your players know.”

Can they handle what you are giving them? Will they be able to play at top
speed without “paralysis by analysis?” Will your new install come at the
expense of teaching the “little things” to your guys?

Your new install, or even older concepts that you assume your veterans
know, can fall apart quickly if you donʼt keep it simple.

Thatʼs nothing we donʼt know, as all coaches are looking to strike the
perfect balance between putting their players in the best possible positions
to be successful while also keeping it simple. On paper, you can install
everything youʼve ever wanted to install, and everything will look great.
However, while itʼs not the only factor, simplicity plays a huge role
in determining whether itʼs effective or not.

Remember, you are dealing with teenagers whoʼs interests and priorities are
much different than your own. They nerd out on Pokemon Go just as much
as you nerd out watching film (although judging from what Iʼve seen and
heard… Iʼd need to watch a lot more film!). Understandably, they see the
game, and therefore THINK the game, much differently than you do.

At the end of the day, we want our players playing FAST. A thinking player is
a slow player. A reacting player is a fast player.

How can you keep your skills and concepts, both old AND new, simple for
your position group as you move forward into the season?

BIG – small – BIG

I subscribe to the popular and non-revolutionary “Big-Small-Big”

philosophy of teaching. This means first giving kids the big picture in which
your new concept will fit into before breaking down the specifics and finer
points, and then finally tying it all back together with previous concepts in
the end. This method of teaching is no less effective on the field than it is in
the classroom. What you teach needs to serve a purpose within the overall
scheme, and your kids will take more ownership of what they are learning if
they know why.

In my article about Training Your Cover 3 Overhang Players, I introduced the

“ABCʼs” of Money play (Moneys are what we call our outside linebackers –
the defensive position group I coach). For us, everything starts and ends
with these ABCʼs, which represent the three things that my kids need to
understand and be able to do in order to be successful. Just three things,
thatʼs it. There are details and finer points that obviously go into teaching
these ABCʼs, but the ABCʼs represent the “big picture” for your position
group, which then fits into the even bigger picture of the entire
offense/defense.

I highly advocate that each position coach takes the time to brainstorm
and write out the ABCʼs and, most importantly, give it to their kids. If you are
a head coach or coordinator, you should consider having your position
coaches do this.

Again, itʼs not about what you know… itʼs what your players know!

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ABCʼs

These ABCʼs can be skills, physical traits, assignments, techniques, or

any other point of emphasis that you can think of. The important thing is
that they are (here comes that word again…) SIMPLE! Not necessarily
simple to do, but simple to understand.

A good ABC point has the following characteristics:

It is fundamental enough that they have to do it/know it on almost

every snap in your scheme.
It is specific enough that it uniquely identifies and isolates one certain
skill/trait/assignment.
It is easy to understand for a teenager – your players know what it is
saying/referring to.

To illustrate as an example and show what those criteria look like, I will use
the three ABCʼs of Money play that I give my guys:

A) Block Defeat

B) Shoulders Square

C) Collide the #2 Receiver

In just a couple of words, those ABCʼs say “to successfully play the Money
position, you must be able to take on and get off blocks, play with your
shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage, and identify and get your hands
on whoever the #2 receiver is on your side of the formation.”
Each of those points are things that are general enough that they need to
happen nearly every snap. If they donʼt happen, we are in trouble. We NEED
to get off blocks, we NEED to stay square, we NEED to collide/re-route the
#2 receiver. I donʼt have something up there like “rush the QB” or “play the
ball in the air” because we donʼt blitz that much and we donʼt run with
vertical routes very often. We do those things, but not often enough that
they are going to make the ABCʼs.

They are also specific enough that it identifies a unique skill, trait, or
assignment. I donʼt say something general like “play fast” or “be smart”
because that doesnʼt identify anything specific. While “Block Defeat” might
sound pretty general and there are a variety of different types of blocks you
can see, it refers specifically to something we are going to see nearly every
play. I could have gone more specific and said something like “Keep Your
Outside Free,” but we also will spill a block sometimes with our outside
shoulder, depending on the call. That would be confusing to my kids when I
say “hey but in THIS call… we are going to spill!” While itʼs best to be as
specific as possible, do not be too specific to where it can be contradicted.
Otherwise, you are violating what the ABCʼs are meant to be – the basics!

Lastly, my kids all know what those ABCʼs mean. Yes, I had to initially teach
them what “defeating” a block and “staying square” means, and also how to
identify and number receivers. A kid new to football wouldnʼt know what
those meant, but after some initial teaching itʼs pretty easy to recognize
what the ABCʼs are referring to. Shorten down the ABCʼs so that itʼs easy for
kids to understand and process.

“YOU ARE WHAT YOU EMPHASIZE”

You will be what you emphasize and constantly reinforce. This is true
whether it is a mental thing or a physical thing. If you preach mental
toughness and talk about it every day, you can develop a mentally tough
team. If you preach fundamentals and constantly drill them, your team will
be fundamentally sound. If you, as a coach, identify and emphasize the
ABCʼs of your position group, your players will do them!

If you take the time by yourself or with your staff to create your ABCʼs using
the criteria and characteristics above, you are ready to put them into action.
In order to to get your players to internalize the ABCʼs, consider doing the
following:

Make copies and give them to your players – challenge them to hang
them somewhere where they will see it multiple times per day – in their
room, on their fridge, next to their TV, in their school locker, put it in
their phone background, etc.
Post them inside their lockers so that they see them before and after
every game and practice.
Post them in your classroom (if applicable).
Structure EVERY drill you do to reinforce at least one ABC. The more,
the better. If the drill does not incorporate an ABC, it is not worth doing.
Identify to your players the ABC your drill is working on.
Create an environment where your players know they can ask
questions.

CONCLUSION

Remember, you arenʼt coaching a bunch of football Einsteinʼs who have the
same experience, knowledge, and ability to visualize things the way you do.
All the things that you have taken the time to research, analyze, and learn in
the offseason means nothing if you canʼt get it across to your guys.

Ironically enough, it was Einstein who once said, “If you canʼt explain it
simply, you donʼt understand it well enough.”

By taking the time to identify, emphasize, and keep coming back to

your ABCʼs, you are taking a HUGE step in simplifying things for your
players, reducing their thinking, and ultimately increasing their reaction
time.

A thinking player is a slow player, and a reacting player is a fast player. A

fast player, is a winning player.

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