Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Titles are for people who are professional Blaggers

Yeah.

Practice today was good. I didn't see any glaring mistakes. Perhaps David's cutting drill could have been split into two groups and with less cones because it was in two groups, but I'm just nitpicking. I thought it worked particularly well when both David and I would pull people aside after the 1-on-1 drill and breakdown their performance so they can improve within the same drill.

I would also like to have the warm-up drill be a bit shorter so we don't have to get a water break after it, then do a content drill, then a conditioning/content drill, water, and a scrimmage. It uses less time and makes the conditioning drill even more effective because people are tired going into it. It motivates people because once they power through the conditioning drill they are rewarded with water. Go-To should be 5 minutes in total between Backhand and Forehand (if we even want to do forehand at this point). If we let people get water before either the content or conditioning drill they might have cooled down too much (especially if the practice is not planned out) and if we have them do two drills before conditioning it will simulate the later points in a game or tournament, which is where you really need the conditioning.

I think we need to explain the point of every drill more. I don't think a lot of people understood the point of Go-To. I think we also need a goal for each scrimmage. That is, if during practice we do vert-stack drills then we should focus on vert-stack offense and defense during the scrimmage. I would assume things like that will come with more detailed practice plans that I hope are to come.

I would also explore the possibility of breaking down the practice into groups of 5 or so and letting them work with 1-2 people in small groups. For example, one group would go to David for cutting, one group would go to Ben for throwing form, etc. Obviously I have put about ten seconds of thought into what each person could teach, but it plays to everyones strengths and uses the resources of the group the best that we can.

It's even more important to use what you've got when the team is low on talent. It is extremely foolish to have people who know what they are doing and not use them to teach those things. It isn't like we have a team of fifteen all-stars with supreme knowledge of the game and 5 n00bs. We have a select few amount of people who truly know what they are doing, and it would be criminal to have their knowledge wasted for whatever reason. One of the key concepts in leadership is Knowing and Using the Resources of the Group. I'll give the powerpoint lesson to the veterans and captains if I have to.

This year is especially important for GUNX and we need a lot of people to step up. Doubly so for those in leadership positions.

Word.

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