Most coaches teach assignments, techniques, and adjustments as separate pieces of information that players need to memorize and process. This traditional approach can leads to hesitation on the field or just make it more difficult for many players to retain the information they need to perform.
However, Andrew Coverdale is fond of a slightly different teaching method, what he calls the Goal/Obstacle or Goal/Constraint approach.
Today, we’re going to take a closer look at this approach and why it works so well.
This is taken directly from: Developing Football IQ in Your Players: The Complete Series.
The Goal/Obstacle Approach – Alley Screen Example
The coaching staff implementing this system loves the Goal/Obstacle approach because it naturally limits what players have to process mentally. Instead of juggling multiple disconnected concepts, players understand one fluid chain of logic that connects everything together. This works because the brain naturally processes information better when it’s presented as a coherent story rather than isolated facts.
Let’s look at how this works with an alley screen. The system starts by presenting the overall goal – in this case, creating the AFC alley. Then, it identifies specific roadblocks that could prevent success: retracing linemen, bad spacing and timing, and problem alley players.
When teaching the first blocker’s responsibility, instead of just giving an assignment, they explain how their job connects directly to the goal: “kick out the lower outside edge to create the alley.” This makes intuitive sense to players because they understand why they’re doing what they’re doing.
The beauty of this approach is that it creates a natural progression where everything flows together. The goal informs the job, which informs the technique, which informs the adjustments. Players aren’t trying to remember separate pieces of information – they’re following a logical chain that makes sense to them.
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