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Michael Rice

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I'll try not to ramble to long, but I really need some help on this.

My team is horrendously slow. It's probably the slowest, overall, team I have ever coached, in any sport.

Tonight, for example, my fastest player broke out of a traffic jam of missed flag pulls and had about a 7 yard cushion before the defense got turned around to chase, near midfield. The 3rd or 4th fastest player on the other team caught my guy from behind.

I have a handful of kids who understand how to play, but just aren't guys I should be using in positions that need speed, but I have no choice.

A week from today we play a team who has one really fast, great cutting player and another above average guy. They are both quicker than my fastest guy, although, the second guy wouldn't be a horrible mismatch.

This team likes to line up in various bunch formations in the middle, beside the center. They put the really fast kid on the outside of the bunch or on the opposite side of the center by himself and run inside handoffs. If I can stop that, I think we have a shot.

Other than those two guys we match up fairly well with the other players and their QBs do not throw very deep.

We have tried zone, man and hybrids, with and without rushes. We normally do not rush. We have not come anywhere near getting a sack or even real pressure. The few times we have sent my quickest guy we have been burned in the whole he created in the zone. Even in man, I feel we need the extra defender. We're so slow, if we don't get the pull first chance, we get burned.

I have no problems gambling for INTs, as we need a turnover or two to have the best shot at winning.

Any suggestions for the defense would be much appreciated.

Offensively, we can dink and dunk to move the ball against most teams, enough to score in the low to mid 20s. We can catch the ball given time and my QB is smart and has a great arm. The team we played tonight, we did absolutely nothing against. They played straight man and blitzed.

We had no one who could get open in the short time before the blitz got there. It is doubly bad for us, since we can't waste downs and have to throw some balls up. Balls I would normally tell my QB to throw away, we have to take a chance on or else, honestly, we would never get a first down on them.

We tried running more, but had very, very little success.

The team we play next, lines up in what looks like a 2-3 or 2-1-2 zone. With the two up front. They matchup man to man out of it, with the two front guys taking a WR on their side, if any

.

The middle back guy sits, a lot of the time , in the middle and looks to jump the middle routes. The back outside safeties/corners, will stay on their sides and either help on crossing/slant routes or drop deep. They rarely blitz.

I am just going to flood one side on them, with some crossing routes, curls, play actions to the back coming out, etc. They are actually playing into our game plan with the way they play D. I also think some delayed runs will work on them.

I'll probably runs some flood/wash plays, as well. They've worked well for us and that was the only thing we really hit on tonight. I just can't go to the well to often with that.

We play NFL Flag rules, 5 on 5, with the exceptions that the rush comes from 10 yards and we are allowed to pitch out one time per play, behind the line.

I know this is a pretty open ended question, but if you have any thoughts on either side of the ball I am happy to listen

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The biggest thing that makes this open-ended and difficult to answer is I don't know what age group you are talking about.

I am not sure I am filled with a bunch of advise or any magical bullet to give you, I haven't coached 5 on 5 and have never been in this exact spot. That being said I think you are doing the right things. Usually the keys to beating a team better than you are:

1. Shorten the game (ball control)

2. Increase the variance (take a lot more risks, add some trick plays etc)

3. Gamble on defense, figure out what they like to do in a circumstance, gamble and take that away (make them beat you outside of their standard gameplan).

Offensively it sounds like you have the right plan, dink/dunk, with some increased risk (maybe add some trickery)

Defensively, I think you may need to try to mix it up a bit, if you rush change up where the rusher is coming, or don't rush and gamble on what they like to do. Maybe also have some pre-snap movement to try to confuse the offense. I think zone is likely your best bet as it isn't reliant on your kids being the better athletes, on plays that you are not rushing, I think I would have one of my players follow around their best player to try to force them to go to options they aren't as comfortable with.

All that said, try not to get too caught up in winning/losing. The most important thing is all about trying to let the kids have fun, spread the ball around, keep it light and fun, if your likely to lose at least have the moral victory that everyone on the team got a chance to either catch or run with the ball.

One of my favorite stories I have read on this board so far is Coach Rob talking about one of his basketball teams, he told them if they passed the ball 100 times the whole team would get some sort of prize. When they played they got absolutely destroyed on the scoreboard, but when the kids hit 100 passes you would have thought they won the championship. Your victory on the field doesn't have to be on the scoreboard.

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We're 11/12 year olds. My bad, I forgot to put that in.

They seem to be having fun, so it's not the end of the world.

I am thinking of trying a 2 up 3 back zone this week.

I'd put my weaker two up front and give them very basic responsibilities. The back three would be my best three, with the faster guy in the middle.

They run the inside handoff from the right of the defense to the left. I may counter that by telling the deep guy on that side to crash to where the ball is headed, as soon as the player who takes it starts across.

I'd do the same with the front guy, if I think he can handle it, having him a little wider than normal and telling him to step across the line right at handoff instead of waiting.

Worst cast scenario, it's a fake and he is covered in the flats, anyway.

On a run, I should have the front guy to turn it back inside to the middle back defender. If that fails I still have some contain on the outside.

I may sell out and run blitz instead of pass blitz, as I think we can cover with those three in the back.

The play my faster guy broke lose on last game was our lone attempt at a reverse. It was so slow developing, they had three guys on the ball as he tried to turn up field, he just spun out. It did give him a nice run/move though.

I've been toying with some sort of option styled offense and may go with it this week. The theory being something I can run a few different things with, from the same balanced or semi balanced formations. It should keep my better guys as the focus, but incorporate the other players.

Sort of a keep it simple, but do it well idea.

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One of my favorite stories I have read on this board so far is Coach Rob talking about one of his basketball teams, he told them if they passed the ball 100 times the whole team would get some sort of prize. When they played they got absolutely destroyed on the scoreboard, but when the kids hit 100 passes you would have thought they won the championship. Your victory on the field doesn't have to be on the scoreboard.

macvolcan - That was an interesting turning point for me as a coach. It was back in 2nd grade and I still have 6 of those players on my current 9th grade basketball team. They are pretty proficient passers these days. It's been quite a ride. As we matured as a team, we started "playing up" a level above. Got killed at first, a lot. The main problem was getting beat by the full court press, we couldn't figure it out. So, I focused on breaking the full court press during games. Of course we would still lose, but each game we would get better at breaking the press. We have it down now and have our own effective press. I digress.

Michael - I know the temptation was strong for me to come up with another few plays or defensive schemes after each game. I finally settled on the philosophy that I'd rather do a few things really well than a lot of things not so well. Sounds like you're headed that direction which will probably be good. If your kids are having fun, you're doing your job.

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That's pretty much what I have decided on.

I always like to take the first half of the season and try things, especially when we really don't have an obvious identity early on.

We have played five games and have, at least, 4 more counting the post season.

The only game where I saw any looks of being down mentally was toward the end of last week. We lost 66-0.

We played a team who won it all in 9/10. The only team to come within twenty of them was another team who only lost to them. 6 of the kids who moved up, one being the coach's son, asked to have him as a coach again. 11/12 is the last grouping or us so it is the smallest. You can imagine how stacked they are.

We had thrown only 2 picks the first four games even though we throw 90 percent of the time. In that game we wound up with 6 and they were all ran back. We couldn't run the ball for any yards. It's the only game I have ever been totally lost as to what to do offensively.

They played straight man, had the advantage at every spot, even though they blitzed their fastest kid.

The option stuff I am going to try is basically a mish mash of plays that have worked for us. I've rolled some of the similar looks into on "big" play. Something, we can run a few times, even in a row. Different enough each time, it stays fresh, but similar enough we can really get it down.

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