October 28, 2016
6 GameDay Strategies – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 5
“Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.” – Larry Bird
One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
Here are 6 GameDay Strategies:
- Pre-game warm-up – ‘How you warm-up is how you play the game.’ They start with high-intensity pass-catch drill. Then 4-corner pivot drill. Fast-paced, 6 or 7 drills. Everything together (take warm-ups off together.) Part of development is players learning how to prepare to win. – Gene Durdin via Kevin Furtado
- James Leath: ‘I have one formation and 8 plays (really 4 plays that can go either right or left.) I often yell what play we are running out from the sideline. If I say “Sweep left” half the defensive players think it’s going to their left.’
- ‘You need to have a couple of end-of-game lead-protection strategies: we have a four-corner offense with a back-door cut built in; and a sidelines inbound play that is very effective’ – Andres Montana
- ‘There is no magic 8-ball with the secrets to winning. Have a simple philosophy and outwork your competition on the fundamentals’– Mark Linden
- Terry Francona, World Series champion manager, when asked if he gives a big pump-up speech before games: ‘I rarely say anything. We are prepared to do what we need to and are confident we’ll do it.’
- Dave Cisar: ‘I can usually tell within 5 minutes what our competition will be like on gameday. If they are unorganized, doing a bunch of warm-ups that don’t translate to gametime situations like sit-ups on a wet field, or overly hyped and yelling, I tell our assistant coaches to get the back-ups ready because they will be coming in early.’
Be a great gameday coach and take your team to the next level! Next week look into one of my favorite topics – culture and commitment.
