AFQ X's and O's

Free football coaching strategies, play diagrams, X’s and O’s for coaches at all levels

Special Teams


Special Teams

Special Teams Pyramid of Excellence

2012 SPECIAL TEAMS PYRAMID OF EXCELLENCE stolen from John Wooden, etc.. and used to frame our teaching progression on Special Teams.

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Special Teams

Team Building With Special Teams

When the calendar flips to August, coaches usually start tossing and turning at night.  Sometimes we lie awake as different schemes and drills occupy our minds, trying to dream up practices that will maximize our time on the field.  Only…

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Special Teams

Passion and a Patch of Grass

Bill Russell Inside Linebackers Coach and Special Teams Coordinator Norwich University I have been fortunate and blessed to be involved in college football for the last twelve years of my life. Four of those years spent as a player, and…

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Special Teams

Making the Chip Shot (Part IV) –The Kicker

Mike Sweatman, Retired NFL Special Teams Coach Everything that I know about kicking a football has been taught to me by the professional kickers that I have been fortunate enough to have been around and coach. I am the first…

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Special Teams

Making the Chip Shot (Part III, the Holder)

We often are tasked with coaching a position or skill that we’ve never had to play or perform. “Holding” for a field goal or extra point is a skill that was completely foreign to me, yet as a new special…

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Special Teams

Making the Chip Shot (Part II – The Snapper)

(Part II, The Snapper) Perhaps the most important element in the snap – hold – kick process is the snapper. The play starts with the snap and if the snap is “off”, the play has a reduced chance of success….

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Special Teams

Character Matters Timeout: PATIENCE

PATIENCE Coach One of the greatest qualities we can have as a coach is Patience. Patience is not the same as indifference, it conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults and rise…

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Special Teams

A Coach You’ve Probably Never Heard of: Patrick Ross

Patrick Ross was hired as the head coach at Lindenwood University in the spring of 2004. In the three previous seasons the NAIA college in St. Charles, MO had won a total of seven games. There was really only one…