CoachCurt

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.