dal71 0 Report post Posted April 25, 2015 Hi,I'm a new coach working with a team of 7-9 year olds. I'm trying to figure out how to get their passing game going and I have a very basic question. Do you recommend trying to teach the QB to hit kids on the run or telling the receivers to run to a spot and wait there?The former seems tough for kids this ago to pull off. But the latter doesn't seem likely to work unless the QB gets the ball out very quickly. The defenses aren't so clueless that they'll just let a kid stand around open for a few seconds until the QB notices him.How have others handled this?Thanks in advance for any advice.P.S. Rules: Five on five, QB can't run nor can defense rush until five seconds after the snap. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coach Rob 26 Report post Posted April 29, 2015 A lot will depend upon the skill sets of your players. I'm sure you'll find some that can catch a pass on the run and others who are still developing that skill. My advice is to make sure you breakdown teaching how to catch a pass to your players in a few progression drills. Passing in pairs about 8- 10 ft apart making sure they look the ball in their hands. Have a contest to see how many passes a team can make before someone messes up. Line up the kids and have the coaches throw passes to them. High, low, off to one side. Emphasize using the hands to catch and keeping their eyes on the ball. From there you can run basic short routes and progressively add a few longer ones.I've found that at the younger ages (again, depending upon your player's abilities) it's better to keep the routes short and basic. If your QB's can look one way, come back and throw the other, even if it's just looking a little bit the opposite way first, that usually works too. Catching on the run won't be as crucial in the beginning as I doubt you'll run across teams that have super tight M2M coverage. If you have a QB/wide receiver that seem to connect on longer passes, I'd definitely go for those once in a while, but the shorter passes will probably result in less dropped balls and more success all around. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites