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Crimson Pride

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Everything posted by Crimson Pride

  1. I don't think it's fair to your team to do that. I'm sure your team would benefit more from winning than everyone getting embarrased trying to run the ball. To me, that is putting kids in a position to fail. I would stick with you best two backs and teach all the kids that no position is more important than the other. When you try to let everyone play QB or touch the ball, your sending the message that those are the only important positions. I know that isn't your intent but that's what happens. Lastly, kids enjoy winning and giving them a shot to win is part of your job as a coach. If my son played on a team that did this it would be short lived because it's sending the wrong message in my book.
  2. Thanks, that is my son. We work on going until the whistle all the time. I really think the head up thing comes from starting them young, pounding keeping your head up regardless of which position you play. The only time I want my guys lowering their head or looking down is while running a fake hand off or diving for a fumble. Good luck guys, enjoy the learning/discussion that takes place here.
  3. YouTube Edmond Raiders Football Watch 28 YouTube Edmond Bills Football Watch my 5-6 year olds dominate!!!
  4. This is my second year to coach. Last year I had mostly 1st graders and we ran the table on our way to a championship. We play 8 on 8, only 2 can rush. This year, we had our first game with my younger sons team and won 33-12. Those kids are 5 and 6 and never played football before. First off, I have 3 assistant coaches. I sat them down to talk about my plan. I had the plan written and told them we would be very organized in how we structure practice, pre-game and game situations. The first practice I took about 5 minutes to talk to the parents and kids in one large group. The basis was: I view this as a triangel. The kids are at the top and their job is to play. The coaches are on the bottom left and their job is to coach/teach. The parents are on the bottom left, their job is to cheer. If anyone has an issue with anything, come to me immediatly and we will talk it out. I haven't had a single issue (knock on wood). I also get the parents to understand that practice shouldn't stop when we are done. I will email a parent and say "Johnny is doing great, he is doing XX very good. What we are working with him is flag pulling. A very fun flag pulling drill that you can do with him at home is XX....this is not only good for him to learn how to pull flags but it's also fun for the kid when they get to play with mom or dad" You get the idea.... I have four coaches...2 offense and 2 defense and they are excellent. We e-mail/talk a lot and it helps, we each know we are here to teach and we all have high expectations. I email a detailed practice schedule to my staff two days before practice and ask for feedback/suggestions. The program is so detailed and thought out that they buy in because they see how much time I spend thinking about practice. I then meet them 10 minutes before each practice and talk through my expectations for the day. We set up any cone drills we are going to need, etc. I have every minute of practice scheduled and I stick to it regardless. Granted, I've had some time to tweak and understand based on my experience but the point is you must plan for every minute. Also, I do not add running as a conditioning exercise for kids. Kids are resilent and don't need to run to be in shape. Let them practice/run drills. Nobody likes to just "run" so why not let them play tag or a flag pulling game? For practice, you must view it as a building process. My kids didn't line up in an offensive or defensive formation until our third practice. The practices last 90 minutes until school started, 60 now that school has started. We had a total of 4.5 hours of practice before any formation was introduced. To get the kids confidence we did the exact same thing to start every practice. It's called a warm up. You shouldn't stretch until your body is warm or you risk injury. How do you warm up? I line my kids *14* in one long line so they have some room between them and the person next to them. The first thing I taught my team is an athletic position. I blow the whistle at 6:00 and every kid is in a good athletic position with their head up, ready to practice. I start right at 6:00, making it clear to parents that their child should be on the field ready to be in his athletic position by 6:00. I do this at EVERY practice and before each game so the kids understand what I'm asking them to do, it gives them confidence because we do the same thing. I run them through a series of warm up activities: Knee High Skips Heel Taps Mirror Shuffle Etc. We ran drills/games such as sharks/minnows and teach the kids what we want them to get out of the game. For example, pull with both hands, head up, eyes on the hip area. Each drill can last no longer than 12 minutes. Kids get bored easy and the WORST thing a kid can do at a practice is get bored. The key is explaning HOW to do the drill and then demonstrating. You then give positive feedback and correct any issues from the word go. I installed my offense with just the center, QB and 2 RB to begin with. No offensive line and no defense. I taught them very slowly....on hut, the center snaps it and nobody moves outside of the running back who takes one step toward the ball. I count 2, one more step for everyone, 3, another steps, etc....until the kids understand where they need to go. This helps me correct them and gives them confidence in what to do. We then brought in our offensive line and did the same thing. When we could run a play with acceptable execution, we brought in the defense, no rush. When we were better....we allowed the rush. Again, building blocks. I would highly recommend you even consider taking a step back and establishing some consistency in your practice and pre-game routine so kids can master what your teaching them. You would rather then do a few things VERY good vs. many things "okay". Again, it's building blocks. For formations, I suggest running out of a max of two. I have a playbook with 12 plays out of two formations. Both are one back sets, one of the gun (you hears me right) and the other under center. My playbook is color coded and all coaches and both quarterbacks get a copy. The red line is where the ball is and where the ball carrier should run. The blue line are everyone else. Again, if you only master two formations it's very simple which builds confidence which builds good repetion and execution. As a result, you have only a few plays but they are run to "perfection". Let's be honest, they are 5 and 6 years old but they are run pretty good. For defense, you have to teach who is rushing then attacking flags. The majority of our practice incorporates flag pulling and teaching the DB's to force the kid out of bounds or back inside where his help is. I could go on and on..... I would also add that you need to send an email to parents, thanking them for getting their athlete on the field ready to go by 6:00. I do a word of the week such as teamwork, effort, etc. and talk to the boys about what it means. I also have a chant we use in pre-game and to close out every practice: "I can do it, I'm the best, Anythings Possible, Go...Bills...Go" Here is the video of our first game: Youtube: Edmond Bills Football You can see that with this strategy, the kids have picked things up very well. Keep in mind this is the first game for every kid on the field, I think you'll be impressed. Here is the video of my 2 grade team: Youtube: Edmond Raiders Football
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