Need Some Advice Please

[samsdad 0]

Hello all

Found this forum about a month ago, and I am very thankful for all the advice, plays, and information passed on here. I'm a first year coach in a Y league, 7vs7 with 1st-3rd graders. I have an extremely young team, only 3 of the 9 kids have ever played football at all. I have asked the parents of our team for help, and gotten some help from one of the dads, but he cannot be there every game or practice, so I am a bit overwhelmed. I think I made some bad assumptions about how we could play from the beginning, but two things seemed to have blown up my thinking; one, the relative age of my team (the other two teams we've played and lost to were also together last year) and two I was planning on spreading out the field and using misdirection over blocking for our offensive success. I have borrowed liberally from the plays on here (thanks Orange and Rob) and have tried to use the end-around as our bread and butter play. I still think it can work, but I think I need to get the other players more involved in blocking, instead of running routes to clear zones. Opinions?

The other teams in the league al seem to line up, block down and run straight at us. Two questions in regards to that...with this age group, is it better to keep it simple and do it that way? And is a zone defense (we play a 2-3-2) effective against these types of plays?

I'm keeping my good humor, and keeping the kids excited...today was a hard game, got skunked 4 scores to none.

Thanks

Coach Mike

[Orange 26]

Be mindful that both Coach Rob and I coach teams that play 5 on 5 no-blocking. I think it's a completely different game with active blocking and I'd probably radically change my approach and plays. JohnP has a good handle on that kind of game and a few others here. Check out what his playbook looks like and his threads.

[Coach Rob 26]

In agreement with Orange, our plays were designed for quick execution in a league with no blocking and a rusher coming all out. Misdirection works well in 5 vs. 5 not sure in 7 vs. 7 since you have more kids covering more field. Johnp is definitely the man for 7 vs. 7 specific advise.

With an inexperienced team like yours, sticking with the basics isn't a bad idea. At that age group, straight hard runs can yield big yds simply because kids miss flags. Don't know if you have the ability to watch some of the other more experienced teams games in your league, but I'd also try that to get some ideas of what works. When I played 6-7 y/o's, I'd watch 8-9 y/o games, same when we played 8-9, I'd watch the 10-11's for some ideas.

[bryce's dad 0]

Coached this format last year. 3 yard neutral zone, 4 man rush. We had success with some basic sweeps, end arounds and bootlegs. I had a couple guys who could throw reasonably well enough, so we even completed a few passes (only one INT).

The first file attached has our basic QB sweep that we ran for my less skilled players. Handling a handoff was tough - especially while runnning - so we just snapped them the ball and went where the strength of the blocking was. We did practice blocking technique and assignments. All our snaps were sideways and shotgun. That was allowed in our league. I had everyone practice it and went with my 2 best and another emergency snapper to keep us moving along. from the basic sweep, we would also run an end around to the WR. That was blocking and misdirection. It also gave me a chance to single out the yellow player for the most important block of the play - seal the corner and go get the next defender.

The other file has our 2 basic pass plays. A reward pass to the centers for all their hard work. It was only about a 5 yard pass, but it went for pretty big yardage with regularity. We also used it for an extra point play. The TE pass is a longer throw, but if the end around fake is done right, he'll get behind the safeties and its a big lob for the QB. It takes a lot of practice for him to know how far the QB can throw it, but it is worth it when it works.

I can't find the other play sheets I used, but if you carry our the end around to the wing in the second play (it would be Left Formation End Around), you'd have our bread and butter play. Then you can fake that and run a bootleg with your QB - there is your misdirection. We would run the end around and the bootleg as our first 2 plays every game. It resulted in TDs more often than not. We would also flip the formation (WR comes in to be the wing, the wing from the other side splits out wide) and run the same plays. Kids at this age have trouble watching formations - the only time we struggled with it was with coaches who caught on and called out to the team what we were about to do - then you run the center pass because they all come at the QB with what they think is the bootleg and he flips a simple pass to the center running down the line just behind the D-line.

Practice handoffs a lot early on (the handoff relay drill is on the forums somewhere) and figure out who can snap, catch and remember the plays as the QB. Finally, my kids favorite play (we calle dit Razzle-Dazzle) was a reverse from the normal Wing Left End Around where the wing back would take the end around and hand off again to the WR coming back the other way. As long as you can stop penetration by the D-line and make 2 clean handoffs it looks GREAT. We would also run it on 2 in order to keep the D on their heels. This was usually our first play of the second half. We had some great runs on it and one SPECTACULAR failure when the WR and wing ran into each other on their handoff (fortunately it was the last play of the game and we ran it because we had to go 40 yards for a tying TD against a team we hadn't gained any yards against since the first quarter).

Hope this helps

Heavy Right QB Sweep and Reverse.doc

Left Formation Center and TE pass.doc

[samsdad 0]

All

Thanks for the input...rookie mistake on my part, utilizing a playbook with a spread offense for 5 players in a full-blocking league with 7 on 7. We had an excellent Tuesday night practice using alot of blocking, and I have alot of confidence going into our game Saturday. I'll report back afterwards.

On defense, we've been using a zone 2-3-2, but because of all the running and blocking, I'm moving towards more of a 4-1-2 with more linemen to try to hold the LOS. Input?

Thanks again

Coach Mike

[Johnp2 21]

I think your idea of switching to 4-1-2 is good. Of course this is predicated on the fact you aren't playing a team that can burn you with the pass. We play 8vs8 and have faced teams that put five players on the LOS, which can frustrate the running attack. One of the things I found worked really well last season was to have the DEs immediately turn toward the QB once the ball was snapped. I know it does not sound like much, but I was amazed at how it affected their reaction time. Their responsibilites are to: 1) Read if it is run or pass, and 2) Assuming it is run (which most plays are at this age) keep the ball-carrier in the box. If it's pass, they drop back in coverage. However, when the play starts, they are not to be influenced by other players---simply to watch the QB then react.

Offensively, we do a lot of play action passes and throw underneath. The idea is to get the players on the LOS to commit to the run (preventing them from dropping back) and then ensuring we have receivers in the seam/flats. One of our bread and butter plays is a fake end-around, where the QB rolls out in the opposite direction and hits the slot receiver on a 10 yard out. I would say 99% of the time the slot receiver is wide open (especially if you set it up with an end-around on the previous play). See first play in the attached.

When we run, we do a lot of influence blocking. Again, this is really works well if properly set up. We like to condition the defense and the strike. As an example, we'll run a HB pitch using a two-back formation. The HB gets the ball, ALL players on the LOS block left, and the HB runs right. We'll do this two or three times, and run the same play but the this time the HB reverses it to a slot receiver who goes left. The defenders are used to fighting off their blocks to the left, it gets them leaning in one direction once they see the run blocking assignments.

We will also pull lineman. See second play in the attached.

Hope this helps. And yes, it really does help a lot to have a team that has played together for multiple years.

Examples.doc