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CoachCurt

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About CoachCurt

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    http://www.WePlayFootball.com

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    Cypress Texas
  1. Here we go! All in all we had a successful season this year. We were very young at the 12-14 age bracket. I had some talent and a little bit of speed and once the kids began to believe in the system the offense began to put up some points. We were involved in a whole lot of close shoot outs. With everyone returning next season we should be very strong offensively and that should allow us more practice time to spend on defense. Anyway as promised I'm reposting my playbook. I've done a bit of spit shinning to combat the rush and make the plays more productive in my offensive philosophy. I've also barrowed the Center sweep from CoachRob. I was really impressed with the video. Flag_Playbook_Ultimate_Offense.ppt
  2. NFL 5 on 5 is a little better at 12-14 and it's a tough age bracket. I can't imagine having 10yr olds playing in this division. I'm coaching this division this season and most of my kids are still 11 and will turn 12 before Sept 1 well after the season ends (my oldest player is 13). It was really tough for them to adjust to the size and speed of the older teams. The first half of the season we really struggled. We lost most of the games before we ever took the field because my young team was so psyched out. We finally had a little success in the last half the regular season and the kids began to display that Big Dog attitude. While we only picked up one regular season win we were not laying eggs down the stretch and were in ever game down to the final play. We started tournament play Friday night as the bottom seed and took the #1 seed to a 6-6 tie(they beat us 34-6 in the regular season our worst loss). We ended the weekend 2-1-0 and are still alive in tournament play. So these things can be over come. You just have to have confidence in your players and keep pounding what ever your philosophy is. Stay your course and hang tough. It may seem like an uphill battle, but you and your players will be better in the end.
  3. Also check the speed of your snap. A center that is slow on the snap will burn valuable time. A fast 14 year old kid will cover 7 yards in the blink of an eye. You do not have time to waste!
  4. Many young players lock up during game time situations due to the fear of making mistakes. Practice and play time offer little pressure and allow them to just have fun. The crowd and atmosphere of a game bring young players out of their comfort zones and they’re so afraid of doing the wrong thing that doing nothing seems to be a better alternative to them. The little voice that runs in all our heads is telling them things like don’t drop the ball, don’t get sucked in, and don’t miss the flag.... It very natural for them to do this. Unfortunately only experience and a few successes are going to let them quite this little dog voice and conquer their fears. There is a book out there titled Winning State Football. While the book aimed at older High School aged players I think it is a tremendous read for youth coaches and allows us to understand what is going on inside a young player’s mind. It's a quick fast read and will make any team better. All youth coaches should read this book!
  5. We are in the Houston area and started tournament play over the weekend. Of the 3 school districts we service only one elementary school has a suspected case and was closed late last week. The team comprised of 1st and 2nd graders from that school opted out of tournament play, but all the other 57 teams were in attendance.
  6. I believe that a playbook is a highly effective teaching tool to help a coach implement his plan of attack on opposing defenses. I don't put in all that time and effort in creating, polishing and editing a playbook to keep it under raps like some top secrete government document. While I do not want to make my playbook public record for my opponents, what’s the use if it's not being used for its intended purpose? I've tried several different outlets to make the playbook available to teams I’ve coached from printing and handing them out (I do not recommend this it gets lost or destroyed). The safest and most effective was posting them on a team website that allowed players and parents to review the documents on line but they could not print them and the files were password protected keeping my opponents from getting them (I used this during several tackle seasons). For flag I just send out an electronic file to each player’s home email address. I make it very clear early in the season that the amount of success we have as a team and that a player has individually hinges on the amount of extra time he or she puts into learning what formation the offense is in, where they belong in the formation and what route they should run when the ball is snapped. The sooner we can master the basics of the play the sooner we can begin to break down the plays and work on some of the more intricate parts of the play. Our league is very competitive starting at the 9-11 age bracket on up. We have a few teams that have been together since they were 5 and 6. That’s why it’s important to me for my offense to know every play we are going to run during a game. Reach out to player and parent to put in a little work each week and it will pay dividends for your team. Your right you’re not going to get every kid and parent to spend extra time away from practice working on their game. However if you can get a proportionate number of kids spending some extra time on play structure and responsibility you will be in a lot better shape come game time. If you’re coaching kids that have played together in your system from year to year you're lucky. However if you have a group of players that are new to your scheme and each other your going to struggle as they learn your system. Why not do everything you can do to put your best foot forward? With limited practice times and limited resources (class room and film) in youth football, even if an opponent has my playbook how much time can he effectively spend trying to learn my system as opposed to learning his own? Execute your playbook efficiently and effectively and it shouldn’t matter whether an opponent has your playbook or not. Now it may screw with your head a little, OK it would screw with my head a lot if another team has my playbook. If we are confident in our playbooks and our teams know what their responsibilities are we should be just fine.
  7. What I have found is that most kids pick up the zone play quickly and most can play it effectively. You may get a safety that that bites on a play action pass or short pass too quickly and he gets burned over the top from time to time, but those things are to be expected as long as they are not a constant problem. Solid opponents are going to make plays. The key is put pressure on the QB and stay in your zone. Kids understand that and play it well (usually). I prefer 2-2-1 when playing a team that we know can not through deep (sending 2 rushers – speed guys). When playing a team that can air it out I like a 2-1-2 (aggressive guys on the corners 1 rusher – I’ll give speed here and move my speed guys to safety). I have seen a lot of different zone coverage played by many different age groups and most work well. Unless there is a complete mismatch in talent most teams play solid zone defense and games come down to who has made the least amount of mistakes. What I find that drives a coach over the bend is flag pulling. Kids that are coming from a tackle back ground tend to believe that pulling flags is easier than it actually is. It takes a little tragedy to get through to them that it’s not as easy as it looks. As many of the other coaches have preached on many of the other threads get your defense to swarm the ball. Kids tend to believe that flags have been or will be pulled and give up on the play way to soon. Attack the ball carrier. Pull All his flags. Missed flags are where you are going to give up something cheap. Spend a lot of time on flag pulling. A missed flag will cost you a close game.
  8. That's a loaded question. There are a lot of variables that you must consider first. How old are kids? How athletic are your kids? How disciplined are your kids? What are your opponent’s tendencies? Primarily run? Primarily pass?
  9. I can't see us adding any rules to the NFL rule book. This is a very competitive game most times and I believe the rules are written so they do not stifle competition. We want our teams to be able to go to any NFL regional tournament without having to adjust their game play. We would really like to see one or two of our teams playing in Orlando sometime. With the way the age brackets are set up covering 3 years you’re always going to have teams at the upper end of the age bracket, teams at the bottom of the age bracket and teams somewhere in the middle. The older teams are almost always going to have a physical competitive edge. It is what is. If you doing everything you can do as a coach and you’re out gunned so be it. Your time will come. I'm big effort and hustle guy. I truly believe if you have a good game plan and get even a young team to buy into your plan you’re going to win games. If you can take the field with a Big Dog mentality you'll be able to fight till the last possession and possibly wins games you might not ought to win. Come win or lose everybody can be proud of their effort and at the end of the day that's all you can hope for.
  10. I'm on board with everyone. The rules seem very clear to me also. We have some officials that are reading things into the Scrimmage Mode rule. As I interpret the rule it only refers to the losing team concerning possessions after a team goes up 28 point or more. I believe the rule was written to give struggling teams a few extra offensive game situation reps in hopes of avoiding the Mercy Rule in the future. It seems that some officials interpret the rule as both teams get 3 offensive possessions until the 15 minute mark of the second half. Not that its huge deal but my biggest concern is that all 5 fields that we run Saturdays be as identical as possible in calling games. The last thing we need is not to be uniform from field to field to field to field to field. You know what mean? We play by the official NFL 5 on 5 Flag rules. This is the first season that the NFL has had what I would call a really good rule book. In years past the rules were left very open ended and allowed a lot of wiggle room. I was really glad to see them put out a concise set of rules during the fall. It's definitely better! FLAG_Rule_Book_v2.pdf
  11. Please read the following rules taken directly from the NFL 5 0n 5 rule book. Mercy Rule: After one team is winning by twenty eight points or more, the losing team gets one offensive series to continue regulation play. If they do not score, the game goes into scrimmage mode playing up to the fifteen minute mark in the second half if time allows. After the fifteen minute mark, the game is over. Scrimmage Mode: The losing team gets the ball for up to three possessions. Each possession lasts until the team scores or fails to achieve the Line-To-Gain. Points do not count in final score. After three possessions the game is over. What do your leagues do in interpreting these rules? How do you interpret these rules? We run 5 fields each Saturday and can not seem to come to a general consensus of the correct interpretation of the rules.
  12. It's really not that younger kids can not kick the ball down field; it's the lack of hang time. In a quality kicking game the ball is kicked high as well as long and hangs in the air giving the cover guys’ time to get down field. I have yet to see someone on the youth level achieve this. At best all you can really hope for is to kick away from the return man and get a big bounce. Most teams are not lucky enough to have but a few burners on their team, which leaves gapping holes in kicking teams’ coverage giving the return team several easy lanes to return a kick. I watch 50 or so youth tackle games (100+ flag games) every season and more instances than not, punts lead to big returns. I preach field position to these guys all season long at every coaches meeting. I have yet to have a coach employ a proper punt and try to pin another team back deep in there own territory. Almost 10 out 10 times when inside the 30 teams will try and convert on 4th down. Something inside that youth coach will not let him punt. Ego I think. I really can’t say that as league administrator that I would consider punting for flag games even if we played 8 0n 8 with min. contact. Too much of a liability in my opinion.
  13. In flag play we do not punt. We play by NFL 5 on 5 flag rule. In tackle our youngest age bracket the Rookie level (3rd and small 4th graders) does not punt or kick off. The ball is spotted on the 35 (100 yard field). The Jr. Pro level (4th graders and small 5th graders) punt, kick off and kick extra points. No rush or fakes during a punt and extra points. The Pro level (5th & 6th graders) punts and kicks off and kicks extra points. No rush or fakes during a punt and extra points. Very few teams at the Jr. Pro level have what I would call a successful kicking game. Usually just about a 10 yard difference in field position if they are lucky. Most teams can not spend enough practice time on special teams’ coverage and we have a lot of big returns because of a short low kick. Depending on field position many teams will just go for it on 4th down and not take the chance of giving up the big return. On kick offs they tend attempt a lot of on sides kicks because the ball is batted down by the front line most times anyway.
  14. Our league is pretty much the same only coaches that have passed a back ground check and certification are allowed on the sideline. NFL flag rules are 3 max. It's been a while since I've worked with the really little guys, but as I remember if not engaged they have about a 30 sec. attention span. Out of a group of 10 kids your instigators should be around 3-4 max. Try separating the group you have the most trouble with. Find ways to keep most rambunctious kids engaged when not on the field. A little extra coaching may do them some good anyway. Try giving them little jobs on the sideline. Keeping up with the clock Keeping up with down and distance Not that I would rely on their information, but you could make them feel useful. Imposing martial law on the sidelines may not be all that effective. I would find it easier to engage the kids somehow.
  15. Do you rotate kids in and out on offence and defense or do you mainly run the same 5 on each? How many coaches do you have on the sideline with you?
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