winston

A question with this Coach, I was always of the impression that tight splits will bring the D in closer than usual and therefore will make it harder for the interior Olinemen to create a running lane?

A question with this Coach, I was always of the impression that tight splits will bring the D in closer than usual and therefore will make it harder for the interior Olinemen to create a running lane?

well, a couple of things here Coaches, we are talking about 8-10 yo's so calling "audibles" is out of the question. Next, the defense "sometimes" go into the gaps and not always so we will never know when they will be doing this and we have to try to run up the midlle sometimes. The problem we are facing with this is mainly when the DG goes into the A gap and is on the inside shoulder of the OG, the OG cannot turn him to the right.

Question for when the DLine line up in the gaps. As an example, lets say you have a Nose, G, T and the Nose is headup on the C, but the RG and RT are in the A and B gaps, the play is a 31 Dive, what's the best way to open the running lane for the RB, keeping in mind that these are 8-10 yo's?

I had the same problem with one of my players, when he joined the team, he was the most aggressive player, then he was made into a QB, I don't know if the QB position "mellowed" him but he is no longer aggressive on D.

The problem I am facing here is simply "Coaching" problems, too many bosses with different methods and opinions. I am always caught in the middle but don't have any authority. I am a firm believer in fundamentals and this is where the priority should be placed right now but it is out of my hands, my choices now are either to shut up and just take what is handed to me or leave.

Well explained guys, thanks.

Well, you nailed it Coach Steve, this is exactly what happened last night and as for being "far along", let me put it this way, when every other team in the league has been practicing for "months" now and so are working mainly on plays during practice time right now, we are still trying to get our players to both know their positions and assignments and they still have to learn how to block and tackle.

Appreciate the info Coach but either I am misunderstand your post or my questions wasn't phrased correctly, anyway, what I am asking is, what are the both the advantages and disadvantages for using elbow splits instead of regular hand or finger splits? With the elbow splits, the holes will be cut down to half the size of the regular splits, should this make it harder for the backfield to run through?

For a new team of 8-10 yo's that started practicing as a team just before their very first game and who are way behind the rest of the league and most of whom are first time players, is it better to invest the limited practice times to Coaching the kids properly or having them do scrimmages? We can't do both, it's either or. I am having these unprepared kids getting hurt by the more experienced bigger guys of the opposing teams, I was told that since we are behind we should scrimmage as much as possible to get our kids accustomed to the hitting and they will learn their positions much faster, the way I see it is by doing this, we are giving up teaching them proper fundamentals and exposing them to more hitting than is necessary before they are ready, what's your take on this please?

If the offense lines up their TE wide like on the outside of my DE, what happens here, is my DE supposed to stay in his position and now let the Corner handle the TE or is my DE supposed to follow the TE no matter how far wide he goes and line up on his outside shoulder?

For 8-10 yo's, is it wise to have them do "elbow" splits for any reason, if so, why and for which reasons please?

WOW, Thanks for this tip!

The 2 guys I was planning to have as DE's quit after we lost the first game, they were big with reasonable quickness and good tacklers, all of my backfield [3 Lb's, 2 corners and Safety] are speed guys, my line is the slower and bigger guys and my 2 De's are physically small guys and are getting manhandled, I can't place them at Lb becuase the way I see it, if they can't box in the Offense then they won't stop the run, my 2 corners are also small so placing them as DE's won't make any difference, my better tacklers are my LB's and Safety. Any ideas on who should be placed as DE's? p.s. I only have 2 subs who are slow and big guys so I use them as Tackles.

Watching the game I was speaking of, the down DLinemen whose backs were flat were in a 3-point stance but looked like they were in a 4, which means that they would have to be leaning heavily on that 1 extended arm and hand and they did not do this specifically on passing plays but on any play with the intent on getting into the backfield and not hit and read, this is what makes this whole scenario confusing, any ideas?