AWILDCAT312

Skullspitter,
Hey. I am fairly new to the football coaching scene myself, seeing as I have been primarily involved in Basketball, and have only been involved in football these last couple of years, so I feel your pain. The answer to your question from my youth football experience, at the younger ages any way is that, yes, the sweep does often rule. At least that has been my experience in our league. Do the teams run up the middle? Yes, at times. This year with our 7-8 yr. old team we are adding to our plays the FB dive, counter, and most teams have the QB keeper. Some run the reverse. While the reverse is lethal to a defense in youth F-ball, we have noticed that it is not always easy to master with our kids. But these are some ideas. As far as defense goes, if you can stop the sweep in youth football you have a chance at winning. The reason why the middle(1-6 holes) are so hard to run is that at this age the kids just seem to pile up and clog the running lanes so much. So on defense we have overloaded our outside in a very spread 6-2 with only four down linemen and our DE's two yards off TE. It is making life miserable for those teams who depend upon the sweep. But, yes it is surely good to teach other plays besides the sweep. As far as the sweep not helping them learn...if your kids are working to block, tackle, and learning to read the plays on D, and understand the plays on Offense then you are gonna be just fine. Hope this helps! Best of Luck!

Tim
My link

By the way you DO have time outs remaining. Sorry about that, I should have specified. Good answer Johnp2! Anyone else?

Hey guys
I am myself a fan of the M2M defense. And I think that if a person has the practice time and the talent it is good at a youth age. Some will say that you should run man at the youth level because it teaches kids early on the principles of the Man. I have coached Youth Basketball for several years at anywhere from 8 to 13 year olds, and know that you can teach good M2M principles out of a zone, while making it a ton easier on youth players. We play in a very competitive youth league where Zone or Man is permissible, and the press is allowed in 10 year old and above. If a team runs strictly a man to man in our league, they will be thumped royally. Man defense all the time is for strictly non-competitive leagues. One good player will beat your himself if you aren't very good at it. And we all know at the youth level few are. You just don't have the time it takes to teach the full scope of man.
We have run a 2-3, a 1-2-2, and even a Diamond-1(great defense), and have had winning seasons every year. The 2-3 is my choice, it works well with youth. I do agree that your players need to be aggressive tho, otherwise nothing will work, especially a zone.
Tim
simply-youth-basketball.com

I tend to agree with some of the other coaches here. It's very tough for a kid, no matter how good to practice day in and day out year round. They have got to have the opportunity to just be kids. No matter their talent. At eight years old, it is hard to tell what a kid is going to be like ten years down the road. There are many variables which come into play. I have had kids who were studs at 8-9, who worked hard every year after, and for one reason or the other (i.e. physical development, coaching, burning out, etc.), turned out to be inferior later to kids I thought then weren't going to be that good. 8 years old, unless a kid is very very special is too soon to be developing a superstar syndrome. The kid simply needs a break, and needs to choose those few things he likes to do best. And his parents as well as himself needs to allow him to do that. One or two sports is enough. The more he does, eventually the more he will begin to lack in the ones he excels at. I think you are doing right by trying to help him figure it out. Wish you and him the best Coach! Thanks.

Thanks Gentlemen:
I suppose at times we would be in a 6-2 based on the way I would like to run this. It would really just depend on where I line my LB's and my DE's up at any given time. I was honestly looking at giving a little bit in the middle and overloading the outs with my DEs, LBs, and Corners, basically setting up my DEs a shade outside TEs and having four d-linemen in gaps, with my LB's playing the gap between my ends and corners, but a little bit back off the line so that they have ability to move to the middle or the outside. So depending on how far in or out they lined up it could be a 6-2 I suppose. It worked well last year, but this is a little higher level this season coming. Thanks again guys. Keep the info coming!