3 Common Mistakes Running A Football Scout Team
Today we will wrap up our three part series on how to run a good football scout team. Check out part one and part two here. Today we will focus on a few common mistakes that you should avoid if you are in charge of the look team during football practice this season.
As different as the levels of football can be there are some commonalities that cannot be denied. I am going to point out three common mistakes that are made at all levels of football when it comes to scout teams.
1. Not Tying In Your Scheme & Verbiage When Coaching The Scout Team
We have already touched on the fact that the main thing a football scout team should provide is a good look. That should always remain the priority. However, you can also develop young players at the same time. You can also give your scout team players a better chance to give a good look if they can relate the card they are running to something they have learned in your system.
Are You Getting Your Backups Mental Reps At Practice?
If you are showing the card to an offensive scout team it never hurts to just say, for example, “that’s our smash concept you are running” or block this just like our zone read.” On defense it might be something like “Hey, this is our pirate stunt we have been working on.
2. Failing To Reward Your Look Teams For A Great Look & Effort
This is a huge one. We all agree how important your football scout teams are so there is no bigger mistake than to let their great effort and practice look go unrecognized. This can come in the form of recognizing an offense, defense and special teams scout team player of the week.
There is also a lot to be said about the head coach pointing this out in a happy locker room after a win. If the head coach can say something like “We were very prepared this week and that is why we won. There is no way we could be this prepared without the great look our scout teams gave us.” That goes a long way to making sure you get the same look at football practice in the coming weeks. This motivates your young players and coaches alike.
3. Wasting Practice Prep Time By Throwing Away Your Scout Team Cards
Look, we know that there are coaches out there that love to hide out in their cave and draw scout team cards. Offensive line coaches are exhibit A most of the time. Having a well drawn scout team card is important, as we mentioned in part one of this series. However, if your coaches are redrawing the same cards over and over during the season that’s not good coaching. It’s just wasting time.
This is why when we hear about a coach who is still drawing cards with a sharpie we cringe. Odds are those cards will get used one time and then be lost forever. These football scout team cards will get rained on. They will get lost or just have to be altered for the next football practice(s) so that they are unusable. So now your coaches are repeating this process over and over instead of other things they could be doing.
FirstDown PlayBook brings so much value to your football program when you have a Team membership. There is a long list of things including game plan installation, practice plans, practice schedules, wristband sheets and playbook creation. However, if you want to see common sense value just look at the amount of time and energy we save a coaching staff with scout team practice card creation and storage.
Simply Put; If You Are Repeating Work You Are Wasting Time
When you us FirstDown PlayBook you never ever lose a football scout team card. You just make a copy of that card or set of cards and make a few adjustments that are needed. After that you are off and running. You now have time to spend with those young scout team players instead of repeating work all season. This will return dividends to the young players and you as a maturing football coach!
Best of luck to you and your program this season!
