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Post by joshnorton on Oct 11, 2010 13:31:32 GMT -6
Hey all,
My team plays in a large private league. This is a non-select league for grades 3-8. Teams are formed using high school boundaries in an effort to keep the talent pool of each association competitive. There are minimum play rules for all players etc etc. The league rules dictate that:
"No team may lead in score by more than 35 points at any time during the game."
My question is really for those who have played in leagues like this with similar rules. What was the best system you have seen to accomplish this goal? Just curious what everyone else is doing.
Sincerely,
Joshua Norton
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Post by coachbrek on Oct 12, 2010 6:11:34 GMT -6
We have to change our offensive backfield with a 22 point lead.
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Post by bobgoodman on Oct 12, 2010 13:51:31 GMT -6
What was the best system you have seen to accomplish this goal? The most effective, if you're willing to sacrifice other concerns, is just to keep games short. Taken to its extreme, you'd never start, and the score would stay 0-0. Our rules have it that with 1n 18 point lead, we have to take out starting LBs & offensive backs and limit our defensive rush to 4, and not outside the T or TE if there's one on that side. Plus, the team to receive a kickoff can just start a series snapping from their 40 yd. line instead; actually I'm not sure that one's even optional! I can't really tell how effective those rules are, because our games are so short there's no time to run up a big score anyway. We play 10 min. quarters, but in all but the last 2:00 of each half, it's running time; there are probably exceptions to that. |
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Post by coachdoug on Oct 12, 2010 16:28:16 GMT -6
Josh - If I understand your question correctly, you are asking what you can do as a coach to keep the score under control if you know you are vastly superior to an opponent. In that case, there are a number of things you can do, especially if you know that you have your opponent outmatched in advance (and don't get confused by the NFL adage about "any given Sunday" - it doesn't hold true in youth ball - if a well coached youth team with superior athletes plays a weak youth team a million times, they will win a million times, with 999,999 of those by mercy rules). You can start substituting from the first snap. Work on things (like your short and intermediate passing game) that need work. Play players out of position. Take a page from Dave Cisar's book and practice allowing the other team to score without making it obvious that you're doing so. Take a knee when you get into scoring position. Tell your right-handed QB to try throwing left-handed (TIC). Have your linemen run the ball. There are plenty of things you can do to make the game more competitive short of telling your players not to go all out, but it can be difficult. If you know you have such a game coming up, don't be afraid to implement these strategies from the first play. The best mercy rule I ever coached under was what we had in Southern California for almost 10 years. After having Pop Warner mercy rules shoved down our throats for years, we came up with the following, which worked great, both for the winning and losing teams: - Upon a 30-pt differential, the mercy rules kicked in and remained in effect until there was less than a 30-pt differential.
- No running clock (unless the losing team requested it).
- No restrictions on the plays either team could run, except that the leading team could not run any "trick" or "gadget" plays, the definition of which was left up to the officials working the game. In practice, this meant that even with a lead, you could still run your offense and throw the ball, but you couldn't try to embarrass your opponent. Peer pressure basically kept coaches in line because everyone knew that abuse of the rules would lead to a return to the horrible mercy rules we had previously.
- If the leading team scored, they got no points. There was no PAT nor any kickoff. It simply became the other team's ball at your 40, 1st and 10 with no change in the score.
- Any players that had not yet completed their MPR requirements at the time the 30-pt differential came into effect had to enter the game and remain in the game for the duration of the game (or until there was no longer a 30-pt differential).
That was it - very simple, and very easy to comply with for all parties. Self policing prevented abuses and everyone was happy. It really worked well. |
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Post by Chris Clement on Oct 12, 2010 18:04:50 GMT -6
Our scoreboard just stops showing the scores after a while, I'm pretty sure they keep an official record, but you don't see it. As for how to slow down your own team, that is often a question of your league rules, and how you want to go about it. Throwing passes in youth ball is a great way to kill a drive, but the optics are bad, and if the play works and you throw a 75-yd TD it looks really bad. You could put in very weak players at receiver and throw to them, or let them run. Our team had an issue with numbers and weight/position restrictions, so we had to be more creative. One solution was to go I-formation with an 85 lb fullback and an 88 lb tailback (11 yrs/old), knowing our QB wouldn't get the ball out of the fullback's way, likely causing a fumble (you see why we ditched the I this year). But it was tough to keep the scoring down without making it too obvious, which would b equally insulting. Going for a field goal is also an option, since the odds of success are minimal.
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Post by bobgoodman on Oct 12, 2010 19:16:29 GMT -6
If the aim is to avoid embarrassing an overmatched team, there is no real way to do it. I suppose if you're really good at taking a dive and making it look good, you can succeed a little, but not a lot. Otherwise it becomes a case of beating the other team with both hands tied behind your back, which rubs it in as much as or more than running up the score. And even if you do manage to shave off a few points, it'll leak out among the kids that they held back.
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Post by vince148 on Oct 13, 2010 14:16:12 GMT -6
I know our league is 25 points. The coach can be suspended for a game. Basically, you have to rotate players. The team leading by 25 points kicks off even after the losing team scores.
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