Minm Plays And Scrimage

[titansfootball02 0]

I'm a Football coach and Vice presedent of Titans Youth Football in Avon Ct Our board is split on the subject of Minm plays {should we or shouldn't we have them) and on scrimages in practice once the season start any help you could give us would be most welcome. Thanks

[hollad6636 0]

I would recommend having some type of minimum playing requirement in your program. Especially for the younger divisions. Many coaches will make sure that everyone gets some playing time, but you will always have a few coaches who think its all about winning and the game it about them and not the kids. You have to protect the kids against these coaches.

[Falcon 0]

I also believe that for younger kids (12 and under) that they should get some playing time in every game so that they can feel part of a team as well as gaining experience. Now I as a coach do have some exceptions to that rule (missing practice = missing playing time).

On the subject of scrimmages, I think they can be a good thing as long as they are controlled. I recomend meeting with the opposing coach and discussing the objectives and terms of the scrimmage. I personally do not partake in scrimages that tend to be competitive. The objective of a controlled scrimmage is to allow your offense to work against their defense and visa versa. Many times the tendancy is for teams to start making adjustments to what you are doing so as to "win" the scrimmage. This is counter productive and a waste of time. In a scrimmage there is no winner or loser. It's to get some live 11 on 11 action so that you can fine tune your plays.

Hope this helps.

[Racky 0]

I am a Head coach in Southern Ca. We have what I think to be a good system. the number of minm plays goes down with the larger number of player, ie 35 players, 7 minm plays. I don't use the 7 plays much because I rotate my personel a lot more than that. But some of the opposing coach I know for a fact would not play some of the kids if they didn't have to.

Know this some of the kids I have playing (9 - 12 yrs) just don't want to hit or be hit and the 7 plays would be enough. But they don't learn as much sitting on the bench, so get them into the game.

We also allow our teams to get as many scrimages as needed before the season starts, and after they have finished 10 days of full pads. These scrimages are controlled with coaches on the field (behind the huddles), the offense gets 10 plays in a row, then switch offense to defense (played on half field). 4 sets of 10 plays is the totaly scrimage. We generaly get 3 scrimages, other wise you lose to many practices days, each scrimages is a practice even if it's on Sat.

In the first scrimage I usally give the opposing coach my first ten plays so I get their best defense against each play, the other 30 are anyting I have planned.

Racky