As a "Season Ticket Holder For Life", we were invited to attend a Chalk Talk session with Mike O'Shea last night (anyone else here go?).  He went over how the coaches prepare for a game, went through the post game film and teaching they would do with players, went through examples of the post game film and plays they would review, all with the most recent Ottawa game.   

 

For preparation against Calgary, he also gave some examples of formations and plays Calgary would do in other games, then show film from practice on how they prepare and practice for those things.

 

Didn't hide from any questions from the crowd, was pretty open in his answers.  Went out of his way to talk and engage the kids in the audience.   Really got the feeling that once he starts talking about football, he could go on and on for hours.

 

Was a fun time, and as a fan of the game who has never played at an organized level, great to see some of the behind the scenes stuff that goes on.  Would be very illuminating to sit on these sessions regularly to get a better appreciation of the finer points of the game.

 

Thanks to the Bombers, Wade Miller, and Coach O'Shea for setting this up, was a fun night.

 

 

Edit:  Moved my post over here since JCon started a thread for it.

Last night, as part of being a Bomber For Life, I was invited to Chalk Talk with Coach O'Shea. Coach spent over an hour going through video from the previous game, showing penalties that were called (legit and not) and described the process for coached and players between the end of the game on Friday, until the first practice yesterday (Tuesday). 

It was very interesting, and, as you probably know, Coach O'Shea is very engaging. 

As someone who has never sat down and watched video, the way high level players and coaches do, I found it quite revealing. 

Among the most interesting things was a pass from Nichols to Adams, where it appeared, live, that Nichols overthrew Adams, but it was Adams that faded off the route. Very revealing.

He showed some penalties, where it appeared live as though there was no infraction but that the refs were correct. (Sorry refs, I may have used some negative language in your direction)

He also showed some where they blew the call and the process for sending them in to the league for review. 

All in all, it was a lot of fun. I took my son and he enjoyed it too. I look forward to it next year. If you're a Bomber For Life and didn't go, you should try next year. 

 

 I also won a door prize. A gift card to the Canadian Brew House. Nice. 

Thanks Rich, I know that our coaches are probably some of the best teachers of the game in the entire league. 

O'Shea gave a very interesting coaching example. 

On one play, Okapalaugo comes off the end and is about 6-inches off (behind) Harris, just missing a sack that would have ended an Ottawa drive. On further review, O'Shea pointed out two areas where he could have improved. 

On his first step, he foot actually goes backwards, causing a bit of delay and an unnecessary additional half step. 

Also, and more interesting from a coaching perspective, he shows how far out he was coming around the guard. O'Shea linked it back to a drill they perform in practice, where they go around a hula hoop and reach down to pick up a towel. The drill lowers the centre of gravity and helps the player make tighter turns around the o-lineman. O'Shea raised it with 54 and made the connection between what they do in practice, why they do it, and the execution in the game. Next time, hopefully, he'll get closer to the QB and get the sack. 

37 minutes ago, JCon said:

Last night, as part of being a Bomber For Life, I was invited to Chalk Talk with Coach O'Shea. Coach spent over an hour going through video from the previous game, showing penalties that were called (legit and not) and described the process for coached and players between the end of the game on Friday, until the first practice yesterday (Tuesday). 

It was very interesting, and, as you probably know, Coach O'Shea is very engaging. 

As someone who has never sat down and watched video, the way high level players and coaches do, I found it quite revealing. 

Among the most interesting things was a pass from Nichols to Adams, where it appeared, live, that Nichols overthrew Adams, but it was Adams that faded off the route. Very revealing.

He showed some penalties, where it appeared live as though there was no infraction but that the refs were correct. (Sorry refs, I may have used some negative language in your direction)

He also showed some where they blew the call and the process for sending them in to the league for review. 

All in all, it was a lot of fun. I took my son and he enjoyed it too. I look forward to it next year. If you're a Bomber For Life and didn't go, you should try next year. 

 

 I also won a door prize. A gift card to the Canadian Brew House. Nice. 

Things like this is what I commented on before here...as someone who has been in these meetings and you actually know what the design for certain things are..scheme...responsibilities etc...you get to review the how and why things broke down.

A lot of times on a forum people sqwuak and moan about things...The Qb has a crap deep ball...Why did the DB leave that guy open...etc..etc..they just don't know the what and why.

Football has plays set up where guys are supposed to be in a certain spot...and if 11 guys follow script and one guy deviates..doesn't know where he should be..or plain messes up...and play goes to him well then it fails and sometimes fingers get pointed in wrong direction

Coaches get to the stadium around 6am. Hall is there at 4am. That make for one heck of a day. 

34 minutes ago, JCon said:

Coaches get to the stadium around 6am. Hall is there at 4am. That make for one heck of a day. 

That's ridiculous. We all love to criticize the coaches at times (including me) because we are all passionate about our team, but we don't appreciate all the work and all the family pressures that such a schedule brings about. They don't get enough credit for all the hard work they put it.

1 minute ago, blueingreenland said:

That's ridiculous. We all love to criticize the coaches at times (including me) because we are all passionate about our team, but we don't appreciate all the work and all the family pressures that such a schedule brings about. They don't get enough credit for all the hard work they put it.

 I was driving by the stadium at 6am this morning and looked over. Sure enough, there were more than 10 vehicles in the lot already. 

It really goes underappreciated all the hours they put in.