What I Do

This will be my only “advertising”. I wanted to keep these details in one place where you could refer to them if you wanted and not put it in your face each time you read the blog. So, sorry in advance for the length!

I offer a service. In the corporate world, they may call it benchmarking, in the scientific world they may call it peer review. In the coaching ranks, if you and I were part of the same staff, we’d just call it “talking football”. Sometimes, that “talking football” makes a very public story: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/09/brian-kelly-asked-bill-belichick-to-evaluate-notre-dame-football/ Also this off-season, much was made of the Green Bay Packers visiting Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M to get his thought processes on the read option play.

Every year there are coaching clinics and player camps throughout the country. Most of the coaching clinics are in the spring, after the women’s teams have already geared up for the season, making implementation of a new or refined scheme or technique tougher. The player camps, with one very notable exception, are geared towards male youth and high school players. There’s no room for a 20- or 30-something female in any of them.

Dion Lee of the Las Vegas Showgirlz runs a camp each fall specifically for female players. I’ve coached at each one of them and enjoy it immensely. I think it’s a great thing. You can find more information about his camp here: http://womenstacklefootballgroup.ning.com/

There are only two drawbacks to a camp: generic teaching, and expense. Let’s look at each separately:

Generic teaching: When you have a group of players from all different teams, by necessity you need to coach them generically. If you had a group of players from only one team, then you could coach them specific to their own terminology, scheme and technique.

Expense: Is it more cost effective to send 10 people to one place, or to bring one person in to coach potentially everyone? Even when you factor in expenses and stipend, it is much more cost-effective for me to come to you.

Individual consulting is not cheap by any means. The absolute best in the country is a coach named Bill Williams, who I had the honor of working for for almost 20 years. You can find out more about him here: www.billwilliamsfcpga.com. Of course, Bill costs about $1,000 per day more than I do. His specialty is NFL, collegiate and top high school teams from across the country.

I understand the financial issues most female teams and players face. Basically, a team would pay for my expenses (transportation, a place to sleep and stuff to eat – and I’m not picky about the last two) and we would negotiate a stipend for me, usually between $100-$200. There needs to be a cost because it does take me some time to prepare thoroughly for our time together and there needs to be perceived value and importance by the team and players who attend.

Here are some examples of individual clinics and camps I’ve done:

1        Minnesota Machine – they wanted to install a zone run game and shore up their pass protection. I studied their film and playbook. I came in on a Friday night and met with the coaches, going over the system and getting all of their questions out of the way. Saturday morning, they scheduled a 3-hour chalk talk, which was filmed. Saturday afternoon they had a two-hour practice, in which the offensive line drills were filmed. Sunday morning was another hour chalk talk and a two-hour filmed practice. I left Sunday afternoon.

2         Sacramento Sirens – their offensive line wanted to know more about pass protection and run blocking basics in a non-Wing-T environment. I came in on Friday night, met with the offensive linemen over dinner and watched some film. I had their line blocking call sheet, and reviewed that with them. Saturday we were scheduled for two two-hour segments. It was pouring rain, so the girls just voted on going straight through. We went over almost everything in one five hour practice. I left Sunday morning.

3        Garden Grove High School – I ran a two-day (Friday evening/Saturday morning) offensive line camp for all of their OL, from varsity down to freshmen. Day One was devoted to the zone run game and Day Two was review followed by pass protection fundamentals. Each day went three hours, all on the field. Everything was filmed, and then posted to Hudl, where I went back and made comments for the coaches. In fact, the head coach called me up this weekend asking me to review and comment on their most recent game film. I was happy to oblige.

So that is what I do, when I’m not coaching one of my own teams. You may ask, “Why would you coach up someone either in a camp or in an individual clinic that you may have to face later?” Good question. Here’s why:

1      I love coaching football.

2      Many times in the women’s leagues, there are blowout games. More often than not, we’ve been on the upper end of those. If I can make anyone we play better, then it will force us to be better as well.

3         I like seeing new parts of the country. Honest – it’s a mini-adventure for me.

If you choose to bring me in either from this blog or after maybe working with me at the Las Vegas camp, I can promise you that I will absolutely coach my ass off for you and your players.

To borrow a phrase from Bill Williams, “my only agenda is your agenda.” You decide what part of the game you want covered, you decide what format the clinic takes, you decide based only on what your team needs. Of course, I can make suggestions, but in the end I work for you and will do what you want.

Sorry about the length of this particular post, but it’s a one-time thing. Back to talking football in the next one!