The Coaching 101 Podcast

Staff organization can make or break your team. If you mismanage your coaches, and don’t ensure key positions are getting the best coaching, you’re likely not going to find success in the long run. 

On this episode we discuss how we believe a coaching staff should be organized, and how to prioritize the positions you need to fill.

How should we organize our staff?

• Every position coach is not the most important. If you’re a HC that is also Coordinating one side of the ball then we believe this is the order in which to fill the other roles:
  • Coordinator opposite of HC
  • O-Line
  • JV/Freshman/JH HC’s
• There are duties that must be delegated by the HC to the rest of the staff. Those duties include, but aren’t limited to:
  • Fundraising
  • Technology
  • Communication
  • Collegiate liaison
  • Social Media
  • Stats

What key position groups absolutely must have a great coach?

• OL coach has to be number 1 here, as no amount of coaching can get your QB or RB out from behind a bad OL.
• LB Coach, as this is the only position on defense that continuously has two jobs that oppose each other.
• QB Coach and then the rest

How can we develop a staff?

• Coaches Clinics
• Give authority - let them have some ownership in the program and see what they’ll do with self-development to fill those shoes
• Ask their goals and then set them up to reach them

What NOT to do as a Coach

• Today’s Lesson: 
  • Do NOT micromanage your coaches.

Social Media

• Guest
  • Twitter: @
  • Email: 
• Daniel
  • Twitter: @CoachChamboOK
  • Email: [email protected]
• Kenny
  • Twitter: @FBCoachSimpson
  • Email: [email protected]
• Coaching 101 Podcast
  • Twitter: @Coaching101Pod

Daniel Chamberlain:

@CoachChamboOK

[email protected]

chamberlainfootballconsulting.com

Kenny Simpson:

@FBCoachSimpson

[email protected]

FBCoachSimpson.com

Topic: Building a Drill w/ Chris Haddad

Drills are some of the most basic parts of practice, and for some they become the most difficult to plan.

Listen as Kenny, Daniel, and our guest Chris Haddad break down the most important parts of a drill, why it’s important that they’re relevant, and which are their favorites.

What are the base pieces of drills that must be present?

• It needs to be able to exist in an individual period. You have to have enough players present to fill every role in the drill.
• Fundamentals should be built in first, then you want to be making a decision by reading something, then that all has to occur at game speed.
• Drills should use the Crawl, Walk, Run method. Don’t start too big, and don’t stay too small.

Why is it so important that we have relevant drills?

• Time is the most limited resource you have. Don’t waste it with bad drills. Shorter practices equal fresher bodies.
• Always coach to the lowest football IQ in the room. You can’t teach someone Advanced Calculus until they know basic math.
• Players will buy into drills that make sense much easier than trendy drills off of twitter. They have twitter too and have likely seen the drills on there. If you’re constantly teaching those drills, they’ll think you don’t know what you’re doing.

What are your favorite drills and which drills do you think have the most value?

• Guards/Backs blocking in space
• Tackle fit drills, from the most basic and building them up
• Situational Tackling drills
• Big Cat Drill - LSU

What NOT to do as a Coach

• Today’s Lesson:
  • Don’t wing it at practice! You can’t go out and pretend you know what you’re doing.

Social Media

• Guest
  • Twitter: @chrisvIQtory
• Daniel
  • Twitter: @CoachChamboOK
  • Email: [email protected]

• Kenny
  • Twitter: @FBCoachSimpson
  • Email: [email protected]
• Coaching 101 Podcast
  • Twitter: @Coaching101Pod

Daniel Chamberlain:

@CoachChamboOK

[email protected]

chamberlainfootballconsulting.com

Kenny Simpson:

@FBCoachSimpson

[email protected]

FBCoachSimpson.com

“Feed the Cats” is a track speed program that is taking the football world by storm. Creator Tony Holler talks with Kenny and Daniel about his program, what it looks like in a football program, and all about knocking out conditioning (which players are likely to replay for you on repeat once they find this episode) for you team in the name of longevity in performance.

How would the Feed the Cats program work in football?

• Offseason development
  • 3 Days/ week
  • Speed, weightroom, football
• Practice structure
• In-Season Program

What are the essential parts of the program?

• Non-negotiables
  • 3 times per week
  • Record, rank, publish
  • MPH Data
  • Rest, recover, sleep
  • NO CONDITIONING
• How do you work to get players “tough?”
  • Take them out of survival mode
  • Make them love the game again
• Bring parents, admin, coaches, and players onboard with proven reduction in injuries and gain in speed

How would you structure conditioning for games?

• For OL, don’t condition, just play football
• “Do Football” - Tony
• For Skill players, work capacity workouts
  • Track capacity builder example: 10 fly 40’s in 10 minutes

What NOT to do as a Coach

• Today’s Lesson:
  • Don’t do dumb things to be “tough”

Social Media

• Guest
  • Twitter: @pntrack
• Daniel
  • Twitter: @CoachChamboOK
  • Email: [email protected]
• Kenny
  • Twitter: @FBCoachSimpson
  • Email: [email protected]
• Coaching 101 Podcast
  • Twitter: @Coaching101Pod

Daniel Chamberlain:

@CoachChamboOK

[email protected]

chamberlainfootballconsulting.com

Kenny Simpson:

@FBCoachSimpson

[email protected]

FBCoachSimpson.com

Opponent Breakdown is somewhat of a ritual for many coaches. Others can’t seem to systematize the weekend event to get the most out of it. Done correctly, and efficiently, your opponent breakdown can give you all of the keys to success for your team, without eliminating all of your weekend family time.

On this episode, we discuss Coach Simpson and Coach Chamberlain’s Opponent Breakdown systems that they’ve found to be the most successful.

What does your Opponent Breakdown look like?

• Use the Funnel method to identify what info needs to go down to the next level
• Start as a spectator and just watch the game. Then, go to work on their scheme. 
• Find ways to stop THE GUY
• Don’t do too much. Maybe add in a wrinkle or 

Are your staff members a part of your plan?

• Coordinators and position coaches all have a job to do
• Each coach also has an additional role during the breakdown
• Trust your coaches once you’ve taught them what you need from them.

How do you plan your weekends?

• Work that can be done at home is done at home
• Only meet with coaches that need to be in the meeting
• Staff meeting Sunday night needs to be under 2 hours

What NOT to do as a Coach

• Today’s Lesson:
  • Don’t think more hours at the field house equals working harder

Social Media

• Daniel
  • Twitter: @CoachChamboOK
  • Email: [email protected]
• Kenny
  • Twitter: @FBCoachSimpson
  • Email: [email protected]
• Coaching 101 Podcast
  • Twitter: @Coaching101Pod

Daniel Chamberlain:

@CoachChamboOK

[email protected]

chamberlainfootballconsulting.com

Kenny Simpson:

@FBCoachSimpson

[email protected]

FBCoachSimpson.com

Football practice is the only time of the day that some of your players are going to think about football, so you better make the best of it. With the increase of items to steal our attention, i.e. Social Media, we now have to compete against shortened attention spans too, which means we’d better be efficient when we lace ‘em up throughout the week. 

On this episode we discuss how to organize your practice plan to get the most out of your coaches, your players, and still get fundamentals and situational work in throughout the week.

What goes into your practice organization?

• Individual - thinking of skills not players
• POD Work - putting groups together by concepts
• Group - 7-on-7 / Inside Run
• Team - All 3rd Down, time management and field zone - teach simulations

What makes a good drill?

• Build a drill book - teach the why
• Feed the Cats - move your full speed drills to an early point of practice, or allow maximum recovery
• How does this show up in a game

What is POD work?

• Putting the player with the coach that can teach the skill
  • Down blocking Y’s and H’s can spend time with the OL coach to learn the proper technique
• Force a common language on offense, every coach must speak the same words
• Cohesion of staff by cross training players

How are you managing Team practice?

• How do you communicate plays
• How game-like can we make this
• How structured does it need to be, without being too structured
• Finish with a scenario (not just on Thursday)

What NOT to do as a Coach

• Today’s Lesson: “Run drills because you see them on twitter:”

Social Media

• Daniel
  • Twitter: @CoachChamboOK
  • Email: [email protected]
• Kenny
  • Twitter: @FBCoachSimpson
  • Email: [email protected]
• Coaching 101 Podcast
  • Twitter: @Coaching101Pod

Daniel Chamberlain:

@CoachChamboOK

[email protected]

chamberlainfootballconsulting.com

Kenny Simpson:

@FBCoachSimpson

[email protected]

FBCoachSimpson.com

On this episode Kenny and Daniel are joined by Southside (Batesville, AR) OL Coach Bo Gould to discuss the fundamentals of Offensive Line play, where to start during your spring and fall installs, and how to make adjustments to get your OL Group to play beyond their ceiling

What is our plan going into spring/pre-season practice

• Getting OL to understand concepts rather than individual plays
• We teach our OL how they can get beat, and ways to prevent that. We also give them a “non-negotiable” which is a place they absolutely cannot allow a defender to get to
• We want to identify the group’s ceiling and then build practice plans to get there or exceed it

What drills to use with our OL?

• Coach Gould and Coach Simpson talk through their favorite drills
• We discuss the difference in skip-pull vs normal pulls and the advantages to each
• We share some tips to increase the success of your kick-out blocks

What adjustments may we have to make?

• We discuss how to work with slower linemen and still make the play work
• The fundamentals of Strong side and Quick side offensive lines
• Blocking doesn't have to look pretty, but it does have to work.

What NOT to do as a coach:

• Today’s Lesson: Don’t lie to your players, especially when it comes to next week’s opponent

Social Media

• Bo Gould
  • Twitter: @CoachBoGould
  • Email: [email protected]
• Daniel
  • Twitter: @CoachChamboOK
  • Email: [email protected]
• Kenny
  • Twitter: @FBCoachSimpson
  • Email: [email protected]
• Coaching 101 Podcast
  • Twitter: @Coaching101Pod

Daniel Chamberlain:

@CoachChamboOK

[email protected]

chamberlainfootballconsulting.com

Kenny Simpson:

@FBCoachSimpson

[email protected]

FBCoachSimpson.com

On this episode of The Coaching 101 Podcast, Kenny and Daniel are discussing building your program at all levels. Listen in for a “playbook” on how to get every player, coach, teacher, and administrator on your side as a coach, and how to get the community behind your program.

How do we build up our School Buy-in?

• Community events
  • Build an atmosphere around our program
  • Social media
  • Meet the “Enter Your Mascot Here”
    • Free to get in, take donations/ do fundraisers
    • Businesses that have donated to the program get a table to talk about their business with the community
  • Mom/Son date night
    • Sponsored by local businesses
    • Table games
    • Son seats the mom, serves her dinner, etc
  • Football 101 with parents
  • Father/Son Retreat
    • Bonding experiences
• Game themes 
  • Home games are themed
    • Military appreciation
    • Breast cancer awareness
    • Childhood cancer
    • Community support night
  • Students dress up each week
• T-shirts, groups of helpers
  • Shirts for each helper that lends a hand throughout the week/game
• Youth Football
  • Youth football camp

How to increase Administration and Teacher Buy-in?

• Disciplined team
  • The goal should be to benefit the player, period
  • Will do what they need to do, even if they don’t want to do it
• Locker room / facilities taken care of
  • Admin will be frustrated when you ask for things/money and the facilities look like a wreck
  • 
    
• Go to events!
  • Choir, basketball, track meets, band, etc
  • Go to the ones that no one wants to go to
  • Be an active participant
• Teacher relationships
  • Build relationships ahead of time to stay ahead of the curve before absences/grades become an issue
  • Assist the teacher to form a relationship with the student, and yourself/ your staff
  • Honorary Captain

How do we increase our Coach Buy-in?

•  Organized - schedules/meetings
  • Let coaches know when they’re expected to be at the office
  • 
    
• Learn to delegate
  • Match bad jobs with good jobs
  • Technology job picks platform, camera, tv, etc
  • Email announcements matched with social media
• Allow them to shine and grow
  • Match their taskings with their goals
    • Coaches who want to be HC, get huge administrative taskings
      • POs
      • Parent Meetings
      • Equipment meetings
    • Coaches who don’t want to move past assistant
      • Less “difficult” jobs
      • Jobs that don’t build HC skills
  • Set the right and left boundaries

How do we increase our Player Buy-in?

• Scheme must match talent
  • Find a way to hide a player’s weakness, and highlight his strengths
• “will you help me” - teach to lead
  • Take the “Alphas” and put them in leadership and mold them
  • Give small tasks, then step them up and build them up
  • 
    
• Servant leadership
  • Serve your players, that’s your job. Get your players from where they are to where they want to be
  • You’re a Coach (like an old school vehicle)

Daniel Chamberlain:

@CoachChamboOK

[email protected]

chamberlainfootballconsulting.com

Kenny Simpson:

@FBCoachSimpson

[email protected]

FBCoachSimpson.com

On the inaugural episode of the Coaching 101 Podcast, Kenny and Daniel introduce themselves and talk about their football journeys. Also, they discuss the purpose of the podcast, and what they hope the listeners get out of it.


Coach Simpson Introduction

• Family Bio / Background
  • Moved a lot as a youth (military) 
  • Learned from many coaches as an athlete
  • Harding U, graduate, met wife
  • 3 children
    • Avery
    • Braden
    • Bennett
• Coaching Background
  • 2 - JH HC Madison Academy (Huntsville, AL)
  • DC Alabama Christian Academy (, AL)
  • HC after old HC moved on
  • Batesville Southside
    • Worst school in AR
    • NO football culture
  • Searcy HC
    • Left to do FBCoachSimpson.com
  • Back to Southside (OC)
  • Back to being HC

• Business Background
  • 28 Books
  • Headsets
  • Materials produced during COVID

Coach Chamberlain Introduction

• Family Bio/ Military Background
• 3 years coaching
• DC/ Position/ Analyst
• Podcasting

Why are we here?

• Why are WE here?
• Purpose of the podcast
• What listeners can expect

Social Media

• Kenny Simpson
  • @fbcoachsimpson on twitter and Facebook
  • [email protected]
• Daniel Chamberlain
  • @CoachChamboOK on twitter
  • [email protected]

Daniel Chamberlain:

@CoachChamboOK

[email protected]

chamberlainfootballconsulting.com

Kenny Simpson:

@FBCoachSimpson

[email protected]

FBCoachSimpson.com