Scott

We ran shotgun with 7,8,9 ages last year. What I did to make it easier was I bought the wrist playbooks for our WR's and RB's and QB. You have to have 3-4 kids and a throwing QB to run it. We had a great time and was the most exciting team in our league last year. It can be done.

I have to disagree. Playing Madden or any EA College Football will help kids understand football. It also gets them to watch football. The kids in our league are leaps and bounds better than kids 30 years ago. Their knowledge of the game amazes me. My son has played baseball, basketball, and football video games since he was a small child. He rarely plays any other types of games. He also watches ESPN. He knows more about football than most adults. Then again he also has played poker since he was 5 years and he has great math skills. The EA games stimulate their little minds. Our football team still has kids that have no idea what offense or defense is. I'm sure they do not play Madden. Another example is he plays Nascar 09 with a steering wheel and pedals, and I bet he could drive my truck almost as well as my wife. Yet another classic post. Watching espn or playing a video game has absolutely NOTHING to do with playing the game on grass. You are funny, you need to take your act on the road. Saying you have kids that do not know the difference between offense and defense because they don't play video games is absolutly absurd. Who coaches these kids? coachbreck, playing video games does help a child learn the game of football. Yes you have to practice it "on the grass" to become a better football player. There is no doubt about that. You take a kid out in the yard to work on football and you won't be there for long. You put a game controller in his hand to play football and combine it with teaching the game on grass and you will have a kid with more football knowledge. Do you ever play video games? Why do you think kids are so much more talented at a younger age? I am a firm believer also as a baseball coach that baseball video games help. You stick to your "coaching methods" and I'll stick with mine. Me and two other dad's coach my son's team. We actually have a good team that runs a Spread offense and the option. We teach the fundementals every practice.

I have to disagree. Playing Madden or any EA College Football will help kids understand football. It also gets them to watch football. The kids in our league are leaps and bounds better than kids 30 years ago. Their knowledge of the game amazes me. My son has played baseball, basketball, and football video games since he was a small child. He rarely plays any other types of games. He also watches ESPN. He knows more about football than most adults. Then again he also has played poker since he was 5 years and he has great math skills. The EA games stimulate their little minds. Our football team still has kids that have no idea what offense or defense is. I'm sure they do not play Madden. Another example is he plays Nascar 09 with a steering wheel and pedals, and I bet he could drive my truck almost as well as my wife.

I had the same issues last year with my son's 8,9,10 yr old team. Not once did the coaches use any blocking or tackling dummies. It was my son's first year, he was nine. It was a very frustrating year. I could not help as a coach due to my job. We had one of the most talented teams out of the 10 team league. We ended up 4-4. This year we went back into the draft and changed teams due to the coaches lack of football knowledge. My work hours also changed so I could coach this year. At every practice we work on fundamentals. Now it is sometimes difficult to coach my own son, but it is worth it. I ended up knowing our new coach. There are three of us coaching, each one of us has a son on the team. Our team is doing very well. We have 19 kids and have had no one quit and we are going on our fifth game. We only practice 2 times a week while all the other teams do 3. We have an open communication policy with our parents. We ask them to give opinions and they usually do. You should approach the coach and offer your opinion.

I am coaching 2nd-4th grade Youth Football with a couple other guys. We are going to run a Spread Offense with two RB's. We will run the option and a few misdirection plays. We have not decided between a two TE set or Trip receiver set. We have four great athletes to run it. I think the Trips set would confuse the defense, but could be problematic running the ball with less blocking. I'd like to use both and confuse the defense, but it may confuse us as well. We will also try to pass 30% of the time.