The start of the season is still weeks away. Coaches have all kinds of ideas for their offense, defense, and special teams. Some of the things that the players will be taught will be a repeat from previous years, but chances are there are some new wrinkles added to the team's X and O inventory. Regardless if something is new or old to the players TIME will be needed to implement it into your team's arsenal before the first game of the season.
How do you know when to put everything in? The answer to that is to create an INVENTORY PUT-IN CHART. This chart is a pacing guide for you as you map out the start of your season. Coaches must have a plan well in advance to figure out when to put in each of their X's and O's. You can't fly by the seat of your pants and do things on a whim as you start your season...plan it out!
What is an Inventory Put-In Chart? What you need to do is create a calendar that starts with your first day of practice through your first game of the season. On another piece of paper you will need to write down all the of the X's, O's, and special teams you need to have in before the first game of the season.
Prioritize. You need to decide which is the most important for your team to focus on before the first game. This will become your top priority and you will want to make sure that is put in first. Continue from there through each practice leading up to your first game. You can't do it all early in the season. Coaches must realize that you don't need to have every single set play, BLOB, SLOB, or defense in prior to your first game. Start small and work your way up to adding more as the season progresses.
One thing to consider is to add one or two new things a day for the first few weeks. Doing this will allow you to focus part of your practice in implementing X's and O's, while using the remainder of your practice to review X's and O's already put in and skill work. If you decide to spend an entire practice implementing a bunch of different X's and O's you are wasting time. The result of doing this would be too much standing around by the players as they listen to the coach talk, and an overload of information for the players.
Below is an example of a two week "Put-In" chart. Listed are only the new things being put in. Obviously you will be reviewing others X's and O's you have already put in throughout the two weeks leading up to the first game.
Nov. 12 Nov. 13 Nov. 14 Nov. 15 Nov. 16
5 Defense Transition O Wildcat Zone O Set Play 4 vs Zone 121 Press
Flex Offense Press O 55 Defense BLOB 1
Set Play 1 vs Man
Nov. 19 Nov. 20 Nov. 21 Nov. 22 Nov. 23
Set Play 2 vs Man BLOB 3 Set Play 5 vs Zone Jump Ball SLOB 1
BLOB 2 121 Soft Press Full Court :04 seconds Free Throw D Pre-Game
BLOB 3
Nov. 26 Nov. 27
SLOB 2 GAME #1
Set Play 3 vs Man
