How to Teach Football Concepts to HS Players (not just coaches)

On The Coaching 101 Podcast, hosts Daniel Chamberlain and Coach Kenny Simpson discuss clinic season in Houston and Daniel’s new head coaching job, then share a quote: “The best competitors have a short memory and have a long focus,” emphasizing competing without fear of failure. They highlight sponsors and Kenny’s resources, then dive into teaching high school players concepts rather than memorized plays by starting with the big picture, using rules-based “families,” layering installs, and keeping language modular and consistent to avoid “wasted words.” They explain using formations, tags, and simple blitz/coverage rules to appear complex to opponents while staying simple for players, plus crawl-walk-run and pressure-testing in practice. They close with a game-management scenario on when to sub up 28 and the risks of doing it too early. 00:00 Clinic Season Check In 00:59 New Head Coach Buzz 02:44 Honeymoon Phase Advice 04:48 Quote of the Week 06:25 Sponsor Shoutouts 08:57 Teaching Concepts Not Plays 13:43 Rules Based Offense Defense 16:15 Families and Simple Rules 19:52 Consistent Language and Tags 24:30 Defensive Word Examples 25:55 Sticks Tag Cover Three 26:59 No Wasted Words 30:37 Rules Over Memorization 31:43 Making It Work Fridays 37:59 Install Crawl Walk Run 41:05 Situation Of The Week 46:44 Sponsors Books Clinics 50:46 Final Sign Off Daniel Chamberlain: @CoachChamboOK ChamberlainFootballConsulting@gmail.com chamberlainfootballconsulting.com Kenny Simpson: @FBCoachSimpson fbcoachsimpson@gmail.com FBCoachSimpson.com