I was wondering if any of you have experimented with visual wrist coaches. This is where you take a playbook and you draw the play on the wrist coach, typically using microsoft excel. I have been playing around with it, and I think I can fit about 4 plays per panel, and they're pretty easy to read. Ideally you'd give a wrist coach to every kid.
My thoughts about the pros are that it would be 1) pretty simple for the kids, and it would be 2) very easy and fast to get plays in and out. You probably wouldn't even have to huddle. 3) The kids would probably learn the play on a deeper level if they got to look at the picture.
The cons might be 1) really need the plays left and right, flipping the play diagram sounds like it would lead to errors 2) kids might rely too much on the wrist coach, and tags might not get followed 3) adding plays might be confusing 4) kids might take a while to read a play because they'd be looking at what everyone else does. 5) It's also going to be expensive 6) kids will lose them... or I will lose them. 7) Changing things would be a whole production involving a lot of cutting and a corporate printer.
I wouldn't do it if they were free and I owned the company.
A wrist coach should be used to list the play, or their assignment on the play. Showing them what the play looks like should have been done in practice. A wide-out doesn't need to see that his wrist coach shows where the BST is going.
--Dave
"The Greater the Teacher, the More Powerful the Player."
The Mission Statement: "I want to show any young man that he is far tougher than he thinks, that he can accomplish more than what he dreamed and that his work ethic will take him wherever he wants to go."
#BattleReady newhope
I absolutely hate wrist coaches. I didn't like them going into this season. Now I loathe them. They will join the direct snap and those stupid post-game parent tunnels as things that are banned on my team. Wrist coaches with pictures/diagrams are extra useless. They actually caused more confusion and incorrect routes.
Don't repeat my mistake (of allowing my OC to use diagrams on wrist coaches). Ditch the idea and find something else. Here's an analogy: I've been playing roller hockey since 1995, so I'm pretty good on inline skates. Occasionally, someone I know buys a pair of roller blades and tells me they are going to take them out to the bike path. I tell them that bike paths are a horrible place to learn how to skate because they are a) narrow b) crowded c) winding and d) hilly. They are quick to point out the nifty braking system that comes with the skates. I tell them to immediately remove that brake. When they ask why, I tell them that they will find themselves on a hill with precious little stopping distance. They will use up 80% of that stopping distance trying unsuccessfully using that brake, then use up the remaining 20% trying to find something that actually works. So by removing that brake, they bought themselves some precious stopping distance to find and learn an effective method. Roller blade brakes are your visual wrist coaches.
Over the years, Mahonz and I have invented, then forgotten 20 different ways to call our plays from the sideline to include formation, tags, blocking calls, action, ball carrier and point of attack without the opponent having any idea what we are doing. This year, we used the same language to call plays in Flexbone, I formation, Empty, Ace and Beast. I'm happy to share with you if you want to PM me.
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
I absolutely hate wrist coaches. I didn't like them going into this season. Now I loathe them. They will join the direct snap and those stupid post-game parent tunnels as things that are banned on my team.
lol. That's funny.
Decades ago, when I was coaching Mitey-Mites and you were allowed to coach on the field, I remember seeing numerous coaches on the field circled by their players as he held up to sort of route play chart. It looked something along the lines of a laminated playbook. The players would then break their huddle and go up to the LOS trying to remember just what exactly they'd just looked at. Meanwhile, our guys just memorized the plays we ran.
--Dave
"The Greater the Teacher, the More Powerful the Player."
The Mission Statement: "I want to show any young man that he is far tougher than he thinks, that he can accomplish more than what he dreamed and that his work ethic will take him wherever he wants to go."
#BattleReady newhope
Before you condemn Madden Rookie Mode Wrist Coaches try using them for your scout offense. It saves us a great deal of time in practice to hand the scout team a set of wrist coaches with the backfield action drawn and plays numbered. We have an OL coach run the scout team O and he can huddle them up or not and get more reps by see play 7, run play 7. We do images for the small skill players and scheme words for the big skill guys.
That was the idea. I typically draw up plays in power point for the scout offense if the opponent is really good. I'll also number the players on the power point, and that makes the scout team MUCH faster. They at least know where to line up (for the most part) and where to go.
If wrist coaches worked then playbooks should help…but they don’t.
I could see an individual player’s responsibility being somewhat helpful but not diagrams.
Nobody is holding a scout team to the same standard as their own offense.
If wrist coaches worked then playbooks should help…but they don’t.
I could see an individual player’s responsibility being somewhat helpful but not diagrams.
Nobody is holding a scout team to the same standard as their own offense.
If wrist coaches worked then playbooks should help…but they don’t.
I could see an individual player’s responsibility being somewhat helpful but not diagrams.
Nobody is holding a scout team to the same standard as their own offense.
I absolutely hate wrist coaches. I didn't like them going into this season. Now I loathe them. They will join the direct snap and those stupid post-game parent tunnels as things that are banned on my team. Wrist coaches with pictures/diagrams are extra useless. They actually caused more confusion and incorrect routes.
Don't repeat my mistake (of allowing my OC to use diagrams on wrist coaches). Ditch the idea and find something else. Here's an analogy: I've been playing roller hockey since 1995, so I'm pretty good on inline skates. Occasionally, someone I know buys a pair of roller blades and tells me they are going to take them out to the bike path. I tell them that bike paths are a horrible place to learn how to skate because they are a) narrow b) crowded c) winding and d) hilly. They are quick to point out the nifty braking system that comes with the skates. I tell them to immediately remove that brake. When they ask why, I tell them that they will find themselves on a hill with precious little stopping distance. They will use up 80% of that stopping distance trying unsuccessfully using that brake, then use up the remaining 20% trying to find something that actually works. So by removing that brake, they bought themselves some precious stopping distance to find and learn an effective method. Roller blade brakes are your visual wrist coaches.
Over the years, Mahonz and I have invented, then forgotten 20 different ways to call our plays from the sideline to include formation, tags, blocking calls, action, ball carrier and point of attack without the opponent having any idea what we are doing. This year, we used the same language to call plays in Flexbone, I formation, Empty, Ace and Beast. I'm happy to share with you if you want to PM me.
You know I get the reasoning. You don't need a diagram because if you practice it enough, then the players know it. What I don't get is a the hate for it. Just wasted time?
You know I get the reasoning. You don't need a diagram because if you practice it enough, then the players know it. What I don't get is a the hate for it. Just wasted time?
It started a long time ago when I was coaching with Kent. A SW coach named Jody donated about 20 wrist coaches to us out of the goodness of his heart. The day we got them was like picture day or the first day of school. Wasted practice. Then, there was the issue of collecting the wrist coaches after every practice, printing out new ones every time we changed something. Yet, the most effective offense I was ever a part of used play names like "Toss, Sweep, Wedge, Pass". So I never liked them, but every few years someone decides we need them and backs it up with a story about the team that averaged 40 points per game with them. So we use them and I always feel that we could have been better.
Last Spring in Flex, Mahonz and I came up with a really slick system for calling pass plays out of Empty using a name/numbering system. I came up with my favorite route combos, threw out what didn't work, then eventually began to see the entire field and could call up just the right combo on the spot. It took me about 6 games to get to that point. Our Fall OC came out to see us one game and I showed him everything we could do. His immediate answer was, "I was thinking about a wrist coach system where I assign combos to a city name". I though to myself, "Why won't you at least look at this and give it a try. We're throwing the ball all over the field with kids that have no business playing in a passing offense." But, I let it go.
When Fall came around, I let him run the city names/diagrams wrist coach system. It sucked. I killed it early on, but Mahonz came out to fix our passing game one night while I had to do picture night with the 1st/2nd graders. I got back to practice with 15 minutes left and the wrist coaches made a triumphant return. Not Mahonz' fault, BTW. He had no idea I had killed the wrist coaches.
One game later, I killed them again. Waste of an entire season as our Empty passing game never materialized. I feel that the wrist coach method was a big contributing factor. In Flex, I solved the age-old issue of a secondary receiver being within arms reach of the primary. This Fall, about 70% of the time, when we threw the ball, you could throw a hula hoop over 2 of our receivers.
If you were to ask me the #1 reason why I hate diagrams on wrist coaches, I'd say that when you call a play with precious seconds on the play clock, your OC, QB, backs and receivers are staring at tiny drawings instead of looking at the defense.
So the hate for them comes from me being mad at myself for not putting my foot down. I don't want to micro-manage, but when you feel like something won't work and say so, but makes me extra mad at myself when I turn out to be right.
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
I don't want to micro-manage, but when you feel like something won't work and say so, but makes me extra mad at myself when I turn out to be right.
I have no problem with micro-managing, managing, over-managing, mega-managing, non-stop managing, etc.
--Dave
"The Greater the Teacher, the More Powerful the Player."
The Mission Statement: "I want to show any young man that he is far tougher than he thinks, that he can accomplish more than what he dreamed and that his work ethic will take him wherever he wants to go."
#BattleReady newhope
I don't want to micro-manage, but when you feel like something won't work and say so, but makes me extra mad at myself when I turn out to be right.
I have no problem with micro-managing, managing, over-managing, mega-managing, non-stop managing, etc.
--Dave
I do. The problem is that I did not effectively manage the situation. It managed me.
When in doot . . . glass and oot.
You know I get the reasoning. You don't need a diagram because if you practice it enough, then the players know it. What I don't get is a the hate for it. Just wasted time?
It started a long time ago when I was coaching with Kent. A SW coach named Jody donated about 20 wrist coaches to us out of the goodness of his heart. The day we got them was like picture day or the first day of school. Wasted practice. Then, there was the issue of collecting the wrist coaches after every practice, printing out new ones every time we changed something. Yet, the most effective offense I was ever a part of used play names like "Toss, Sweep, Wedge, Pass". So I never liked them, but every few years someone decides we need them and backs it up with a story about the team that averaged 40 points per game with them. So we use them and I always feel that we could have been better.
Last Spring in Flex, Mahonz and I came up with a really slick system for calling pass plays out of Empty using a name/numbering system. I came up with my favorite route combos, threw out what didn't work, then eventually began to see the entire field and could call up just the right combo on the spot. It took me about 6 games to get to that point. Our Fall OC came out to see us one game and I showed him everything we could do. His immediate answer was, "I was thinking about a wrist coach system where I assign combos to a city name". I though to myself, "Why won't you at least look at this and give it a try. We're throwing the ball all over the field with kids that have no business playing in a passing offense." But, I let it go.
When Fall came around, I let him run the city names/diagrams wrist coach system. It sucked. I killed it early on, but Mahonz came out to fix our passing game one night while I had to do picture night with the 1st/2nd graders. I got back to practice with 15 minutes left and the wrist coaches made a triumphant return. Not Mahonz' fault, BTW. He had no idea I had killed the wrist coaches.
One game later, I killed them again. Waste of an entire season as our Empty passing game never materialized. I feel that the wrist coach method was a big contributing factor. In Flex, I solved the age-old issue of a secondary receiver being within arms reach of the primary. This Fall, about 70% of the time, when we threw the ball, you could throw a hula hoop over 2 of our receivers.
If you were to ask me the #1 reason why I hate diagrams on wrist coaches, I'd say that when you call a play with precious seconds on the play clock, your OC, QB, backs and receivers are staring at tiny drawings instead of looking at the defense.
So the hate for them comes from me being mad at myself for not putting my foot down. I don't want to micro-manage, but when you feel like something won't work and say so, but makes me extra mad at myself when I turn out to be right.
Good input. I was planning to do bird dog a lot more next season. I don't think it would really be necessary.
I dunno, seems to me that if you need a wrist coach to remind the kids what to do, you may be running too many plays. The knock on us, is we only run 4 plays - belly weak, belly strong, buck short, and bucksweep - we actually have counters, traps, Belly sweeps & play action passes, but we run those base plays over and over and over again. Since we practice them over and over and over and over again, the kids' muscle memory eventually takes over.
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
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