Over the years I have seen my share of practices both good and bad. It is always a wonder that both adults and teenagers can to spend so much time in a practice and nothing is really helped. Other times, with focus and effort, a small team can defeat even seasoned veterans due to the effectiveness of the practices. Even an individual's performance can differ from practice to practice. This article's propose is to point out some effective ways to enhance practice. First, make sure that you have a plan of action for your practices. Second, as an individual make sure that you are getting the help that you need.



Football Practice: Having a Plan

The old adage ?practice makes perfect? is a good rule of thumb, but what are we trying to make perfect? During a football practice there are many things that a coach or individual can be working on: Fundamentals like running, catching, tackling, etc. However, putting the right time into the right skill is the difficult part. Most coaches like a well rounded approach applying the same amount of time to each skill and that works. However if you have a plan of action you will be able to put the right amount of time to make your weaknesses strong and your strengths even stronger.

First of all you will need to know your team, or yourself. What are your strengths, weakness, and opportunities this season? How did you perform last season and what are the major flaws in your strategy? Perhaps this is a good time to reflect whether you have the right strategy, or if you are playing the right position.

Once you have located some strengths and weaknesses form a practice plan that will ensure that the most time will be spent in the most effective measure. Let me compare this to the business world to illustrate my point. Let's pretend that you are selling several different products with varying prices and costs. Product 1 you will make the most money but it also takes the most time to produce a sale. Product 2 will give you an average sale, and is always available. Product 3 you hardly make a dime, but it attracts people into your store that hopefully will by more items. Now lets pretend that you have some extra funding, which item do you promote? The answer lays in the bottom line, whichever will give you the most profit. In the prior example product 3 would be a bad choice because it does not bring any return on your investment

Let's bring this back to the practice field. Which weakness or strength if improved by 100% would bring the most wins? Focus on that principle or technique the most during practices.

Football Practice: Getting what you need out of practice

Remember that a practice consists of two entities: the team as a whole, and the individuals that compose those teams. The coach needs to concern himself with the team and how they are progressing. He needs to focus on techniques and strategies that will improve the weakness and sure up the strengths as a whole. As the team improves moral in the individuals improve

As an Individual, one needs to realize personal weaknesses and strengths. If you are having trouble with a particular play, continue to work through that play even after practice is over. Ask fellow team mates to assist you with techniques, or even ask a coach to work with you on a one on one basis when they have time. As you improve the team improves

Conclusion

Practice does not just happen, and just because you are doing it does not mean that it is effective. Remember, ?He who fails to plan, plans to fail.? Come up with a plan for improving the most needed techniques first, giving you the best results for the time that you have to practice. As an individual you need to recognize your personal weaknesses and give them proper attention. When a team and individuals acknowledge weaknesses and work on them, they insure that there is progress and progress leads to victories.