Soonerhawk

Thanks db. We run a 53 and 44. We normally only use only 1 safety. But this year we were discussing going with a 43 or 34 and using two safeties. Any recommendations?

Hey DB, Can you find another way to post this? I'm curious.

Who is primarily responsible for the tight end on pass paterns. It is something we struggled with last year. Currently we have the corners take the first player in. If it is WR then they take him. If it is TE, they cover. If the WR and TE both go out we had the OS LB cover the TE. Is that right? Who takes the first back to the side then?

It sounds pretty sound to me. I could see that it would be difficult for the players to remember their allignment. Typically we do not play our FS that far off the ball. Your SML has a ways to go to cover his gap. I can tell you as an offensive coach. If you ran this defense against us we would hit the 2 hole over and over and over. You have no defense against a QB sneak and if our FB can pick up the SML we are gone. This is not how we run our 4-4. I don't want to get complex. We run enough kids in and out that we need things to be fairly simple. If an offense comes out overloaded to one side we teach them to slide that way. Otherwise we stack our DT and MLB's over the OG and our DE and OLB slightly inside the TE. This gives us a chance to run a few different stunts. But, that's just how we do it. I'm not saying it's right. But, it has worked well for us the past 3 years.

That's why I count on our coaching staff to communicate if they feel anybody has been out of line in any way. That's why I do my best to keep an open line of communication with the parents. Nothing is 100%. But, we can only do our best to make sure all communication lines are open.

Whoopeeeeeeee!!!! Dang, I'm excited to get this season under way.

That's an interesting way to play the 6/7 year olds. Some times it's like "What can you do?" It seems everything you try works.

My head is spinning. I must say a couple things. There is never any excuse for a kid walking back to the huddle and communicating to the QB that someone was open or wasn't open. As a coach I just can imagine that it was probably a divisive action in some way therefore he reacted the way he did. The touching thing can be a a well, "touchy" subject. Our organization banned all physical contact with players one year. It was the biggest crock I have ever seen. I agree there is no room for physical abuse. But, you can not have a "hands off" approach in football. IMO, if the physical contact is done in some type of manner where the kid feels physically intimidated then the coach has gone overboard. If the coach is using physical contact as a means of teaching, moving players, instructing or getting the players attention then I don't see an issue. Unless the player feels physically intimidated by the coach. As a coach I fully expect to communicate with my parents on a daily basis. I want them to talk to me. I also fully expect that my assistant coaches are completely open with me on how I handle situations, as I will be with them.

I can't really say our gap assignments stay the same all of the time. Many times we will run blitzes that are determined off of whether we want our LB's inside or outside. So long as you have each gap covered and the players know their responsibilities I don't really see that it matters who has the gap assignments.

Every coach in our program has insurance coverage. We do this through NYSCA. You can visit their website at www.nays.org. I believe it costs $20 per year. You have to go through their training program. But, it is definitely worth it. You get $2mm general liability and $250k accident medical expense coverage. Our local recreation center does the training and will cover the expense for any coach. Since most of us coaches coach other sports this will follow you to those sports provided you get that sport specific training.

We do tell our LB's and safety to watch the QB and RB eyes. Take note of the RB's stance to see if they are giving up where there play is going. Other than that every team has dendencies. They may only run certain directions out of certain formations. But 8-10 year olds are not going to be able to decipher that.

Boy, winston, haven't really had this problem. I don't know what to tell ya. We just teach our DT's to control their gaps and tackle anyone who comes through. (Their main objective is to clog things up) LB's are taught to fill the holes and take on the lead blocker. Normally it is the trailer who has the ball. I guess I figure it is pretty obvious when a guy is coming at you if he has the ball. I can understand misdirection and players realizing which way the ball is going. But we really emphasize honoring your responsibilities and taking ownership for thier area. Offside ends, and LB's need to stay at home. I wish I could help more. I really just don't know what to do to help here.

It's really tough to say without seeing your whole team. But, if your kid is really that good then I might would consider him going to NG and moving your NG to DT. If he can really disrupt things he has the opportunity to do so on every play at NG. If they choose to double team him then your ML is free to roam. They can not double team him there and block your ML also. That is a pretty good scenario. As you have it now the kid can really cause havoc on only one side of the line. They can double team him and allow the FB to take the OL and hopefully pinch the ML off on the doubleteam. You can also use him as a utility kid where you move him around until you find where you can exploit his speed more effectively. This will change from game to game. The thing with having him as ML is that all of your LB's need to be very disciplined and be able to go through their reads quickly. Not every kid can do this. My question I didn't do a very good job of raising above is: "Is the reason your kid appears so fast a defeciency of your offensive line or will he be able to do this against any team" The only way to find out is to move him around against your defense and see if he has success at every position. If he does then I would seriously consider using him at NG or ML (if he is smart and football savvy enough). We have two kids on our D that we move around to create matchup problems. One is a natural LB who is quick and really hawks the ball. The other is a natural DE, big kid who is fast for his size and very strong. The LB we will drop to nose and tackle on the first two series to see if he can use his quickness to disrupt things in the 53. Then we will bring him back up to LB in the 46. The De we will drop to the DT positions to see if kids can handle his strength. If the OT's choose to roll block or cut block him we move him back to DE. If not we allow him to rip and bull rush to disrupt things. So, I would say prepare the kid for a couple different things and see where the game leads you. I know, pretty vague, huh?

At the beginning of the season we handed to our parents a written policy for unexcused absences. About the second week of practice we sat all of our boys down and communicated to them the consequences of unexcused absences. We also explained to them that this was a team and every practice we would be working on something new during the season. To clarify: I qualify an unexcused absence as one in which nobody notifies you the player will be gone. For instance we have one player who has a pretty rough home life. He was removed from his home by SRS and his grandmother chose to take him in. Now they are reintroducing him to his parents and he is gone one practice a week (we have 3). There is no way I will punish a kid for something like this. We work things around on defense so we make sure he is not in the game on any new things we have worked on while he is gone. Unexcused absences result in: 1 miss lose one quarter of PT 2 miss lose one half of PT 3 miss lose three quarters of PT We came up with this policy two years ago and it has helped practice attendance tremendously. Parents don't want to be the blame for their kid not getting PT and the kid knows he will miss PT if he doesn't come so there is definitely an incentive on both parties. We do this as a standard. No kids are exempt. The key to making this a successful deterrent is 1) meeting with parents and having policy in writing 2) communicating to players 3) being consistent

I firmly believe players take on the persona of the coach. If the coach is fired up, having fun, getting intense I think that wears off on the kids. I am emotional like you. I have no problem showing emotion, good or bad. I want the kids to learn the basics. I want the kids to compete. So many times today I see people saying "just have fun" and there is no discipline; no goals; and thus no rewards. I believe firmly in having fun. I also want these kids to strive to compete and have the desire to win. I get just as excited with a bad play as I do with a great play. I guess maybe you can answer the question for yourself. If one of your kids has a great hit and you just clap your hands and call a another play what is the reaction of your defense? I can guarantee you when we have a great hit our whole coaching staff goes nuts. And the kids follow suit. It gets them more fired up and everyone wants to do it. Before games we have kids running around headbutting, clapping their hands to a beat, slapping others on the helmets. Yes, getting them fired up is some kind of fun