Paralysis by analysis. It happens to our players when they are thinking too much on the field and not reacting. They are slow to react and you can see the wheels turning in their heads. I once heard former Boston College Head Coach Frank Spaziani make the comment, “If you think, you stink.” Our job as defensive coaches is to get our players playing as fast as possible and reacting quickly.
I struggled with this for a long time because I wanted to make sure my players were completely ready with every coaching point about every technique, every scheme possible. For every technique or scheme to teach, I would have ten different bullet points covering the technique inside and out. I prided myself on making sure my position players were prepared for everything. The problem was with all the coaching points I was giving them, they were actually retaining very little.
Then, at a clinic, I spoke with a coach who challenged me with what he called the “Rule of Threes”. He said the challenging part of being a coach was limiting each technique/scheme to three important points. Teach just three points to your players to best avoid paralysis by analysis. He said there were actually academic studies that proved this theory. You can give your players many, many, many more coaching points, but they will not remember any of them.
The next weekend, as I continued to weigh the merits of this concept, my wife and I were at a driving range with a friend helping her prepare for a charity golf tournament. This friend of ours had never played golf before. As our friend walked up for her first-ever golf swing, my wife literally gave her THIRTEEN points to remember. “Use an interlocking grip, the ball should be in position of the middle of the stance, keep the left arm straight as you bring the club back, rotate your hips, don’t bob up and down, keep your eyes on the ball through contact, block with your left foot, finish high with your swing, etc.” On and on and on.
When our friend finally swung the club, she missed the ball completely. This gave me a chance to test out the “Rule of Threes” concept. I gave our friend three points to remember – 1- Eye on the ball the whole time; 2- Swing back until left arm is stretched; 3- Finish all the way through your swing. After this, she swung, made contact, the ball only went about 70 yards, but it proved the Rule of Threes in my mind.
Since then, when teaching a technique / scheme to my players, I’ll say, here comes the Rule of Threes, then list the three important points to the technique. For example, with tackling our Rule of Three is – 1- head and eyes up; 2- two hard uppercuts; 3- five hard steps. There are more coaching points to tackling which we all know. But to avoid paralysis by analysis, and get our players playing as fast as possible on the field, I limit it to three. Now as they get comfortable with the “three” you can add one other or mention another during a film session. But the “Three” are the staple.
Just like everything else, during game week, these three can be adjusted. An example could be a curl drop – the Rule of Threes for the curl drop this week needs to include…
Take it as a challenge and look at the techniques and schemes you teach the players. Can you limit the coaching points to the Rule of Threes – what would those three important points be? It is a challenge without a doubt. This is, because, as coaches, we want to prepare our players as much as possible. But limit it to three and emphasize those three to help your defensive players to play faster and avoid paralysis by analysis.