14 replies to this topic

[Johnp2]

Seeing as this is my first season in flag football, I'm wanting to tap in to all of you coaches' experiences. What do you feel "wins" in flag football (especially ages 6-8) . . . offense or defense? Your answer cannot be both! ;-)

My three years as a soccer coach, we won (a lot) because I preached defense. Defense. And then some more defense.

My philosophy was that all kids want to chase the ball and kick it at the goal, but it takes discipline to focus 95% of your game (at that age) on defense. One season we gave up only three goals in 10 games (using everyone at goalie).

I had one parent whom I could tell wanted her son to score goals (and he was a good goal scorer). At times I would be on the sideline and he would hang around the opponents goal. I would tell him to get back on defense (we especially played strong defense in our offensive zone). He and his mother spoke Spanish, and she would often yell to him (in Spanish) to stay there by the goal and wait for the ball right after I asked him to get on defense. I never told her I understand (enough) Spanish to know what she was saying---ha ha.

However, thus far in flag football, my focus has been offense--simply because I *think* a high-octane offense can give a defense fits. This is not to say we "ignore" defense, but we do spend more time in practice on offense. Thus far, our defense has played quite well, and my kids seem to have more of a natural instinct on defense than offense, which is another reason for my philosophy---up until this point at least. Keep in mind we only have had two games, and the one game we lost, while we gave up 20, it is less than half of what that team is averaging this season---so it was a bit of a "moral" victory.

Also, keep in mind that my league allows blocking, so this allows us to run traps, focus on second-level blocking (which I am REALLY big on), etc. I'm agile enough to shift focus as the season progresses, but as of now, this is my thinking---but again, it's only been two games.

So what is it coaches? Offense or defense? Remember you cannot say "both". Pretend that you could ONLY practice on side of the ball with your team--which would it be?

Thanks!

[rushbuster70]

It just depends...I'm huge on offense.But maybe its because i'm biased and I coach the offense.Me & my assistant definately stress both but a good defense is having your offense on the field so that the other team's offense isn't on the field.I love short passes and runs.Keeps the clock running and as long as your defense can make a few stops and the other team's offense is not on the field then I look at that as a positive.At a young age its going to be tough to stop other teams.I mean theres no getting around that.But as long as you dont stop yourself on offense then you'll be fine.Defense its very simple to miss a flag or tip a ball and the other team catches it.

We practice offense & defense though.We try to be as equal as possible but we are realistic and know that our offense will help our defense by keeping them off the field

[Orange]

I would say without a doubt defense, defense, defense. When my defense plays well we always win. Shut down the run and they have to pass. When they have to pass you can intercept. When you intercept you can either score or you have a really short field to work with. Each time we force the other team to go away from the run I feel like we can blow them away. When we get a team down and they begin passing a lot, we always rout them. I've seen it time and time again. The first rulebook I picked up I realized that the team that did not throw interceptions would have a HUGE advantage. Why? In most leagues you begin each possession at your own 5 yard line. The exception is when you intercept the ball; then you get it wherever you advance. That makes things so much easier for the offense.

I begin with shutting the run down and trying to make the other team one dimensional. You'd be surprised how quickly teams abandon the run when we stop them cold and for losses several times. I'd rather take a chance at the other team trying to complete a long pass versus them getting off good runs. My offensive philosophy influences my defense greatly (get the ball into you players hands and let them run north and south, good things will happen).

[Johnp2]

I'd say we stress the passing game more than running. We're working on setting up the pass for the run. We are probably 60/40 pass. In our first game, our opponent did not pass at all (which really surprised me). In our second game, they passed twice--one incompletion, and we intercepted the other one. Our QB (my son) has completed about 75% of his passes (he has one INT), but for the most part, they are short, quick passes.

One of our best plays is the Shovel pass. Because the defense has five seconds to rush, he'll step back like he's going to pass, waits, and once the defense rushes, he side-steps and shovels it to a guard who is open space. I'm actually surprised at how well it has been working.

I scouted our next opponent, and they can pass, but noticed they saved it for the red zone (only in the red zone, and everytime in the red zone). I can see the reasoning behind this, and only hope they keep that philosophy going against us. ;-)

I also noticed their defense is well-prepped for the pass, so we might try to get our running game going to set up the pass. They are a very good team, so my goal is to keep it close, thus we will focus on first downs, milking the clock, and do our best to keep their offense off the field.

I am learning that keeping the defense "off-balance" can pay major dividends at this age.

Neither of our units (offense or defense) is anywhere near being "potent". I would like to see a game with a potent offense vs. a potent defense just to see how it would pan out.

[rushbuster70]

Our i9 league seems all about passing.So theres really no run to stop.I coach 11-14 year olds and there is no way not to give up points.The teams that run may do some sort of trick play but nothing that you cant stop.Thats why our philosphy is to keep the other teams offense off the field.We get 4 downs for a first down then 4 downs for a touchdown.We usually use all 8 plays.

Interceptions are obviously nice but we like to teach to make a play on the ball by either tipping it down and the obvious interception.Either way though they dont come easy lol...

Offensively if we are fluent then we do a good job of keeping the other team's offense off the field while using the clock and managing our offense at the same time.We attack so many ways though.I love play action so i'll setup pass plays by running the same running play 2 different ways 5-6 times before we bomb it deep or in the middle on them.Short crossing patterns work well also.RB option plays to run or pass work well also.I love crossing patterns though.Especially because kids run into each other which usually means one of our guys gets home.

[Coach Rob]

Our i9 league seems all about passing.So theres really no run to stop.I coach 11-14 year olds and there is no way not to give up points.The teams that run may do some sort of trick play but nothing that you cant stop.Thats why our philosphy is to keep the other teams offense off the field.We get 4 downs for a first down then 4 downs for a touchdown.We usually use all 8 plays.

I've watched some of the 11-14 y/o games and you're dead on, it's all about the passing. There are some cool hook-ups during those games. Funny thing is my age group of 8-9, it's all about the runs. We end up playing teams who suck in to the misdirection and since it's only 5 v 5, it only takes a few steps for a fast runner to get the edge and usually a TD. Btw, if you have any cool pass plays, hit me up with a PM, I'm going to start opening up our offense a bit more.

-r

[rushbuster70]

quote] I've watched some of the 11-14 y/o games and you're dead on, it's all about the passing. There are some cool hook-ups during those games. Funny thing is my age group of 8-9, it's all about the runs. We end up playing teams who suck in to the misdirection and since it's only 5 v 5, it only takes a few steps for a fast runner to get the edge and usually a TD. Btw, if you have any cool pass plays, hit me up with a PM, I'm going to start opening up our offense a bit more.

-r

Yea I have plenty of passing plays.We run about 6-7 plays out of 3/4 different formations.I like short stuff though with an occasional deep pass.What kind of plays are you looking for?I know for a fact some of my plays would work dead on at the 8-10 year old age because there basic but very successful.

[Orange]

quote] I've watched some of the 11-14 y/o games and you're dead on, it's all about the passing. There are some cool hook-ups during those games. Funny thing is my age group of 8-9, it's all about the runs. We end up playing teams who suck in to the misdirection and since it's only 5 v 5, it only takes a few steps for a fast runner to get the edge and usually a TD. Btw, if you have any cool pass plays, hit me up with a PM, I'm going to start opening up our offense a bit more.

-r

Yea I have plenty of passing plays.We run about 6-7 plays out of 3/4 different formations.I like short stuff though with an occasional deep pass.What kind of plays are you looking for?I know for a fact some of my plays would work dead on at the 8-10 year old age because there basic but very successful.

I am very interested in them too.

[Vegas Coach]

In my division (7-9 year olds), its pretty hard to really develop a potent offense. Unless your team is full of "superstar" kids who could all catch everything thrown their way and run fast, its harder in my opinion to have a dangerous offensive team. Defense for this age is key! Its an easier concept to teach these little guys and for them to pick up. Like Orange pointed out already, when you stop teams from running the ball (because at this age and in my league, ALL the good teams ran the ball more often than they passed) and force them to pass it and become one dimensional.... good things happen in way of stalled drives, picks and incompletes! Inevitably these kids will miss flags and get out of position on defense dont get me wrong, however if you install a HARD defensive concept to these kids and get them on board from the get go on pulling flags, being aggresive and just carrying a swagger of not allowing a team to score on them, you'll be much better off.

I was a first year coach last Fall on my sons team and I learned alot in that season through trial and error. One thing I know is at this age, having a really good shut down defense and playing the "ball control" game on offense with not overly passing to much will always keep you in the game. Two games of ours come to mind late last season.... we got a 7-0 and 12-6 lead in the first half of two different games. I switched my kids up at the half and basically stacked the defensive side of the ball with my better players in hopes of "protecting" the lead. This also enabled the "lesser" talented kids a chance to really gain ball touches by being on offense. The final for those games ended at 13-0 and 12-6 lol! The game where we won 13-0, that second score came off of an INT in the 2nd half, lol! I wished I would have focused more on a defensive mind set from the start of the season and this year you can bet I will be preaching defense right out of the gate!!! So YES.... DEFENSE for 7-9 year olds is what its all about!

[Vegas Coach]

quote] I've watched some of the 11-14 y/o games and you're dead on, it's all about the passing. There are some cool hook-ups during those games. Funny thing is my age group of 8-9, it's all about the runs. We end up playing teams who suck in to the misdirection and since it's only 5 v 5, it only takes a few steps for a fast runner to get the edge and usually a TD. Btw, if you have any cool pass plays, hit me up with a PM, I'm going to start opening up our offense a bit more.

-r

Yea I have plenty of passing plays.We run about 6-7 plays out of 3/4 different formations.I like short stuff though with an occasional deep pass.What kind of plays are you looking for?I know for a fact some of my plays would work dead on at the 8-10 year old age because there basic but very successful.

I am very interested in them too.

I would like to check those out as well if you dont mind.....

[rushbuster70]

Vegas Coach,

I can send them to you but I'm not sure how they would work with 7-9 year olds honestly...A few play actions.Not sure a 7 year old QB could pull that off lol.

[Johnp2]

My team is 6-8 year-olds. I've uploaded a few of my simple passing plays in the Playbook forum that we have found to be effective.

You can find them at:
http://www.y-coach.c...?showtopic=1318

[Vegas Coach]

Vegas Coach,

I can send them to you but I'm not sure how they would work with 7-9 year olds honestly...A few play actions.Not sure a 7 year old QB could pull that off lol.

I would still like to check them out regardless if you dont mind.....

[Vegas Coach]

My team is 6-8 year-olds. I've uploaded a few of my simple passing plays in the Playbook forum that we have found to be effective.

You can find them at:
http://www.y-coach.c...?showtopic=1318

I saw these...... Thanks!

[pointyfootball]

My opinion is that a good offense is "more important". Obviously if you can't stop anyone you're going to struggle, but assuming your O is good, your D probably isn't going to be too bad. My reasoning is that an offense that can move the ball and score consistently, is hard to develop, especially at my age group (10-12). I think it is much easier for a player to defend a crossing route pass than it is for a QB to drop back, under pressure, and complete the pass for enough yards so that you will be able to get a first down. With only 3 plays, the chance of something going wrong (penalty, fumble, poor throw, dropped pass, etc.) are higher than a big play happening against a defense.

That being said, we scored a LOT on defense. It amazed me, even in the playoffs, how teams would chuck it deep ill-advisedly. We scored two pick-6's on the last play of the first half in two different playoff games (with them being at their own 5 yard line as the LOS).