Drills

Every coach knows that successful practices involve a lot of teaching. Players learn the proper techniques through hours and hours of repeating the same movements. Yes, drills can be plenty boring, but they are the key to teaching any sport.

Bored players will just go through the motions. They are like a team that is getting beaten badly in the waning moments of the game. Their hearts are not in it, and their ability to learn is severely diminished. Good coaches manage to minimize the boredom, and great coaches make the most boring activity entertaining and engaging.

Make your drills fun! This cannot be emphasized enough. Yes, it is vitally important that your coaching staff is in place, during the drills, making sure that your players are using the proper techniques, but it is also important that your players enjoy, and even look forward to this activity! You have their bodies; now work on getting their brains.

Every coach will tell you that smart players are their finest assets. Savvy, well-conditioned players will beat less intelligent, yet bigger and stronger players almost every time! If a coach trains the minds of his players while he is drilling them, he will be amply rewarded in the long run. The best time to engage your players’ minds is when you are drilling their bodies. This goes hand in glove with the idea of keeping your drills fun!

Work on several things at once! While the assistant coaches are observing technique, a smart head coach will be drilling his players minds : teaching them game situations, preparing them to think for themselves when the time comes. Never waste an opportunity to succeed, and make a point of never wasting time!

Know why you are running the drill! Don’t just find some drill in an old coaching manual and decide that you can waste twenty minutes on it at the next practice. Locate drills that will improve what your players have been doing poorly. If your players are making poor tactical decisions during their games, find drills that will teach them to think about that specific game situation. There is little sense in running them through another drill that teaches them something that they already know by heart.

So, keep your drills fun, keep your players “in technique” and challenge them to think ahead. Do this, and you will be successful!
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