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Post by Coach Bennett on Feb 9, 2014 16:49:53 GMT -6
Any of your communities out there moving to a flag football format instead of youth football? Seems like this might be a good way to keep football an option for those whose parents won't let them play contact football in light of all the concussion talk.
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Post by dshanko67 on Feb 9, 2014 17:54:11 GMT -6
No, but I can personally say that I love flag football as a way to get kids started in football. Our youth league has a flag program starting as young as 5 (kindergarten) and could go up through 2nd grade. My own son played 2 season in the flag program and thats how I got involved in coaching. So most of our team now (fourth graders) have been together for 2,3, or more years. Almost all of the successful tackle teams in our state have the flag programs.
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Post by spos21ram on Feb 9, 2014 17:54:57 GMT -6
The town over from us has a flag football league, but I'm not sure if it's in the fall. I wanna say it's in the spring because the town also has peewee's.
I think it's better to play flag football up until about 12 years old.
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Post by shocktroop34 on Feb 9, 2014 19:43:19 GMT -6
Our area has it. I grew up playing contact flag football from grades 1-5. We learned a great deal of fundamental work without such a high volume of contact. Non contact flag is still a great option for parents.
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Post by mahonz on Feb 10, 2014 11:04:39 GMT -6
Any of your communities out there moving to a flag football format instead of youth football? Seems like this might be a good way to keep football an option for those whose parents won't let them play contact football in light of all the concussion talk. Funny thing is...I have coached a ton of flag in my day from Kindergarten to competitive Adult. Its more "dangerous" than tackle IMHO. We also have a program from K-3rd grade as mentioned. It helps keep the sokker fangs out of the really young kids. Many of the better tackle teams are developed in this flag league. They have a Spring and Fall Season like sokker. So far the only downturn as far as numbers in our tackle League has been due to the recession. Scholarship requests have spiked dramatically the last 5 seasons. I am sure a percentage is related to the concussion issue....but we feel its immeasurable. Tackle football is an expensive start-up compared to some of the other sports. Our League does not provide any equipment. I have been out recruiting lately....same concerns today that I got 15-20 years ago. Mom is worried about her precious little snowflake while Dad rolls his eyes at her.
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kodiak
Sophomore Member
Posts: 120
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Post by kodiak on Feb 11, 2014 1:00:52 GMT -6
I think flag is good and bad. There are some kids that are able to leverage that experience and make use of it in tackle. However I have seen some kids that come in after playing flag thinking they are this great skill player only to find out that now people can hit you. All of a sudden they aren't that stud on the team anymore and can't understand why they aren't the starting running back anymore (nor the parents).
Back to the flag situation. 5 on 5 flag is absolutely huge here for the 14u-4u. There are 3 different leagues (there may be more) that run year round. They are sold out almost every season. There are kids as young as 3 playing flag football. These leagues are no contact. Some leagues are the "everyone gets equal playing time" while others are more competitive. This kind of culture is really totally different from all the tackle leagues around here. It has not deterred many I know of from the dangers of tackle. Most that want to play tackle just accept the risks.
With all that said, my son is 11 and we play one or two flag seasons before the tackle season. We use the flag football as more of passing league thing. I get a few players from my tackle team and we get the chance to work on our passing and catching. Much like passing league has done for HS. It has helped us on our quick game.
So do I think it will help tackle participation, nope. But it can certainly help players improve football skills and in some cases prepare them for the tackle game.
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Post by 33coach on Feb 11, 2014 16:30:07 GMT -6
Any of your communities out there moving to a flag football format instead of youth football? Seems like this might be a good way to keep football an option for those whose parents won't let them play contact football in light of all the concussion talk. we do both.
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Post by Coach Bennett on Feb 12, 2014 8:44:53 GMT -6
Any of your communities out there moving to a flag football format instead of youth football? Seems like this might be a good way to keep football an option for those whose parents won't let them play contact football in light of all the concussion talk. we do both. What does your flag football look like? Is it more around having fun and playing games or having practices and games or...?
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Post by dshanko67 on Feb 12, 2014 9:47:37 GMT -6
Ours was 2 practices a week, with games on Sundays. We practiced the basics, but tried to make sure the kids had fun. Our team was very successful at both.
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Post by spos21ram on Feb 12, 2014 10:11:13 GMT -6
What does your flag football look like? Is it more around having fun and playing games or having practices and games or...? You have to practice. What a mess it would be if kids just showed up to play. Practices twice a week is perfect. It shouldn't be run any different than little league, soccer, or youth basketball.
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Post by 33coach on Feb 12, 2014 10:47:34 GMT -6
What does your flag football look like? Is it more around having fun and playing games or having practices and games or...? It's basicly like a hs 7 on 7 program. Tournaments on Sundays. Practice 3 days a week Sent from my ADR6410LVW using proboards
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