How to Manage Your Spring Practice and 7 on 7

In this episode of the 'Coaching 101' podcast, hosts Daniel Chamberlain and Kenny Simpson discuss strategies and insights for spring football installations and seven on seven (7v7) tournaments. Daniel shares his experience as a National Guard member and new offensive coordinator, while Kenny, with his extensive coaching background, provides advice on installing core plays and concepts for both offensive and defensive coordinators. They emphasize the importance of limiting the playbook to manageable core concepts that can be expanded upon, rather than overwhelming players with too many plays. Additionally, they cover the significance of teaching football fundamentals over scheme complexity and discuss the value of seven on seven tournaments as tools for practice and competition. The conversation also includes tips on fundraising and resources for coaches, plus advice on teaching football concepts more effectively.

00:00 Welcome to the Coaching 101 Podcast
00:17 A Busy Weekend and Upcoming Plans
01:07 Diving Into Spring Install and Seven on Seven Strategies
01:55 Simplifying Football: Tips and Tools
03:14 Early Season Install Strategies for New and Experienced Coaches
04:27 Building a Playbook: Core Plays and Installation Plans
10:01 Teaching and Adapting: The Art of Football Coaching
22:39 Seven on Seven: Preparing for the Season
22:56 Maximizing Seven on Seven: Strategies and Mindsets
23:45 The Value of Competition and Diverse Sports Participation
24:36 Seven on Seven: Goals, Playbooks, and Practical Advice
26:09 Tactical Play and Coaching Philosophy in Seven on Seven
27:50 Effective Practice and Playbook Management
36:12 Coaching Wisdom: Teaching Concepts Over Specific Plays
39:29 Closing Thoughts and Resources for Coaches

Transcript

0:04

This is the coaching one on one podcast. I almost messed that up. I'm Daniel Chamberlain. I am here with Kenny Simpson. It is a beautiful Sunday. Um, it's been a long drill weekend coach. I, as most of, you know, or probably all of, you know, I'm in the national guard here in Oklahoma. And so sometimes my weekends are spent in the woods and I just joined a new unit and we are apparently going to spend a lot of time in the woods. So, um, very, very busy weekend. Luckily, uh, I'm, I kind of get the Fridays off, which we, we worked a half a day this Friday for the guard, but I had to get Fridays and Mondays off. So tomorrow's my recoup day, which means I get to do all my house chores that I didn't get done this week. right. I was, we were in Boston this weekend, so I, we flew in this morning, but I'm still kind of jet lag. So I think we're both going to be hopefully we'll make this a good episode. for sure. Yeah. Put a little stress on it. Um, Tonight we're going to be talking a little bit of spring install in seven on seven and we'll probably Talk a little bit less here in the beginning. Just just kind of get into the nuts and bolts You know, we really want to focus on there's a lot of new coaches including me So this episode is gonna speak to me, which most of them really do anyway But this episode is gonna speak to me more than than I care to admit maybe even Because I need to know, you know going in what do I want to do with my first spring install as the offensive coordinator Uh, and then seven on seven, you know, we got to figure out how much are we actually. How much we actually going to show and how much that playbook do we carry. So I'm super interested in getting into this and kind of hearing your thoughts and talking about what I've put together so far. Um, so yeah, we will get into it before we do coach. Do you want to tell us how we can simplify football for ourselves and for our staff? Let me just one second. I'm a shut, lock the store. I, my kids just, good. all right, all right, here we go. Good to y'all out of the way. All right. As always, you know, we really want you to, to guys, to, to reach out to You know, Zach and Ryan and Mark and those cats that are, you know, wanting to, uh, to partner with us to kind of get their names out there. Um, you know, Zach headsets all the way. That's, that's the guy you want to go talk to. And, and especially that little loud mouth thing, I think they call it. Um, you know, if you're a coordinator and you don't like being in the box, cause you can't talk to your kids, they've alleviated that, right? Especially as a DC, I know I wanted to, to call from the sidelines because. I can talk to the guy that's maybe having problems or whatever. They've alleviated that. So reach out to those, those guys, um, Mark and Zach and, and use those products, man, they're, they're, things that Kenny uses, the things that I plan to use in the future, whenever those kinds of decisions are mine to make, and probably some of those this year anyway, so, uh, so coaches, we, we get into this. Um, you know, the first question here is just what are you planning to get installed for your early season install? And I kind of question or ask that question that way because not everybody gets spring, right? But, um, from what I know, everyone gets a version of seven on seven. And I know that coaches are smart. And. Maybe they're taking tennis balls out to have practice with, or, you know, just a helmetless pad, you know, no pads, no footballs. We're going to run some drills. So we're still getting that installed, whether you have spring ball or not. Um, but whenever your early season install is, what kind of, what are you, what's your plan for that? How much are you planning to get installed? Well, we're a little bit different. I mean, you know that we. You know, we have our own system, so I think that that gives us a giant advantage over guys that are maybe new, like you, you're coming into a new situation or guys that might be transitioning offenses. I know sometimes guys like to go from one to the other. Uh, so we have a little bit of an advantage. So kind of knowing that up front helps. So I'll try to. Speak to both sides of, Hey, here's what we would do if we were new. And, and what we would do if we're, you know, we're just, we're just installing as we are. So the first thing we're going to look at is, you know, what are our core plays going to be? You know, what are our core base concepts going to be? You know, and I think that you're going to look at, there's kind of elements offensively. I'm going to talk offense and then you can flip the same thing over to defense because I think it's similar ideas here. But, you know, what are we going to live in, in the run game on offense? What are we going to live in, in the play action RPO screen game that that run game sets up? You know, what's, what are our base concepts going to be? And then what are we going to live in, in the passing concept? And to me, I think you need to limit that. You don't need to have 3000 things. It needs to probably be, Manageable. These are what we're going to major in. So you can have other runs, you know, we've talked on here before with, you know, chip came on and talked about running duo and there's been years. We've run duo as kind of a change up to our run game. Um, but we didn't, we never majored in it. Same thing. Like in the passing game, there are certain concepts. If you're going to run, you better major in those like mesh, you know, that kind of stuff is expensive and it takes time. For me, Buck sweep kind of is that. Play. So we're going to put this stuff in the buckets of, Hey, here's our run game. Here's our screen game. Here's our RPO game play action game. All this stuff that comes off the run game. Here's our drop back game. And then we're going to look at if we're going to run roll out or whatever we're going to do. You know, here's our, these are the buckets we're going to do. Then we're going to look at all the formations we want to run. You know, how are we going to run our formations? And again, we're very tag heavy. So for me, a lot of times it's working with one or two kids. So like we may work all of our A tag formations day one. You know, we're going to get into our base set, and then we're going to only work with words that move our A. You know, for us, there's a couple of words that move them, you know, to the tight end wing side or can move them in motion or can kind of do different things with him. And then day two, we may look at moving our, our next player, our wing, how we're going to move our H back kid, how we're going to move him or our running back, or if we're going to move our receiver or tight end or whatever it's going to be, you kind of put that into buckets, you know, what moves these kids or are we going to do personnel groupings? Are we going to have kind of a goal line package? We have a spread package. And so you gotta lay all that stuff out now, whether you're going to have spring, summer, or fall install, because each state's different. You need to have the plan of here's, here's our priority and what we're going to live in. And then here's our extras and then make sure you're budgeting accordingly. On your time, because usually a lot of coaches will do is we'll spend a crazy amount of time on scheme and not nearly enough time on fundamentals. And so that's where it gets really tough on a coach. You can get all the plays in that you want. If you haven't worked on, you know, fundamental things in football like stance, how to block, how to get off the press if you're a receiver, how to catch the ball, you know, how to run certain routes or work your footwork at quarterback, so that's a, that's a very delicate balance. And for me in the spring, we're much more heavy on scheme. We use our summer to kind of clean up our, our, uh, fundamentals. So we try to get a lot of our scheme stuff in in the spring, early, because a lot of times those practices are non padded. So we're going to do a lot of schematic type things, knowing that we are going to have a dedicated period of time here in the summer. Well, we are going to work our fundamentals and then in August, we're going to go back to kind of the mix or we're going to mix them together. So you need to figure out what works for you because we have different timing that allows us to do that stuff. If you flip this over to defense, it's the same idea, I mean, the same deal. What's our base coverage going to be? What are our base fronts going to be? And then how much time do we want to dedicate to the fundamentals of defense? Like we've got to be able to tackle. If you can't tackle, nothing else really matters. If you can't cover, nothing else really matters. So finding that balance is tough on those days. How much time are you going to get? You know, so Daniel, you're an, you're an OC. Your coach is probably going to tell you, you have 50 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever that is. And then you've got to figure out what's most important. So I think it's really important to put it on paper and list. This is going to be our base run play. The number one run play we're going to do that goes in day one. So we have more time to work on it. This will be our number one pass play. We think it's going to be, that goes in day one. And then a lot of times on that run game part, we're going to build in the play action, the screen, you know, RPO off of that run as we're building. So day one, we may run, like for us, we would run like Buck Sweep, probably one of the play actions off of Buck Sweep. One of the RPOs off of BuckSweep and a screen that we would run off of Buck. Like that's going to be our run section. And then our number one pass last year was Choice. So we would, that would be the pass concept we would work. Then we'd come back day two. You got to review it. You can't just kind of ignore it. Our next run play is X. And our next pass play is X. And so that's how we would go through it. I know there's a lot more questions you've got coming up that we'll kind of walk through some more of this stuff, but main things I would say to guys that are listening, get it all down on paper, have a priority list of what you want, and then don't ignore the fundamentals. You know, I don't know when you're going to get those in, but you need some dedicated time. Uh, to really work on blocking, catching, tackling, just the general things that football guys need to work on. Don't spend too much time on scheme that you neglect that stuff. You know, um, it'll be very interesting for me this year because I feel like as an OC, I need as many of my weapons put in as possible. And you've talked about this on it before, right? Put in everything and then trim the fat. What isn't working going into week one? Your true week one, you know, whatever. If it's week zero one, whatever you're playing, you need to get familiar at least at least that familiarization with. And then what are we still, what are we good at right now? Let's go win a ball game with that. And then we can continue, you know, working the other things. To where defensively, um, I wanted to be really good at base. I don't care if I had a single blitz put in in week one. I, you know, in Oklahoma, we get three non district games and then we go into district play. And I, I know not everyone's like that. Um. I talked with Joe on, and you know, up there, they're, they're playoff points from the beginning. So they're every game is technically a district game for those guys. And I know that different states are different. So not that we waste those first three games. But we can use them tactically, right? We can just, we can cupcakes or should win games there. We can put teams that we have no business playing there just to get a really solid, uh, kind of that, you know, if practice is really hard, then the game is easy idea, right? The Tom Brady method. Um, we can go out and get very similar teams or we need to see a spread team so we can do so many things with that. But the biggest thing for me is you don't have to have everything installed on defense because you can add to it over the next few weeks to where I feel like an offense, that's a little different. And I, You know, I'm still solidifying my spring plan, which we're, um, by the time this comes out, uh, just over a month from our first install. So I will have all that ironed out and gone through it with the head coach and talk to the assistant coaches. And, you know, it's, we're in a different system because I'm bringing a system with me to run on offense and I have to teach the head coach. I don't know any of the coaches I'm going to be working with. They don't know my system. So, you know, I have to teach coaches before I could ever step foot on the field with the players. So it's even, you know, more of a, a, um, A limitation for us. We probably won't have all of our weapons installed because we've just got so many steps to get there. You know, a lot of that, how much do you plan to get installed? I guess is really situational. Just like everything else in football. There's no concrete answer, right? It's what is your team ready for? Because the kids are going to get reps for you this year, probably got some reps last year, but they've definitely heard the terminology. all of it too is, and I think our second question is going to kind of get in this, I don't want to go too far ahead, but how good of a teacher are you? How much of a system have you set up where concepts should build on each other? Like, it shouldn't be, we're going to run random pass play and a different random pass play and a different random pass play. You should be able to hopefully kind of. Teach the same way so that your kids are learning that stuff. Absolutely. And so we'll kind of jump in the second question here and I'll actually answer it first. Um, what are you planning to get installed for? I'm sorry. That's the first one. How do you, uh, how do you put it in and how much do you put in and how do you put it in? So, um, sorry guys, I'm tired. It's been a very long week. I couldn't read my own typing. I don't know. Um, but you know, so I, I like what the method you kind of mentioned there a minute ago, like install, install. A run, a pass. And then, you know, that, that series run pass play action, uh, maybe, uh, a screen. I'm going to do something similar. We're, we're going to be a little less play action, heavy, more RPO. More so, I guess what I'm trying to say is I think I'm going to go with like two run plays in a past play one RPO off of it. Um, and then we're going to try to do our play action just with our. So we'll just have different past protections. We call and move the back more of a token fake than an actual, Hey, it's, we're going to look like we're running ISO. Now we're, we're, going to make you read. And if you read running backs, you're going to have to keep your feet in concrete for a moment, right? Um, and our second day, we're going to do all the same plays, but we're going to start in a two by two formation day. And the second day will be a three by one formation day, because I want. Personnel wise, I want kids to get comfortable with the past concept at two by two, and I want to get lots of reps. I want them to understand when we have numbers, what that does, the defense. So on that second day, I want to install the three by one formations. And there are past plays that. Work best out of three by one, right? So that we won't install that until day two. Uh, and then the ones we're gonna put on day one are going to work better out of our two by two stuff, but it doesn't mean we can't run it at three by one, just like the run place, right? There's, we talked about chip coming on and talking, uh, duo with us, right? You need at least a tight end to run duo, but doesn't mean you can't run it out of tight end wing. It doesn't mean you can't just run it out of a condensed two by two set. You just, you have to understand the principles of having that extra large surface over there to get all your double teams made up. So I think that's how we're going to do it. We're going to work it in pairs of twos, just run the same two play or two run plays and, and, and pass an RPO in the series two days in a row and out of a two by two and a three by one formation day. And so we're going to see how that works. Probably do that, uh, two days, two days, and then a big review day on Friday. And then next week you come back with five more and we'll do two more days, get our third true install day, uh, and then just review from there on out. And I think we're going to have a little spring game and go out and let the kids compete in front of the fans and, and have some fun. So, you know, our big culminating event for everything will be that last Friday. I think we get 10 days, if I'm not mistaken, in Oklahoma, get 10 spring ball days. So that's kind of our plan. That's kind of how I have it scheduled up and. Pairing those, you talked about concepts building on each other. Um, you know, obviously in the run game, you get zone and you get gap. Like there's only so much you can do. And so gap will be a lot cheaper for us because, okay, if you want to run buck or power or counter or pin and pull, it's all, if you can coach it right. In my mind, it's just kind of one set of rules, right? You're just gap down backer. Or gap down pull. I mean, there's not a lot. And then that you add duo and chip taught us, you know, you essentially have gap down double, and so you just start, like you said, buckets, right? We can put all these rules in the buckets. And so I think, I think it'll make it pretty cheap for us to get that installed and variations of, of the gap scheme, we'll probably have to limit in the spring. But, you know, as we go through, uh, next season and fall install, maybe we add that. Power counter. Now we've got pin and pull or power counter. Now we have a G sweep of a buck sweep of some kind. So that's just kind of where my brain is at. And I know that it's first year OC trying to explain how he plans to install. It's probably sounds crazy. Um, there's probably some of you guys that are listening. They're like, you're going to fall on your face, but I'll definitely learn the lesson. And, uh, and we'll figure it out as we go. Now, I think that you hit on some things that we would do. I mean, talk about building on concepts, you know, you talked about like. All of our plays, we can run out of any formation we have, you know, and I think you kind of hit on that. It doesn't mean it's optimal. Like obviously certain plays work better at certain looks, but so when we teach them though, we're going to teach all the formations we've got in that day. So like we're running buck and we've got these six formations and we're going to run out all six of them. And then the next day we may be running like our version of belly and now we have 12 formations we've put in. We're going to run out all 12 of them or at least enough of them so the kids understand the concept of what we're trying to accomplish. I bet you did a good, I think you mentioned, you know, doing X amount of runs and passes a day. Um, I think that, and then giving yourself two days to work them, I think that's probably smart and giving yourself more time. I've always erred when I'm wrong. I've always not given myself enough time. Like I've always tried to put in too much too quickly. Um, and I've kind of, Realize that's what I do. And so we probably go too fast and then my mindset is we're going to come back later and clean up a lot of our issues. And so, and we've been pretty good about doing that. Um, but I would just give that caveat to a lot of coaches is, you know, make sure that, Hey, you're building on top of each other on concepts, like, you know, all our RPOs translate to any run play. So if we put in an RPO, then we want to make sure we hit that RPO again the next day with a different run play so that our kids start to kind of, Oh, this all goes together. Or if we're running whatever concept I mentioned choice already, if we're running some flavor of choice, we want to make sure we show that out of. Three or four formations with some motions with different kids catching the ball, you know where our kids start to put together Oh, okay. So this is the concept and how we teach it now We're able to do a lot of that because we only have three strong side runs. We have three quick side runs We have probably two drop back passes. Uh, we have three rollouts and then we have a play action off of our run game. Maybe a three total. So that's all we have because of that. Then we can flavor it up with a lot of other things. A couple other caveats I'd give guys is like we will put in. Uh, a day of the week during the spring where we're going to do all of our, our shifts and trades and movements. We usually will do that probably about three quarters of the way in. We'll, we'll teach it, but then we'll have a day where we say, Hey guys, the first 10 plays, every single play, we're shifting just so that our kids learn how to do it. You know, and then we'll do the same thing during a game week. We'll have a period of five minute period where we say, whatever play we call here, we're shifting into it. So that our kids get used to that. So you're not having to feel like you don't need to feel like you need to run every single play in your whole offense off of a shift is impossible to do, but you do enough of it where the kids learn the general idea so that they're able to get into that and make it happen. Or we may have a day, we will have a day in the spring where we're going to run a motion, probably the first 10 plates. Probably a different kid each time as we've taught our motions. So we'll have a day we're putting in our motions. So our script that day will be 10 plays. All plays have a motion attached to them so that our kids learn the general concept. But I don't think you need to just overkill it. Like I don't think you need to just. Just kill it where it's everything's a motion and we only run jet today and we're going to get great at this and that's, that's good stuff to do. But I think, I think the spring or early season is a lot more about getting it all in, get it all in. As long as you understand you got to come back later and clean it all up. Get it in, come back later and clean it up. Cause what you don't want the day you got 10 days, you don't want to get to the end of the spring and you have half your playbook that you haven't even put in, you know, you got half your playbook that you haven't stuck in. Cause here's the other thing I've learned. We think these are going to be our best plays like we, you know, and I've coached long enough. We have a pretty good idea, but there's a lot of times that man, one injury. Or one transfer, or you misjudged something and that's not your best play. It was a different play. So a lot of times getting it all in allows you to evaluate it. And so then you can kind of make adjustments as you go. Awesome. Um, so we, we don't want to not talk about seven on seven. I know that not everyone likes seven on seven, um, every year around August 15th, we get the goal line stance of the century and seven on seven doesn't prepare you for this. I mean, we know, right. But it is a tool it's in the toolbox. And I think, um, to use a super military term here, it behooves you to. Use the weapon there that's at your feet. I mean, I don't know why you wouldn't, right? You need to utilize this. It's free practice days at a minimum, even if you hate it and you hate competition and you think the tournaments are super dumb, it's free competition and you get your kids in condition without. Running gassers, quarterbacks get throwing reps, which they can't do on your own football field for practice, at least not in Oklahoma. You can't have a football out. Receivers get routes, your defense. It's just all together. It's a fantastic tool if you don't even consider the competition, if you don't enter a single tournament. Now, I am a huge advocate of competing always. Every day's an interview. Always compete. And so with that mindset, this is just another option to do it. I want my kids to go play basketball or baseball or track. because of all the other things, they get more drills, they get more coaching, but more than anything, they need to keep competing, go out and win and lose and learn how to rebound from both of those. Um, and that way, when we get back on Friday nights and the games on the line, I'm not having to coach you how to go out and win a game. I'm going to have to some anyways, but hopefully you've not. Spent all year in the weight room, not competing in anything. And now you forgot how to just go grid it out and win a game. Right. Um, so I think that's another use for seven on seven. So my question to you coach is what are your goals for seven on seven? And, and although they may be different, I just want to know what Kenny Simpson's goals are. And then the second part of this question is like, how much of your playbook do you take to those, um, practices, those tournaments, whatever you're doing with seven on seven, Sure. So we'll do the first part and you may have to remind me the second part. I have coach Gould was on here. He'd have a lot of stories about me in seven on seven, how frustrated I get out there at the tournament. So I'm probably that old guy you were talking about, but I really don't like seven on seven. I understand a hundred percent what you're saying. And I, I can see the value. I get it. There's value in, you know, allowing your kids to get out and do things. In some states, that's all you have. Like, it's that or nothing. If that's the choice, that's a no brainer. You play 7 on 7. In Arkansas, we're allowed to go to team camps where pads come on. And in my mind, nothing takes the place of that. So, since we're able to do that, we don't do a lot of 7 on 7, because I can just do team pass. Like I run the camp, we're just going to do team pass, and then now it looks way more realistic than what it would look like in 7 on 7. So to your point, there's value in going to 7 on 7s, I think there's value for your quarterback, there's value, if you're going to throw the ball at all, that's got to be a part of your offense for sure. And then, even if you're not going to throw the ball, you're going to play teams that do. And so, that's got to be a huge part of what you're doing defensively. I would put these caveats in, and you kind of alluded to it a little bit in your second question. Don't run something you're not going to run on Friday night. To win a tournament in underwear football. I got, that's what seven on seven is. It's not real. Like if you're playing that and you're a girl with flags on, that's real, you know, or if you're an old man like me with flags on it's real, if you're doing seven on seven to help you prepare for a Friday night game, then do it for what you're trying to do it for, like show up and run your stuff. If you're a wing T team run waggle, like that's what you're going to run. So work that. Uh, if you're a quarters team. Or cover to read team. Run that. I know they're going to throw the check down to the running back where the center would be in a real game. I get it. Still run your defense. I know they're going to run quads over and crazy stuff that they're probably not going to run in a game. That's fine. Run what you would check to. And again, you know, in a real Friday night game, when you get to the goal line, that's when I think 707 becomes a little more realistic, is when you get down the goal line, because most teams around them, they are going to run man. So what are you going to do to beat man? How is your defense going to handle that? Are you going to try to play man or tight zone? What are you going to do there? So that's situational part of the game, I think becomes really big. You know, and when it's third and 12, that's a real situation, you know, your DBs need to know how to sit on the sticks. So there are some real things you can do there within the realm of what you do. So that would be my biggest caveats there. And the other part of your question was like, what do you take there? We take our whole offense. Like if we're going to run flood or choice or we're going to run smash or snag or whatever it is, that's what we're going to run. Now, what I've done a lot of times at these. Tournaments or games, as we will cherry pick one of our concepts. And run it over and over and over with different formations, okay, with different motions, with different players. Uh, I think we went one entire game and we ran snag the entire game. That's all I let us run. And then the next game we ran our shallow concept and that's all we ran the entire game. Now we showed. Formations, we motioned to it, we got in a bunch, we ran at it, you know, tight trips, did a lot of stuff, but the idea was to drive home to our kids. We don't need a lot of stuff. We need to be good at what we do, and I'll manipulate the defense with formations. You just make your read. And then defensively, the same thing. Like, if you're gonna be If you know you're going into conference and all you're going to run is cover 2, that's all you need to run is 7 on 7. But if you're going to try to mix and match coverages, that's the time to do it. That's the time to work your role coverage or if you're going to spy or poach or trying to get manned, whatever it is. That's your chance to do it. So the caveats I would give Play the players are gonna play because here's is what also frustrates me at 7 on 7 I'll give a couple stories and I'll be quiet here because I don't want to bash it because I do think there's value But we're wearing a tight end wing So most people know we run the tight end wing set and we're seeing man, too Which means there was one time we played a game And there was 7 DBs on the field. This team brought 7 DBs out on the field. Which, good luck with that in a real game with me. And then they played no one from hash to hash. Because they were all just playing man. Zero on my kids out of an empty set. So we called quarterback draw and I got us in trouble. Because that was what I would call in a game. But the point for me is Don't run something you're not going to run in a game. And then the same thing on offense, I've seen teams show up and they've got a whole different playbook. Like they've got, these are our seven on seven plays. And that's not what you're running in a game. I just don't understand why you would even do that. I do want to mention something that Daniel said about competing because I do think it matters. I do think when you go to seven on seven, you can say everything I'm saying and I do. And this is why Coach Gould has a lot of stories about me. The minute you're starting to play somebody else, you want to win. I want to win. Our kids want to win. And so all the stuff I just told you, you're going to be very tempted. To not do like we have an all state unbelievable linebacker who's not very good in coverage. So he doesn't look great in seven on seven, but if you have the ball in your hands, he will fricking kill you. And so that kid in seven on seven, you got to let them practice, even though he's not good at that, because what you're tempted to do is take him out and put in the younger kid. Who's faster and more athletic linebacker so you can win the game. You know, and so, but that's not the point of it. So just kind of be aware of that stuff as you're going. Yeah, going back to how much your playbook to take and you said, you know, this is a great opportunity. If you're a multiple defense, you're going to run a ton of coverages, split field coverages, quarters, pattern matching, all that good stuff. And what I've found is, teams that do that, the same mistakes that they have on those nights, they're gonna have on Friday nights. So, defensively especially, um, you need to pay attention to all of the errors you have, and immediately start thinking of how you can fix it, because you're having these errors just on kids confusion, because there's no run pass read, so they're not getting faked out. It's not like, Oh, my post safety stayed down in the box because he read a down block by the in man on a lot, you know, the first uncovered lineman that he was reading. No, no he didn't so that just means he doesn't know where to go Which means you might need to think about trimming your playbook or figuring out a way to better coach it And other situations are big too. I think like. Cause usually, we're a cover two read team. So teams are gonna run smash. That's what I would run. That's what I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna tag it the same way they would. Or teams are gonna run what we call pyramid, like a dig post. Those are the, the place you run to pick on kids. So you got to work with your kids on, okay, we're going to get roasted on that at least first time. We didn't know it was coming. And that's a really good play against that defensive look. Now we've seen it. So your corners, you go, okay, what route do we want to concede? And yeah, The hitch route or the corner route. So you're able to kind of work with them on that situation of, yeah, I know my rule says come blow this up, but now I kind of know I need to help a little, play the string a little bit, or my son is a safety, so I want to drive hard on the dig, knowing that there's a post coming behind me, you don't know, we've got to work that situation. Or I mentioned it earlier, like knowing where the sticks are, understanding where we're going to let them throw it underneath. And then rally to tackle it. We're not going to let, we're not going to bite on the short route and concede the intermediate out route or whatever it's going to be. So that stuff I think is important. And kind of to your point, Daniel, it's not just like, not just knowing the coverage, but it's also knowing what's potentially a weakness within the coverage. That's kind of the next level of teaching the kids. I think um, you know this year my original plan was to go into seven on seven with my full passing playbook And just not tag anything Just make the kids run the rats. Kind of what you said earlier, Kenny, about just taking one concept and just formationing it to death and only running that one. And that is a brilliant idea that I never would have dreamed about. So I'm probably going to put that in my little book and take that with me because maybe that's something we practice this year. Um, you know, I think we're going to spend every Wednesday night in June or July or something at a local, essentially practice Those are good. Those are a lot better than tournaments. Sure. that's what we do, right? Each night, we just work one concept out of every formation we can conceive. Um, I was going somewhere with this. I don't know. I'm too tired. My brain's Anyway, seven on seven. It's there. Oh, I was talking about not tagging. So, you know, maybe we just don't tag any routes. We don't, maybe sometimes we don't run, uh, you know, so many motions and stuff. We're just going out there and watching some two by two concepts work, three by one concepts work. Um, so yeah, I think we're definitely gonna try to just try to mix it up. I'm not too worried about showing on film because as a DC, I'm not putting on your seven on seven film and trying to game plan you. I'm just not, it's not that important. I'm going to stop the run and make you rely on the pass. And then I know that you're in the beginning of the season, just like we are. So we're all going to be just about the same amount of buffed out all the errors, right? Like it's going to be what it is. And we're just going to go play ball. Uh, but I'm not going to go watch what you did when there were no linemen on the field whatsoever, and then expect to try to defend, defend that on Friday night. So, um, I look forward to it. Look forward to calling my first summer of seven on seven and just, and having fun with it. That's another thing is just making it fun for the kids too, right? Because I'll be at a small school this year where participation is going to be low. I mean, anytime I think a small school goes through a coaching change, you have that. Reservation by kids like man, I really liked coach. I don't know if I want to play this year. Um, So, you know, we're going to have a blast at seven on seven. I'm not there for a trophy. Let's just go Let's go play. Let's go throw the ball around. Let's get better. So I think that'll be our overall approach All right, man. I know we're both exhausted. We'll we'll make this one. It'll be a short episode, but that's okay Um, let's get into our what not to do as a coach. So can you give us our lesson tonight? Kenny, Yeah. So today's lesson and what not to do as a coach is think you have to teach Certain plays very specifically, and I'll kind of elaborate on a little bit more. I think it's much more important that you teach conceptually, you know, we wrote the book, I think it's behind me somewhere back there, that one play many ways. So there it is at one play when it is behind me where we basically are teaching a concept to our kids. So a lot of times as coaches, we think we've got to put in. 45 plays when in reality, you can just put in three or four plays, teach the concept to your kids, and then they're able, like Daniel said, to use tags, motions, shifts, to make adjustments within the play. You give them a little bit of freedom within the play, uh, so that it's more of a concept. Think about like right now, basketball season is wrapping up. Just watched, uh, The girls championship game, you know, and when you watch basketball, they run what they call sets. So we're going to run this set where this person is going to dribble it to the right. You have a screen, and off the screen you have all of these different options you can do. And you've got to read what you're getting to make a decision on that. Football is not quite that level. However, I think the teams that are able to teach more that way are going to be way more successful. And in order to do that, you have to teach every kid the concept of your run and your pass game. Uh, but also, most basketball teams don't have 3, 000 plays. They have about seven sets they go to, and then they have little wrinkles that run off of those. And so that's the, to me, I think the challenge you need to do, like Daniel said, if you're swimming right now and your playbook is big, how am I going to get all this stuff in? Try to trim down the plays and think of what concept you have, what major building piece you have that you can protect, tag it, make it just a little bit different because I think the best words in coaching and in teaching are, it's the same as blank with the exception of. If you're able to use that phrase, your kids are going to pick up whatever you're teaching way quicker. Instead of saying, we're going to run 32G, and now we're going to come back and run 34 ISO, and then we're going to run, and they're way different rules, and they're way different plays, and they're very rigid, there's no movement. I think that's, to me, if you're teaching that way, I think you're hurting yourself a little bit. Yeah. young minds they can be tricked so quickly into Just If one person is changing jobs and ten of them are running the same play, it's just way easier than an offensive lineman who's now learning his fourth set of rules, but all you've done is change the bubble. Or, you know what I mean? Like, I just, I think about that all the time. Just gap scheme. Front side's always the same. You want to run power, counter. Uh, then you tie what you do, Kenny, with, you know, with buck and pin and pull. But really the rules didn't change for anybody. It just depends on which way the ball's going. So, uh, you know, it's just, it's so easy to just teach that as a concept, teach these rules and then make it work, make it fit what you're going to see with those rules. Awesome. Um, well, before we get out of here, one last time, we'll mention a sports, you know, call mark or email him. I think his emails is what's in the ad. I'm shooting an email, man. It's cheating on fundraising. Absolutely cheating. Um, you know, I had a long talk with Ryan who a few weeks ago and he basically told me, look, man, we're there to get you back in the black. So you're going to pay for this, this board, whatever the price is at that time. And, and, and the quote comes around and he said, you know, within a year, A very high 90 percentage of teams are, are in the black before they ever make a payment. So, you know, consider that if you're looking for a fundraising to, to really improve your situation, holler at those guys. And of course, you know, Zach over at pro com, um, let him help hook you up, get your headsets fixed, get them refreshed for this next season. Use them in some seven on seven, maybe, maybe in some spring ball. You know, you got to get practice as a coach to, um, coach, what are your, I know you got O line Academy coming out. Uh, and then we forgot to talk about your hat tonight. I'm sorry. Coaches cap. com. Um, you know, if you're looking for a cap, like Kenny always says, you don't have to buy his cap, but please take care of yourself, wear some sunscreen, wear some clothes that stops some, some, uh, future issues. Uh, but I know O Line Academy is close, right? I think we've got, we've got guys recording pretty much all the time here. So that OL Academy I'll have out probably next, I hope the next week or so. Uh, then we have a new book coming out. It's going to be a 90, uh, spread power formation. So I've kind of in the same world. If you've got my other formation books, uh, it's going to be a lot. So there's just some tight end wing for sure, but there's a lot of other. Stuff. We've got some 20 personnel stuff that we run, some unbalanced stuff that we run. So that's coming out, uh, probably in May and then I'm almost done working with one of my coaches that he's, uh, way more thorough than me. So that means if we're waiting on him to kind of finish up a couple of things he's doing and we will have a special teams workbook. Which I think is going to be really good because most guys that are going to be Special Teams Coordinators probably don't even know they are right now. They're going to get told in July. So, we want to have a material that's going to help them be ready for that. For sure, for sure. Awesome. On social media, you can find me on Twitter, slash X, at CoachChamboOK. Uh, also email me at ChamberlainFootballConsulting at gmail. com. Uh, I want to take this moment to, to mention your wife, actually. If anyone doesn't know, uh, Ms. Jamie does graphics for schools. So, if your school is still in need of graphics, um, and, and her packages are, are different, uh, and, and, uh, Kenny, I hope you can give her email. Cause I forgot to jot it down before we got started. It's jamey, J A M E Y Simpson at Gmail. There you Unlike Daniel Beach, and she does all kinds of stuff. So, whatever you want. Social media. She does book covers. Obviously she does whatever you might think you need and she's really good at it. there you go. So reach out to Jamie and let her help you look as good as possible this season. Um, I know that I still, and I, you know, I like to do the graphics for my own team, but I still see college level offer alerts and commitment and they are. My five year old is not even good on a computer yet and he could do better than some of those. So don't be that school that your kids don't even actually want you to celebrate them because it looks terrible. Like, right. Let's somewhat, let a professional do it for you. Uh, reach out to Jamie. Uh, and then coach, where can we find you at? A Uh, all things fb, coach Simpson. So fb coach simpson.com. Uh, at fb Coach Simpson, uh, fb, coach Simpson at Gmail. And don't forget, we have the new headsets out over at, uh, Daniel's doing an article series for us over@fbcoachsimpson.com slash headsets. That's all free. So good, good material there. lot of stuff in there too. I like to go look at what the guys are writing. I always pick up something, some little nugget for the toolbox and, and. You never know when it might win you a game, right? That's, that's the best part. We want to thank you for being a listener to the coaching one on one podcast. We'll hope you'll join us next week as we continue to make the complex more simple. Please consider subscribing to the show. So you'll always know when the new episodes are out. We'll leave you with this. It's hard to beat someone who never gives up no matter the situation, find a way.