Making detailed practice plans, especially for the first four weeks of practice, is an important task. Here are some suggestions for using a 4-step process to accomplish this exercise:

Step 1 - Gather Technique. This step is an ongoing process and involves collecting all the technique you're exposed to via clinics, books, videotapes, DVDs, camps and competitions regardless of whether you intend to teach it or not. You can take a low- or high-tech approach to doing this:

Low-tech: When I started coaching I attended every coaches clinic I could and I had a spiral notebook for each one within which I wrote meticulous notes. Smart, right? Wrong! Here's why: Let's say I wanted to teach arm drags. Well, I had to go through every page of every notebook to do that. What a pain! Here's a better way. Get large (5"x 8") index cards. At the far, top right write the clinician's name and on the far left the technique he demonstrated as shown below. Take notes on both sides. If you need to continue on another card, write Sacchi 2 on the second card

As you accumulate cards assign them to different categories such as Takedowns, Takedown Defense, Leg Wrestling, Bottom, etc. Within each category put the cards in alphabetical order for easy access. Want your notes on arm drags? No problem, they're all in one spot! Put a rubberband around the cards and be sure to bring them to each practice!

High-tech: By videotaping the clinicians using a camcorder you ensure you don't miss anything. Then, using a good, reliable notebook computer with a large hard drive, you can upload the video into the computer. With video-editing software, you can chop up the video into the various techniques and save them under names like Arm Drag - Sacchi to indicate the technique and clinician who presented it.

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Step 2 - Create Technique Lists. Before you start planning your practices you'll need to separate the technique into one of three categories:

• Basics - These are moves that every wrestler should know and on the high school level they should be covered in the first five practices.
• Bread and Butter - These moves are your go-to, high percentage moves and should be introduced before your first competition and drilled almost every day.
• Advanced - Whether you teach this technique depends on the skill level of your team as well as your opponents. Some advanced technique you'll want to teach certain individuals but not the entire team.

To help you get started we have a Blank Form and an Example of a Technique List. Print them out and get started today!

Step 3 - Create a Monthly Practice Plan. By creating the Technique Lists in Step 2 you know WHAT you want to teach. Step 3 involves WHEN you'll teach it. Essentially you want to teach the BASICS during the first week of practice and your BREAD & BUTTER moves the days leading up to your first competition. Perfect technique takes time. It is unrealistic to think that "When everyone can do a double leg, then we'll move on to the single leg." Only through lots of practice and drill will the majority of your wrestlers master a move. A Monthly Practice Plan can help you arrange the teaching of technique in an orderly and logical progression. Print out some Monthly Practice Blank Forms and the Example.

Step 4 - Create Daily Practice Plans. After completing steps 1-3, you're ready to plan each daily practice. Print out the Daily Practice Plan Example and several Blank Forms. On the back of the form list announcements. On the bottom, unused portion of the front write notes and reminders as you conduct practice. At first it's difficult to judge how long each activity will take. Give a stopwatch and a copy of the daily practice plan to your manager and have them time each activity. In short order you'll be pretty good at gauging the time necessary to complete various activities.