-- PRACTICES --  after 4-days of drills and getting the kids thinking about how to hold the ball, how to tackle with your head up, good form and being aggressive ... we're into the hitting.

It's usually full-on throw them into the water and get them swimming type of practice now, then we tune, and fine tune technique with each of them. It takes time to get to used to hitting (for you new folks) ... it's not normal to run head-long into another person while they are running full-speed into you, give it time to click.

What you'll start to see at practice in the next few days and that will work it's way through the rest of the season is:

(1) specialists should get exceptional at their role

(2) kids still learning will get exposure to both sides of the ball

(3) 4-coaches with one team, get 100% focus

(4) when a coach is not in, with his rotating group, he can talk to them

(5) coaches view a variety of players

(6) kids get a lot of variety going against a variety of other kids

(7) every kid is involved in the same drill at practice for the last hour

Some of this will be similar from last year, and some of it will have to be altered to compensate vs our 36-man roster from last year. We'll see how it works. 

One of the things that I've seen on the evaluations from the coaches is "consistency" ... I know it's hard for an 8- and 9-year old with so many things going on, but the more consistent they are day-to-day, and play-to-play the easier it is for us to work with them, and set expectations.

One of the hardest things for a coach right now is to see a "flash of brilliance" for 10-minutes, and then "nothing" for 10-minutes. Even from drill to drill ... I'll hear, "so-and-so is really on today" ... and then after the next drill I'll hear that the same kid is "really off today".

I know it's hot and tough, and new to many, but consistency is very important for coaches to see what / where a kid can best fit in.

Coaches are generally on the field, setting up drills at 5:30p and can help and work with your player on specifics at that time. That's the time to fix the stance, get accustomed to perfect form tackling, or learn how to run pass routes. If you show up at 5:30p there will be something for you to do.