Best Coaching Remote!

With fall camp getting ready to begin, I wanted to share my review on the BEST remote available for coaches today! 

I wanted to find a remote to watch film that would allow to me fast forward, slow rewind, and advance to the next play and go back to the previous play. Like many of you, I don't want to sit at my desk watching film. I want to be up walking around the room and engaging with the players. 

The remotes offered by the video companies tend to cost $250 to $300. I wanted something that was more cost feasible. I also wanted something I could use with power point and would have more functionality. After testing several remotes, I found the winner! And it is available on Amazon Prime for under 1/5th of the cost of the remote offered by video companies. 

The PR-820 by Red Star Tec has become my goto remote for everything from Hudl to Power Point Presentations. Here is a link to order yours today: PR-820 by Red Star Tech. 

The PR-820 is small, easily fits in the palm of your hand, and is comfortable to hold. It does everything you need a remote to do with video, including slow rewind! It also has a laser pointer! 

This is the remote I would recommend using with Hudl and Quick Cut. The great thing is that you can also use it in the classroom to teach from your presentations. If you speak at clinics, this remote is a must have! No longer do you have to stand at your computer to show video. 

Here is a YouTube Video I did showing the PR-820 Remote. 

I would highly recommend you check out the PR-820 and get yours ordered today! PR-820 by Red Star Tec.

Check This Out! If you are looking for specific resource you can use to help you be more effective with your game planning and more explosive on offense, check out my offensive game planning packet at  https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/ 

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to practice plans, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today and start preparing for your first game right now! This helped us be able to be prepared to attack the defense and put more points on the board. It also helped us be much more efficient and targeted on the weekends when we were game planning. 

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you what our call sheet looks like: 

This shows you a small portion of it. It is a fully editable, customizable two sided call sheet. It gives you the ability to better organize and be prepared on game day. It helped us to be better play callers on game day. There are eight other fully customizable documents! Some of the top high school programs in the country use this, as do several college programs!

When I was a defensive coordinator we adapted this to our defensive preparation! 

Here is a link to the defensive game planning documents. It includes 12 fully editable and customizable documents. https://sellfy.com/p/AY1u/ These are what we used to post 6 shutouts when I was a defensive coordinator. Defensive coordinators at all levels of football are using this. 

And finally, I put together a special teams resource. This has everything you need, included drill tape, practice tape, and game footage. It includes teaching presentations and scouting forms just for special teams! https://sellfy.com/p/tJwz/ This helped us to build dominating special teams! 

I wanted these to be available at a very reasonable cost. These can help you to be more successful on the field and more efficient in the office! 

A while back I got hooked up with CoachTube and put together three courses for offensive football coaches. I put together two courses on RPO's, and a course on Building An Elite System of Communication. All of these courses will help you to score more points! 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint

Installing Post-Snap RPO's

Installing Pre-Snap RPO's To Get Your Skill Guys More Touches

Building An Elite System of Gameday Communication

All three of these courses are detailed, with everything you need to be more explosive and to score more points. 

As mentioned above, the course on communication gives you a detailed approach to your gameday communication. I give you a system and a process to improve the quality of conversations, leading to improved play calling on game day. This course has received outstanding reviews from coaches at all level of football. A coach with multiple state titles told me this course helped them to be much more efficient and explosive this season. 

My two RPO courses take you through a systematic process of installing RPO's into your offensive system. RPO's put the defense in conflict, forcing them to defend all 53 yards of width and all 6 skill players every single play. I not only give you a system, but I teach you the methods to develop your own RPO concepts. 

Books

I published a couple of iBooks that can help your program with X's and O's. The first is on Installing RPO's into any offense. Here is a link to the iBooks version: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1078061959. The ibooks version includes explanations, diagrams, and video clips on multiple RPO Concepts. It will give you a simple process for implementing them into your offense.

If you don't have an apple device, you can order the paperback version! It is available on Amazon! 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1520447485

I also wrote a book on Tempo. It will greatly help you build a multiple tempo system with simple communication that will allow your kids to play with confidence. It also had over an hour of video clips! You can order the ibooks version here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1075902270.

Order the Amazon Kindle version here:

http://www.amazon.com/Using-Multiple-Tempos-Create-Explosive-ebook/dp/B01ATOL46A/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

New Book

Over the last several months, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote a new book about faith and purpose. The book is available as a paperback on Amazon, and as an eBook for the Kindle App. The cool thing about the Kindle app is that you can read the book on any device. I invite you to read it, and discover the power you receive when you make a decision to walk with the Lord. Here is a link to the book: Finding Faith

Since publishing the book, I have received numerous texts, calls, and emails, from people who are going through similar trials and tribulations. They were feeling many of the same things I was feeling. The found comfort in the book. They also found they had a desire to change and to live better. They wanted more joy. 

I would invite you to read the book and discover the possibilities that God has planned for your life. 

The Three Biggest Mistakes Coaches Make When Scouting an Opponent

Every week we are going to prepare to play an opponent, we are going to try to learn as much about our opponent to be as prepared as possible. Sun Tzu said it best in "The Art of War." If you don't know your enemy you will suffer defeat. 

Nearly every coach in America is going to prepare for their opponents each week. There are three big mistakes that coaches make in scouting an opponent. These three things will always get you beat. 

1. They don't enter any data into their video program. 

2. They have different coaches entering data each week.

3. They don't look at the data. 

They Don't Enter Any Data

This is something I see more frequently than you can imagine. I have coaches reach out to me to help solve problems in their program, and when I log into their Hudl account, they haven't entered any data. One school gave up 32 points a game. They had pretty good players and matched up well with five teams in their district. They ended up barely making the playoffs and losing in the first round. They had not entered any data on their opponents. 

It doesn't matter what side of the ball you coach, you need to have the most basic data entered so you can get a picture of your opponent. You can divide up the responsibilities and have 3 coaches enter the data for a game in 15 minutes. You can knock out three games in an hour. Three games will give you a good picture of your opponent. 

Once you enter the data, you can click a few buttons and generate information that will help you better prepare for your game. If you are a defensive coach, you can get an opponent's run pass percentages based on formation and down and distance. You can get their field zone tendencies. 

If I am an OC, I can get their blitz and coverage percentages. I can get their field zone tendencies. I will know when to run a man beater or zone beater. Or, when they are bringing pressure so I can throw a screen. 

I am a better play caller if I know what my opponent is going to do. How much better of a play caller are you if you know the defense brings a 5 man field pressure and plays man free behind it on 3rd and 3 or more? How much better can you call a defense if you know the offense is 70% run in 12 personnel, and if the back is to the boundary they run to the boundary? 

There is no excuse for not entering data on your opponents. Take 15 minutes with your coaches and enter the data for at least one game. 

Here is an example of a call sheet when I was a DC. By investing 35 minutes entering data, I had tendencies on my call sheet, and was able to then list my favorite calls to stop what they did. This call sheet is part of my Defensive Game Planning Packet . 

As you can see, I have the offensive tendencies listed for each down and distance situation from each hash. Because I know what they do, I can script my best calls to stop what they do. This is just one benefit of entering the data. 

The Have Different Coaches Entering Data Each Week

This is something I screwed up at one point. If Coach Williams is going to enter the formation, then Coach Williams enters the formation for every single film. If Coach Williams calls Trips Right "Toledo" for one game, and then Coach Jones calls Trips Right "Kentucky" for the next scout film, your data is going to be jacked up. Have the same coach enter the same column data for each opponent. 

You can have 1 coach enter Down and Distance, Hash, Yd Line, Play Type, Gain Loss, and Result. You can have another coach enter Formation and motion. Another coach enters play type and ball carrier. If you are scouting a team's defense, you do it much the same way. Except now you have one coach enter the front, stunt, and blitz, and another coach enters the coverage and tackler. 

If you divide up the duties, it goes quicker. You should have a universal language, so each coach uses the same terminology, but by having the same coaches entering the same columns each week, you are going to have consistent data. 

They Don't Look At The Data

This is one that I don't see a lot, but when I do it is frustrating. If you are going to have your coaches invest the time to enter the data, you need to look at the data. Once the data is entered, it can give you important information. I am going to take this information to create our practice schedule and scripts. Because we have the data, we are going to focus on what our opponent is most likely going to do. We are not going to waste time one things they rarely do. 

Have you ever gone through a practice week and spent time on something you never ended up calling? Or you spent 30% of your practice time on something your opponent did 5% of the time? That comes from not looking at the data. 

We are spoiled. Every video program provides some easy to read reports that helps us to have a picture of what our opponent will do. We need to take advantage of this information. Knowledge is power. 

The other aspect of using the data is scripting our practices. If we were playing a wing-t team that ran the ball 95% of the time, we spent more of our practice in inside run, and less time in pass hull. If we faced a defense that liked to bring 5 and 6 man pressures and play man coverage, we were able to build our practice plan to spend more time in blitz pick up. 

If you want to really to be organized and prepared, check out my game planning resource. I mentioned my defensive resource above. I also have an Offensive Resource. Below is an example of a few of the documents in the offensive resource. 

Both of these resources have everything you need that is already built and fully editable and customizable. They have call sheets, practice plans for the entire week, scouting report templates, depth chart templates, personnel templates, wrist band templates, and more. All the work is done, all you have to do is enter your information and dominate your opponents. They are less than $13 right now. And you can order BOTH in this bundle for additional savings! Offensive and Defensive Game and Practice Planning Bundle

These three mistakes take zero talent to overcome. Make sure you enter the data of the opponent you are going to play. Make sure you are consistent with who enters that data. Make sure you take the time to use the data. 

I hope this has helped give you some useful information. I recommend you check out my YouTube channel as well. I have several videos posted on game planning and scouting. https://www.youtube.com/@JamesVint/videos

In Season Self-Scout Reports

One of the most important thing you can do as a coordinator is your self-scouting report. 

In my 20+ years as a coordinator, I evolved greatly in how I performed a self scouting report. In the early days of my career we did everything by pen and paper. I had legal pads filled with information and I had to do a lot of math. 

After a couple of years we evolved into using Excel. Then video programs began adding reports that could give us some actionable information. From there we began using Recon, which transformed the data in actionable dashboards. The key word is actionable. You don't need data to have data. You want to have data that you can use and has meaning. 

Everything we do has a purpose, or a why. We don't do things just to do things. Looking at our self-scout reports helps us to be able to find valuable information that benefits us greatly in our game planning. There are three things we will focus on today. 

1. Our tendencies that opponents will find
2. Which concepts are most effective/least effective
3. Which formations/personnel groups have led to the most success/least success

Every defensive coordinator you play is going to look at data on your offense. They are going to look at your most recent games first. Most coaches are going to include at least 3 games of data in their scouting report, and many will include every game they can get for the season. I want to know our tendencies and find the same data the defensive coordinator is looking at. I want to see what he is seeing. 

The defensive coordinator is going to prepare his defensive calls based on the data. He is most likely going to break it down by personnel group, down and distance, and field zone. He is probably going to look at our formation tendencies, trying to figure out what plays we run from each formation, and what formations we run from certain personnel groups. If we know what data he is seeing, we can then make adjustments to our game. 

The first thing I run is look at our run/pass percentages for the last three games, as well as for the season to date. I am going to focus on the data for the last three games when we build our game plan. When the playoffs start I am going to look at our last 5 game tendencies and compare them to our tendencies for the season. Below is an example of an overview report for 3 games. This is from Recon Football, which saved us several hours each weekend with our data breakdown. Recon Demo

This gives us a global view of our play calls, and shows us our Run/Pass Percentages. Overall we run the ball 64% of the time. 1% of the time there was a penalty. The conversion rate is the percentage of plays that result in a first down. I then look at our run/pass percentages based on backfield set, field zone, down and distance, and formation. I also look at our play frequency to see what plays we called most. Looking at our data I can see some tendencies that we might want to consider. 3rd and 1-3 we are 100% run. We might want to look at play action or a boot concept. We have some formations that we are over 80% run. We might want to look at throwing some play action from those formations. 

If I just looked at this data, I would have some actionable information. But I know our opponent is going to dig deeper. They are going to look at every formation we ran and put every play we ran from every formation on their board. I know that they are going to look at more specifics of what we do from each formation. I am going to dig deeper into our down and distance data and formation data. and look at how we can break some of our tendencies. 

I am going to look at our formations to see if there are tendencies that might give away what we are doing. I am also going to look at our hash tendencies. I also like to look at our pass game and run game. 

After we look at our tendencies, I am going to focus on our concepts. Which concepts have we had the most success with in the run game and pass game? I want to know if there is something we are doing well that need to more of, or if there is something we aren't doing well that we need to fix or do less of. 

I can see here that when we are on the right has we don't throw short and intermediate passes into the boundary or middle of the field. This is something we need to look at. We want to know why this is, and is it something we can adjust? I look at what concepts we call the most, then I sort by completion percentage and average gain. I want to see what pass concepts we have the most success.