Player Evaluation

One topic I have been thinking about for a long time is the topic of player evaluation. In my opinion, this is one of the most important topics that a coach must do. It is more important than research for new ideas and crucial for a coach if he wants to measure his ability to communicate, educate and motivate his team.

Definition of Player Evaluation:
For me, player evaluation is two phases. First is to measure the player to find out at what level of athlete he is. This is done more often than any other evaluation. This is measuring his size, speed, strength, speed and explosive abilities. We do this in the Bench Press, Squat, Power Clean, L-cone, Broad Jump, Vertical Jump, Pro-Agility, 40 and/or 20 yard dash among many other tests. This gives us an idea of where each player is as simply an athlete. When we accumulate this information, it will help us determine whether or not a player has the desired physical abilities he needs to play football. This information can be compared by position and by "standards" that have shown up in other research. Here in Sweden, we have all this information filled in on a portal the player reports to and are able to rate a football player's results. Each player can be compared to the team standard for international competition or the world standard. The portal allows a National Team coach to go in and review the results of a player over a period of time and also to compare those results to other international averages. It is a great way to identify athletic ability. It is also clear as to where an individual is in regards to his physical abilities. I mean a 5.0 forty-yard dash is exactly that. If a player can rep 100kg (225lbs) 15 times then that is what he can do. Club teams can use the same evaluation process and put together a battery of tests to measure the athletic ability of their players in Speed, Strength and Explosiveness. Compare to the other players on the team or the same standards at the national team. One super important key is to then monitor these results to see a steady rise, a platue or a dip in results, then  manage that situation correctly.

The second phase of the evaluation is all football. Now, I will interject this here. I learned this grading system from Tony DeMeo when I worked for him as his OL coach at Washburn University. So I give all credit to this idea to Coach D. Of all the different football grading systems I have used or seen, this was the one that I truly believe is one of the best I have every used. You can read more about Coach Demeo at his website and also more about the "Gun Option" along with thoughts on leadership and coaching http://tonydemeo.com/ That is simply giving credit where credit is due...
What we did basically is Coach wanted us to define "Effort." When you think about each position on the field, we wanted to give the players examples of things they could do that would show extra effort. It is so much better for a player to understand what the definition of effort was than to just hear a coach say "come on, you just gotta give me more effort" or "Try harder." By having a definition of what extra effort was, the player would have a clear picture of what it was we were looking for. Now, when a player was in on a play he would be graded simply with a + or a - based on whether or not he did his job on that play. We will say that on the play we are talking about, the player executed his assignment correctly and used good technique. So he did his job. He would get a "+" on that play. Now in order to get a "E" or effort point on the play, he had to do one of the things that were defined as extra effort on that play. Here is a sample of what an offensive lineman could do on a play, that if he earned a +, he could have the opportunity to earn an extra effort point:

• Pancake: Blocking a defender and planting that defender directly on his back.
• Heel Shot: A second level of the defense block where he cut blocked a defender and the defender went down to the ground, usually head first with his heels flying high into the air.
• Road Kill: What we called Lineman's block on a DB where he runs over him like a Mack Truck hits a deer.
• Wired: A pass block where we pass set and stick the guy right on the line of scrimmage and he gets no rush at all.
• Knock Down: I used this one for anytime an offensive lineman knocked a defensive lineman to the ground on a pass play.
• 2 Blocks on a play: Any time an OL blocked more than one defender on a play.
• Blitz Pick-up: Picking up a blitz by the defense.

There were few other things, but this will serve as a good example of what we defined as "Extra Effort". If we look at the examples you can see that if a lineman is doing these things, they require more than just blocking your assignment. We were looking for guys that "can play the game with passion" or guys that "had a fast motor." I will interject this...my own opinion based on my work on many different levels of National Teams here in Sweden along with 11 years worth of club coaching, is we need this type of performance evaluation in our clubs and national teams. Here in Sweden we have this "krav" (standard) we want players to be at physically in order to play at the National Team level. Niclas Carlsson is the mastermind behind this and I do mean mastermind in a good sense!! He has information based on the physical testing where we can  evaluate if a player SHOULD be able to physically compete on an international level. Those physical tests are compared with other national teams that take the same tests and the World Team. The first thing we as coaches usually say, is "old Sven is a hell of a player but he doesn't meet the standard so we can't look at him." This is where we need to be open and have a system where we can evaluate old Sven as a football player. Then if we see that he his an "effort" player, then maybe we can work with him on the physical part, which in turn will make him a better athlete and raise his level of play even further. At the same time, this gives us a chance to evaluate Björn, Sven's brother, who is one of the best "testers" but can't seem to block a pee-wee player. If we evaluate Björn we can work with him to develop his football playing technique and then he will become better at playing football, because he already has all the other tools...So back to the "Extra Efforts" you can see that a player who grades out at 95% with 3 EE's in 10 plays is a solid performer. He is doing his job good and he his giving extra effort about 30% of the time.  Now, if the other guy is grading out at 80% and getting 6 EE's in 10 plays, I would tell you to evaluate that boys mistakes and get him to do his job correctly at a higher percentage, but get him on the field. He is giving you a 60% Extra Effort quotient...he is out there knocking people off the ground, picking up blitzes, getting two blocks on a play...he is performing the game at a level that is great.

Now let's take a step back and evaluate the minus. If a player made a mistake on a play, meaning he did not do his job. Then we would not just write - on his grade sheet. We would identify the minus. Coach DeMeo had a system we used where the minuses were broken down into 4 areas:

• "A" was assignment. The player simply did the wrong thing on the given play.
• "C" was concentration which was technique. The player was not able to do his job on the play because he did not use the proper technique. Coach used to say that in order to use the right technique you had to "focus on the task at hand."
• "E" was a lack of effort. The player did not get his job done because he loafed. He didn't give effort. If this accord, it would most likely occur on the backside of a play. Isn't the backside of the play important to cut off the defensive pursuit? I will add here that the first two mistakes, are easily corrected by coaching. This mistake was simply not tolerated. This player needs to be set down an talked to as to what the problem is.
• "S" was a synergy mistake. In other words the player did not do anything to help the team on that play. Most usually was a penalty on a play.

So we would take all the minuses and see where the mistakes were being made. This is an extremely useful tool for a coach, because it is your report card on how you are coaching. Here is an easy example. You look at a game and you see that the majority of your minus A's (assignments) are happening on a certain play. Well that tells you as a coach that you need to get those guys together and work out what they don't understand in order to run that play. If you see that the majority of minus C's (concentration = technique) is on your pass sets on your 5 step game, then you need to spend some more practice time teaching the players exactly how you want the pass set executed. This allows you to really keep tabs on how to improve your players and get the most out of them and also allows you as a coach to evaluate the job you are doing.

Wrap up and Confession:

I know this has been a long one and I have had this on my mind for a very long time. I am a true believer that we are headed the right direction here in Sweden in most clubs and at the national team level. I also believe that if we are going to have a physical standard, we should also have a football performance standard. A system where live scrimmages, insides runs and 7-on-7 drills are graded at a camp, then you as a coach will really find who is the best player right then and there. I mean if you have a new guy that shows up at a camp and he is grading out higher than an old favorite. He is getting more effort points, then you have to get that player on the field. Now, time for the confession part...I was never able to totally use this grading system when I coached here in Sweden at the club level. It is a little bit time consuming. Back in the day when I was at the WU, I could come in on a Sunday morning after a Saturday night game and sit in my office and grade out every lineman that played in the game on his own individual sheet. It would take from about 8:00am to noon to get done.(Then me and the DL coach would go get a bucket a KFC and start getting ready for the next week). I had planned on using this grading system in preparation for the World Championships in 2007. I went as far as go through with the entire staff how it should work. I was not available to be at that camp because my new born son was in the hospital and the grading didn't get done like I wanted. But I think in a situation nowadays where you have film systems like Hudl and film after a practice is readily available, something like this would be extremely important and effective to develop players to their max and help coaches find the best players for the given game or tournament. At the club level, to be one or two coaches grading all the players, well it's tough, but it is do able. Some clubs do have bigger staffs and I think it would be able to develop those players to reach their potential faster. And don't forget that the players grades are also a report card to you as a coach on how well you are communicating your expectations.

Oh yeah, one more thing:

This system is built on the "Reward the behaviour that you want" philosophy. We would keep a chart of EE's throughout the regular season on a big board so every player could see how many EE's everybody else had. It increased the competition to be the "Effort Leader." We also had a standard set for each positon that if they graded out at or above a certain percentage and at or above a certain number of EE's they were awarded a certificate on Monday's practice following the game. We used unit EE's. Example, anytime the offense had a penalty on a drive, but over came that penalty and got a first down to keep the chains moving, everybody on the field received and extra effort point. It rewarded the behaviour we wanted. I could go on all night here, but this has been the most I have every written since I did my Senior English paper back in 1982. I hope that you find it useful, I hope that it is something that you can use and I hope it gets you thinking about how you can develop players both physically and in the area of football performance.

Good luck to all the Junior teams who have kicked off their season here in Sweden and good luck to the Senior teams that will kick-off soon. Also, to you Junior players that want to and will be apart of the adventure to the European Championship tournament...keep working, keep believing take it one step at a time. To you Senior players who are working to make the team for the World Championships 2015 which will be played here in Sweden...seize the opportunity...work hard, be physically prepared and be an EFFORT player!!

Good night...