The challenge NFL coaches are facing in the present moment is one of creativity.
The coronavirus pandemic has shut down person-to-person contact many major American cities, and thus it has shut down the way the NFL has historically operated in the spring and summer months. Now that the player acquisition phase of the league year is largely gone, this time is for instruction and installation of the offensive and defensive concepts.
So how does New Orleans Saints offensive line coach Dan Roushar teach if he does not have the usually available methods at his disposal? In what way can he and others like him shape young minds if they’ve spent a career up to this point molding them with their hands, up close and personal?
Every morning, Roushar meets with his newest pupils via teleconference — incoming rookies who will either battle for starting spots or roster spots — and he challenges himself to be a better communicator.
“It’s really become kind of an interesting process,” Roushar said last week. “Because of our lack of ability to put them on the field and go through things, there’s been a lot more communication back and forth, many, many more questions as we’ve watched others execute it, the players that have done this before them.”
Roushar presents the information, then he fires off questions. He can’t test, measure or see the players physically, so he tests their mind. By the time the team eventually comes to training camp, the players should have a firm grasp on what is expected of them, and Roushar should have some working knowledge of what a player is capable of as well.
“We’re not in a race to get to the field,” Roushar said. “You’re afforded time. So I think we’ve gone very slow in this process, we’ve been very detailed and methodical.”
The Saints have used technology to assist their creativity, organizing these sorts of question and answer sessions via Zoom and WebEx. Through that, they can share film from past seasons, showing the right way and wrong way to do things. They can demonstrate in real time on the video with a sort of telestrator.
The film sessions that would have normally followed the in-person training at the field level are now the main course, not the supplement. Football practices are great environments for visual learners, so without them, they are asking players to think creatively, too, to open their minds, envision themselves in the spot and ask the right questions.
“I’ve really been impressed with the guys’ ability to give us good answers and to challenge us,” Roushar said. “If the answers aren’t correct, to find ways to guide them into what we think are the right decisions. In addition to that, we’ve had the opportunity to have them watch our players and maybe critique them a little bit in what we’re trying to communicate. So it’s been an outstanding back and forth.
“The biggest negative … is not having the ability to have them on the field to go execute what we’re doing. Through that, you learn from mistakes. So right now we’re not able to see that.”
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen hasn’t been hosting many of the video instruction with his incoming players, but he has dropped in on some of the position coaches and has been impressed with the way they have used the technology available to them to make a point they otherwise would have been able to make in person.
For Allen, the best way to get through this is to look at things in a binary lens: You can choose to see a challenge as an obstacle to vault over, or as an excuse to explain away your failure.
When he met with the defensive staff on a conference call last week, Allen recalled himself saying: “‘This is the challenge for us: How are we going to be better teachers this year?’”
He believes the best coaches thrive in situations like these, the coaches on winning teams seeing challenges as obstacles to clear. “When you face challenges, that’s really when you find out how good your group is,” Allen said.
"like this" - Google News
June 09, 2020 at 06:00PM
https://ift.tt/30pcesJ
What does coaching Saints football via videoconference look like? It requires creativity. - NOLA.com
"like this" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MWhj4t
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment