Magic
Most of us, as coaches, moan and groan to ourselves about not ever having enough time to prepare for the opposition.
We could spend every waking hour for a week reviewing film and pouring over scouting reports; modifying our own arsenals. There is just never enough time to do it all and feel content about it prior to kickoff. And then when we close our eyes, our minds tend to enact every imaginable scenario that we just might not be sufficiently prepared for when the time comes...
Over the course of my career, I have used a sequence that seems to workout nicely for me.
After sifting through film, personnel, formations, speed and strength at position, etc, I start looking for that "magic."
The "magic" are elements used by the opposition players and coaches that, when combined, tell us what is coming next and when to expect it. Everyone has their own take on this, either collectively, or as a staff. And its never a straight-forward kind of thing, as much as we all pretend that it is.
For me, it’s investigating the coach I identify as being the "shot-caller," and the many tells by players at each position when on the field—pre-snap, during snap, and post snap.
For others, it's a bit more simplistic, and tends to adhere to formations and alignments. I tend to go a bit deeper with the tells at each position and the personnel used. And if you can find enough of them, you can understand what play is being called, the specific personnel involved, in which direction the ball will move, or what scheme is being used and why—and when the opponent plans to deploy it.
During the course of a game, there are times when the opposition falls into a pattern of "telling" that makes needed or necessary adjustments just a bit more successful for us, more often than not.
This is only half the equation...
I remember, as a player, just how frustrated I got with our coach when he called a play that seemingly the entire stadium was expecting during one game where our team was trailing. Foolishly, I yelled at him to call something else, and the look he gave me could have cracked the helmet I had on and melted my face mask. Needless to say: I was out-of-line. When we got into the locker room at halftime, boy did he let me have it.
The lesson I learned from him during my uncontrolled outburst on that day is still with me. Now, I'm on the other side of it all, and certainly with a greater appreciation for the work behind play-calling and game-planning than I had ever had as a player.
On that same day during his speech at halftime, my coach said to the entire team (while looking at me), "It's one thing to know what a team is going to do. It's an entirely different thing to STOP it. It should not matter what play I call, and when I call it. It's your job to execute it!"
He was right.
Today as a coach, I can understand with greater appreciation just how much balance is needed between finding the magic and building a solid game plan, while also preparing the team. Today, before we take the field, I tell my teams at some point, "We may use a single play all game unless and until our opponent stops it."
Despite it never having been the case, I tell this to my team to help manage the expectations of any one player that may be thinking what I once thought as a player as we "go through it," and strive for the win.
Stride with Speed
