The Perfect Practice

By Detric Smith

For www.EliteFTS.com

Everything that I do as a sports performance coach has to transfer to the field as improved performance or injury prevention. It’s important for a sports performance coach to work very closely with the sports coach and attend practices and games to pick up on the movement patterns necessary for each player to reach his or her potential. Your knowledge of the game will also help you to gain the trust of the sports coach.

This seems like common sense, but many coaches don’t understand the exact needs of each sport or each position. For example, let’s take a wide receiver. A wide receiver has to catch and run routes. In order to do these things at a high performance level, they need speed (linear and lateral), power, agility, strength, and reaction/focus (catching the ball, etc.). Strength is the foundation for everything, not just pushing a defender. The types of strength needed for each position can be broken down further (strength-speed, speed-strength). The drills and conditioning need to be as specific as possible to the game in order to see a transfer to the field.



If a receiver catches ten balls a day while waiting in line for one quarterback to throw the ball to them, they won’t see much improvement in catching the ball. A simple task such as catching the ball has to be broken down into simpler task such as focus (eyes on the ball), hand placement (where the hands should be in order to catch the ball), and catching strategy (having soft hands). Most players aren’t born with these skills. The ones who are blessed are genetically gifted and work hard. Like many coaches say, practice makes perfect. If receivers can’t do this, then more advanced skills can’t be taught. The word “fundamental” is one that’s thrown around, but things need to be broken down even further.
 

Running routes is another task that needs to be broken down into simpler tasks. The players have to be able to visualize the drill before they can execute it. Standing in a line and waiting for a ball to be passed while they run a route once means that the players only ran that route at most five or six times per week. If you take a beginner and tell him to catch a pass while running his route, he won’t get much better at either skill because he’s focusing on doing too many things at once.

Running a route is a skill that can’t be taught from doing any other drill. You have to run the routes. When teaching route running, you have to be very specific. You have to teach the players how to plant their feet and push off when they’re changing direction. (Make sure that the players know the pattern and how it’s supposed to look because most times they have no idea.) You have to teach them when to put their hands up and when to look back as well as many other basic skills. Be sure to build on things and don’t give them a ton of information at once. In many situations, players haven’t even run the route to perfection at full speed before they have to play a game. So before you yell at a kid for doing it wrong, evaluate yourself as a coach.



Conditioning drills need to be specific, and they should focus on the energy system needed to excel at the game. Make sure you consider the ratio of activity to rest, the type of activity, and the duration of the game.

Would it be better for your wide receiver to run routes over and over again to perfection with the exact ratio of activity to rest, or should you put him on the sled for the entire practice? You can reverse that statement for the lineman. Coaches typically say that it takes a player a while to get into game shape. That’s because most of the time the practices haven’t been specific to the game.



Some coaches are probably trying to figure out when they will have the time to do all of these things with their players Consider all of the drills you do and ask yourself whether or not they’re helping your players improve. Consider how you spend your time in the off-season and consider helping out your feeder programs.



Some coaches are trying to figure out if it’s within their realm as a sports performance coach to teach all of these things. If there’s one thing that sports performance coaches and sports coaches will agree on, it’s that we’re trying to help our athletes reach their potential as players and people.

Sports performance coaches and sports coaches need to do what they ask of their players and work as a team. The principles learned on the field, under the bar, and through coaching apply to every other aspect of life.



Detric Smith, CSCS, USAW, ACSM-HFI is a sports performance coach for Surry County High School. He also coaches football and track at the high school level.

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