Crafting a Playbook

Piecing things together.

My six-year-old daughter is sitting at her crafting table.

She’s working on a project.

She starts with a few popsicle sticks.

(That’s the base.)

Then some pipe cleaners…

A few cotton balls…

She uses a hot glue gun to hold it all together.

Eventually, it’s complete:

A bunny.

She makes it do a few little hops.

Some impressive work.

Coaching is the same.

It’s all about taking a bit of what we saw over here…

Some of what we learned over there…

And then mashing it all together.

(Minus the hot glue).

Coaching is stealing.

We all do the same thing.

But the difference is this:

The best coaches make it seamless.

They make it feel like a connected system, rather than a random collection of plays and techniques.

And in doing that, they make it simple.

That’s the goal — and the challenge — of coaching.

All the best,

Jon Svec
Defensive Coordinator
St. Francis Xavier University
X-Men Football
Email: jsvec@stfx.ca
Twitter: @jonsvecx