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Leslie

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  1. I am not a big fan of changing wholesale on the defense. Look at it this way. If you use a second team offense and the kids can't block or run, you are three and out; however, if your second team defense can't play their position and/or tackle, you will most likely give up a score. I agree with you. When I say D-line I mean just those 4 down linemen (the tackles), the other 7 players stay intact they start defense and only come out if they are injured. In Gap 8 those 4 D-line kids are "fill the “hole" kids and when you tell them that and work them hard at that they do well. They know who they go in with and we try to balance each of the 3 lines equally. We have turned them all into great tacklers and they now how to squeak through the small holes too. They get beat up and beat up hard, and all our D-line guys weigh 1/2 as much as the O-line we play against but they have tremendous pride. We have NEVER had any of the teams successfully run up the middle when we gap the middle. Even if the kid gets bowled over they have stopped the ball carrier from having a hole to run through. They get real low and penetrate 50% of the time too. We currently have 9 we call the little guys (less than 45lbs or so) and they have come so far and are so proud of themselves. They recently learned to gang tackle too. Since they play a minimum of 1/3 of the time defense is on the field they all average 20 plays or so and are fired up. They will all turn 8 and grow and return next year too and have game experience. Leslie
  2. We have the same and what we do is start them in lines. We took all our small (very small we have 9 kids in the under 50lbs range) non-experienced players on the D-line and call them D1, D2 and D3. Since we run a Gap8 it is working well because they plug the holes and occasionally get in there. That rotates 12 players though for us. We try to make them balanced but with one bigger line up in D3 for goal stoppage. So with 22 starting spots we have 4 kids play both ways (the offensive backfield who in turn play DE and CB positions. That leaves 14 slots. The 5 down linemen and 2 TE on offense play one way. That leaves 7 slots. The 2 ILB and Free Safety play one way leaving the 4 slots. We take the 12 kids that get 1/3 of defensive play time slots on all the special teams and sub them elsewhere when we can. I wish we would have had the size to have an O-1 and O-2 instead of 3 D-lines. I would capitalize on the 8 players playing offense as down linemen having an O-1 and an O-2. The 5 that only play defense play only there why? Because they are small? If so I would have them fill in your gaps. I would take the top 3-4 kids that you really need to play to have a stronger team and make them the QB and backfield on offense and the power positions on Defense like DE. Then fill your other slots accordingly, like the 2 TE, the Center, the Free Safety etc. Who ever is left are D-linemen, D-1 and D-2. So when you call O-2 or D-1 the right kids come running with little chaos. Remember they are 7-9 though so they need a lot of reminders ) If I did my math right you would be able to rotate 16 kids through O-1, O-2, D-1 and D-2 using 8 slots. You would use the stud 4 kids in 8 more slots. That would leave 5 slots for the other 7 kids. Hope this makes sense I am such a nerd when it comes to planning and keeping it simple. I do not like being distracted while trying to coach and this has worked GREAT for us. Good Luck Leslie
  3. Jack and others who have posted I need some advice again. I need some practice ideas as we have only 2 practices left then a game on Saturday and playoffs on Monday. Quick summary, we are playing a Gap 8 with a lot of small young kids, 7-9 years old. We play all our smaller and less inexperienced kids on the D-Line and they fill gaps well forcing plays to the outside where we have our talent. We are kind of playing the Pro Formation for Offense. We still do not have offense hammered out yet and this a weakness. No playbooks. I have been Asst. Coaching for about 4-5 weeks now. Our Head Coach is great guy 1st year tackle coach after a lot Flag. He is wonderful with the kids but isn’t a planner. We try to play all our kids. We are now 1-6 but getting better each game. We played the toughest team again and we held them to ½ as many TDs. We lost 26-6. We have lost a few kids since school started to include 2 main starters, so we have made some recent adjustments. I am going to post or Ups and our downs and if you could let me know what you think would work out of what I post I would appreciate it. Ups. Gang tackling is working. We are small and they are big. When we gang tackle the ball carriers are slowing down now because they are getting stopped and are getting hit. We had a tendency to just have a 1 person tackle before and have worked this. We moved a good TE to CB as well and he did great. The DE on his side is struggling just like my son did and is engaging and not boxing for the Gap 8. I think this CB could move to DE and box because he has no old habits and the bigger faster DE when moved to CB could help shut that sweep down. Still getting beat on the outside we hold for 3 downs then somehow they get around us. Thoughts? We caused a lot of turnovers by lining the 4 D-Linemen up big (though big is relative for us with such tiny kids) small big, small. This is causing much more penetration than big to the outside small to the inside. Moved the Center to one of the rotations of the 3 D-lines due to less kids and he is causing turnovers. Our one monster kid who plays O-Line got moved to one rotation as well and at 8 and 5’ and 120 pounds the kid now realizes he can actually tackle and hit ) One of the 3 backs finally gets turn and shoulder down. My son gets this already but is used mostly as a blocker. If we could get theother kid to do this too we would be golden. Needs Improvement Our FS is afraid to hit again, I don’t know why…He was finally good and now is he is scared again. He is fast and wraps well he just goes through periods of fear and the fear is back. He actually does better at CB but we need him more at FS. He also REFUSED to go in for an injured RB My son got moved form DE to CB because he just could not stop reading plays and make the L. He is still taking to dang long to get in there. How far do you commit your CB to the backfield at this age when there is not a pass play. I showed him the tape of him not getting in there and he seems to get it. Having great difficulty to get our talented kids to play DE and play it correctly for Gap 8. Some kids are diving again uggg. I have no idea what to do about one of our bigger kids who plays D-Line. We moved him from Offense to Defense already. He is just soft. He is a big kid with a lot of potential but he is petrified. He comes out hurt now and he isn’t even hurt because he is that scared. I work with him each practice and it is honestly getting worse. Lots of fumbles and a center that doesn’t want to play center again. Thoughts for offense because we are just not making the drives up field again. I am suggesting this to our coach. We need some fakes as we don’t fake at all. A few things that may work would be: 1. Put the 2 Back (My kid) up just off the line and they begin to anticipate him blocking send him for a long pass. He can really catch about anything that is thrown to him long. 2. Try the 2 Back on a sweep and then have him pitch it outside to the 3 Back or Back/Receiver as he pitches well and that should get them outside and while the D is after the 2 Back. 3. We have to get 3 Back to turn the corner sooner. The other Back/Receiver finally did it this game and it shows. Shoulder down and turn the corner. We missed some big holes. And how do I politely suggest you quit using my kid to block just because he does it well. He is very frustrated he is not getting the ball anymore. He is Earl Campbell kind of kid who makes good yardage every carry with guys hanging off him. He is a bulldog. The other backs just don’t block and are faster than him but not by much. He ran a KR back for over 30 years up the middle and caught 1 screen pass for good yardage but that was it for the game. If you read this far thanks. I think we stand a chance of winning our wildcard if we can tweak the offense and commit the outside defense. We are having poor turnouts at practice and we struggle with the how do you practice the defense key kids when they are the Offensive back field? Leslie
  4. I respect that a great deal. I think we can scare and hurt these little guys and some may not return. I absolutely would never want to see anyone hurt intentionally. Sometimes when I use the word “popped” or the like I don’t see how others may interpret this. We are a rook team of 7-9 year olds without weight limits. In our case we are playing Gap 8 and we have what we call #1, #2 and #3 D-line. 7 of them weigh less than 45 pounds. 3 weigh about 50lbs and the other 2 probably 60 pounds. We are a very small team. We have 3 kids that play both ways out of 25 those kids play RB/FB and DE and 1 of the CB. We have a starting O-line and a starters at the Free Safety and ILB. These 11-12 kids get rotated through the 4 D-line and one of the CB spots. I clarified that to say when I say a "big guy" popping the nose guard that the biggest ones weigh about 60lbs and are about 40 pounds lighter than any of the starting centers. I am thinking that if I take the 2 biggest kids, the 60 lb kids and put one as a nose guard and line the other up right behind him. I am thinking if the 60 pounder lines up half a step off his gap and pops the Center than the other guy can get through better and possibly disrupt the play. We are a young very light team and are losing pretty consistently to much older and bigger teams. We are laying a foundation for next year more than anything, and though we have lost we are always in there and we get complimented for our sportsmanship and for the fact that all our kids play. Thanks! Leslie
  5. I am a bit confused. Why would you separate practice at all? You have 1 team. If you are worried the little guys need extra attention recruit an assistant coach who can spend extra time with these guys while you work the offense on plays. With 18 kids on the roster I think each and everyone of them would both practice and play as 1 team. If you start your best 5 kids and play them both ways that leaves 12 other full time players. Even if you started the best 8 that would leave 6 other full time starters and you would then have 4 subs. You may find those K kids wont come back and play for you next year if you don’t practice and play them. Football is not fun when you don’t play. My son skipped flag and was a stud CB and FS at age 5 in a 7-9 league because he was quick and didn’t have to stand still and he had a coach that believed all kids on the roster would play. Had the opposite mentality last year and only 5 out of 30 kids returned. We have 5 day a week practice here which I think is overkill but I would practice no less than 2-3 times a week as a team. I would start with the fundamentals. I would not expect this age group to understand fundamentals yet even if they played last year. We work fundamentals every practice for at least 20 minutes. As they improve we tweak. Heads up wrap better explode quicker etc. Just my 2 cents. Best of Luck. Leslie
  6. Congrats! What number in the line up is she/he. I have 2 kids both adopted and my 27lb 4 year old from China insists she will play football like her brother. She wrestles already but I am not sure what you do with less than 40 pound 7 year old which is about how much she will weigh. She is tough though ) Thanks Jack. We did better but still didn’t win. My stubborn son just cannot get out of free safety cornerback mode. When he boxed he stopped them in the backfield. Unfortunately when he held back and tried to read we got beat on a reverse twice. He is a great athlete and I don’t want to take his ability to read plays away from him but for this team right now he has to do his job. I think he finally gets it. It is the 2nd time he has played there. I told him if he cant/wont box I will move him back to CB and he does not want that he wants to do what’s best for the team. One of our Asst. Coaches insisted he coach offense and it was a disaster. It was how many times and ways can your own kid carry the ball. They were triple teaming the kid by the 2nd ½ and he persevered. We did not score at all. My son who is the up the middle guy and can pretty much guarantee a 1st down if they hand it to him twice was not played hardly at all and was used 100% as a blocker. Our Coach wont be letting that happen again. The offense fell apart under the other coach. I guess some folks will just not ever realize that yelling and screaming at 7-9 year olds really gets you less than nothing from the kids. More lessons learned. I think we have a great solid foundation for next year. 2 more games to the playoffs though so there is some hope. I am thinking of recommending the gap 8 but using almost a 7diamond approach as a secondary D. A few of the centers we play against really struggle with being hit while snapping and if we take our 1 big kid and have him pop the center hard on one shoulder and then send the 2nd middle lineman/tackle and have him follow through from behind the “nose guard” into the other gap we may stir it up. I would leave the other kids playing like a Gap8. What would be the danger here other than a little less containment up the middle? We have shut down the middle so well I don’t see a huge risk. Any thoughts? Thanks for letting me pick your brains. I think next year I will be the coach as the Head Coach now will be going back to Flag for a couple of years for his younger kiddo. Leslie
  7. We lost but scored 3 TD on the undefeated team that has shut everyone down. The Gap 8 worked really well though one of the DE had a hard time switching from CB to DE and didn’t box in enough though he saved our bacon in the back field because our starting CB and FS were not at the game. That kid was mine LOL! We showed him the game tape and he seems to now understand why it is so important for him to do his job. He is an excellent play reader and DE is not the choice position for him but it is absolutely where we need him for this team. We have the "little guys" playing a D1, D2, and D3 defensive line getting all 11 little guys played. D1 is very small but tough and gets in there. D3 isn’t as quick but it has 3 of the bigger kids on it for goal line stoppage. D2 is problematic but we can work on it. We have 1 really talented kid on this line but he is still unhappy with being on our team. He was switched from another team to us to balance things out and complains a lot. He also refused to tackle anyone when we played his old team. So now what to do with that line? It has 2 little guys that are still getting over their fear of being hit, this kid and one other kid that is hot and cold. We are still getting beat outside obviously but not nearly as much as before. We play again tonight against a team that beat us due to constant blocking in the back (we have 2 refs that I have no idea why they have yet to be removed) by 1 TD so tonight should be a better test. Do you normally play the CBs in and have them blitz when there is no pass play? Any other thoughts on how to stop the outside sweep? We are open to ideas. Thanks again. Leslie
  8. I say they need to be played. Here we have a 10 play rule; all kids must get 10 plays. If they come to practice and practice hard then warm a bench you won’t see them next year. When all your talent moves up you won’t have kids with any experience either. We had this happen last year. Kids got minimum played and out of 30 kids 5 returned. We lost kids that may never play football again because they practiced hard and were not played. I have coached sports all my life and this age of kids really don’t care if they win or lose very much as long as they are made to feel like winners and get a snack. We are currently 1-4 with some tough close call games. We have a team of 25 7-9 year olds and EVERYONE plays. We have a bunch of young small kids who come to practice and play their hearts out because they know they will play in the game. We play all our "little" guys on the front 4 D line and they are called D1, D2 and D3. That gets 12 kids played out of 25. These little guys squeak under and through the big O line and cause a lot of chaos. ) They absolutely stop the run up the middle by filling their gaps. We put out more experienced hitters outside playing Gap 8. We just switched our best and quickest hitters to DE and our lighter fast kids to CBs and the FS. We put the 2 kids that don’t have much discipline but love to hit LB. I had a thread on this last week with help and it is working. We played an undefeated team who literally has not been scored on all season and lost 46-22 Saturday. By the 4th quarter the other team was flat tired and had not played their bench. Even though the other team won you would never have thought so hearing our kids hoop and holler. We get nothing but compliments on how we play all the kids. Sometimes we as adults forget what this is all about and have to take a step back and reassess. I am going to lay odds that by the end of the season we will be in the championships because all our kids play their hearts out. Our kids are getting better every day and they function as a true team. We lose someone to an injury and it will not be devastating. My kid is one of the “studs”. He has a gift for football. He has played on a losing team that plays all players and a winning team that wins at all costs and he will tell you where he would rather be without hesitation. He almost did not come back to football this year. Had the coaching staff not turned over he would be playing baseball, his choice. He was miserable last year on a win at all costs team even though he was played it just was awful. So too much from me but it is a topic I feel very strong about. Hope it helps a bit to hear one perspective. Leslie
  9. Jack, We picked Gap 8 for its simplicity. We only have 5 kids out of 25 that have played tackle football and like I said the kids are young. We have inexperienced coaches as well. The head coach has coached flag but this is his 1st year at tackle. Most of the offense in our league use a wishbone. I do believe we have been playing our CBs too deep and that is one of the reaons why we have been getting beat outside. The little guys just arent quick enough to disnegage and get downfiled to help but they are learning. The other reason is that honestly the only 2 kids that can play an agressive containing DE were the ones we were playing at CB. We were just a bit slow to realize they needed to be moved. We have been playing quite traditionally though I do think our LB over commit and I will be talking about that tonight. to some degree they have to because our little line sometimes just cannot get through. The former CB are learning how to box and it is wroking really well in practice. They are both so quick that they often get there at the same time and the ball carrier is getting sandwiched ) I am printing the PPT slide for Gap 8 today and taking it to practice. Thanks again and any more insight is appreciated. Leslie Leslie, I use the 63 defense posted on my site. I have used it for a very long time now with really good success... Playing your corners at depth can be an issue if their not reading the correct key and moving to where they need to be. Wishbone offenses are off tackle oriented and most GAP 8 defenses are soft on the off tackle hole. I really don't prefer GAP 8 defense because I want the extra layer of defense...but with that said I know how to coach each of the positions and how to coach the coaches. Big thing with the GAP 8 is that boxing end and getting pentetration on the interior line...it basically surrounds the backfield as it reduces the space. That is what makes the GAP 8 work so well. Jack Jack, I will look at the 6 3 some more esp. if this Gap 8 gets us beat again this week. We are playing the biggest and undefeated team on Saturday. I really dont think we penetrate enough on the line but that cannot really be helped too much right now. They stuff the holes and our talent is on the outside. I am am really not sure how well our new CBs will do with the read. We also have to get our little fast free safety over his fear. I think he is beginning to realize no one will hit him harder than our 2 talented kids and is starting to suck it up and wrap tighter. He has potential. One of our CB is afraid to hit a bit and that also concerns me but we are trying to balance it out. Thanks again! Leslie
  10. I am new to the forum but dont dismiss kids that wont hit. It is our job to remove the fear. Please start with tackling dummies then work up to half speed drills then on to harder hitting. So many of these kids will hit once they gain confidence in their equipment. We had a coach last year that constantly did full speed tackling drills without teaching the basics and the kids were terrified to hit against the bigger harder hitting kids. He also played only the best players. What did we get back this year, 5 returners our of lamost 30 eligible kids. So many of those kids never overcame their fear and never got played they will never play again. This year we have tons of little kids that have never played ball and half way through the season with a lot of practice they have gone from one of those kids, to kids who volunteer to line up against are RB and you hear pads pop. We are working our way through the Gap 8 Defense and it is really starting to work for us and it is super simple too. Dont forget Michael Jordan was cut from his highschool basketball team. ) Good Luck! Leslie
  11. Jack, We picked Gap 8 for its simplicity. We only have 5 kids out of 25 that have played tackle football and like I said the kids are young. We have inexperienced coaches as well. The head coach has coached flag but this is his 1st year at tackle. Most of the offense in our league use a wishbone. I do believe we have been playing our CBs too deep and that is one of the reaons why we have been getting beat outside. The little guys just arent quick enough to disnegage and get downfiled to help but they are learning. The other reason is that honestly the only 2 kids that can play an agressive containing DE were the ones we were playing at CB. We were just a bit slow to realize they needed to be moved. We have been playing quite traditionally though I do think our LB over commit and I will be talking about that tonight. to some degree they have to because our little line sometimes just cannot get through. The former CB are learning how to box and it is wroking really well in practice. They are both so quick that they often get there at the same time and the ball carrier is getting sandwiched ) I am printing the PPT slide for Gap 8 today and taking it to practice. Thanks again and any more insight is appreciated. Leslie
  12. Thanks! Our undersized line men have come a long way. They have learned to squeak through and are tough little guys that love the game. As I said to Jack, we put them in groups of 4, 3 sets and have tried to match up 2 fierce ones, 1 that doesn’t really want to be there anyway, and one of the bigger ones that are not as aggressive but have a bit more size. Our head coach is pretty sold on the Gap 8. We sometimes run a 6-2 with what we call our Monster D. We only have 3 kids that play both ways and have 25 kids. All kids must get 10 plays and we try hard to get them more than that. They area young small team who will come back and play their hearts out next year if they get play time and have fun. When we run the 6-2 it is normally on goal line and we put some of the larger and a bit more experienced kids in. We could keep some of these other kids in both ways and probably have a stronger D but it is important to us to instill the love of the game in the kids and kids don’t get that by being benched. The 6-2 works well for us on goal line. We have not had single TD scored on us that wasn’t a break away. We consistently stop them early and they don’t get a chance to drive often if you know what I mean. Both of the DE are experienced and read really well. I will definitely throw some things in tonight to try to see if they penetrate too deep and get beaten. One of our CB is our fastest kid and really likes to hit, and both DE are very fast so if they miss it and runner gets through as long as someone slows them down a bit I feel we can make the tackle. I hope. Thanks again. Leslie
  13. Coach, In a gap 8 or any 10 man front the DE's have contain not the OLB's. They normally are taught to BOX in. If you need a reference for a boxing end go to www.gregorydoublewing.com and click on articles and then scroll down to the 63 DEFENSE in it is a section that goes through a READ, CRASH, and BOX DE. I would also take a look at the section that discusses Shooting the Side Line. This is how we handle defending the outside (sweeps, option, screens, and quick throws). Jack Jack, I think I used the wrong terminology. We have 4 on the line. Since they are so small we often have them cover the gap to keep the offense from running up the middle and have had good success there. Some of them are tough enough to get through and cause some chaos back there though. We put them in sets of 4, 3 sets. They are all our little inexperienced players and we are trying to make sure they all get fair play time without hampering us too much. They are great kids who love the game right now and that counts for a lot. Then on each end of them we have what I was calling inside linebackers that box in or penetrate. They are taught to make the tackle on the ball carrier and if they miss it the DE will contain. Then what I was calling outside line backers are truly the defensive ends and they do box in each time or will. We have been teaching them that all week. It is a bit of change for them because they were CB but seem to be adjusting well and are getting the ball carrier in the back field. We have cornerbacks on each side then a free safety in the backfield. Thanks for refreshing my quite tired brain. I will go there and read some more today. What I found there is quite informative. When you play the Gap 8 do you move your DE based on the offenses formation at this age level? We have the CB follwoing the receivers or TE if they go wide. We rarely have an offense that puts out 2 receivers at this age so it leaves the other CB and Free Safety able to catch the sweep that breaks away. Thanks! Leslie
  14. Coach, In a gap 8 or any 10 man front the DE's have contain not the OLB's. They normally are taught to BOX in. If you need a reference for a boxing end go to www.gregorydoublewing.com and click on articles and then scroll down to the 63 DEFENSE in it is a section that goes through a READ, CRASH, and BOX DE. I would also take a look at the section that discusses Shooting the Side Line. This is how we handle defending the outside (sweeps, option, screens, and quick throws). Jack
  15. These are Rooks from 7-9 years old, most being very light 7-8 year olds. We are 1-3. Only one game was a blow out the others have been really close and 2 TD out. We are by far the smallest team in the league. Our Defensive Linemen top in at about 50lbs ) My son and the QB are the 2 fastest and larger players we have. They are both around 70lbs. We do have 3 larger kids that play offensive line. We have about 25 kids total. Our Head Coach moved up from Flag and I love that he plays ALL our kids. I have coached a lot through the years but never tackle football but love the game and played flag football in the Army which is really tackle without pads. Our 2 assistant coaches are not experienced and a bit to hands off and focus on their kids but they are there so no big complaints. This leaves me subbing the kids in and out and making sure they know where to go. Now on to my question thanks for hanging in there. We have been running a Gap 8 and have been getting beaten on the outside. We constantly stop the run up the middle. We think now it is mostly because our 2 quickest and hardest hitters were playing Corner Back and the Outside Linebackers were not containing. One good block to the CB and the ball carrier was gone. Our Free Safety obviously needed some work too. One of the OLB (probably the wrong acronym) hits hard but is a bit slow and the other one is light and fast but not all that disciplined. We moved them inside. We keep the most aggressive little guys on the line that we have. I kid you not though they weigh about 45 pounds. We moved both CB to the OLB spots and at practice the containment is there. Unfortunately the team is new and young and the experienced players don’t get much opposition during practice when practicing D because they play O too KWIM? We moved our 2 light free safeties to CB and have been drilling them with tackling basics esp for that position another not quite so fast kid to Free Safety. Will this contain? Any thoughts or ideas? The kids are having a blast and next year they will be a force to be reckoned with I am sure
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