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Post by larrymoe on Sept 30, 2007 16:38:30 GMT -6
I have a question. How do you get a team to stop playing so high? We play high in ever phase of the game and it's driving me crazy.
We tackle high, we run and pass block high, we run high, we come off the ball high, we do everything high. How do you fix that problem? Chute work, more squats and cleans(something that I definitely think needs to be done), chop kids off at the shins, what? I'm struggling to find the right answer.
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Post by coachcb on Sept 30, 2007 16:49:25 GMT -6
Its just something that you have to beat into the kids daily in every drill; low pad level, numbers to the ground, bend the knees, bend at the hips, etc,etc... These are our first cue words for all hitting drills.
Try slowing down your drills for a day or two; emphasize what a good low pad level should look and feel like. I'll have the OL go through a drill at 50% and stop them in the middle of it and point out who has good pad level, who doesn't and fix those kids that are too high.
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Post by coachd5085 on Sept 30, 2007 17:04:25 GMT -6
Are you giving them aiming points, or just telling them to keep low? I found when coaching up the DL, that they played much better when I told them to "pin your eyes on their throats" and then explaining that I wanted their eyes to ACTUALLY HIT THE OPPONENTS THROATS (obviously this would not happen with facemasks and such)
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Post by wildcat on Sept 30, 2007 17:42:55 GMT -6
I never tell the kids to "stay low"...doesn't mean anything and is totally relative. Instead, we coach the kids (especially our OL) that they have to stay "chest on quads". No ambiguity there (you either have your chest on your quads or you don't) and gives the kids an excellent reference point to self-correct. I also think that you are spot-on with your comments about lower-body strength. Our kids who are big squatters, deadlifters, and cleaners also have outstanding lower body flexibility and can get low. On the other hand, we also have a lot of weak, overfat kids who look like the original Star Wars action figures and have no knees at all:  These kids simply can't get into a good football position because they have a weak core and virtually no lower body strength and flexibility. |
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Post by CoachDaniel on Sept 30, 2007 18:52:49 GMT -6
Agreed that we started working on getting low in January. Squats, DL, cleans, etc., plus lots of flexibility exercises. Aiming points for DL, we aim for the knee, which puts them on the hip or numbers. Exaggerate everything! They'll get sloppy in the course of a game.
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Post by phantom on Sept 30, 2007 19:38:52 GMT -6
Are you giving them aiming points, or just telling them to keep low? I found when coaching up the DL, that they played much better when I told them to "pin your eyes on their throats" and then explaining that I wanted their eyes to ACTUALLY HIT THE OPPONENTS THROATS (obviously this would not happen with facemasks and such)[/quo Th same is true on the OL. Give them an aiming point fpr each block. Tell them what eye they want to run through that AP. When you drill the block in fundamentals have them put their hand on the AP before you run the drill. We've also had the problem with DBs. There was en excellent article in AFM about that recently in which how they use chutes. They have one of those chutes, about 5x5 with no dividers. So do we. Since reading the article we've been doing our backpedal work under the chutes. We're not totally there but I think it's helping. |
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Post by coachd5085 on Sept 30, 2007 20:01:31 GMT -6
great points phantom. The reason we talked about the "eyes physically being on the throat" hands is that obviously if I were to "put" my eyes on your throat, I had to be below you but if I am worried about hand placement, I can still be ridiculously high and just put my hands where you said. The head controls the body.
Wildcat, do you find a lot of waistbending with kids trying to get their chest on their quads?
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Post by phantom on Sept 30, 2007 20:23:38 GMT -6
great points phantom. The reason we talked about the "eyes physically being on the throat" hands is that obviously if I were to "put" my eyes on your throat, I had to be below you but if I am worried about hand placement, I can still be ridiculously high and just put my hands where you said. The head controls the body. Wildcat, do you find a lot of waistbending with kids trying to get their chest on their quads? 50, I think you misread my post, which I've done many times myself. I do not have them put their hand on the AP because you're right, they'll get high. When we're drilling the block, before we actually start blocking, we'll have them reach out and touch their AP to show me that they know where to run their eyes. |
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Post by larrymoe on Sept 30, 2007 20:26:58 GMT -6
Thanks guys and keep the suggestions coming.
We give the OL aiming points, but what is frustrating is we do it right in practice in indy's but then don't in live until reminded and then come game time it's just terrible.
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Post by wildcat on Sept 30, 2007 20:32:56 GMT -6
Wildcat, do you find a lot of waistbending with kids trying to get their chest on their quads? Yeah...we have some kids who REALLY struggle with the concept...Another point of emphasis we make with the kids is to be a "kneebender" rather than a "waistbender" and to stay "Head up and butt down". When we are doing our blocking progressions, it is very easy to spot the kids who are waistbending and who have their butts above their heads. The waistbenders we have are typically the unathletic, weak, and overfat kids who simply do not have the physical ability to keep their knees bent, their butts down, and their chests on their quads. The kids who have spent any quality time in the weightroom or have some inherit athleticism don't have much of a problem with it. The kids we have who are the BEST at it are typically wrestlers. These guys are usually in fantastic shape, very flexible, and preconditioned to hold a compacted and powerful stance for an extended period of time. We have a couple of kids, though, that are just AWFUL at it...they are big kids, but they are largely worthless as football players because they simply can't bend their knees. |
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Post by phantom on Sept 30, 2007 20:49:31 GMT -6
At camp this year the strength coach made a point that I'd never considered: waist benders do it because they don't have the strength in the core to hold it together when they get low. It makes sense to me.
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Post by coachcalande on Oct 1, 2007 6:25:54 GMT -6
I have a question. How do you get a team to stop playing so high? We play high in ever phase of the game and it's driving me crazy. We tackle high, we run and pass block high, we run high, we come off the ball high, we do everything high. How do you fix that problem? Chute work, more squats and cleans(something that I definitely think needs to be done), chop kids off at the shins, what? I'm struggling to find the right answer. teach the kids how to use their shoulder pads. shoulder blocking shoulder tackling |
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shs06
Junior Member
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Post by shs06 on Oct 1, 2007 6:58:17 GMT -6
I read the title and the first thing that I thought about was another kind of high. We had a big problem with that at the last school I was out. Kids would have to be at the field house when school was out, but everyone would show up very relaxed!
As far as the question about how to get them to play with better pad level. I have my O-line work a finish drill. One guy starts with his hands and body in perfect fit and another is in a bad fit. The offensive player (perfect fit) should try and finish his guy before he can recover, the other player must focus on dropping his hips and replacing his hands in order to get leverage back.
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coachf
Freshmen Member
Posts: 15
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Post by coachf on Oct 1, 2007 14:00:31 GMT -6
I have a question. How do you get a team to stop playing so high? We play high in ever phase of the game and it's driving me crazy. We tackle high, we run and pass block high, we run high, we come off the ball high, we do everything high. How do you fix that problem? Chute work, more squats and cleans(something that I definitely think needs to be done), chop kids off at the shins, what? I'm struggling to find the right answer. I say you try to get them to play even higher. You know just stand there and let the other team kick their butt...well, at least 8 of the 9 weeks you can play low. Just make sure they stay high for us.  |
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Post by larrymoe on Oct 1, 2007 21:38:31 GMT -6
Thanks coachf for the expert advice. I'm glad we could get that done for you this year.  |
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Post by dubber on Oct 2, 2007 1:28:57 GMT -6
When I read the title of this post, here's the first thing I thought of:  If you don't want kids to play high, take the damn pot away! Unless this guy is your HC:  And this guy is your OC:  |
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