BLACK

The internet is definitely the root evil for most of my epic adventures... I see a link or I stumble across a blog a seed is sown then the text messages/emails go out to see if any victims can be found to partake.

In this instance it was finding a small article on some site about the new East Highland Way in Scotland... a linking piece of trail that joined the West Highland way with the Speyside Way allowing a pretty sizeable coast to coast off road experience... a quick estimate was 240ish miles of off road riding.

After the texts went out the only taker was Mike Mcfarlane(www.mikemcfarlane.co.uk), I had met Mike through working at Ride Cycles and he was now working at a local outdoor store but had taken a big chunk of time out so was free for the trip.

Amazingly Mike didn't seemed phased by my optimistic time scale of 2 and a bit days.. after some shifting of dates we decided to get the train on a Sunday morning to start riding about 3pm in afternoon, then a return train at 10am on the Wednesday... with trains and times booked we had a rigid timescale to work with.

I decided to go very light.. or as light as I could as from past experience I always ended up taking a world of crap i didn't need.. with all gear on the bike it still felt pretty rideable...



As I left home on the Sunday morning the sun was shining and it looked to be a pretty warm adventure although forecasts predicted showers i couldn't see from where.. as i arrived at the station Mike, his Wife Susan and dog were waiting... me and Mike had chosen fully rigid singlespeeds and after the goodbyes we were on a train filled with alcohol fueled Scots.. we lucked out with seats booked in the quiet carriage:)

After 3 hours of train we arrived at Milngavie and the start of the West Highland Way..



it wasn't long before the WHW signage had us circling Mudock Castle looking before finding the way out and being sent on our way...





the first section was easy undulating bridleway and Tarmac.. navigation was easy and the sun was shining... it wasn't long till we reached the shores of Loch Lomond.



We made good use of the pub on the shores of the Loch to sink some fluids as the weather was still amazing and showed no signs of letting up.

When the singletrack trail started a proper it wasn't long before we were into the hike a bike section that all who have ridden the WHW will remember..



progress became very slow as we rode short sections and carried longer ones.. just as we were both looking forward to a good feed and the light was fading we rolled into a campsite with a bar and a restaurant which although was closing still rustled up some lasagnes!!
The nights accomodation was the campsite in the bivvi bags with a tarp rigged up from a fence as the weather definitely looked alot more overcast.

We woke and were on our way by 7am... with an estimated 40 miles done on the first day we looked to do 100 miles a day for the next 2 days to get the job done... we rode to the top of the first rise and enjoyed a breakfast trailside with the sun warming the air around us.

The trail now was pretty variable.. double track.. jeep track... singletrack... grassy. rocky... dirt.. every trail was undulating but for at least the first part of the day there were no serious climbs and there was some awesome descents.









After some decent pushing we got to the first real rideable sustained climb of the trip up onto Rannoch Moor with a pretty long wide dirt track...



Luckily it was just about right for mine and Mikes singlespeed gearing although i chose to sit and grind it out while Mike chose to get out the saddle... the trail levelled out and then eventually we got our reward with a great rocky descent.

We spun into the car park of a hotel in time for some wild deer who were mooching looking for a feed :)



As we finished the descent the trail hugged the road on a grassy trail... so we cheated and bashed some tarmac for a few miles till we headed right and onto the Devils Staircase... a full on hike a bike which would take us up and over then down to Kinlocheven.
After a snack at the top we began the more down than up trail to Kinlocheven... one feature of most Scottish trails are the water brakes.. nice channels running across the trails formed of bits of rock.. these have to be hopped or rolled... just as i was hefting my rear wheel over one i unclipped a foot and to avoid a headfirst fall i chose to throw my weight backover and ended up coming off to the side with a pedal square to the calf muscle!! ouch.. luckily no more damage than this.. now with an aching calf muscle i couldn't stand to pedal.. to make make matters worse i puncture a mile or so later on another water brake!!

Now time was getting on.. it was 4ish and i had expected to be in Fort William by now but we were only in Kinlocheven with another sizeable up/over/down to get under our belts to finish the WHW.. all the tales of how hard this route was were proving accurate... still we carried on but i had the doubts of my timescale creeping in and had already started formulating plan b,c and d in my head... getting out of Kinlocheven was another push and carry and where we thought we would top out and be able to see Fort William all we could see was more double track stretching as far as we could see:(

The double track continued and every crest of a rise just allowed us to see more double track stretching out beyond us... this was starting to wear thin as i really wanted to put the WHW behind us knowing even when this was done we still had 150 miles to go.

Finally we descended to a junction where the WHW met a military road and the signboard indicated that the military road was a 2 mile shorter route... so we took it to try and start clawing back some time.. although tarmac the road delivered some very cheeky climbs until it finally gave up and spat us out into Fort William at around 5pm it had been a long time getting here.

When faced with huge distance to cover and limited time to do it in the only thing a rider can do is... buy fish and chips and sit in the sun and ponder the situation.

We had looked at plans b,c and d and all involved multiple trains and expense neither us wanted to get involved with so we turned back to finishing what we had started... from experience on the WHW we decided that an attempt on the East Highland Way at this point would probably leave us miles from our destination as our train departed on wednesday morning so we decided to take to the tar and at the end of a 60 mile off road ride we decided the best course of action would be a 40 mile singlespeed road ride!!



Strangely although my calf was still aching the road riding was quite pleasurable.. we had spent so many hours riding and hiking to only make the smallest amount of progress and now the miles were flying by... the first 12 miles to Spean Bridge went quickly then we set our sites on Laggan as a spot to stop for the night.
We pedalled on and as i had the better road gearing Mike sat in and basked in the wind free environment.. we soon were at Laggan Wolftrax although we both thought better of a quick lap and after this Laggan.

I had hoped for a scenario similar to the previous night where we would roll up to a bar or restaurant but unfortunately Laggan could only offer a disabled toilet, playground and a picnic area... none of which were very appealling at all so we pressed on a further few miles down the road and headed off the tarmac up a trail to where we found a good spot for a bivvi and while i set out my gear Mike took up the role of chef and we dined on dehydrated meals and cups of tea.

We woke on Tuesday morning with a more optimistic outlook on the whole adventure...




I don't think Mikes belief in what we were doing had wavered but i am known for large bouts of negativity in the face of adversity:)

The plan now sat at more road work to Aviemore... good breakfast.. visit Bothy Bikes (www.bothybikes.co.uk) .. find the Speyside Way and ride to Keith where we would find a good spot to sleep and then train Wednesday morning.

The morning was really cold and it took a fair few miles for the feeling to come into my hands... when it did the miles passed easily.. i had a figure of about 30-40 miles to Aviemore in my head so when we saw the 12 miles to Aviemore sign spirits were at an all time high and i pressed the pedals even harder with the thought of a good breakfast within my grasp.

Getting to Aviemore we went to visit Bothy Bikes first... what a great shop, i had heard of them as they are a Genesis dealer but thats not all they sell.. they had such a good selection of bikes and parts and the guys were very friendly and you got a sense that they just rode, rode and rode bikes.. i look forward to getting back and doing some local rides.

A quick ride via a cash point saw us sat in a cafe enjoying a huge cooked breakfast... we didn't even give prices a second glance as we filled our boots with great cooked food, orange juice and latte's!! we even stocked up on a cake each for later.



The Speyside Way started behind Aviemore station and after riding through th back streets of Aviemore and quieter roads started out on a very wide well groomed trail.. fast and flowing... it then dived into some woodland for some singletrack before out onto a quiet country lane then onto a nice grassy disused railway.



We knew that this was going to be the easy section of the trip with not a great deal of elevation to it and mainly well groomed trails all rideable.. although it was not without its surprises as we found ourselves first in a field with 2 bulls shortly followed by in the thick of a wood with no trail in sight as the person that had signed the route overlooked a 4 way junction with the SW being the less obvious of the trails to follow... they did however manage to place a number of signs mid track when there was no option but the drection you were going in... not so helpful.

The route was punctuated by map boards indicating what section of the trail you were on and everytime we stopped at one we had made much more progress than we had thought although i was not keen on giving up the idea of just going straight to the railway station to avoid any unnecessary missed trains... the alternative was ride to the beach then ride to the station but it is a little known fact i hate sand and therefore have no desire to be anywhere near it.

As we came off the official SW route we headed towards Keith on road again.. this time alot more hilly as we left our valley bottom behind and climbed out and over.. again progress was pretty quick and the ten miles on the road passed quickly with us arriving at Keith around 6pm.
We pedalled to where the campsite signs directed us but all we found was a park home site surrounded by some rather uninviting wastelands... we rode to the station and again nothing of worth there.. we had never really planned any spots to sleep.. i was getting a little fed up as i was ready for a pint and a good meal... Mike however unphased by my ever increasing bad mood in a moment of extreme bravery suggested that we just ride to the beach and sleep there!!
Amazingly i agreed but under protest and said i would be getting myself there as quickly as possible... which Mike let me do and as i tortured my legs in an insane ten mile singlespeed fully loaded with luggage time trial its started to rain.

Luckily as quickly as it started the rain stopped and i arrived at Buckie... the end of the SW.. unfortunately Mike headed for Spey Bay... after a few phone calls we manage to find each other and settled into a spot on Spey Bay (only as its a shingle beach no sand!!)... dinner was a less apertising pot shot noodle thing each with some beef jerky... we rigged the tarp and bivvi'd for the night... well almost as the wind pcked up the tarp took on the form of a sail and threatened to carry our bikes down the beach so Mike took it down.



Wednesday morning only required a 14 mile ride back to Keith and luckily they let us catch our first train early... the dirty riding clothes were packed and i rewarded myself with a fresh long sleeve.. Aberdeen station were less so accomodating with earlier trains so we settled into a Costa marathon punctuated by charging of iphones in the apple store:)

All in a great trip... my calf is still sore... my bike a little unridden since getting back... i had alot of doubts as to whether living on a diet of only Singlespeeding is healthy so i have come back with a fresh desire to get some gears and see what has changed.

Big thank you to Mike as he endured all my various mods and still came out smiling and pedalling at the other end:)

Credit for all images to Mike Mcfarlane

An interesting study being done to assess economic conditioning's affect on learning methodology...could prove useful in learning how to effectively reach all students (of the game)

http://www.psych.med.umich.edu/newsroom/index.php/2009/12/james-swain-and-collaborators-receive-federal-grand-opportunity-grant/

The research study entitled, “Childhood Poverty and Brain Development: Roles of Chronic Stress and Parenting,” aims to determine how childhood poverty influences adult brain structure and function, and what underlying biological and social mechanisms mediate childhood poverty-brain relationships. Researchers hypothesize that chronic physiological stress dysregulation (elevated allostatic load) as well as harsh, unresponsive parenting during childhood will account for some of the expected linkages between childhood poverty and adult brain structure and function

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-poverty-shapes-the-brain/article1579628/
In one study, he looked at how children filter out irrelevant information and pick up on what is important. To do this, he monitored the electrical activity of their brains when they were asked to listen to a random series of four tones and press a button every time they heard two of those tones.

He found that children from low SES families tend to use far more parts of their brain during the test than kids from middle-income families. It was as if the low SES children paid equal attention to every sound they heard, he says. Children from high-income homes only paid close attention to the two tones they had been asked to identify.


http://topnews.us/content/220526-poverty-affects-brain-study
Amedeo D’Angiulli at Carleton University in Ottawa quoted, “I would see this work informing the school system to exploit some of the strengths that are in these children and introduce curriculum that instead of penalizing them would allow them to function”

The Super Bowl Champion, New Orleans Saints, and Head Coach Sean Payton have perfected an age old recipe for moving the ball down the field. With just a handful of concepts the offense can generate a solution on any given down to always leave the defense guessing what will hit them next. This versatility is what is required for an offense to adapt and survive in an increasingly competitive age of evolving defenses. It also illustrates the necessary "toolbox" of answers an offense must possess in its arsenal (when your best play and your counter to your best play is shut down, now what?).

The next few posts will explore some basic concepts of their passing attack to horizontally and vertically stretch defenses and provide easy answers to any situation. I don't intend to reinvent the wheel here - most of these concepts have been covered extensively before, either on smartfootball (which we'll borrow heavily from) or this site. We're merely attempting to provide an overview of the concepts (this site is mainly for coaches who already know this stuff) and how they adapt to a defense's response. These methods are actually quite common and are the standard blueprint for the modern offense ( air raid principles ). What makes the application for the Saints so effective obviously is a more-than-competent quarterback, a bevy of consistent receiving threats, and an emphasis on the 3-step game to alleviate pressure on the offensive line to be engaged in pass protection for extended durations.

VERTICALS
The crux of the passing game is premised on blowing the top off defensive coverage by sending multiple receivers down field on any given play. It only takes one open deep receiver on one play to threaten a defense. As written about extensively at smartfootball, the 4 vertical package is a 5-step concept that is best run out of 1-back or no-back sets meant to horizontally stretch deep safeties.
The illustration shows the 4 vertical package, and subsequent pictorials will be overlaid with the 4 vert concept to demonstrate how the stems will appear the same.




CORNER


After threatening the defense with four vertical receivers, the offense uses another 5-step concept, a corner or china concept where the vertical #2 receiver bends his route deep outside away from any deep safety, while the #1 receiver stops his route shallow, thus "high-lowing" a side of the field (if corner retreats deep, throw underneath / if corner stays shallow, throw over the top outside).

As you will see in the clips below, it can be run out of any formation and even out of play-action ( becomes "Rodeo / Lasso" in 'the system ).
DIG

After presenting a threat to the horizontal and vertical sides of the field, with the 5-step Dig concept, the offense looks to exploit the width of the safeties created by the previous two concepts. So, if you're attacked deep and outside, the dig will victimize you where you ain't (inside and intermediate).


With Dig, and its many varations (shallow /levels /drive), the concept is made more effective by running a player into the intermediate hole of a defense while simultaneously running another player at a lower depth to create two (often intersecting) levels on underneath inside defenders.
This opener of 5-step concepts will lead us into 5-step traps (screens) and (my favorite) the 3-step game.

Some interesting clips from the spring scrimmage last night

05202010 @ Yahoo! Video

UPDATE (player spotlight)

Here are some nice clips of the promising playmakers for 2010, featuring (last year's Y, now playing X) #21 Desmon Ethridge and 2013 prospect (yes, he's just a freshman right now), #4 Damien Jiggetts making plays with Baylor University in attendance at the scrimmage.

05202010_jiggetts_ethridge @ Yahoo! Video

FYI

...And that was my last night officially coaching for quite some time (maybe for good). My son turns 13 this summer and I will have him with me full-time from here on out, so I'd rather not short change any time with him (juggling 'work' and a coaching schedule).

I enjoyed my experience with the staff at HHS and think the world of the kids and their families that play ball there.

Just something to tide you over until hemlock and myself publish the upcoming posts of substance (several articles in the works).....

Continuing a theme/trend exploring Gary Patterson's split-field coverage principles, these clips illustrate the quarters-principled coverage against 2x1, 3x2, 3x1, and 2x2 formations.

Be sure to check out Coach Evans' blog RUNCODHIT and his series of posts on TCU's defense


09TCU @ Yahoo! Video

USE ME UP (blog archives)

Also, be sure to utilize the post tags for subjects previously covered..........(I'll try to better organize some of these)

The "drills" is a great one to check on and has helped me refresh my memory on some drills to run during the season.

Also, sick of my meandering posts? Click on 'hemlock' for a filtered view of nothing but his posts (and hit the print button!). This may really come in handy when he gets rolling on the Run 'n' Shoot series, that way you can get all his stuff in a concise package.

4D-FTP Update

As posted earlier, the 4D-FTP method, provides an alternative to defensive back play.

2010 4D-FTP CLINIC & TRAINING Events will be focused on answering pre submitted questions for the clinic, technique specifics and rapid fire training routines for development of the athlete for individual and group involvement. Group rate available. Events costs are determined by facility charges and may differ from event to event. Unconfirmed event dates subject to change.

NEW JERSEY CLINIC & TRAINING

JUNE 6 2010

TURF TRAINERS INDOOR FACILITY

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

ATLANTA, GEORGIA CLINIC & TRAINING

JUNE 12 2010

SCORE INDOOR SPORTS, FAIRBURN

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

NEW EVENTS2 DAY DB SCHOOL-ADVANCED TRAINING

Get 2 full days of technique, philosophy training and film study.

For coaches, trainers and athletes.

CONTACT COACH MARK FOR MORE INFORMATION

Late June Los Angeles, California

Early July Northern Virginia

Late July Orlando/Tampa, Florida

Early August Austin, Texas

Late August Phoenix, Arizona

Jan 2011 Las Vegas, Nevada

MORE BEER

Sorry, Abita.....I love me some Gulf Coast beer, an industry that truly suffered after Katrina, but you just aren't cutting the mustard save a Purple Haze or Turbo Dog. New buzz of quality hops coming from the Lafayette area, Bayou Teche, and Heiner Brau from Covington. I'm excited to begin exploring both breweries in the not-to-distant future.

http://bayoutechebrewing.blogspot.com/

Noting the trend of defenses to use dime packages even in nickel (11 personnel) situations.

Clips from the past season where 3 receiver-1 tight end formations (standard fare in the NFL) allow the defense to introduce a nickel and dime back and only leave in 2 or 3 defensive linemen.

I intended to go over some of these in more detail, but I've been swamped of late and wanted to share some clips rather than sit on them.

09NYJ_dime @ Yahoo! Video

09NYJets_Dime @ Yahoo! Video

09gbchi @ Yahoo! Video

09gb @ Yahoo! Video

09GB_a @ Yahoo! Video

09MIA @ Yahoo! Video

09NE @ Yahoo! Video

09NOSaints_GWilliams @ Yahoo! Video

Since getting back from Nepal i have to admit to not really having a whole heap of enthusiasm for structured training.. this is not to say i've been sitting about.. far from it.

As soon as i got back i got my Genesis Aether road bike out and enjoyed some good riding on the road.. enjoying the great coastal views living in Newcastle affords me, mountain biking has been a few trail centres jaunts but mainly riding out from my door and riding local trails... in general i've just been really enjoying my riding.

Off the bike life has been pretty busy too.. after my post requesting challenges for the future i got contacted by David Warren or as he will be known the 'Bearded Man', organiser of the Blackmountains 3 Day (blackmountains3day.co.uk). After some chatting i am now involved in the planning and organising of this event and lending my full support to it as it is close as damn it to my perfect event... not really racing so no attitudes but nicely hard challenge riding.

I will try and mirror all Blackmountains updates here but keep an eye on the event website.



Next on my social agenda is the Keswick Mountain Festival, in particular the bike night where I will be doing a question and answer session on i assume what drives me and my riding although i haven't got the questions so it could be on anything:)

On the riding front life wouldn't be the same without a good challenge so shortly after the Keswick mountain festival i'll be packing the bivvi bag and with my friend Mike Mcfarlane we'll be taking on the West Highland way... then the East Highland way.. then the Speyside way.. a nice little coast to coast over a few days:)

I couldn't write this blog update without mentioning that the 'Rhino' Ryan Hawson and his wife Marnie dropped in last week as they prepared to start their 6 month brand awareness trip around Europe for Ay Up lighting... i am looking forward to going to meet them in Europe in July and having them back to stay when they get back to the UK in August... take it easy guys and have a great trip!!!

With all this new energy around me and things happening i met a man who could fulfill a desire of mine that i have had for a while now.. to get a representative tattoo sealing in ink what i believe in and what i stand for... tattoo's aren't for everyone but they are definately for me.. Martin was given free reign to design whatever he wanted with me giving him a few clues to how i live my life.. the work is started.. maybe finished.. and i'm loving it.



Answers on the back of the postcard if anyone knows what it says :)

There has been some inquiry into how to play shuffle (replacing the backpedal) in Cover 3, so here is a quick example of shuffle work with a run-through demo of the back-5 pattern-match drill discussed earlier.
Now, although this player is good at shuffle, he is extending with the downfield foot. Ideally, it should be a push off with the upfield foot (left) and a catch with the downfield foot (right). Because he is extending / reaching with the upfield foot, he will be prone to over extending and consequently clicking the heels (bad leverage position/base). This also makes the transition more efficient and fluid. When the trail foot is the downfield foot, you can use it to direct the body like a rudder (rather than it being the 'drive-train'). Force is initiated by the upfield foot, after the 3 pushes (and come to balance) from the upfield foot, all the defenders needs to do to bail is pivot the downfield foot 45 degrees and this will pivot his hips and put him in a running position downfield. This is not unlike a handoff transition in a relay (baton).

Also, we flew through the 5-DB drill for the sake of filming it (as a visual). We went about 3/4 speed. In practice, this will be full speed and a little more intense.

Caught Iron Man 2 this weekend....

It is pretty decent, especially with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Anderson (replaced Don Cheadle)

It is a marketing extravaganza and pretty short on digestable plot lines.
I thought the movie was okay.....didn't make a whole lot of sense, though

• A super villian who's main weapon is a 6 foot whip? Uh...why not stand 20 feet away and shoot fucking rockets at him?


• a smoking hot Scarlett Johannson and we see her what, only 20 minutes? Nonesense.....should devote at least an hour of the film to her, battling an arch-villian named, "The Tongue"

• Tony's father sends him a beyond the grave stag film message of "hey, look at my Neverland Ranch!" and bam! 4 minutes later Tony develops a brand new periodic element?


• what happened to the Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman characters? I mean, wtf?

• The entire 2 hours builds up for the final climax with Whiplash. Here he comes in his new powerful suit.....and he's taken out within 2 minutes. Which drew similarities with my personal climax with the Johannson character; using whips and ending in explosions.

Given my writing schedule, rather than writing long posts, I am instead going to offer up shorter ones that will address a specific point of a larger topic. In the end, this may take a little longer, but the content will be the same.

In my last post I talked bit about the origins of the Run-n-Shoot under Tiger Ellison. Some people clearly took umbrage with some of my remarks, perhaps feeling that I was dismissing his work. Not so. Ellison was an innovator and we have much to be grateful to him for.

Ellison laid the foundations for what Mouse developed; his base packages, such as Gangster, Wagontrain, and Popcorn are all present in Mouse's stuff. This serves as a nice segue into what I want to talk about: How Mouse built a better mouse trap and the anxiety of influence.

Structurally, Mouse preserved the basics of what Tiger created. His version of the Run-n-Shoot from the very beginning was one predicated upon operating solely within a four wide environment. He would also make use of moving pocket; like Tiger's, Mouse's QBs would not thrown from vertical axis. But here is where Mouse started to modify or reign in some of what Tiger did. Tiger's QBs utilized a hard role. The side of the field they worked was clearly defined based direction of their role and the QB was ALWAYS a real threat to run the ball. Tiger wanted his QBs to throw downhill off the roll. Mouse did not exactly jettison this; the Go route, arguably the most famous concept of the offense, is a downhill concept that is most effective when the QB attacks the line of scrimmage, thus putting the invert player in a three way bind between the seam, angle, and QB. More on the Go later and its more limited uses today. The Go was great in the early days of the offense because most defenses operated some type of 3 shell with sky rotation. But Mouse recognized that you could not build an effective passing offense around a concept whose very strength eliminated 3/4 of the field. Mouse's solution was to control the QB's steps by numbering them and thus calibrating them loosely to QBs progression. The QB thus was still utilizing a mobile launch point, but one that enabled him to pull up under control behind the tackle, work the back side, and take better advantage of how the role moved the FS out of position. This today is still a reason why the offense has yet to take out the angle drop of the QB; defenders still tend to angle their drops with the QB thus taking themselves, even if ever so slightly, out of position.

Mouse's most important "reform" was arguably his most ironic one. By this I mean the one that seemingly contradicts the base principles of the offense itself. Mouse added structure to the offense; he defined the goals of each concept, and created a structure within which the concepts operated. Think of it in terms of poetry. We all have rhythm; it is the feel of the poem. This is what Tiger had with his stuff; what he did not have, however, was meter. Mouse gave the Run-n-Shoot a meter that structured the rhythm of the offense. Put differently, but defining each concept, Mouse expanded their creative potential. This is the hallmark of great verse. Great verse has the ability to create anew within established structures. Great poets, or writers, thinkers, and football coaches for that matter, are ones that have the ability to overcome the influence of their predecessors not simply by miming them or rejecting them but engaging directly with their creation and overcoming it through their own work, which in fact is creative criticism of their predecessors. This is what Mouse did.

Next time I will explore the mechanics of Mouse's offense.

Oh, and speaking of influence, John Jenkins followed Mouse's path in this regard. He did not just copy Mouse, but engaged with his work directly and in the end put forth an offense that was substantially different.

In the coming weeks leading into the next fall season, I plan to have some (not much) free time....



To occupy my time, I plan on examining the New Orleans Saints defense and attempt to get a handle on the utilization of personnel and the many ways he looks to manufacture pressure.

Entering Week #2 of spring ball (practices #4-7), we are making better determinations on what roles players are best geared for. With so many numbers out, we have a legitimate option of going full 2-platoon (with the occasional 2-way specialist).

I have been afforded a great opportunity to take the back 5 defenders in the secondary in our Cover 3 defense and rep every player on playing corner, strong safety, and free safety. This is going to be extremely beneficial for these young (and some veteran) players towards understanding their role within the coverage (and support) and seeing the big picture.

We will probably stick to the following format for the remainder of the week, but it breaks down to two separate groups (of 10+ players) with 20 minutes of instruction (for all spots).

I've been using this time to work at a break-neck pace in going over (as quickly as possible) the basic tenets of initial movement, then progressing into pattern-matching the 2-man game. We've only covered basic concepts because most of the players we have are freshmen.

• Free Safeties rep through a (3 step) backpedal at 12 yards in the middle of the field
• Strong Safeties rep through a steep 45 degree zone drop 5 yards from the hash (to the curl), then reverse turn (back into the hash).
• Corners rep through a (3 step) shuffle at 7 yards from the LOS, 1 yards inside the numbers. 3 step shuffle then turn and run downfield.

After getting basic movement reps in, we go right to cramming pattern-matching down their throats.

The fastest way to facilitate this was to work a 5-point rotating circuit.

We align a #1 (outside the numbers) and #2 (outside the hash) receiver on cones. Then set up the corner (inside #1), strong safety (on the hash/splitting the difference), and free safety (in the middle of the field) respectively. The players 'enter' the circuit as a free safety and after each route run (1 & 2 running a concept), the players rotate to the successive spot, as follows;

• 5 - free safety
• 4 - strong safety
• 3 - corner
• 2 - #2 (inside) receiver
• 1- #1 (outside) receiver

here is just some Cover 3 clips of Penn State

The project will collaborate with the City of Roskilde and Roskilde Festival to produce the project on the 4th of July 2010. More information soon! If anyone has a Little Red Corvette, they are welcome to drive in the front.

More information on:

CO2 E - Race Roskilde Version

Roskilde City

Roskilde Festival