Training Camp 101: Position drills

This is my favorite part of the summer. After months of nothing but basketball and baseball, football is back! NFL training camps are in full swing and last night marked the start of the preseason. While I live and breathe Packers football, every summer I hit the road to visit a different team’s training camp. Last weekend, I headed down to South Carolina to visit the Panthers. While I usually fail at taking pictures, I was able to get a few good ones. Here’s my favorite one:

Football lineup

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of attending a NFL training camp, here’s the gist of how it goes. Public practices are usually held at smaller venues so fans get a more intimate experience – the Panthers use the practice field at Wofford College. The team comes out to the field [insert sounds of screaming fans here] and starts off with everyone doing warm-ups together. Then, the team splits up and the bulk of practice is spent with your position group. This is essential because it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to have everyone run routes when that’s the receivers’ job nor have everyone throw the ball when that’s the quarterback’s job. The groups rotate around the field as they run various drills. As practice continues, an offensive group and the corresponding defensive group get together to practice their skills against each other. It all comes together when the team finally gets back together and lines up 11-on-11.

Training camp is all about practicing drills specifically designed based on one’s job on the team as this is the key to developing the skills necessary to be successful at that job. This is true for your credit union as well. It doesn’t always make sense to have the entire staff sit through a particular training exercise when it is only relevant to a handful of those in the room. The most effective training is designed with the job function in mind – tellers need different training than loan officers and IT staff need different training than the marketing staff.

 

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