Coach ,

Retired New England Patriots Offensive Line Coach Dante Scarnecchia, who coached for the Patriots for 34 years, and Bill Belichick for 19 of those believe that the two most important things we do every day are position meetings and practice time on the field

Over his career, Coach Scarnechia came to realize that players appreciate a coordinated and well-run meeting.

What you get out of your position meetings is directly proportionate to what you put into how well you plan them out, how well you prepare for them. The way you set them up, the way you structure them is critical. It will determine what the player gets out of a meeting. 

Here are Coach Scarnecchia’s coaching points for a well run meeting:

1) Set-up the room so that the players are looking at you. If you stand in the back of the room and teach you cannot see their eyes.

2) Rely on your validators for feedback. What’s a validator? There are certain guys in your meeting room who are totally focused on what you're saying. There's probably about two or three, maybe four guys, if you're lucky. But the validators in that meeting room are the guys when you are making points that you want them to all understand, they are looking at you and they're nodding their heads yes because they got it. If they're looking at the guys next to them, they aren't getting what you're saying. Coach Scarnecchia noted,

“Invariably when I saw that, I would say, okay, I'm not saying something right here because you guys aren't I can see that this isn't coming through.” That’s when you need to explain it again or take a different approach to be sure they get it.

3) One picture is worth 1000 words. The usage of training tapes and cut-ups, whether they're from games or practices are invaluable teaching aids. The players like to see themselves or players from a higher level who they aspire to be. These are much better than slides and bullet points.

4) Keep the players involved. Get them talking. Do not just stand in front and be the professor lecturing them. Coach Scarnecchia said,

“When I have the ability to sit in front of the room and say, hey Marcus, what do you think about this? David, what do you think about this? What are we going to do if we see this? What call are we going to make? I think it keeps everybody engaged on their toes. It keeps the room lively. And I think you got to do it. In fact, I know you got to do it. I learned this when I was in the Marine Corps and I always try to get these guys to understand it.”

5)The dumbest question is the one not asked. Encourage questions. Coach notes that you can't laugh at them when they ask a dumb question. If one player has that questionm probably five others do as well, they just do not have the courage to ask it.

6) If you have notes or diagrams that will be on the whiteboard, have those written out or drawn up before the meeting. Coach Scarnecchia encourages the use of written materials. He said, “If I had five chalkboards, they were all full before the meeting started because I wanted to go ahead and go through everything, because I think guys see it, they write it, they say it. It's all visual. And I think it makes a hell of a lot of difference to them. I think daily position notes, game plan updates, especially during the season are worth the effort.”

7) Use written tests. They are great teaching aids to see what a player knows. Many times Coach would make those collaborative. He believes is a great way to get guys to communicate how to get things done. He notes,

“...believe me, your best players will be the ones that will take over the room at that point…they're going to be carrying guys that aren't as good mentally along with them. So it gives them a forum to open up on themselves and keep everybody on the same page relative to the system that you're trying to teach.” 

8) In your meeting, cover the things you want to do in practice. What are we going to do in these individual periods? What do we want to get done at these individual periods? These are the position drills that we're going to run. These are the techniques that we're going to run….

9) Show the depth chart every day. Show the rotation that you want to have during the course of practice between your first group, your second group, your third group, if you're in training camp, or between your five starters or two substitutes that you're going to have for that week. If we only get seven guys when we go to every game, how are we going to rotate guys around for practice that day?

Coach Scarnecchia shared these ideas at the COOL Clinic in this video:

 Position Meetings

We all look for the edge at this time of year. What can make our players and team better? As Coach Scarnecchia shows, it’s right in front of us in how we approach the time with our players.

Hopefully, you picked up an idea that can help you make your position meetings better. The players will appreciate it!

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski and the Coaches Clinic Community