One simple way to make practice more fun for your players
Taking over a struggling program is a difficult job for any coach, but keeping things fun for the players could be the key ingredient.
Shawn Liotta, head coach at Albert Gallatin (Uniontown, Penn.), believes that creating a fun and exciting atmosphere will boost numbers and change culture.
He joined USA Football’s Coach and Coordinator podcast, hosted by Keith Grabowski, to talk about how he instituted a high-tempo practice that got players excited.
“The biggest problem that any coach has in taking over a program that has been down for a long time is getting the numbers up,” Liotta said. “You got to create excitement, and find a way to harness that excitement and turn it into tangible wins.”
One of Liotta’s first moves was to eliminate a ubiquitous—but dreaded—aspect of the practice for players: sprints.
Instead, Liotta masks his team’s conditioning by simply maintaining a blistering pace at practice.
“If you come watch us practice, our guys are flying around for an hour and a half, an hour and 45 minutes,” Liotta said. “Our guys are moving. Everything is up tempo, and everything is rapid fire.”
This tempo allows for Albert Gallatin to have more exciting practices, while eliminating elements of the practice that most players don’t enjoy. Instead of stretching and running sprints, they start with functional movements and use the intense rhythm of the practice to condition the players.
Liotta has gotten laughs from other coaches but he firmly believes that this approach makes practice the most fun for his players.
“I think back to when I played and ask myself what was the worst thing about any sport, and it was typically the conditioning at the end of practice,” he said. “In our system we are able to fool our kids into thinking they aren’t running, when they are getting just as much in, if not more.”