coach kap

MUCH better today!  Still got creamed (once again my 9 yr olds played a bunch of 11 yr olds on HGH), but we finally moved the ball and scored.  I think they're starting to get the quick hit, misdirection nature of the offense.  Truthfully, the only turnovers were when my stubborn QBs didn't throw to the short receiver they were supposed to and tried to chuck it up long.  Still, the boys had so much more fun today it was great to see.  We need to REALLY work on flag pulling against bigger kids.

Question:  what program do you guys use to draw up your plays, and how do you share them online?  I'm no computer whiz but I have a bunch of plays that have worked that I'd love to share.  Thanks.

ouch, two whuppings in a row!  I don't think we've achieved a first down yet in our first two games.  It's not the plays, it's the fact we play 8 on 8 and I've got a team full of 16 4th graders vs 5th and 6th graders.  My only 6th grader was our QB and he left the team because of conflicts with travel baseball!  It's been an uphill battle to say the least - too many kids, too much time in the huddle, not much fun for the boys!  Gonna stick with it - practice today we're going to forgo the usual regimen of flag pulling drills, etc for intensive work on running routes and learning the plays.  I'm committed to sticking with the short, quick misdirection plays we've discussed here (although I'm finding the older boys on the other teams are much better at holding their positions in the zone than my younger kids) and I remain (foolishly?) optimistic that it's going to come together tomorrow.  I'll post you guys after tomorrow's game and give you the update.  Thanks again for all the continued good advice - I'm all ears for anything new!

Andy

thanks guys, great advice as usual.  I did see that our most effective pass play was when I had three receivers on the left, the interior two ran deep patterns to draw the zone D and the outside receiver hesitated and then ran a quick slant into the open space.  I'm going to try more unbalanced sets and send slot receivers into the vacated areas.  As far as D, we have a rusher who rushes after a "3 mississippi" count by the ref.  We've been putting our smaller players there, but i think it makes sense to put a solid athlete there to really pressure the QB.  And I will definitely try to employ more safeties against bigger teams, that should have been a no-brainer and i missed it!!

Thanks again.  I'll let you know how next Sunday turns out.

Hey guys - this is an absolutely wonderful forum.  I coached 6-8 yr olds last year (8 on 8, way too many!) and this year I'm coaching the same kids in ages 9-11.  Anyway, used most of Orange's plays today with a bunch of my own (I'll scan 'em in and send 'em during the week), and while they worked we just couldn't move the ball deep enough against older, bigger kids to make first downs.  In the second half, they beat us by simply going long and throwing over the top of my defenders (even if we were there, they were just to tall).

So, any advice as to how to best defend against older, taller kids?  Just play more safeties and keep 'em in front of you?  And, any strategy in terms of spreading the field on offense and getting first downs against these kids?  eight on eight makes it so tough to use misdirection and get to the outside, especially against a zone.  I think I ran too often on first down and became predictable.  Maybe I should start the game running on first and then start mixing in fakes to keep 'em honest?

Would appreciate any thoughts you all might have, but most of all wanted to thank you for all the great insight so far.

Andy

p.s.  We lost 26-0!