Gameplan Your Season Like The Redskins Plan Their Games
How about them Redskins? 4-1 and 2-1 in their division with all 3 games on the road! In the NFC East, the best division in football, this is huge. But how do they do it? And what can we learn from it?
First, I don’t miss a single play thanks to my DVR and my NFL ticket subscription. This is still cheaper than the season tickets we used to have and better to a degree. Especially in January when the high temperature is expected to be single digits and we have three layers of clothes on.
I did not originally buy into Jim Zorn’s system. I hate the west coast system in general, but I do love Jim Zorn. Growing up, Kenny Stabler and Jim Zorn were my heroes because they were left handed. But a rookie coach on the Redskins with a new system? Oh no, what a recipe for disaster! Fortunately I was wrong as usual.
But how do they do it? Meticulously and methodically. When I think of the west coast offense I think pass, but the ’skins have a balanced attack. They use the run and the pass to keep opponents on their toes, but in the end of the game, they run, run, run, and dominate with ball control.
Why are they able to do this? Because they have a plan, they wear down their opponent, then they take advantage of them in the last 15 minutes as they are dead because the ’skins have controlled the ball the entire game. It is like a boxer that jabs, jabs, jabs, then in the 7th round or so begins big shots that have a detrimental and disastrous effect.
What can we learn? Many things, but the focus of this post is the big picture. It is easy to get caught up in the moment and forget about the big picture. When the ’skins were down 14-0 in the first quarter they could have panicked and thrown the game plan out the window, but they stuck to their guns and in the end were successful.
How does this apply to the big picture? Because it doesn’t matter if you win in the fall. The fall is about building skills and readying players for the spring. The steady and methodical repetition of each player should be the focus of the league. Getting kids to understand all the positions on the field by having them play all the positions when it doesn’t matter enhances their overall understanding of the game. Then they know what others are supposed to do in a given situation and reaction becomes intuitive.
Batting the entire lineup gets every player more at-bats and moving players up a division when they are borderline improves their skills. Enduring excruciating walks while developing pitchers and watching kids steal while a new catcher evolves is part of the process. Win/Loss records are unimportant. Anyone can win in the fall, it is the spring that matters. Developing skills and understanding of the game should be the focus of the fall season. This goes for every level of play.
What do you do to help kids learn in the fall that you may not do in the spring?
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