tkerch

man coverage can become a challenge ILB's, especially if the tight end flys. Also, if the wide out, cuts inside, wouldn't that put your corner right in the mix with the LBs? i think that could spell disaster, especially if the opposing OC sees you are in man. consider zone coverage. i personally think that is easier to teach to kids and they know were they are suppose to be. with 3 Dbacks, each has deep thirds. OLB's have flats and ILB's have curls or ins. For LB's, if someone passes through your zone, stay with them, until they leave your zone, then let the DB take them. The only time this needs adjustments, is if you face a spread offence, with 5 wide recievers and a QB with a cannon for an arm.

In almost every 2 hour practice, we work on drills, positions, technique and execution. We spend about 30 minutes on scrimmage, against ourselves. We have NEVER scrimmaged another team. NEVER. I think that a coach should be able to put together two even teams of some starters and some backup players. I am not suggesting that the starting offence never practices together, but that time should be limited. then, put some starting o across from starting d. Use starting line, in front of backup linebackers. Once the teams have gotten used to contact, i think 30 minutes is too long. We have our offence run "skeletons" which entails running the play, against noone, but where all coaches are watching a particular position or players, so they can be assured that everyone understands and executes their responsibility. Making sure the lineman stay low and fire out. Down blocks are executed. Pulling guards actually pull, stay low and explode through the would be blocker. Make sure that every snap is clean, that hand offs are secure and the backs know their holes and practice staying low. is this boring? not really, because we stop and correct and explain and re-due and add plays or fakes or check footwork and generally speaking the kids enjoy it, learn from it, but don't get beat up. Another thought on this. If you are trying to install a new play, and the defense keeps blowing it up, is anyone learning.

Sorry, i missed that part of the question. 4 guys on the 49, one,in the middle at the 44, two at the hash on the 38, 2 outside the hash at about the 32, then two deep men at the 25. this is four 8th graders.

I teach my returners to reach for the ball, over their heads, and bring the ball into a basket of their arms and body. I stress to not let the ball fall directly into the basket, but to bring it in. By doing this, they can more visually see the ball coming into their hands, instread of just watching come past their head. seem to have good success, or just talented kids.

Towards the end of our football season, we have the wrestling coach and the basketball coach stop in for a few minutes to talk about their programs and to encourage participation in one of those sports. They talk about the conditioning and strengthening programs that they do and how it will help them in football, if that is their main interest. They talk about the success that the youth wrestling federation has had and how it has helped our hs wrestling program. Coach also points out that our hs starting defense only has two non-wresters and one of them used to wrestle. We also encourage that the kids find the weight room and get serious about it. We point out that the HS varsity is all started by kids who are ripped, becasue they spend the time to get strong. None of them are naturally as strong as they are now. The kids who don't start, don't lift. It's a tough situation. Once they walk off my football practice field, they are on their own to make their own decesions.

Soonerhawk, we had a similar problem with the OC trying to remember the plays and the formation, so pretty soon he goes to the player that is to run in the play, " I right, no, wing right, 34 dive no, 24 lead, on 1". Now, the kids gives him the look like"what the f-ck are you talking about", runs to the huddle and they end up runnig something, or just wasting a timeout. We have since got the coach to use wrist coach, so all he has to do is say 22 or what ever play number he wants. Because of the wrist coach, he HAS to have the plays on paper, in front of him at all times. We have had almost no delay of games, because of him, since we went to wrist coach. Back to your original question.. yes, plays should compliment each other and set up the next play. lets face it, from one formation, you should be able to run 5 or6 differents plays and yet run the same play from several different formations. The whole concept of carrying out your fakes is so the defense looks at you, instead of the ball carrier and then starts to ignore you when you do get the ball. Our feeling is the whole team revolves around the o-line. If they ain't firing on all cylinders, it doesn't matter who is carrying the ball. We spend many hours each week working on blocking rules, drive blocking, reach blocking, down blocking, pass blocking, pulling, etc. Someone once said, the team is only as good as your O-line coach.

As we all know, many youth coaches are dads who want to do a good job. Unfortunatly, many don't learn enough, before they get the job. It sounds as though you have put in the time and have a good handle on whats going on. Dont be too hard on the guy who tryed to step up. Most of us started as helper, assistants and didn't have a clue, but were willing to learn, if there was someplace to get the chance. he must have thought he had the chance to go a step further than he had the ability. I know that this is against most of our nature, but try to get him more involved, so he does learn the plays, the formations and each guys responsibilitys, so the next time you have to miss a practice or two, someone can step up. Make him YOUR assistant. I was DC for 3 years, special team coach for 5 years, and still cannot get a copy of our offensive play book. yet, they sometimes want my help with O-line. Hmmmm, how do you learn blocking rules when you barely know the offence? Granted, I absorb alot just by being there, but I sure would like a playbook. Consider giving him a chance. Granted, he may be a bonehead, so use your good judgement.

Pats coach, you bring up a good point. every kid processes the information differently, no matter if it is prizes, praise, an ass chewing, instruction or what ever. I think that we all have to do what works for us and if we feel that $50 is well spent then by all means spend it. I agree that $50 bucks is not a bad price to pay for bunch of boys playing even just a little bit better, for their chance to get more stickers on their helmets. What ever it takes to get the most out of them, i am all for it.

One thing that we like to do is script a few, maybe 4 plays, that we run, no huddle to start a possesion. If nothing else, we usually find them off guard to the point of making a first down or two. At best, we see what the d-ends are doing, the corners and safety and to try to get a read on the ilb to see who they are keying. We like this early, hurry-up offense, and practice it through out the week, so we can run it later in the game, if needed.

I guess that was my point that i am not sure how to deal with little guys. I have 12-14 year old jr high kids, and yes, they still like praise and get praise as appropriate, but i dont feel that a physical prize is needed. Maybe the younger kids get jacked up about a sticker. heck, we all see the helmet stickers that the college teams wear, so maybe we should still be using them. part of it is the cost. Small town, small team equals small budget. Most of you can relate. personally, i like cookies!! LOL.

We use to give players stickers for their helmets for tackles, fumble recovers, forced fumbles, etc and for yards gained, excellent blocks or blocking, etc. By the 2nd or 3rd week, you could see who had really stepped up to play ball. The only problem was, somebody had to keep track of these stats, besides the regular team stats and some of the items (great block for example) is subject to bias. We quit the helmet stickers and tell them good game, or we need to work on this or that and go on. We do give awards at the end of the season, for mvp offense and defense, most improved (coachs choice), utility player (one who plays multiply spots) and everyone gets a participation award. I am dealing with jr high, not 8- 10 year olds. I don't know if it that needed at that level, but we eliminated it until the end of the season. Oh, one more thing. since we are a small community, we have excellent coverage in a local paper. No pictures, but the editor contacts the coach after the game and those who played well get mentioned for yards gained, TD's and tackles. Also mention the o-line for good blocking. The kids really like to see their name in the paper, as do the parents.

In our 5-3, the d-ends have outside contain responsibility. We have them squeeze down on the o-end and read the play. If they penatrate, they are very susseptable to traps and lead blocks. the d-tackles and nose are run support with gap responsibility. they typically do not spend much time reading, just raizing havock. I wouldn't spend much time watching NFL and expecting to bring it to the youth level. Most of it just does not relate to what we are trying to do. Watch it because you like football, not to learn how to coach.

We have had various levels of success with several different defenses. In all honesty, it depends on your kids. We run a 5-3 and have two real good d-ends. they have learned to fight the pressure of a lead blocker to string out a play, where the olb and corner can help make the tackle. This should work for 4-4 or 6-3 or 4-5. The main thing is having a disaplined end that pursues, and reads, can fight pressure and shed a block. the LB does the rest.

I don't want to add fuel to the fire, but Dave 72 reminded me of another point. If you are a run oriented team, but you are up by a lot, is this not a good time to work on your passing game? What about if you are a passing team, is this not a good time to work on your running game? What about the team i described that scored twice in a game, never running outside of the tackles? Should we NOT run sweeps? While agree with the discussion of subbing and conservative play calling, I am just wondering what you all consider conservative plays?

Flips, I agree wholeheartily.