Post by bobgoodman on Aug 29, 2010 13:25:27 GMT -6
Today we had the ceritif'n meeting required for coaches in the Pel. Bay Warriors. The varsity coach from SUNY Maritime, who hosted our class, had a good one: "Football is a simple game made complicated by coaches."
We were shown first a video + classroom discussion from the Nat'l Youth Sports Coaching Ass'n for gen'l certif'n for youth coaches in any sport. At one point in the video the talking head told us they didn't want to scare us -- which makes you wonder when you consider that earlier, the very first topic covered was the awfulest **** that can go down in youth (or any) sports, i.e. actual spectator & player violence! Honestly, though, I doubt the advice given about sportsmanship can do much about such incidents. Most of the video and discussion was unremarkable, feel-good stuff. The Warriors adopted a few years ago an interesting rule to counter parent interference: all the players and staff on one sideline, all the audience on the other.
Once that was out of the way, which took 2/3 or more of the time, they put on video from the same organiz'n as intro to tackle football. (One coach from the flag div. was there too, but his attendance counted for his certif'n anyway.) I have to take issue with the quality of the instruction it gave, intro or no. I noted that it was supported by NFL Charities, and I smell undue NFL influence.
I could hardly believe the tackling form it taught. They actually said to put your face mask on the opponent's breast plate! Even coaches who teach a front tackle make some nod (if you'll pardon the pun) to getting the head out of there by dorsiflexing the neck, not that I trust that either, but to come out in a kiddie-coaching video and say to make deliberate contact with the mask...that was just incredible. They did say to slide the head to the side, but only after the initial hit.
The rest of the football video wasn't that bad, but I wouldn't say it was good and appropriate for youth coaching. It seemed to be more about teaching how to pretend to play pro football, in terms of its emphasis and techniques, than to teach practical skills for children. Why spend time showing separately the footwork for 3-, 5-, and 7-step pass drops, but not how to hand the ball off? The snapper's butt also looked too high for my taste, maybe more for the QB's comfort than the center's own protection or blocking steps.
They had a strip down for the OL, and the splits they showed were 2 arms' length. Even the program I was with in 2007 that used a similar I formation offense used only 1 arm's length line splits. Curiously, the TE in the video was closer to the T than the G-T split -- and the strip was lined just that way.
As the illustration of a blocking rule, they gave on, over (by which in this case apparently was meant LB rather than DL in gap), out, and as a last priority, in (i.e. down). They gave blocking steps for a pull and for a reach block, though not form fit for a regular on/base or angle block, and pass protection was the only one for which a "live" drill was shown. In describing back numbering, the flanker was referred to as "split end". All in all, pretty disappointing.
We were shown first a video + classroom discussion from the Nat'l Youth Sports Coaching Ass'n for gen'l certif'n for youth coaches in any sport. At one point in the video the talking head told us they didn't want to scare us -- which makes you wonder when you consider that earlier, the very first topic covered was the awfulest **** that can go down in youth (or any) sports, i.e. actual spectator & player violence! Honestly, though, I doubt the advice given about sportsmanship can do much about such incidents. Most of the video and discussion was unremarkable, feel-good stuff. The Warriors adopted a few years ago an interesting rule to counter parent interference: all the players and staff on one sideline, all the audience on the other.
Once that was out of the way, which took 2/3 or more of the time, they put on video from the same organiz'n as intro to tackle football. (One coach from the flag div. was there too, but his attendance counted for his certif'n anyway.) I have to take issue with the quality of the instruction it gave, intro or no. I noted that it was supported by NFL Charities, and I smell undue NFL influence.
I could hardly believe the tackling form it taught. They actually said to put your face mask on the opponent's breast plate! Even coaches who teach a front tackle make some nod (if you'll pardon the pun) to getting the head out of there by dorsiflexing the neck, not that I trust that either, but to come out in a kiddie-coaching video and say to make deliberate contact with the mask...that was just incredible. They did say to slide the head to the side, but only after the initial hit.
The rest of the football video wasn't that bad, but I wouldn't say it was good and appropriate for youth coaching. It seemed to be more about teaching how to pretend to play pro football, in terms of its emphasis and techniques, than to teach practical skills for children. Why spend time showing separately the footwork for 3-, 5-, and 7-step pass drops, but not how to hand the ball off? The snapper's butt also looked too high for my taste, maybe more for the QB's comfort than the center's own protection or blocking steps.
They had a strip down for the OL, and the splits they showed were 2 arms' length. Even the program I was with in 2007 that used a similar I formation offense used only 1 arm's length line splits. Curiously, the TE in the video was closer to the T than the G-T split -- and the strip was lined just that way.
As the illustration of a blocking rule, they gave on, over (by which in this case apparently was meant LB rather than DL in gap), out, and as a last priority, in (i.e. down). They gave blocking steps for a pull and for a reach block, though not form fit for a regular on/base or angle block, and pass protection was the only one for which a "live" drill was shown. In describing back numbering, the flanker was referred to as "split end". All in all, pretty disappointing.
