re: simplicity
What does it REALLY mean?
I’ll never forget it…
We had a team with average skill that year.
We were still fairly young.
But we were playing some good football.
I remember prepping for the playoffs…
And making a decision to slash our playbook down.
With that young team, rather than add a bunch of install for the playoff game, we cut things back.
It worked.
We played well.
And we ended up winning the conference.
Ever since then I’ve been obsessed with simplicity.
But over the past few years my understanding of what it means to be simple has changed.
It’s more than just running fewer plays.
Sure…
A smaller playbook can help.
But you could run only one play and your players could still be confused.
Simplicity is about more than that.
It’s about how you teach…
How you adjust…
How you put everything together.
For me, it helps to zoom in.
Instead of thinking about the system as a whole, I try to take a minute to think about each individual player.
How many different things are we asking this player to do?
How does their job change based on the situation?
The formation?
The motion?
Have we made their job simple?
For me, this is a good starting point.
If each individual player has a simple job, then we have a simple system.
And when things are simple, the kids can play fast.
All the best,
Jon Svec
Defensive Coordinator
St. Francis Xavier University
X-Men Football
Email: jsvec@stfx.ca
Twitter: @jonsvecx