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Post by coachirish on Nov 22, 2015 18:17:33 GMT -6
Forgive me if this if this thread is somewhere else. I am a hs varsity head coach. I am wanting to know at what age did your son(s) start playing organized football? Like you I have had players that started playing football anywhere from kindergarten to sr year. I have a 6 year old who is starting to ask about playing. If it was all up to me I would prefer him to wait to play until 6th grade middle school or even 5th grade. I had a kid play for me that before middle school had played one season in 2nd grade. He had some idiot coaches that basically did animal drills all practice and the kid became gun shy. When he came back out later for football he was very passive and we could never get him to be physical. I dont want that to happen to my son. Basically, I would like to read when other varsity coaches kids started playing.
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Post by szimm29 on Nov 22, 2015 18:41:09 GMT -6
I won't let my kids start until they are 12 or older
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Post by wingtol on Nov 22, 2015 19:34:16 GMT -6
Same boat here with a kindergartner asking about playing. Not letting him put pads on till 5 th grade at the earliest. Just don't think kids are ready mentally or physically before that.
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Post by Chris Clement on Nov 22, 2015 21:07:38 GMT -6
If there's a well run six man league he can start at maybe six, but full scale is largely a colossal waste of time before at least grade seven, if not nine.
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Post by mariner42 on Nov 22, 2015 21:24:16 GMT -6
The local flag community is pretty awesome, I think there's plenty to gain from playing flag until at least middle school age.
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Post by tothehouse on Nov 22, 2015 21:31:50 GMT -6
The best players coming out of our area...didn't play tackle football until HS. Our junior highs have a flag football league. It's not the greatest, but it's something for the kids to do.
I wouldn't let my kid come out until his frosh year (currently a soph), but he plays QB. I put him in our Pop Warner program to see if he can handle stuff with gear on, etc. It was a good move for us.
Plus...I know too many kids that started football as soon as they could (with pads) and then stopped playing because "it's no fun".
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Post by poundtherock1 on Nov 22, 2015 22:34:28 GMT -6
I agree with Mariner. My kid will play flag football until middle school. Let football be fun, and then learn it from coaches I can trust a little more (not saying their aren't any good youth coaches).
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Post by coachguy83 on Nov 23, 2015 3:21:48 GMT -6
I have coached youth ball in the past and will give my opinion based on this experience, since I don't have kids. I think playing football before the 3rd grade is a total waste of time, because kids are not physically or mentally mature enough to get anything out of it. Watching a game with K-2nd graders is kind of like watching people in the oversized sumo suits slamming into one another.
3rd and 4th grade it would really depend on the kid. I think so kids are mature enough to be able to learn something about the game at this age, others just do not have the attention span yet. This was the first age group I ever coached and some kids would know the plays and understood the game and others would be running around trying to kill butterflies with their helmets.
Most kids are mature enough to play full contact football by 5th grade, but there are always some exceptions. I coached a few kids that were not as physically developed as other kids in the league that I was legitimately afraid they would be injured. If my kid was that undersized I would consider holding them out another year or two until the hit a growth spurt.
Once kids reach 7th and 8th grade they should be good to play.
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Post by utchuckd on Nov 23, 2015 7:09:06 GMT -6
I've coached 5-6 year old full pads, and not just no but hell no. Also did a few years of 11-12 year olds and that seems like a good starting point.
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Post by Defcord on Nov 23, 2015 7:12:47 GMT -6
I don't want my kid to play until high school, he is currently 7. He currently does soccer, wrestling, and baseball and loves them all. He wants to play football especially after games on Fridays. I have considered letting him do flag football so that he can have a little bit of fun. If I could find a well organized league that had coaching focused on development rather than winning then I would consider letting him start a little earlier.
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Post by s73 on Nov 23, 2015 7:41:30 GMT -6
I'm in the same boat. My son is 11 (5th grade) and has been bugging me for 2 years. He and his brother did flag (brother has no interest which is fine).
I think I'm going to let him play next year but not 100% sure. My fear has always been that if I start him too early and he gets hurt he will not want to come back. So I would rather wait.
On a side note, have a few youth parents that have given me some heat (behind my back of course) bc as the HFC my kids don't play. I find that interesting/ annoying. Has anyone else experienced this? For me personally, nobody but me will decide when my kids play so it has gained no traction in my decision making. Just bc I like football doesn't mean my kids have to. They are very active with basketball and love it.
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this.
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Post by jlenwood on Nov 23, 2015 7:56:08 GMT -6
Forgive me if this if this thread is somewhere else. I am a hs varsity head coach. I am wanting to know at what age did your son(s) start playing organized football? Like you I have had players that started playing football anywhere from kindergarten to sr year. I have a 6 year old who is starting to ask about playing. If it was all up to me I would prefer him to wait to play until 6th grade middle school or even 5th grade. I had a kid play for me that before middle school had played one season in 2nd grade. He had some idiot coaches that basically did animal drills all practice and the kid became gun shy. When he came back out later for football he was very passive and we could never get him to be physical. I dont want that to happen to my son. Basically, I would like to read when other varsity coaches kids started playing. When he is physically able & ready to play. Both of my sons started in 2nd grade, and while the entire time they were in youth football was a tremendous time for them, as a father looking back in hindsight I think it was way to early. It really is a hard issue to and decision make. The good that came from them playing, friends and families we met, really needs to be weighed against the physical issues that present themselves. I look at studies that have been done by helmet manufacturers such as SG Helmets, as well as talking to them, and most young kids do not have the neck strength to withstand the hits that they will get. Until a kid is starting to mature physically, I really think they should be held out. I am trying to do better the second time around, as I am going to fight my grand son playing Pop Warner.
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Post by jsk002 on Nov 23, 2015 7:58:35 GMT -6
My oldest is in 1st grade. He played Flag Football this year. I thought the team was well run and he loved it. The earliest I think anyone should consider it is 5th grade. Our lower levels begin pads in 7th grade.
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Post by IronmanFootball on Nov 23, 2015 8:13:50 GMT -6
I would let them play in 6th but only after vetting the coaching staff. We don't need even 1 guy that wants to bull in the ring or something.
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Post by spos21ram on Nov 23, 2015 8:35:56 GMT -6
WARNING: For many of the same reasons listed here, I told my son he could play football starting in the 7th grade. Until them, I let him play soccer. But something unimaginable happened....he fell in love with soccer....what have I done? He's now in 7th grade, playing Soccer, Basketball, and Baseball. He's talked about trying football with the MS team next year. Any advice on how to get him to hate soccer I played soccer in the fall until 6th grade. I always loved football but always was into soccer. I did play pickup football since I was 5 though. The peewee coaches kept telling my dad I need to come out for football. I eventually did and started playing when I was 12. I still played indoor soccer in the winter until I was 16 along with badketball. Baseball in the spring. Just like your kid I'm sure, I was nervous to start something new. New teammates, friends, coaches. After the first day I wasn't nervous anymore Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using proboards
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getbackcoach
Freshmen Member
"If it is important, you will find a way. If not you will find an excuse."
Posts: 92
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Post by getbackcoach on Nov 23, 2015 8:45:48 GMT -6
My kid started playing in 3rd grade and was one of two 3rd graders on a 4th-6th grade team. (Year after the league was able to make a 3rd/4th team and a 5th/6th team) I didn't want him to start until 4th grade. He really wanted to play and was tired of being drug to the HS practices and not playing. I relented and let him play. He got his butt kicked the first year, but loved every second of it. This season was his third season playing.
I think it depends on the kid, the youth coaches, and the parents. I wouldn't say that 3rd grade is too young or that 7th grade is too late. There's a lot of factors to consider. The most important thing is that the youth coaches aren't idiots and have safety in mind.
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Post by Defcord on Nov 23, 2015 8:58:10 GMT -6
WARNING: For many of the same reasons listed here, I told my son he could play football starting in the 7th grade. Until them, I let him play soccer. But something unimaginable happened....he fell in love with soccer....what have I done? He's now in 7th grade, playing Soccer, Basketball, and Baseball. He's talked about trying football with the MS team next year. Any advice on how to get him to hate soccer In Florida soccer is a winter sport so he could do both.
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getbackcoach
Freshmen Member
"If it is important, you will find a way. If not you will find an excuse."
Posts: 92
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Post by getbackcoach on Nov 23, 2015 9:03:34 GMT -6
WARNING: For many of the same reasons listed here, I told my son he could play football starting in the 7th grade. Until them, I let him play soccer. But something unimaginable happened....he fell in love with soccer....what have I done? He's now in 7th grade, playing Soccer, Basketball, and Baseball. He's talked about trying football with the MS team next year. Any advice on how to get him to hate soccer Somebody bought my oldest kid a soccer ball for his birthday one summer. When nobody was looking I kicked it into the woods...
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Post by 33coach on Nov 23, 2015 9:21:22 GMT -6
We start at 8 here. So he would start at 8.
Our youth league here is pretty fantastic. A lot of really good coaches and not A lot of slapsticks.. So I will have no problem starting him at 8.
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Post by PSS on Nov 23, 2015 10:13:33 GMT -6
I didn't start my son until he was in 7th grade, JH. He's a Junior in HS now. I wanted coaches that our staff had trained working with him so that he would learn fundamentals and techniques the correct way.
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Post by jrk5150 on Nov 23, 2015 10:28:13 GMT -6
I am not a HS coach, but I can tell you I felt the same as a bunch of you on here - I figured my son should wait until 12 or so to start playing football. I had the same fear as someone else mentioned - he'd take a big hit, and lacking the maturity to put it into a larger context, he'd be afraid of football and never go back. But he and my wife had a different idea and signed him up at 7 years old. Well, he definitely struggled at first, tried to quit a bunch of times, etc. And he did take a couple of decleaters that first year, but he got back up and eventually got back in there. He's never been a star, but he's been good enough to play for the most part, and had a couple of starts as a senior in HS on a team that won their league. And he just finished up his first season as a freshman walk-on at a D1 FCS school. He will likely never see the field at this level, but he loves the atmosphere and being part of the team.
And I will say this - youth football changed his life. He has some issues (very mild autism and some other stuff), and football gave him an enormous amount of self confidence and social acceptance. And I'm not sure he'd have made it if he started much later than he did. He started young enough where the hitting wasn't all that bad, and by the time the physicality was cranked up a few notches he knew what he was doing.
I started coaching youth football when he was 8, and just finished my 11th year. Here's what I've seen in my own town - the kids that wait until freshman year are so far behind that many (not all) get discouraged and end up quitting. There were some very good athletes in my son's class whose parents did the wait until HS thing, and all of them were done after one or two years. My son's senior year, I believe all 22 of the starting positions were kids that played youth football. But that might be as much about our local HS staff as anything else. They don't teach any fundamentals in that program, so the kids coming in with youth experience have a HUGE advantage.
I coached 3 years at 7-8 years old, 7 years at 9-10, and just finished my first year at 11. My personal feeling is that somewhere in that 9-11 age is probably about right. At that age the hitting isn't too violent, and you still have a lot of kids who are non-athletes and are just out there running around. Starting around 12 years old, when you have some kids beginning to hit puberty, the hitting really begins to crank up. Personally, knowing what I know now, I would NOT have wanted my kid dropped into it for the first time at 12.
I will also tell you that flag has been a disaster from a football perspective. We have had zero luck with kids coming over with only flag experience (in our town it's the NFL play 60 or whatever). It's not football, it's friggin gym class. We've had kids play flag, think they want to play football from that experience, and drop after about a week in pads. There is nothing you can do about the fact that football is hard - and nothing about flag is going to prepare them for that. Yeah, it's a pointy ball, and that's about it.
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Post by CoachMikeJudy on Nov 23, 2015 10:58:42 GMT -6
My son is a BIG 1st grader...75lbs and the size of a 3rd grader already. He only plays flag football right now and I think I'll keep it like that for a while.
I played 5th grade, 7th grade, and 4yrs high school + 4yrs college. 10 years of contact and the damage has been more than enough to my body. To each their own...
IMO my son is not mentally prepared to be coached and attend to the details necessary to play the game safely. He's not mature enough and his attention span is not long enough to learn technique and protect himself. He absolutely loves to hit people and loves being hit, but I'm going to hold off on tackle football at least until 5th grade.
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Post by lochness on Nov 23, 2015 12:19:05 GMT -6
Simple answer: "when they are ready"
Kids all develop mentally and physically at different rates. There's no magic answer to this one. You know and love your son. You know what's best.
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Post by jrk5150 on Nov 23, 2015 12:50:48 GMT -6
I will add this as well about safety/injuries - in my 10 years coaching kids from 7 to 11, we saw far fewer injuries from football than our kids had outside of football.
This year, with 11's and older lighter 12's, we had more injuries than in our other 10 years combined.
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Post by s73 on Nov 23, 2015 12:58:49 GMT -6
I will add this as well about safety/injuries - in my 10 years coaching kids from 7 to 11, we saw far fewer injuries from football than our kids had outside of football. This year, with 11's and older lighter 12's, we had more injuries than in our other 10 years combined. Any insight as to why coach?
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Post by jrk5150 on Nov 23, 2015 13:35:40 GMT -6
I will add this as well about safety/injuries - in my 10 years coaching kids from 7 to 11, we saw far fewer injuries from football than our kids had outside of football. This year, with 11's and older lighter 12's, we had more injuries than in our other 10 years combined. Any insight as to why coach? Not really. We didn't do anything differently - it's been me and the same HC for all 11 years, and we did the same things we've been doing for a while now. I think part of it is age - the collisions at this level are simply more violent than they were at the younger levels. Bigger kids running faster. I think most statistics you see out there show something similar - the older kids get, the higher the rate of injuries. And I think we had some bad luck this year. Broken arm during a game, dislocated knee/torn ligaments with no contact. Just flukes. We also had 3 concussions (real, not the over-diagnosed "I might have a headache" ones), and I'll tell you what, they made me consider hanging up the whistle. We go by the book - I am our org's Player Safety Coach certified by USA Football/Heads Up - and I know there isn't anything I could have done about any of them, but that doesn't make the sick feeling when it happens any easier to tolerate. And just for context - we had 2 football related concussions in our previous 10 years. Again, kind of fluky... I should also add we had quite a few non-football injuries crop up as well.
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Post by Chris Clement on Nov 23, 2015 13:55:09 GMT -6
I will add this as well about safety/injuries - in my 10 years coaching kids from 7 to 11, we saw far fewer injuries from football than our kids had outside of football. This year, with 11's and older lighter 12's, we had more injuries than in our other 10 years combined. Any insight as to why coach? Little kids are too small, slow, and weak to hurt each other.
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Post by cqmiller on Nov 23, 2015 14:12:35 GMT -6
Here in UT, youngest you can start is 8. Depends on the coach for me. If I know the guy and he's going to teach them basic football skills, including the proper way to tackle and block, then I'll let my son play at that age.
My son is 2 now, and already likes to get in a 3-pt stance and then if you give him a football he puts one hand on it with his other hand on the ground and says "hut, hut, hut". Good thing hes in the 99th percentile for size and weight, so he may end up an OL anyway.
If not, I'll let him play for the 1st guy that I know is a good coach.
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Post by fballcoachg on Nov 23, 2015 14:51:12 GMT -6
My son won't play organized tackle football until 7th grade at the earliest if he so chooses. He loves the game already and wants to always play but pickup and other sports (if he wants) will fill his time. He will be on the sideline with me as a ball boy/water boy if I have a coaching gig and that should keep him chomping at the bit.
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Post by 33coach on Nov 23, 2015 15:06:04 GMT -6
My son won't play organized tackle football until 7th grade at the earliest if he so chooses. He loves the game already and wants to always play but pickup and other sports (if he wants) will fill his time. He will be on the sideline with me as a ball boy/water boy if I have a coaching gig and that should keep him chomping at the bit. why is that? is your youth league bad? are you afraid of injury? im not trying to pick on you, i actually want to know. as a MS coach i actually combat this kind of behavior. the kid who already knows how to block and tackle, is probably going to play a lot more then the one who doesn't - its the reality of the game. football isnt like other sports, the skills dont translate that well to normal kid life...sure running throwing etc.... but when was the last time you saw a kid reach block something or someone on the school yard? also, i get the parents who say "not till HS"..which is even funnier, because those are the kids who NEVER get playing time and end up hating football (from my experience) - because while they were learning what a 3 point stance is in Varsity football, the other kids are perfecting theirs..
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