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Coach Thurman's Corner The EndZone |
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| 2/7/04- Been waaay too long since I updated this place. I'm pretty much 100% guilty of neglecting my website for the past month. Call it a vacation...even though it really wasn't. It just gets too damn busy sometimes ya' know? While I haven't been real active here at The Endzone, I have been buried in other football stuff. I just finished up my next film, DW Basics 3... Hope to have that available on the Video & Playbook page soon. It covers my basic passing game and is pretty well done if I do say so myself. I was invited to speak at the Double Wing Symposium in Dallas, TX the weekend of the 20th. I'll be covering the ways I coach the Full Back position... should be fun.... Also looking forward to the opportunity to meet some of you guys face to face and throw down a few frosty cold beverages. Maybe there will even be time to talk some football :) The presentation I'm preparing is a beast. Already over 50 power point slides and counting...Needless to say, when you figure in the film I'm putting together to go with it, the project has grown a life of it's own. With luck I'll have it completed with plenty of time to spare before Dallas...Although it's a 50-50 gamble on whether I'll be able to get through the whole thing in my allotted time. No worries though, I'll be posting it here after the symposium so you guys can download it and review it at your leisure. I want to take a minute and thank Ted Seay for his excellent contributions to this website and to youth football in general. He's a pretty cool guy and a prolific football writer to boot. Look for another submission from him here. The same thanks goes out to all you guys who have contributed to the content of this web page. I appreciate your efforts. See you in Dallas. - Coach Thurman
Let's do that again... 2/23/04- Without a doubt the DW Symposium in Dallas this weekend was the best clinic I've ever attended. The amount of DW coaching experience present was just not to be believed. With guest speakers like Chuck Klausing, Don Markham, Malcolm Robinson, and Ted Seay, there's just no way a coach could come away from that experience without having learned at least a few new things. Speaking for myself, I can honestly say that I've never left a clinic with so much great information before....Information that I know I'm going to have an immediate use for. I've attended clinics with some top name college (and even a few Pro) coaches before, but none of those ever offered me the wealth of information that was directly applicable to what I do on the youth and HS football fields as the '04 DW Symposium did....In fact, I would suggest that if you didn't come away from that experience with a ton of great ideas- you just weren't paying attention. I'd like to offer my sincere thanks to Coach Jack Gregory for his diligent and thorough work in putting the event together, that had to take a ton of effort. Thanks Jack, you da' man. I'd also like to thank all the coaches who took time from their busy schedules to present us with such valuable information....DW Option football...DW Bunch passing schemes...DW SAB blocking schemes....does it get any better than that??? Fellas, if you didn't attend this one, I HIGHLY recommend you attend the next one (yep, that's a hint Jack) :) It was an honor to be included on a schedule of presenters with the likes of the coaches I mentioned above. I felt like a dwarf among giants at times. :) I hope some of you guys took as much from my presentation as I did from yours. Speaking of presentations, I've posted my 'Building a Better Full Back' presentation here. Sorry, but the video that accompanies it is just too big to post to a web site. Perhaps if you want to help cover the cost of a blank tape and postage, I can make a copy for you and mail it out??? In the coming days I hope to get more of the other presenters Power Point presentations put up in my Offensive Articles page. If you didn't have a chance to attend the clinic, this stuff will be a good way to see what sort of things you missed. The only thing left for me to figure out is whether or not to edit out Ted Seay's very descriptive images of just what a Bunch "Is" and "Is Not" before I post his presentation here. ;-) Along those lines, if you have a chance to purchase a copy of the upcoming video that coach Kenny Mead will be producing, I strongly recommend you do so. It will be a priceless addition to your coaching film library. BTW- We all should be very grateful to coach Mead for his filming efforts. I've made a few films myself so I know Kenny has a serious chore ahead of him in editing this film. Thanks Kenny, I can totally appreciate the work you have (and will) put into the project. Finally, I'd like to say that it was a pleasure to finally put some faces to the names I've been talking to for years now. You are all a cool group of guys and getting to know you was perhaps one of the best parts of the entire weekend. - Coach Thurman
2/24/04- Hey! Two days in a row...that's pretty good for me. Normally I'd take a nice 2 week nap between updates but this couldn't wait. I've gotten everybody's presentations up on the Offensive Articles page...Well, I'm still waiting for a few of them, but the ones I do have are there for your review. There's a lot of great info in these presentations, and you're pretty much nuts if you don't take the time to check them all out. :) On a side note, DWB3 will go to the production house in a few weeks. Look for clips to start showing up here soon. - Coach Thurman
Ok...one more time for drill 2/25/04- Ha! Maybe I should get more sleep. Looks like I completely hosed the upload last night. As a result, none of the presentations I said were there...were there. Oops. Sorry guys, it's fixed now. The above link will take you to the goods.
2/26/04- Ok, that should wrap it up. I put up the last two available presentations on the Offensive Articles page. Many thanks to the guys that spent the hours making them. You all did a great job and the quality of the work here speaks for itself. - Coach Thurman
DW Basics 3 completed... 3/22/04- I like it when I can scratch another task off my 'to-do' list... After spending many months in front of the computer, I've finally finished the 3rd film in my DW Basics series. This one covers the essentials of my passing game. It looks at some of my favorite youth passing concepts and gives the complete low-down on how I build an effective passing game.... And if I may say so myself, it's the best one of the 3 titles I've done so far. I'm getting a little better at this each time I undertake a new film making project. I enjoyed making this film more than the last...perhaps that's because I've come to enjoy the passing game <gasp!> more in recent years...or perhaps it's because I know that this film finally finishes off the 10 basic plays in my Tiger DW playbook... and now I can move on to some more interesting topics. :) Speaking of playbooks. Those of you who own the Tiger DW playbooks can expect the first update to come out soon. This one is a small update intended to clean up a few minor errors and tweak a few basic assignments. Look for an email from me in the coming weeks. You can see a sample clip of DW Basics 3 here. It's a big file so DSL is the way to go if you're going to download it.... Next project will be DW Basics 4. Hopefully out in time for the '05 season. That one will cover an entire 2 week preseason and deal with how I go about installing the 10 plays I discuss in the first 3 films. - Coach Thurman
Tiger DW Play Book update completed... 5/3/04- One more job on the To Do list is finally done. I've been messing around with the play book update for several months now. It's not that big of an update either, you'd think I could have had it done at least a few months ago when I said to expect it soon... Hey, two months is soon to me. :) Anyway, I appreciate your patience as I go about these things at a modest pace. Those of you who own the Tiger DW Play Book (sorry, no update for Expansion Supplement yet) will be receiving instructions within the next few days on how to get your updated pages...As always, feel free to drop me a line if you have any ???'s. - Coach Thurman
You probably won't believe this... 5/5/04- I've applied to coach in new youth league this year. The local school districts changed their boundaries a few years ago... So that means the league I coach in changed also. Anyway, I figured I better secure myself an assistant coach or two before I started in a league where I don't know many of the existing coaches or parents. Two of my all time favorite people to coach with are 'Big Bob' Merwin and Jason Travnicek. These are smart men who's advice and opinions regarding football I value very much. Both of these guys are good people that I would coach with anywhere or any time. In fact, these are the kind of guys that I'd gladly share a pizza and brew with, or go to a local high school game with... Friends as well as coaches I guess. Unfortunately, Big Bob might not be coaching football this season. The jury is still out on that one...And Jason has a brand new baby girl to worry about. So he won't be able to offer a lot of time for coaching this summer....(C'mon guys, there's still time to commit) :) ...So in my quest to get a little insurance on my assistant coaching staff, I called my older brother Todd. You see, I'm not the only coach in my family. Both Todd and my older sister Lynn have coached for a long time also. Todd has been involved in youth basketball, youth baseball, youth softball...everything except football. He played for few years as a boy, but that's about it. No worries though, Todd is the kind of guy that could learn what I would need him to teach pretty easily. He'd be dependable and make good decisions. He's always gotten along well with kids too...So I called him up and asked him if he wanted to coach... "sure" he says, "but..." ('uh-oh' I'm thinking as he says this) "I need you to help me too."... Turns out that Todd has gotten himself another team and could use a hand coaching it. Sounds fair to me initially. "Ok, what do you need me to do?" I ask... Imagine my surprise when he tells me what kind of team it is..."Girl's Softball"...Holy Smokes! I swallowed hard when he said that. It's not that I have something against softball because I don't, it's a fun game. And it's not that I have anything against girls. I married one after all... It's just that I never pictured myself coaching in a setting that included girls and softball at the same time. :-) After some careful thought I decided to give it a shot...(Yep, I'm coaching girls softball now)...I mean, what the heck? Todd's a good guy and softball is fun, and coaching girls might give me a chance to polish up my communication skills in ways I might not ever get by coaching boys only...I still had some serious trepidations though, and I really had no idea what to expect. I wouldn't say I was scared entering that first practice...but tentative would be a good description. You know what? It's not bad... Kinda fun actually. The coaching part is not too far removed from what I do on the gridiron. Yes, I suppose I do need to be a bit more PC when dealing with girls, but I can cope with that. And I can easily spot the athletes among our team members (of which we have several good ones)... we even have a few girls who can throw a softball REALLY FAST.... Kinda different to watch a 12 year old girl put that kind of heat on a pitch. :-) Well, wish me luck fellas. Season runs through mid July and with some practice and a little good fortune, we'll win a bunch of games. -Coach Thurman
Calm before the storm... 5/29/04- You know, it's usually these spring months that find me the most restless. I can sense the approach of the football season... but I know that it's still too far away to do anything meaningful about it. It's not uncommon to find me spending more and more time reviewing old game film or hanging out at the Delphi DW forum right about this time of the year. Of course I'm hoping to find the next great twist to include in my play book, or the next great drill for teaching some skill or another, but mostly I'm just killing time and looking forward to the start of the upcoming season. It's odd, this is first year I'm not 100% sure of where I'll be coaching. My youngest son is going to play this year and I've asked to coach his team but the decision seems slow in coming...Youth leagues have their own politics and bureaucracies to overcome I suppose but dang...the waiting is a killer. I could also go coach with Jason Travnicek or Tracy Jackson again I suppose. Jason could very well be coaching at Amity this year and Tracy is still out at Madison with Hugh Wyatt. Either place would be a good situation for me...but we'll just have to wait and see I guess. No matter where I end up going...one thing is sure. It's strangely quiet right now in these months leading up to the start of the season. I feel like I should be busier than I really am, so the calm is somewhat deafening to me. Coaching softball has made the time go by a bit more easily for sure... And the recent release of the Dallas DW Symposium DVDs by Kenny Mead has given me ample material to study as I contemplate the content of my playbook for the upcoming season. I guess I'll be ok for now... I'll attend Hugh Wyatt's clinic next weekend in Portland...spend a few hours watching the DVDs and taking notes...Update my web site a few times... and maybe tear into my playbook for a final review before calling it 'final' for the 04 season. All that's left is to garner a team and get to work. -Coach Thurman
More Content... 5/29/04- I just completed another update to the EndZone. This one includes offensive and defensive playbooks...While I was working on it, it struck me that while I've tried hard to include as much helpful content as I could, I've failed to share some of the best stuff... that would be the questions I've gotten from coaches around the country. Hmmm...Time to rectify that I think. I've gotten a ton of them over the past few years...Below are just a few of the excellent questions I've received recently:
From coach Jeff Arlotti who had some questions regarding player choice and SAB blocking: "Hi Kevin "Second would be player placement. You have obviously
been running this for many years and know what type of player you should
have in each position. What are your recommendations in what I should
look for in each position? Jeff Arlotti
And my reply to Jeff: (warning I got veeerry long winded with this one) :)
Jeff, "In terms of players, I usually look for these general
characteristics. Please keep in mind though that you rarely get a group
of kids like this and will always end up finding the best 'compromises'
you can for any given position..." Center- Tough as
nails kid who is no less than your 3rd best lineman. Size is a great thing
here, but I'll take grit and ability over it. Regards, Kevin Thurman
From coach Lee Griesemer who had some great questions regarding terminology: "Since adjusting the Super Power the way you have,
did you consider call it "66" instead? I like this adjustment,
but was wondering if I should move the play call in to the TE because
of his Gap-Down rule. I was thinking that perhaps for us we should limit
the number of plays with the same number (the Lead sweep and Super Power
in this case). I have had kids in the past get confused over this, same
number but with a different blocking call." "Do you ever run "Power" vs "Super
Power"? I can see where keeping that terminology allows for that
option, but I was
And my reply to Coach Griesemer: Coach, "I rarely run a plain "Power"...pretty
much always the "Super" variety. Markham thinks the QB's block
is usually what makes the play go. I tend to agree..." "In terms of what you name the play...I'm right with
you here. I get a little tired of repeating "Super Power" sometimes
too. I've considered shortening up my call to "Toss" also. That
year I coached the Markham style team we just called it "Pitch"
and I got to liking the short and sweet terminology." "In a nutshell, these are both things I've actively considered myself. In fact, there's a good chance I'll make the changes myself this year. They'll just be a couple more 'tweaks' to add for this season I guess. Damn...this means I'm going to have to do another update to my playbook. Well, that will have to wait until after the season." :) Regards, Kevin Thurman
It Can't hurt to ask... 5/29/04- Coaches- Feel free to drop me a line anytime if you have questions about the DW. I love to talk football, and though I may take a while to get back to you, I surely will eventually... And even if I don't have the answer, I can usually find someone who does. Coach Thurman
Funny thing happened to me on the way to the ball park... 7/8/04- As the time for football draws nearer and my thoughts start to circle around the upcoming season, the time I have to spend coaching the softball team is getting shorter and shorter. Football is going to be one helluva whirlwind for me this year...but more on that later. I never figured I'd say this, but I'm kinda bummed that my season is coming to an end with the softball team. They will continue to play in competitive tournaments for the next month or so, and then they're season will end also. But it's just about over for me now. Preseason football work has begun for me. And since football will always be my first love in athletics, I want to devote my time there. The only thing that I don't like about this is that I can't coach this particular team of young ladies anymore. I gotta' be honest, they've kind of grown on me. It wasn't like I had originally pictured it would be at all....ok, ok, so there were a few things that took me by surprise. Things I'm pretty sure I'd never see on a football field...like those "squealing" noises they sometimes make when they screw up <what the???>, or the way they make batting helmets with big holes in the back to allow for a pony tail <what the???>. Anyway, the reality of this whole thing is that I wasn't coaching girls at all...not in a theoretical sense anyway. What I was really doing was coaching athletes. And a damn fine set of them too. These were a great group of players and I congratulate my brother Todd for what he's accomplished with coaching them over the past few seasons. These young ladies can play softball. ...So at the end of practice last Thursday, (the only one I was able to attend that week) Todd gathers the team up like he always does and we talked about softball stuff...But at the end of the discussion the team did the coolest thing for me. They pulled out a box and one at a time they gave me each of these items... A plaque with a 'Thank You' and each girl's name engraved on the surface (how cool I thought)...The trophy from their first tournament (I felt kinda guilty taking this...I didn't earn it, they did)...A ball signed by the entire team (I value these kind of things most)...A box of "Special K" cereal bars (they liked to use nicknames and I was dubbed "Special K")...and finally, they gave me a can "Whoop Ass" (This was so cool... In team 'huddles' I had a tendency to always tell them to go open up a can of Whoop Ass. They actually managed to find a real-life canned beverage called "Whoop Ass"...hilarious!) Anyway, somewhere along the line either this game, or this particular set of young ladies...ahem, athletes...turned me into a softball coach... Go figure... So Meagan, Sara, Cassy, Melea, Val, Jordan, Shelby, Desiree, Kirsti, Lonnie, Lauren, Heather, Brandi, Nikki, Rox, Emily, Tabatha, Courtney, and you too Todd...thanks for a very cool experience. It was fun. Much funner than I ever expected. I hope we can do this again next year.
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