Post by bobgoodman on Aug 31, 2010 0:34:26 GMT -6
Our president explained it at our rookie, graduate, and dispersal draft tonight.
In most of youth football, team preparation counts for a lot more than player talent, although in some cases of course the talent of a few players can overwhelm preparation. But our president said how the teams drafted would count for about 50% of our success because we have so much less preparation time than in most other organiz'ns. Part of our next meeting will be assembling our teams based on who we drafted, so we'll get only about half a practice session in. Then we get just 2 full practice sessions before a controlled scrimmage Sept. 11, and then just 3 more before games begin (except for the lucky team of the 5 who'll start with a bye that week). And it turns out that the lights that I thought might help illuminate our practice field (and which are full of bird nests that I expect to catch fire some time) are trained, I was told, only on the baseball field. We will have indoor facilities later in the year.
We did have one visual aid: small group photos of some players with name captions. And beer and hot dogs on the house. Fortunately one of our team's ass't coaches, Brutus, had a cheat sheet he'd prepared based on his observations.
My team, Blue Devils, took the girl.
We also got the play sheets -- only offensive plays diagrammed, split back pro set, 6 runs, 2 play action passes. Our president asked us all to put in these plays so that if (as they sometimes arrange) the Warriors field a select team to play extramurally at the end of the season, they'd have something in common. He was also asked (Interestingly, not by me!) if we all had to teach the same C-QB exchange, and he said yes. As Coach Doug has explained here, even with a straight-on C-QB exchange there are 4 to 6 ways to do it. Interestingly, our president also wants all our offensive signals to go "Down, set, hut....", although we can snap on "down" or "set" if we want (as long as they really are set legally).
In case you're interested, and because I'm not sleepy yet even though it's late, the plays are:
The offense looks partly systematic (series based) and partly like a grab bag that would be series based except that they're lifted out of the context of other plays that would set them up in a more extensive play book. (Come to think of it, that's about what all grab bagging is.) For instance, that last play is tipped by the formation and the play's opening, which of course every coach should know because we all got copies!
Supposedly we're to limit ourselves to this spoon fed offense & defense for the 1st 3 weeks. Our team's HC, David, says that rule is usually honored in the breach -- that they commonly run plays that can be said to be among these but have been, let's say, tweaked heavily. David also expects to stay nominally with this 4-3 by blitzing all the LBs every down.
We have live kickoffs. However, punts must be declared, there's no rush or coverage, and the ball is dead where the kick comes into possession. We can declare (binding) we're going for a 2 point conversion by kicking, in which case the defense can rush only 4; a run or pass scores 1 PAT. Shirt numbering is irrelevant in terms of eligiblity to receive a forward pass, but we're asked to try to be nice about the numbers we attach to the elgible positions. We play 10 min. quarters. We can have 1 coach and 1 substitute player run the sideline from end line to end line, and otherwise we stay between the 20 and 40 yard line. Cheerleaders will have the space between the 40s, and the other team will have the other 20-40 yard line on the same sideline. Spectators will be confined to the opposite side of the field.
In most of youth football, team preparation counts for a lot more than player talent, although in some cases of course the talent of a few players can overwhelm preparation. But our president said how the teams drafted would count for about 50% of our success because we have so much less preparation time than in most other organiz'ns. Part of our next meeting will be assembling our teams based on who we drafted, so we'll get only about half a practice session in. Then we get just 2 full practice sessions before a controlled scrimmage Sept. 11, and then just 3 more before games begin (except for the lucky team of the 5 who'll start with a bye that week). And it turns out that the lights that I thought might help illuminate our practice field (and which are full of bird nests that I expect to catch fire some time) are trained, I was told, only on the baseball field. We will have indoor facilities later in the year.
We did have one visual aid: small group photos of some players with name captions. And beer and hot dogs on the house. Fortunately one of our team's ass't coaches, Brutus, had a cheat sheet he'd prepared based on his observations.
My team, Blue Devils, took the girl.
We also got the play sheets -- only offensive plays diagrammed, split back pro set, 6 runs, 2 play action passes. Our president asked us all to put in these plays so that if (as they sometimes arrange) the Warriors field a select team to play extramurally at the end of the season, they'd have something in common. He was also asked (Interestingly, not by me!) if we all had to teach the same C-QB exchange, and he said yes. As Coach Doug has explained here, even with a straight-on C-QB exchange there are 4 to 6 ways to do it. Interestingly, our president also wants all our offensive signals to go "Down, set, hut....", although we can snap on "down" or "set" if we want (as long as they really are set legally).
In case you're interested, and because I'm not sleepy yet even though it's late, the plays are:
- QB sneak
- a split T style dive play ("thru" tackle) to TE side
- faking that dive, a "blast" off tackle, T kicking CB, TE hooking DE (as diagrammed vs. 4-3), looks a little like wing T "down"
- sweep to TE side, T pulling & sealing OLB
- crossbuck to TE side
- faking dive and blast, outside reverse to TE, influence block by C
- sprintout pass to TE squaring out
- double handoff reverse pass by flanker to SE deep & across
The offense looks partly systematic (series based) and partly like a grab bag that would be series based except that they're lifted out of the context of other plays that would set them up in a more extensive play book. (Come to think of it, that's about what all grab bagging is.) For instance, that last play is tipped by the formation and the play's opening, which of course every coach should know because we all got copies!
Supposedly we're to limit ourselves to this spoon fed offense & defense for the 1st 3 weeks. Our team's HC, David, says that rule is usually honored in the breach -- that they commonly run plays that can be said to be among these but have been, let's say, tweaked heavily. David also expects to stay nominally with this 4-3 by blitzing all the LBs every down.
We have live kickoffs. However, punts must be declared, there's no rush or coverage, and the ball is dead where the kick comes into possession. We can declare (binding) we're going for a 2 point conversion by kicking, in which case the defense can rush only 4; a run or pass scores 1 PAT. Shirt numbering is irrelevant in terms of eligiblity to receive a forward pass, but we're asked to try to be nice about the numbers we attach to the elgible positions. We play 10 min. quarters. We can have 1 coach and 1 substitute player run the sideline from end line to end line, and otherwise we stay between the 20 and 40 yard line. Cheerleaders will have the space between the 40s, and the other team will have the other 20-40 yard line on the same sideline. Spectators will be confined to the opposite side of the field.
