Gilbert Bears

I have 2 teams one is 7-8 & the other 9-11. I had practice tonight and more then half the practice did nothing but flag drills, concentrating on having them get in front of the carrier and having them shuffle side to side to stay in front of the ball carrier. Also I can't tell you how many times I have enforced them watching the belly button or the flag. They do great on drills but once it comes to 5 on 5 they ignore everything from the drills. We have been doing the drills for 3 or 4 practices. Any more ideas?

I want to thank all of you that have posted, lots of great information. I am doing a lot of the things you all are discussing so I know I am going in the right direction. It's so nice to have a forum like this to chat with other coaches to improve my teams. There is nothing better then seeing your team win a game and seeing how happy the kids are with a victory. So much on the internet people want you to pay for information. After all it is about the kids and teaching them the great game of football and teaching them to have good sportsmanship.

One thing that I as a coach need to improve on is game day. Making sure I am making the proper adjustments on both sides of the ball. Last season I learned a lot from another Dad on what types of plays to run against certain defenses. I had posted a topic before about this but did not get a lot of response. I see many look at the topics but don't post much. Can any of you give me more pointers for this? For example when playing against a man Defense running crossing routes.

I REALLY DO APPRECIATE ALL OF YOUR HELP. Thanks

Thanks alot I appreciate the info. It will help keep the practices a bit more organized. I have been told before not to really scrimmage much but when we got away from that during the week the kids would not play as well in games.

Coach there are a lot of 5 v 5 playbooks available on the site.

Here are few to start with. Remember to keep it simple (fewer plays run well)


3 Orange Playbooks

Rushbuster Playbook Compilation

Texas D Coach Playbook

Spring 2010 Playbook

Free Flag Football Playbooks

Let us know how it's going.

Thanks I appreciate the info. Any suggestions on how to get kids to stay in their zones? No matter how hard and what age many of them are not grasping their area to cover. We even tried marking out the area during practice but I still felt like we were getting the deer in the headlight look.

Are you out in Coast to Coast? Lol...There are tons of plays on here.Just take a look.

Yes sir I am. So you know it's competitive. What age group you in?