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Post by coachdbs on Nov 1, 2008 17:45:02 GMT -6
There is a big thread on the general board along with a clip of the kicker getting hit right after he kicks the ball. Most seem to agree that it is a cheap shot. Ironic...because today our kicker (8-year old team) got hammered on first KO. The kid that hit him came from a similar position and had no other goal then to earhole our kicker. The kid is one of the harder hitting kids I have seen this year and I am suprised that our kicker got up. Although it was a legal hit, I immediately addressed it with the opposing HC (who is a friend of mine). He obviously switched that players responsibility because he ended up earholing another kid on the next KO. Curious to see how many of you send someone to hit the kicker and if so your reasoning. I coach youth and HS and even with my HS team...we leave the kicker unless he is a defensive player who shows potential to make a tackle or is aggressive in getting up field.
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Post by los on Nov 1, 2008 19:42:14 GMT -6
coach ld....we were just happy if someone blocked anyone on kick off return....lol....actually, our main goal on kor in youth ball, was defending the onside kick with the first couple waves....if one of the two deeper return guys, would lead block for his buddy,on a deeper kick off, this was gravy. But to answer the question....NO...we didn't really assign anyone specifically to the kicker(unless he was chasing a slow rolling onside kick), then all bets were off, lol!
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Post by coachdbs on Nov 2, 2008 15:04:49 GMT -6
I agree. We run a double-wedge return and if the kicker gets in front of the wedge he may get blocked but man you should have seen the hit put on our kicker...I thought for sure he was down for the count. The other kid who got earholed by this kid is one of our tougher kids and he sat out the rest of 1st half with a headache. He came back and I bumped him over one spot and told him to find this kid and pancake him legally. I did not do this for retribution but to keep one of our other kids from getting hit. It worked.
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Post by los on Nov 5, 2008 15:52:12 GMT -6
Dave brought up some good points and questions, concerning kor strategy, in another thread.....thought it might fit better in this one, since it's related to assigning blockers to specific ko team players......I kinda like the sound of coachld's dbl. wedge return, as individual assignments, wouldn't be as important, provided you aren't being short kicked to death, lol......but to answer the question posed....."no".....we didn't use individual blocking assignments for kor in youth ball........while we didn't "purposely" use the onside or short kick(for my own reasons), many of our opponents did......our front 9 players were tasked with recovering the short kick and falling on it, so were more or less playing the ball as their primary assignment, and not picking out a specific target to block before the kick.......once the ball was kicked "out of their area"..... "only then" did they choose a target to block(common sense rule of thumb = pick the first guy you can legally block).....since we usually had the 1st two rows(9 players), within 15 yards or so, of where the ball was kicked off.....any blocks on a deeper kick would be early in the play and difficult to maintain(depending on how athletic the ko team was?)....making the "lead block" by the deep return man, who didn't recieve the kick(the most important).....thats how we played kor......worked pretty good vs. the short or onside kick schemes we saw.......I can really only remember losing a couple kicks thru the years.....that careened off the middle player on the front row and back to the ko team, lol.....but usually we caught them in the air or fell on the ball......we also taught the kids to use the "fair catch" on short kicks in the air.......which often netted you 15 bonus yards....as the ko team would often plaster the kid, (before or after) he caught it, lol.... Well....this is how we did it.....worked pretty good vs what we had to deal with.....lets hear some more ideas!
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Post by eickst on Nov 5, 2008 17:01:45 GMT -6
Picket fence kor works great.
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Post by raiderpirates on Nov 12, 2008 14:55:24 GMT -6
5-4 or 6-3 first two layers within ten yards of the ten yard threshold, past the tee placement.
Most teams put their star back, a deep kick goes to him. Most teams put their best athlete to kicker as well, so of course you put a gunner to him. Most teams here also onside and squib to the weakest player up front, cheat help a half step his way from every side of him.
My preference is the picket fence folded back so you can usually form a middle wedge and spring it outside of that. Unfortunatlely others don't see the value in this so I simply tell them to shape the return lane, ride that player's hip past the ball, and steer the man they block into the next nearest opponent in that method. The same if he flattens and goes for the ball. If you're already sealed maintain it, if he's past don't grab. He's ahead and tracking opposite you, reach and push his energy when facing him so he widens and a lane opens, the return man makes it right. Don't fight the flow past the point of position blocking, just ride it out of the way.
At this level sometimes it takes one player using any of the above methods to clear or seal the lane for a returner to read and run to daylight.
So we saturate the initial 10 yards to kill onsides tries. Go hit someone, not rocket science. It's not my preference, it should have a design behind it and a plan, otherwise it's not football, futbol, or even rugby. It's cave men fighting over a rock that they throw and kick around.
What I've found works best is to have players reset once the contact passed them. If there is a player who was zinged or didn't make it out of the blocker he was in, go help out there. Keep going at targets in front of you(think downhill), once that is gone, reset to the field numbers on your sideline and look to spring the returner.
The first level will be block and reset to sideline. The second level is usually block, block someone trailing from the first level hit, then lead to a sideline. You'll be surpsied that a good returner can usually find them on the field numbers and be gone. That's on a hard or booming kick. Anything short you squeeze down to the point they're tracking and block, aware of the ball coming off a block as you find another target to set for.
A good returner will make your block right every time, if you run out of people to block a good returner brings someone to you so set up your blocking on a field target.
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