,,,,,Chip Kelly EFFICIENTUSE OF PRACTICE TIME Universityof 0regon Two shortyears ago, I was an assistantcoach. WHATWE STAND FOR Whenlwas an assistant coach,lwas thesmartest . Fast coachin the country.I was always the smartest . coachin our meeting room.lwas not the head coach, Playhard andI saidthings like, "l wouldnot do it likethat . Finish "l way"or woulddo it thisway." When I becamea Youneed to sit down with your team collectively headcoach, I realized I was not very smart. When I andask them, "What are we allabout?" lf you got becameahead coach and thechance to dowhat watchthe University ofOregon on the field, of f the I wantedto do,it becamescary. I wasthe coach field, at practice, and in the classroom, you should sittingat theend of thetable, making those final knowif westand for something. When you watch decisions,and it becamea bit tougher. us,the first thing that sticks out is the speed at Statistically,33 percentof the assistantwhichwe play.When we talkto ourteam about coachesbecome head coaches during their career. fast, we have a simple concept. All they have to do WhenI took overat the Universityof Oregon,asindividuals isbe as f ast as they are. "What the first thingwe hadto findout was do We allhave players who can run. lf youhave we standfor?" You have to answerthat in your a 4.5player in high school football, he had better off ensive,def ensive, and special team philosophies. scorefour touchdowns a game, and they should you going lf are to standfor something,it is not nevercatch him from behind. There are not that you what sayit is.lt is whatpeople see in your many4.5 football players out there today. I do not actions.People should be ablet0 come,observe carewhat state you come from. lhave seen players you, andin five minutes know what you stand f or. run4.5, but they do not run 4.5 in the games. Iwant Thatis thegreat thing about this game. There the5.0 player who runs 5.0 on every single play. are philosophies so manychoices of in thisgame. lf aplayer is a 5.0 player and plays at 5.0, that is Youhave to decidewhat it is youwant to do,and whatwe want. Do not be the 4.6 player who plays then do it. D0not be the coachwho runsa play at5.2 in the games. That is our concept about speed. offense.That coach constantly adds plays that helikes and sees on TV or at a profootball game. Thesecond thing you should see from our team Beforehe knows it, hisoffense is a milewide of iswe play hard. The ultimate compliment you can nothingbut plays. He has nothing in that massof getfrom the opposing coach is "Yourteam really playsto hanghis hat on. Your players cannot say, playshard." ltdoes not matter what the score was, "Thisis what we are."I suggestyou take a long ifwe play hard, that is all we can ask. There will be a lookat y0urprogram and identify what you want timethat you play a team who has more talent than to be.lf a coachtells me respect is animportant youdo. That is life. The reason you play the games partof hisprogram, I should see it in practice.lf I isthe team who plays the hardest wins the game. goto practiceand I seea playerwho takes a cheap Thatbrings up another concept you should see shotat anotherplayer and no one corrects him, that from our team, The team who plays the hardest for programhas no respect in it. thelongest time is the one who usually wins. lf you playagainst agood team, they will play hard. 138 Thenext concept isfinrsh. if you c0me io our rJowdo you coach a piayeri0 stepat a 15-riegree practice,you wiilhear that term allthe time: "finish angie?! can give you an entire clinic on a 45-degree stretching,finish the drill,finish the run,finish step,but is that coaching? lf you have a playerwho theblock." That is what you hear at ourpractrce. cando the technique, that is the best method. The Everythingthey do, they must finish. We engrain piayerthat can take what Vou sav and perform the thatconcept inour players'heads. skill,becoming the examplefor the others.The Whatyou decide isup to you, but find something coachtold them how to doit, andthen he showed tobe.Our coaches got together as a group and talked themhow to do it. The playersheard what the aboutwhat we wanted to be.We wanted to know coachsaid and saw what he wanted. They heard it, whatthe team was going to look like. What was our sawit, and remember it. visionof what our team was supposed tobe? Thenext concept is "l do,and I understand." Whenyou go to thepractice field, you prepare Whenwe teach,we implementit in the classroom. againstthe vision of whatyou want to be.Every We talk aboutwhat we areputting in that day. singlegame on your schedule isa rivalrygame. lf We showthem what it is.After that, we go t0 thecross-town rival is game six on your schedule, thepractice f ield and do it. Thepractice field is not andyou circle it inred, you have told your team the wherewe talk.lt is wherewe do the skills.We first five games do not count. lt will be okay to lose wantto keepwords on the field to a minimum.The acouple of games during that stretch. wordsyou use must have a meaning.When the playershear the word, you get immediate feedback. Everygame we play is the most important game of theseason. We approachevery game as if it Whenwe goto practice,we wantto usepunch, wasthe Super Bowl. When we walk off thefield hat,hands, f ootwork, and terms that have meanings afterthe game, we haveto askourselves three to theplayers. They do not want to hearyou give a questions:"Did we play fast?" "Did we play hard?" 10-minuteclinic in the middleof the field.Do not and"Did we finish?"lf we cananswer yes to all stopwhat you are doing so you can tell one player thosequestions, wehave won the game. something.lfyou do that, there are 10 other players standingaround doing nothing. lf youwant to talk to a playerabout TEACHINGPHILOSOPHY somethinghe did, take him out of thedrill. Our coaches do a heckof ajob of coaching . I see,and Iforget. playerswho are not in the drill or scrimmage. I see,and I remember. A perfectexample is theoffensive line coach, . Ido, and I understand. SteveGreatwood. He watchesthe playersin group Withinour staff, we talkabout our teaching the scrimmageand coaches the of players gets philosophy.lt is a simplephilosophy, andI willtell who arestanding and watching. He constant players youabout it veryquickly. The first one is "l see, feedbackfrom the watching,and that is goal. andI forget."How many times have you watched his Whenthey are in the drill, they play. When they a tapeand ask the question, "What is he doing?" arenot in thedrills, he coaches them up by watching players Thecoach's answer is "l toldhim ...." lf youcatch themistakes of the inthe drill. yourselfsaying that many times, you have not put lf the coachneeds to talk to the player,he theplayer in a position tobe successful. substitutesfor him.Do not stop the drill and Everycoach inthis room has a ton of knowledge. let everyoneelse stand around. That is not fair Thatdoes not matter. What matters is what the becausethere is only a certainamount of timewe practice.you yourpractices playersknow. Education is the transference of can lf canmake more you knowledge.You may know more than anyone inthis efficient, willbe more successf ul. room,but if youcannot communicate it to aplayer sohe can go out and execute, itdoes not matter. PRE.SEASONCAMP Thealternative tothat is "l see, and lremember." Youhave to organizeyour pre-practice. I do not Howdo you learn to coach "l see,and I remember?" carewhat it is,but when they get to thepractice 139 field,they should be doing something. That bothers work,and the defense does not have to coachup me.When the players get to thepractice field, it thescouts. lt maximizesour practice time. Instead is practicetime. That period is not a walk-throughoftrying to coach adef ensive tackle to go in motion, periodthat we can teach in a classroom. ldo not care theycoach him to playa defensive technique. whatthe group does, but the coach needs a routine We havea greatpre-season camp drill. We thatthe players know. That way the playersget workthe off ense and def ense in the same drill. lt is intoa rhythmand habit of doingsomething. ateaching mentality, but the off ense goes through When we g0 out to practiceearly, they its formationsand motion, and the defensegoes knowwhat they aregoing to do,and they do it" throughtheir checks and adlustments. We snap The timetablefor all positionsis specific.The theball, but we do not run a play.lt is the best thing widereceivers work on the JUGSmachine. The to dofor your younger players because they do not quarterbacksand centerswork on snapsand knowwhat to do.We get all those things done, and footwork.The inside linebackers are doing a read wedo not run a play. drill.We arein teachingmode, but we aredoing At first,we tooka five-minuteperiod for the things.We areactive and moving. drill.Later we got it downto a three-minuteperiod. Thefirst period in our practice is a drillperiod. However,we createan opportunity for both srdes Thatis a three-minute period when we concentrate of theline to learn.When you look at thedrills you onfundamentals. The defense works in a turnoverdo,you need to find out how to makethe drills more circuitol ona pursuit drill. The of f ensiveline works eff icient.