439 replies to this topic

[Orange]

Lots of great questions. I'll answer them in no particular order.

As for switching players my system is very simple and effective. I divide my team into two groups evenly. In the first half one group plays offense and the other group plays defense. In the second half they switch so now the offensive group plays defense and the defensive group plays offense. That way everyone gets approximately the same time on offense and defense and I don't have to worry about subbing in and out. I make sure that each group has a mixture of players that have strengths and weaknesses spread out so that both groups are equally capable. When the numbers are not equal I still split them but then make up the difference from the group on the sideline. So since we're 6-on-6 and lets say I have 9 show up I split them 5 and 4. When my group of 4 is on the field I pull 2 from the group on the sideline for that series, trying to mix it up.

Our age group doesn't allow a rusher but if it did I'd send one every play. He has to be very fast and understand how to contain. The most dangerous play in flag football is the qb scramble. Teach it to your qbs and incorporate it into your offense as a set play. Make sure you understand the rules, it's likely that the qb cannot run until the rusher crosses the line of scrimmage. Also with a rusher you might want to do a shotgun snap. We take all snaps directly under center since a fumbled exchange equals a loss of down and lost yards. But with a rusher you can give your qb a few more yards to escape in shotgun.

As for zones, one versus the other you kind of have to see what the other team is trying to run and adjust. I'd say typically we were in a 3 1 2 but the last game they kept running so I went with a 4 2 zone and it stopped it. Another team that tried to throw it long made us switch to a 3 3 and I've said it before that one or two teams would key on one receiver so we just played him man with everyone else in zone. Have a standard zone but adjust as necessary.

From watching the games and my own research, it seems that some basic things to emphasize would be:

-Stay on your feet when catching a ball or flag pulling.

Yes, especially when flag pulling keep the feet moving.

-Swarm the flag.

If your team does this well they'll be very tough defensively. You cannot emphasize this enough.

-Keep running when you have the ball and someone pulls at your flag, don't slow down and look to see if they pulled it. Only stop when you hear a whistle.

True. This needs to be mentioned and taught because the tendancy is to stop. Another thing is if your flag falls off prior to you catching the ball. In our league you have to be tagged when you have no flag. You don't want them to stop running if on offense or worse not try to tag the opponent on defense. Make sure you and your team understand that rule.

-Watch the ball into your hands.

That's a basic catching technique but you should make sure it's understood in drills.

_????

Lots of other things but I'd also emphasize flag pulling. Have the players rake at the belt and not just the flag. The flags typically fly around and are sometimes hard to pull. The belt is relatively stationary and comes off just as easy. Have them work on positioning and not only pulling the flags but getting in the way of the ball carrier so he has to slow down allowing an easier pull and time for the teammates to get in the area.

[Orange]

My practices have evolved as the team has become more focused and I work on things I see need attention during the games. I'll give you the outline from my last practice first. I always write it down as its easy to lose track of what you want to do while you're in the middle of it.

5 minutes - movement drills. I use a large square say 20 yards by 20 yards. The kids line up. They sprint to the first corner, then sidestep left to the next corner, backpedal to the next corner and finally sidestep right to where they began. We might do this twice.

15 minutes - flag pulling. I use a rectangle about 10 yards wide and 20 yards long. At one short end I line everyone up with a flag and a ball. At the other short end stands a defender. One by one they have to try to run past the defender and cross the line. They cannot step out of bounds. If the defender forces them to slow down significantly, pulls their flag or they step out of bounds he wins. If not the ball carrier wins. I stand behind the defender and compliment or correct him on just about every flag pull. Usually I can run this through twice with 11 guys. Sometimes I'll have them just use positioning (no flag pulling) one time, asking them to merely impede the runner so he has to slow down or hopefully stop.

10 minutes - patterns. We run through all the patterns in the playbook. I emphasize distance and where they should cut and end up. We go over and over the few patterns until I feel confident they have it down.

10 minutes - patterns with passing/ catching. Same thing as above but we have a kid throwing the ball to them. Here we're more focused on the short 1-2 yard drags and crosses and the qb rolling with the receiver as that's what we mainly run in the games.

10 minutes - offensive plays. We run through the plays with no defense. I'll call the plays in a huddle and they execute just like in a game situation. I try to go at game speed since we only have 30 seconds to get the play off.

10+ minutes - scrimmage. If numbers are uneven I grab an older brother or two (there are usually a few hanging around the field) and have them play defense.

[Orange]

As I mentioned my practices have evolved as my team understands many things now they didn't at the start of the season. I'll give you some other drills I think helped earlier and even last year. First off I like to start with drills they can do singularly or one-on-one. Then I move to drills that require more participation but not all the moving parts. Towards the end of practice I like to put it all together. I really like scrimmages for any team but especially one you're trying to teach and learn about. Things will become obvious when you scrimmage so do at least 15-20 minutes for the first few practices.

Various drills:

Catching and throwing one-on-one. Start them close and work with them on technique.

Defensive swarming. Preach this in all scrimmages over and over. Call out the ones who don't do it and congratulate the ones that go all the way across the field even if they never end up in the play. I ran a little drill where I'd stand in front of them with a ball and they'd all backpedal, sidestep, etc on my command. Then suddenly I'd yell swarm and they'd all chase after the ball (don't throw it or you'll get a pileup). After you yell swarm try to watch for stragglers and call them out.

Coverage drills. Funny I haven't run one of these all year but they seemed so important last year. Basically teaching man-to-man coverage. You can work this several ways but having a qb and receiver and one or two cover guys is a good one.

Defensive theory. I lecture on zone, staying home, angles of pursuit. I'll set the kids up in positions and have them stand there and ask/ tell them what to do in various situations. Get them to thinking about where to go and what to do.

Center/ qb exchange. Had all kids work on this. We're directly under center but if you run shotgun you're going to want to work on this.

Hanoffs. Don't assume this will go smoothly. Practice over and over the exchange. You have to tell the qb where to put the ball and how to turn, how the runner should clutch the ball. I want my end around to go full speed. When we don't practice this they get cautious and slow or end up dropping the ball. When that end around hits full speed it's great. When it comes slow it's easier for the defense to anticipate and get it. And a fumbled ball is a loss of down, never a good thing.

As for the most fun, I ask my kids this throughout the year. They almost universally say they love scrimmaging. I try to get in at least 10 minutes of scrimmage each practice.

[davecisar]

I see most of what you flag youth football guys are talking about is about ofense and offensive skill development.
We have a flag youth football season in the Spring for our tackle kids.
While we have had the highest scoring offense in the league in each of the last 6 seasons. we put our defense in first.
In Flag that means getting very good at pulling flags. We use many of our regular tackling drills with flag pulling rather than tackling. We do lots of form work and angle tackling as well as open field tackling.
The kids have to get very proficient at pulling flags, getting in the correct pursuit angle and tackling in the open field. Our kids rarely missed anything within arms length and most of our opponents were held to no first half points, while we averaged in the high 30s.
Winningyouthfootball.com

[Coach Rob]

My practices have evolved as the team has become more focused and I work on things I see need attention during the games.

Had my first practice today, it went well, all things considered. Used a lot of your suggestions, thanks again.

Couple of questions. We're required to rotate all players in all positions, which after running a few plays today, I can see this will be a huge challenge. Seems that you have to pick 3-4 pass routes and have everyone get those down so they all know how to run each pattern. When I called plays today (at the end of practice), they nodded their heads when asked if they knew which route to run, but I could see the plays turn into funk as soon as the ball was snapped. Can't imagine running any kind of misdirection running play with a fake to one back and handing off to the other. I'm trying to figure out the best way to make sure they know the plays in the limited amount of practice time we have. 10 minutes doesn't seem like enough time for everyone to get pass routes or running plays down.

The other problem I ran into was the kids asking to be QB or wanting to be the receiver who ended up with the ball. It looks like I'm going to have to keep track of who has been QB and who's received the passes. Don't see any other way to make sure everyone is feeling like they're getting enough "ball touches".

When you called plays, did you tell the QB who to look for as a primary receiver? Seems that if you have everyone run routes and leave it up to the QB to find the open person, you're asking for trouble. Especially in our league where there's a rush coming from 7 yards out. The other challenge is if I keep the kids in the same position (which makes sense from a practical standpoint to help them get in a groove of where to line up each time), then I'd have to make sure to run plays to all the different receiver positions each offensive possession. I'd like to have the flexibility of running the center drag twice in a row and just switch players in the center position, rather than try and keep track of which position hasn't had the ball yet. Thoughts?

Defense - We play 5 on 5, so a 2 1 2 zone seems like the way to go. The only concern is usually the 1 is your pass rusher which leaves the middle open every time. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks!

CRob

[Orange]

Had my first practice today, it went well, all things considered. Used a lot of your suggestions, thanks again.

Couple of questions. We're required to rotate all players in all positions, which after running a few plays today, I can see this will be a huge challenge. Seems that you have to pick 3-4 pass routes and have everyone get those down so they all know how to run each pattern. When I called plays today (at the end of practice), they nodded their heads when asked if they knew which route to run, but I could see the plays turn into funk as soon as the ball was snapped. Can't imagine running any kind of misdirection running play with a fake to one back and handing off to the other. I'm trying to figure out the best way to make sure they know the plays in the limited amount of practice time we have. 10 minutes doesn't seem like enough time for everyone to get pass routes or running plays down.

You should only have a few pass plays. Post, flag, down and in and hook. I'd line them up in a few lines and have them run them over and over. Do it without throwing them the ball. Specify exactly the distance and where to cut. Use cones or something on the field to help them run it a few times then take it away so they can run it without it. On your playbook you might even want to write the name of the pattern next to the play for double emphasis in the huddle. Since your team is new you might want to spend more than 10 minutes a practice for now. And during the game, the patterns will vary quite a bit, they are only 7-8. It's just a matter of being familiar and repitition.

[Orange]

The other problem I ran into was the kids asking to be QB or wanting to be the receiver who ended up with the ball. It looks like I'm going to have to keep track of who has been QB and who's received the passes. Don't see any other way to make sure everyone is feeling like they're getting enough "ball touches".

This became a real problem for us. On every play, everyone was open and was upset that they didn't get the ball. It was so much of a problem that we coaches were bombarded in the huddle, sidelines and during practice. I was forced to impliment a simple rule. If you ask/ complain/ etc during the huddle or game you immediately have to sit out for 2 plays. It sounds harsh but the problem was instantly cleared up. I enforced it more in practice so I didn't have to during the games. I did however tell the players that they could ask me anything they wanted at the end of practice or the end of games. That was my time to discuss anything they wanted like getting the ball or playing a certain position.

As for tracking who got how many touches, I can tell you what I did. My goal, as stated was simply to make sure every kid got >= one touch per game. Some kids would get more, some less. I didn't write it down or really need to as I could remember who got a chance. I think in football that's the best you can do.

As for who plays qb, I gave them all chances in practice. In theory I wanted many of them to get a chance in the game. In execution I ended up playing 2 kids a majority of the time and would work in maybe two others towards the end of the halfs.

[Orange]

When you called plays, did you tell the QB who to look for as a primary receiver?

YES. I only had two plays where the qb had more than one option to throw to and even on those plays I'd tell them who to watch for. In practice there were a few times where the qb had to improvise when the play went the wrong way. We strongly complimented our guys when they did that, taking things into their own hands.

The other challenge is if I keep the kids in the same position (which makes sense from a practical standpoint to help them get in a groove of where to line up each time), then I'd have to make sure to run plays to all the different receiver positions each offensive possession. I'd like to have the flexibility of running the center drag twice in a row and just switch players in the center position, rather than try and keep track of which position hasn't had the ball yet. Thoughts?

I solved this by creating similar plays for every position. The slot drag and wideout shuffle pass plays are all basically the same. Instead of dragging with the center, the qb waits for and drags with the receiver. I'd prescript my plays too with like 7-8 plays. I'd run them in that order the whole game and they were prescripted such that each of the positions were targeted. Example:
play 1 end around left to right wideout
play 2 center drag right
play 3 slot drag left to right slot receiver
play 4 shuffle pass right to left wideout

That's just a quick example to show how you can mix it up. If the series ended on play 3, let's say we scored, then our next possesion I'd start on play 4. Once I got to the end I'd just start over. There were certain situations where I'd call a certain play but I basically stuck with the scripted plan. This allowed me to get all the positions the ball and have the kids in basically the same spots, at least for a series or two.

[Orange]

Defense - We play 5 on 5, so a 2 1 2 zone seems like the way to go. The only concern is usually the 1 is your pass rusher which leaves the middle open every time. Any thoughts on that?

You'll have to pick your poison, it's the same at every level. While I think you can be very successful with running just a 2 1 2 zone and no rush I would think that you'd want to pressure the qb as much as possible. Can the qb run when you rush? Can he run when you don't rush? That would make a difference to me.

Let's assume that you want to rush every time. If you can trust your safety that he's fast and can close and go after the ball, then you could maybe get away with one deep. Have him play deep and just shadow the QB sideline to sideline. Take the other and play him also in the middle with the qb and move him side to side. But honestly, I'd say that due to the distances the kids can throw (or lack of) the safeties in a pair can close quickly enough for stuff over the middle. The corners, well they aren't truly corners. Have them play over the slot receiver position maybe on the outside shoulder of where the slot guy should be. They'll also be able to cheat over and cover on the middle routes.

With your safties and corners playing zone they will be staring at the qb. That will give them a huge advantage in coverage. There are not 7-8 year olds who can pick apart a defense AND receivers that can catch well enough that precise passes are a threat.

I'd initially go with the 2 1 2, the middle guy being your rusher, your corners not truly corners but closer in towards the slot and the safeties splitting the middle. If the qb can only run when you rush, rush him and see what he does. If he's a good runner and starts beating you for yardage, stunt the rusher; meaning have him start from 7 yards back, run to the line of scrimmage and then don't rush. The qb will be waiting for him to rush and become confused. Then have the rusher drop back in the middle and then maybe have him rush after the qb begins looking for receivers. Mix it up. I'm very confident that a straight 2 1 2 zone with no rush (assuming the qb cannot run) will be an awesome defense so don't be afraid to fall back to it.

[Coach Rob]

Had our first game today, lost 30-20. It's good to have the first one out of the way, I see several things I need to do. Couple of questions though. The league I play in promotes everyone rotating in every position which makes sense to me. The problem is if you're going to keep score and have a playoff at the end of the season, it throws a whole different light on things. The team we played today used the same 2 QBs almost the entire game and hooked up between the same two players quite often. They were definitely the two best players on their team. I rotated all my players (had 8 today) in at QB at least 2 times each. I also made sure everyone either rushed or was a receiver at least once in the game, several even had 2 ball touches.

This is going to be a struggle for me, because I have 3 QBs that rock and could've easily dominated this team by using the same strategy they did. We gave up 12 points on interceptions thrown by kids who aren't really cut out for QB.

Here's what I'm thinking. I have to create specific plays for my weaker QBs like a simple handoff and leave the more complicated plays for my better QBs. Only way I can think of doing it so I can save time in the huddle is actually writing their names on the positions and plays. That way, if Joe is one of my weaker QBs and my stats guy is telling me he needs to play QB because he hasn't yet, then I can pull his specific play out and run it.

Defense worked out well with the 2 1 2. We tried a power rush where we take our two deep players, pull them even with the 1 and have them both rush at the same time. As they do that the two players on the line pull back even with the 1 in the middle. Worked well a few times, got burned once.

Got burned a few times on a straight fly pattern. I can see our kids need to work on not letting the receiver get behind them.

[Coach Rob]

One more question, how did you teach your kids not to throw interceptions. I realize that is going to happen sometimes, but our league allows a rush from 7 yards out upon snap of the ball. I think our kids panicked a few times and threw it right to the other team.

[Orange]

I think playing 8 quarterbacks in one game is a HUGE mistake. If I were you, I'd stick to your best 2 and rotate in 1-2 others for some handoffs and such. You can make it such that all players will eventually get to play quarterback during the season, but rotating everyone in one game is crazy. I'd do the same thing with what I call the other critical positions, like safety and rusher. Make sure you always have someone you can rely on to cover the deep passes and make sure you have a speed guy shutting down the run and rushing the quarterback. The other kids will fill in all the other positions and believe me, they'll be fine with it. Emphasize with them how important each and every position is.

I understand what you're trying to do, work in all the players but you still need to have a chance to win. Quarterback is one of those positions that I wouldn't compromise like that. They'll probably be relieved, nobody likes throwing interceptions. If you really want to work everyone in, let them take snaps in scrimmages. Just make sure to give your main guys more reps.

As for throwing interceptions, if you keep your better quarterbacks in there you'll have less. AND, keep the passes very short. The longer the pass, the more chance for error. Our team threw exactly one interception in 8 games, and our defense intercepted the opposing teams 16 times. That disparity was created by the fact that we threw only very short passes, usually 2-3 yards. Also, we didn't have a rush in our league but still the difference between our team and the other teams were that they were attempting 10 yard passes on average and we were passing 2 yards on average. Also, when you narrow down your quarterbacks you can instruct them not to toss it up for grabs. Explain to them how to throw it away or take the sack. There was this kid on our basketball team last season. When he got surrounded by the defense he'd just throw the ball over his head in a panic. Cute and all but I'd never let him play quarterback.

[Coach Rob]

I think playing 8 quarterbacks in one game is a HUGE mistake. If I were you, I'd stick to your best 2 and rotate in 1-2 others for some handoffs and such. I understand what you're trying to do, work in all the players but you still need to have a chance to win.

That would make things a lot easier for me. I'll have to run that by our league director, the rules state that every kid plays every position. Doesn't really say you have to do that every single game though.

How'd you deal with parents thinking their kid should/could play QB?

[Orange]

I think playing 8 quarterbacks in one game is a HUGE mistake. If I were you, I'd stick to your best 2 and rotate in 1-2 others for some handoffs and such. I understand what you're trying to do, work in all the players but you still need to have a chance to win.

That would make things a lot easier for me. I'll have to run that by our league director, the rules state that every kid plays every position. Doesn't really say you have to do that every single game though.

How'd you deal with parents thinking their kid should/could play QB?

No, and I'm 100% positive that the league director would not interpret it that way either. It doesn't make any sense to have 8 quarterbacks in a game. The YMCA is simply trying to make sure that you don't have teams that are so exclusive, you get 1-2 kids playing qb, or whatever. I don't think you should interpret the rule quite so literally.

As for parents wanting their kids to play qb, I cannot answer specifically for your team since I don't know the parents or the dynamics. I can tell you with my team we all know each other fairly well and have socialized and had our kids on the same teams for a while now. No one has ever attempted to mettle with my choices on positions or anything. As a matter of fact I'm consistently complimented on how well I incorporate ALL the kids into the game, getting them all the ball, making them feel important. And you know what? I play the best 2-3 kids at quarterback. When it's 4th and I need a first down I make sure my go-to guy gets the ball. On defense I play my best players at safety and make sure I balance the others so I have run stoppers where I need them. What do I do that makes all the parents happy? Their kids have fun. Our team does well. Every kid gets a couple of chances to run/ catch the ball. When I get close to the goalline and it's first and short I'll run a play or two to the kids that I know aren't as good to give them a chance to say they scored a td.

Do the parents ask you or say something? I have never had one say anything to me like that. Are you just assuming that they'll think it? Most parents are fairly intuitive. They know if their kids should be playing qb or not. If nobody says anything I'd bet it's just in your own mind.

I'm thinking you need to change things a little. You don't need to step on anyones toes or really say anything like "so-and-so is our qb from now on." Just start giving your better qbs more reps in practice. In the game it'll be natural as they take on the role. If some of the kids start asking why or when they can play, then be honest, tell them next game they can play a little. Or whatever. I'd tell them they could play some in the scrimmage. The scrimmages are like games anyway so they usually liked that as much.

I know I already posted this but I had two main qbs, one for the first half and one for the second half. One other kid always asked to play qb so I'd put him in for a series or two here and there. And I'd usually work in another for a play or two each week. So basically I had what I considered 2 starting qbs although I'd play maybe 4 in a game. I didn't get too much interest in qb otherwise and when you sat down and asked them, most of the others did not want to play it at all.

[Coach Rob]

You're spot on and I'm definitely headed in the direction of having 2-3 main QBs. No other way to do it without creating total chaos. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, it helps a lot. Two more for you?

Practices - I'm having a hard time throwing in fun stuff with only 1 hour to conduct a practice. Coaching b-ball and soccer at this age is a lot different. You're not running plays in b-ball or soccer, so it's easy to come up with fun drills/games that teach skills and even get a scrimmage in at the end of practice. Flag football is all about running plays and pulling flags. My tendency is to focus our time on things that we''ll be doing in the game like running routes, working on plays, handoffs, pitches, flag pulling and defensive strategy. How'd you keep it fun?

Runs - I notice in your plays that you didn't have a lot of runs from the backfield. Seems that it would be wise to have a player in the backfield 1/2 the time to keep the defense guessing. Run some fakes to this person, handoff every once in awhile or just have them float off to the side as a safety valve. I'm realizing that you're actually playing against the other coach who's out on the field with the defense. When we put someone in the backfield for a run, he immediately starting yelling watch the run. Thoughts?

CRob