CCBoy
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Cowboys Training Camp Practice Number Four, Full Report: Phase One Install? Check!
By rabblerousr
Sunday's practice opened with the defense filtering onto the field to get in some extra work on run fits while in the nickle defense. The guys playing offensive skill position players would don color-coded balaclavas, so the defensive guys would know who was playing which position (this affects their keys). They "offensive" players would look at a card held up by an assistant and then run (er, walk) the given play, with orange hats signifying receiver, red for tight ends and green for running backs. The number and arrangement of colors changed every play; on one occasion, three red caps on one side meant that the offense was in trips right. On another, we saw two tightly-aligned red hats, meaning that the offense was deployed in a strong left formation.
When the practice officially began, Rich Bisaccia and his assistants putting the team through their kickoff coverage and return paces. As I mentioned in my summary, it was interesting to see the way they have (quickly) installed the rudiments of this particular part of the game. On Friday, you may recall, the coaches divided the team up into two groups - the front line and the back men - and drilled them separately. Then they divvied them in halves, working the left side and then the right, stopping to working on a single aspect of the complex operation (the way the front unit faded back and set up for their blocks, for example).
They revisited this material on Saturday morning's walk-through practice, which was a special teams-only affair, and then revisited the same material once again on Saturday afternoon. So, in three days, they have had four opportunities to teach and refine the kick coverage. Thus it should be no surprise that on Sunday, the coaches didn't need to stop the operation to build in teaching moments; instead, they were able to run a series of full kick returns, waiting to offer specific feedback until after it was over (and, surely, during Sunday night's film review of practice). The added benefit is that each team got n several reps. For three years running, it has been a real pleasure watching Bisaccia operate; he has the ability to diagnose problems from amidst chaos (I certainly cannot take in or understand what takes place during a given kick return until I watch it several times, from multiple angles), and make quick corrections.
In my practice summary, I suggested that we consider the first four camp practices a discrete unit, the first of camp, culminating in Sunday afternoon's session. Over the four day's work, we have witnessed something akin to an "install" phase in which the players have ingested the rudiments of all the various special teams phases, big swaths of the nickle and dime defenses (especially a laundry list of interior blitzes) and, in response to those, the pages from the one-back playbook that focus on blitz pickup and blitz beaters....
By rabblerousr
Sunday's practice opened with the defense filtering onto the field to get in some extra work on run fits while in the nickle defense. The guys playing offensive skill position players would don color-coded balaclavas, so the defensive guys would know who was playing which position (this affects their keys). They "offensive" players would look at a card held up by an assistant and then run (er, walk) the given play, with orange hats signifying receiver, red for tight ends and green for running backs. The number and arrangement of colors changed every play; on one occasion, three red caps on one side meant that the offense was in trips right. On another, we saw two tightly-aligned red hats, meaning that the offense was deployed in a strong left formation.
When the practice officially began, Rich Bisaccia and his assistants putting the team through their kickoff coverage and return paces. As I mentioned in my summary, it was interesting to see the way they have (quickly) installed the rudiments of this particular part of the game. On Friday, you may recall, the coaches divided the team up into two groups - the front line and the back men - and drilled them separately. Then they divvied them in halves, working the left side and then the right, stopping to working on a single aspect of the complex operation (the way the front unit faded back and set up for their blocks, for example).
They revisited this material on Saturday morning's walk-through practice, which was a special teams-only affair, and then revisited the same material once again on Saturday afternoon. So, in three days, they have had four opportunities to teach and refine the kick coverage. Thus it should be no surprise that on Sunday, the coaches didn't need to stop the operation to build in teaching moments; instead, they were able to run a series of full kick returns, waiting to offer specific feedback until after it was over (and, surely, during Sunday night's film review of practice). The added benefit is that each team got n several reps. For three years running, it has been a real pleasure watching Bisaccia operate; he has the ability to diagnose problems from amidst chaos (I certainly cannot take in or understand what takes place during a given kick return until I watch it several times, from multiple angles), and make quick corrections.
In my practice summary, I suggested that we consider the first four camp practices a discrete unit, the first of camp, culminating in Sunday afternoon's session. Over the four day's work, we have witnessed something akin to an "install" phase in which the players have ingested the rudiments of all the various special teams phases, big swaths of the nickle and dime defenses (especially a laundry list of interior blitzes) and, in response to those, the pages from the one-back playbook that focus on blitz pickup and blitz beaters....
