Pregame Mistakes?

Wow that's a lot of warmup time.

I only spend 15 minutes pre game. Dynamic warmup, each offensive team goes through 4 or 5 plays, we go over depth chart and packages and we are ready to go.

Not saying what I do is right but 45 minutes seems like a long time to me.

Our 2008 season has ended, but we routinely held a 60-minute pregame practice, since by rule we can only hold one practice per week after the season starts. We have two games per week (Tuesday night & Saturday morning), and by practicing prior to the games, we are able to squeeze in two more hours of practice time. This was my first season in this league, but it seemed to be the standard procedure for most teams. Our boys finished 9-3-1 (not shabby, but we were capable of more – most definitely our coaching could have been better!)

After studying Coach Cisar’s WYF program, I’m sure we could have made much better use of our practice time, but wonder what you think of our pregame practice in general? Should we skip trying to squeeze in that extra 2 hours of practice per week?

Coach M

Heck...we never warmed up or ran plays and stuff, before a youth game, lol...."zero minutes".....did a quick roll call...... equipment and mouthpiece check.....made sure they knew which teams they were on, one last time(counted 11 heads).....thats it! Worked well for us anyhow.

One practice per week would definitely put me in the camp of having a full scale practice before pre-game.

los

I doubt any experts would suggest playing a full contact, full speed sport without getting blood flow to the muscles. In not one to tire kids out either as we are the only team in the area doing 30 minute pre-games etc But just making sure you have 11 kids and they have equipment on and doing zero warm ups, reps or contact sounds like a real bush league deal to me.

I thought you coached where the kids played very short mid week games and had little practice. Thought you coached in one of those non competitive leagues where they dont have enough teams so they play everyone 2-3 times etc. and have a tough time getting kids to shwo up or come to practice, that's quite a bit different than where it is most everywhere else.

Most of us play on Saturdays or Sundays so all the family can come out and see the kids play In PE as a kids I never remember ever getting tuckered out from doing anything strenuous, I guess it must be much different where you are.
I shadowed 14 PE classes in a Jr High for 3-4 years from 2000-2004, ( presented to them the benefits of strength training), I never saw them do much of anything at all.

Kids chasing each other around sounds like a lot of nebulous YMCA fun, but not like an effective organized football pre-game.

I remember you stating how poor the teams in your league executed and how many of your kids were "daisy pickers" and that if they saw a jet fly overhead or a dog run accross the practice field that practice was ""over". If just isnt that way in most places and IMHO this gives many reading the wrong impression of what kids that age can do with reasonable coaching.

The quality of youth football leagues and coaching obviously varies from area to area. After speaking to 1000s of youth coaches from all areas of the country and doing clinics etc in every major geographic area, the experiences you have shared the playing same team 2-3 times in the same season, tiny squads, kids not attending practice or games, not attentive, mid week games, etc etc are just at the very lowest edge of the spectrum. not what most of us see or what most coaches can expect to take as similar to their own situation.

Maybe things have changed in the ensuing years from when you coached last.

At the lowest level leagues you can show up do no warm ups and count heads while the kids play grab a$$ with each other. If you play in a league that is 1/2 way competitive, you cant. Which is what most of us coach in.

So what you practice all week you dont do in pre-game?
As terrible as you said your teams executed and had so many kids missing all the time, they probably could have used a few extra reps.
Ok coach, got ya.
I dont know about the rest, never said anything about it, but leagues where you play all the teams 2-3 times, have tiny squads, have kids missing practices and games in droves are not usually considered stellar leagues.
It is prudent to have a short dynamic warm up period, for us that includes all football stuff 100% of the time minus the 5 jumping jacks. We didnt do it to look "sharp" we let the performance during the games speak for themselves which we consistently did quite well in.

The net is competitive youth football programs cant just toss 11 kids out there with no warm ups and no pregame like very very low non competitive leagues can and consistently compete. Your level of competition and committment isnt what most face even if it was years ago.

Heres another perspective on this pre-game warm-up/ practice time issue....The amount of time you spend on your offense, defense and special teams, repping, tweaking or fine tuning them, during pre-game, may depend, not only on your practice schedule(like someone mentioned earlier) but also, how "high maintenance" or "complex", these schemes are?....in our case, they were "very simple and low maintenance".....std. kick off alignments/no onside kicks.....we had the "option" of punting or just advancing the ball a certain yardage on 4th down(when we did punt, it was a direct snap to the TB = quick punt), so no coverage issues......std 542 alignment on kor/no special returns.....simple, under center, downhill, power running offense(with 5-6 plays)......played the same defensive front and coverages, with little change and no blitzing......so.....there wasn't a whole lot you needed to work on...... it should have all been done (mon thru wed) at practice! Not right before a game, lol.

Quick punt didnt require a snap and kick and coverage? Even when you dont have a returner in the above example 90% of the time what about the other 10% ? OK

On kick return most of the "block someone" schemes dont do well at all. In a previous post you mentioned your kick return kids rarely blocked anyone. Having a set blocking scheme on the kick return, practiced prior to the game improves the blocking immeasurably and improves your field position significantly.

Special teams is an area well coached teams have a huge advantage over poorly coached teams, something I learned long ago. PAT kicks, KO returns, KO team onside and directional kicks, Punting/fake punts/kick coverage/punt blocks are the difference maker in close games and an area many poorly coached teams and many talent rich programs fail to perfect.

While we have consistently averaged over 35 ppg we rarely run more than 10-12 plays, but in order to do anything well even simple things, the precision at which you run them is directly related to the individual and teams success. Doing the ordinary inordinarily well is the difference between teams that score 6 points a game and those that score 30. Just because something isnt complex doesnt mean it cant be done better, cant be improved upon and doesnt need any practice.

Getting kids ready to play mentally is also part of the reason we do what we do instead of just lettin gthem play grab a$$, taking attendance and sending them out on the field. Doing a short warm up, doing a few reps, practicing our subbing and doing a little hitting gets the blood flowing to the muscles and brain and gets our kids ready in the mind for some contact. We arent going to get 'jacked" in the first quarter like we consistently do to other teams. We dont want the kids to have that deer in the headlights moments we see so often from the teams we play that prepare poorly................ Weve often scored, onside kicked and scored again before the other team has even touched the ball on offense for a single play. In 2003 we did it 3 times in a row in a Championship game. Our kids were ready to play, theirs werent.

Original Topic:

Best way to do pre-game when your team is coming out cold every week, but playing well in the 2nd half.

As to internet stats, some here have my 2006 and 2007 Full Season DVDs ( not idle internet prattle) which show us coming out very fast. In last 3 seasons scored 3 TDs in first quarter of 18-19 games . Coming out fast is directly related to how you pre-game IMHO.
Has worked for us....................