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Post by coachdoug on Dec 4, 2017 20:48:22 GMT -6
I got mine from ASA (www.asa-football.com) for about $3 or $4 each for 3-window wrist coaches. Pretty happy with them.
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Post by coachdoug on Aug 29, 2016 22:48:13 GMT -6
This is my 7th year running our youth organization. Up to this point, it has been a 1-man show. We don't have a board or anything like that. I have run the organization out of my garage essentially. It is a lot of work and I am ready to step back and let someone else take over. However, I don't want to walk away unless I have something in place to ensure the organization will exist without me. What I am thinking about doing is forming some kind of youth football board made up of parents and community members. However, I don't know how to go about doing that. Do I need to get a lawyer to create some kind of non-profit corporation? What does the "typical" youth football organization look like? We are a 5th-6th grade program. We average around 30 kids every year if that makes a difference. Most youth sports organizations have a Board of about 12 people, although I've seen it vary from about 5 to about 18. Typically, the positions are: President (hopefully self-explanatory) Vice-President (hopefully self-explanatory) Secretary - records meeting minutes, maintains the organizations records (bylaws, articles of incorporation, 501-C3 status, etc) Treasurer (hopefully self-explanatory) These first four positions are the Executive Board or Officers of the organization and they have certain rights/privileges that other Directors do not have - like signing documents on behalf of the organization, entering the organization into contracts or other legal agreements,etc. Tackle Director/Athletic Director/Coaching Director - in charge of running the football portion of the program and in particular overseeing the coaches and making sure they're properly certified and following all rules and policies. Cheer Director - oversees the Cheer Program. Publicity - get the word out about the program and promote signups. Registration numbers are the primary metric for this position. Fundraising - raise money for the organization. Equipment Manager - oversee all equipment and uniform issues from inventorying current supplies to ordering new equipment to sourcing and ordering game uniforms. Also ordering and managing all coaching supplies and equipment. Registrar/Players Agent/Certification Director - in charge of all player paperwork and making sure that all participants are properly certified. Concessions Director/Auxiliary President - in charge of game day snack bar/concessions. Education/Little Scholars/Academic Compliance Director - make sure all participants are academically eligible and promote top academic achievers for awards. Other positions that I've seen on various Boards include: Fields & Security - secure all facilities for practices and games and ensure that security is in place for games (either via volunteers or hiring third parties) Webmaster (hopefully self-explanatory) Media Director - responsible for ensuring that all games get recorded on video and providing promotional video and photos and audio to the Publicity Director and/or Webmaster to promote the program. Merchandise Director - responsible for ordering and selling logo-imprinted sportswear and other items for the purpose of generating revenue for the program and creating branding in the community (typically under fundraising if not it's own position). Special Events Coordinator - organizations and runs Picture Day, Closing Ceremonies (including ordering trophies), and any other special events. There are others, but those are the most common. Hope that helps.
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Post by coachdoug on Jul 18, 2016 17:55:55 GMT -6
Okay, I would never consider them uniforms, just equipment and supplies. Uniforms is a whole different ballgame.
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Post by coachdoug on Jul 16, 2016 22:51:32 GMT -6
We are done with ASA. They screwed us royally last year. Will never do business with them again. That is disappointing to hear. They have been my vendor of choice for 10+ years (they have the best prices on just about everything, although we do usually get our uniforms locally for quality and turnaround time concerns).
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Post by coachdoug on Jul 7, 2016 16:07:29 GMT -6
A typical practice schedule for us looks like this:
The first 30 minutes is identical every single practice:
7.5 minutes - Dynamic Warm-Ups 7.5 minutes - Position-specific Warm-Ups (Settle & Noose for backs/receivers, Duck Demeanor and Agility Ladders for Linemen) 7.5 minutes - Team Pursuit Drill 7.5 Minutes - Tackling Circuit (either 4 stations for 1:45 each, or 3 stations for 2:30 each) - one station is always ball disruption.
5 minute water break
Sometimes (maybe 25% of the time) 10 minute group drill (3-level Oklahoma or Whose Ball are most common)
50-60 Minutes Indy/Group - this is the heart of practice and where most of the teaching and learning takes place. We do installs here as well as work on skills development.
5 minute water break
15-20 Minutes Team - Review installs with full team, run plays on air, etc.
5-10 Minutes (if there's anything left) - Scrimmage and/or Competitive Games (Sumo, Towel Drill, Deer Hunter, Whose Ball, etc.)
When I get a chance, I'll try to find a few actual practice plans from previous seasons and post them here for you.
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Post by coachdoug on Jul 5, 2016 22:59:03 GMT -6
Here's what I used to do:
- Condition the hell out of the players. Run, and run, and run some more. Sprints, up-downs, suicides, etc. etc. A lot of it had no football application, but they were working hard. - Talk a lot about hard work - have the kids break on "Hard Work!" - generally preach that no team was going to work harder than us and no team would ever beat us in the 4th quarter. - Build "toughness" and "discipline" through conditioning and physically demanding practices.
The results were mediocre. We won a little more than we lost, but it was pretty close to .500. We realized that most of our opponents were preaching the same things that we were, and we won some games in the 4th quarter and lost some in the 4th quarter, but most games were over by halftime (in either direction), so conditioning rarely was a factor.
Here is what we do now:
- We don't do any conditioning for conditioning sake. Everything we do has a football application. We NEVER run laps (other than one half lap warmup at the beginning of practice). We plan the hell out of practice, down to 5-minute increments and try like hell to stay on schedule. We practice at a high pace and expect our coaches and players to keep up - by practicing at a high pace, our players naturally become conditioned just by completing practice (and they never even realized they were conditioning).
- We rarely talk about working hard (we let the players figure that out themselves and then then ones that do figure it out bring the others in line. Yeah, we do talk about it some, like it is a regular theme in our weekly story night, but we don't harp on it like we used to. If the coaches are constantly pushing the kids to "work harder" they either get burned out or numbed to the message, but if it comes from their peers, they are much more likely to raise their effort level to not let down their friends.
- We still build toughness and discipline from physically demanding practices, but now it's more in the form of high-paced competitive drills rather than simply running sprints or doing up-downs.
The results were a lot better. Over the past 5 seasons, we have achieved:
2011 - Conference Semi-Finals (6-2 record) 2012 - Conference Finals (8-2 record, averaged over 33 points per game, 46 TDs in 10 games) 2013 - Conference Semi-Finals 2014 - Conference Champions (undefeated local record, National Semi-finalists) 2015 - Conference Champions (Regional Semi-finalists)
I hope you're getting the point here - I'm not talking about running soft practices or not conditioning the players - I'm talking about running very efficient practices at such a high pace that conditioning happens naturally and where the competitive nature of drills brings out top effort from the players without them even realizing they're working hard.
Do that and discipline, hard work, toughness, and conditioning will all happen automatically without any overt effort to make those things happen.
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Post by coachdoug on May 4, 2016 8:22:01 GMT -6
I feel like catching a football is natural, you can get a little better, but you either can catch or you can't (I can't). Throwing is the same, you can have some things fixed but you either can throw or can't (I can't). Sorry to go off on a tangent here, but I felt I had to address the quoted statement. That is completely untrue - catching and throwing are skills and if you can teach and drill the proper mechanics for those skills you can and will see dramatic improvements in the player's ability. Now, of course, there are limits - if a kid has no arms he is probably never going to be able to catch or throw effectively, but within whatever range of natural ability a kid has, coaching can move the kid to the upper limits of that range, and the range for most kids is probably a lot bigger than you can imagine. Having said that, I get your point - look at how the kids perform naturally and work with the kids that appear to have the best natural skill sets for each position. That is just common sense and I think that is what most coaches do in some manner or another.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 24, 2016 22:56:00 GMT -6
Unfortunately, I think this is far too scheme dependent to give you a one-size fits all answer. For instance, what a 6th grader needs to know (at any position) in a DW offense is very different than what a 6th grader would need to know in a Spread offense, or a SW offense, or WT, or Pistol, or Power-I, etc, etc. Sorry I can't be more help, but I don't think there is a reasonable answer to your question, unless you limit it to a specific scheme.
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Post by coachdoug on Feb 16, 2016 13:04:46 GMT -6
Coach - it's great that you've reached out to your local youth org and offered your support.
Here are a few things I would suggest:
- Don't force your schemes on the youth coaches. Coaches should coach what they know and know how to fix. If they're asking for your stuff, great, but even then make sure you include the disclaimer that they should run whatever they know and all you care about is that they learn good fundamentals (blocking & tackling) and have enough fun to continue playing - if they have a crappy experience and quit, you will probably never get them back out for football again.
- I think a series of Saturday clinics is a great idea, but I'd check their commitment level before you spend a lot of time and energy setting it up. Most youth coaches are also involved in other sports and may have other commitments on Saturdays, so you may not get the attendance you're expecting. Find out what they can commit to, and what days/times work best for them and try to work around that. I would definitely have a least a couple sessions before your one six-hour clinic in July, just so all the youth coaches understand your terminology, know what to expect and can contribute.
- For the six-hour clinic, I would break it out as follows: > 30 Minutes - warm ups. I would never spend more than about 10 minutes on this during the season (and I would make sure the youth coaches understand that), but for an event like this, I would want to expose both the kids and the coaches to a plethora of exercises so they can pick and chose what they like best. Include general dynamic stretches, some simple plyometric movements, and a core circuit. > 5 Minutes - water. > 60 Minutes - 6 agility stations, 10 minutes each. Split kids into 6 groups - every kid goes through every station. The stations can be whatever you want, but some obvious choices would include agility ladders, agile bags, W-drill, 3-cone drill, 20-yard shuttle (5-10-5), jump rope, grass drills, etc. > 5 Minutes - water. > 130 Minutes - 6 skills stations, 20 minutes each (plus two 5-minute water breaks after the first two stations and again after four stations). Split kids into 6 groups - every kid goes through every station. Again these can be whatever you want, but some obvious choices would include blocking (fit and freeze on dummies/shields), tackling (fit & freeze and splatter with dummies - you can also teach Hawk tackling/wrap & roll on a pulled dummy), pass catching, DB technique (footwork, hands, jamming, breaking on the ball, run support, etc.), RB technique (taking handoffs, pitches, ball security, etc.), LB technique (footwork, reads, run fits, pass drops, etc.), etc. > 10 Minutes - water. > 60 Minutes - 3 Position Stations, 20 minutes each (kids can go to whatever stations they want to check out - you may want to have their coaches assign them to stations so everyone doesn't just go to the QB, RB and WR stations). Stations would most likely be QB, RB, WR, OL, DL, LBs, DBs, Specialties (Kicker, Punter, etc.). Just focus on the fundamentals and mechanics for each position. > 5 Minutes - water. > 30 Minutes - Competitive contests (speed tournament, pass catching, throwing accuracy, 3-cone, 20-yard shuttle, broad jump, vertical leap, etc.) > 5 Minutes - water. > 20 Minutes - Awards (for the contest winners - broken out by age group), final inspirational words & closing.
As far as clinics for the coaches go, other than preparing them for the clinic/camp described above, I would focus less on scheme and more on making sure they understand the fundamentals of how to teach blocking and tackling, throwing mechanics, catching, pursuit, and how to develop core strength (the single biggest physical deficiency for most youth players). I would also focus on practice planning and pace, how to structure an efficient practice, how to do installs, and what to spend time on and what to avoid wasting time on.
As far as working with the kids without the youth coaches, by all means, put together a camp, or a series of camps. I would structure the camp(s) similar to what I described above for the six-hour July event. How long the camp will be and how many sessions you will have will dictate how in-depth you go in each category or position group. Whatever you do, keep the emphasis on the kids having fun and learning/developing skills and make it competitive as much as possible.
Good luck.
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Post by coachdoug on Feb 15, 2016 9:23:00 GMT -6
Contact Dave Cisar at _. He's done it twice and has written about it extensively. In fact, I think there is a free download on this subject on his website. Just a small point of clarity though... I was under the impression that Dave had started youth football organizations, and not specifically youth "feeder" programs. I do think there could be a difference. Good point - I was focused on the "start of youth program" part and didn't really pay attention to the "feeder" part, although I suspect most of what needs to be will be the same - there would just be some differences in focus and priorities, I would think.
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Post by coachdoug on Feb 13, 2016 18:40:06 GMT -6
Contact Dave Cisar at _. He's done it twice and has written about it extensively. In fact, I think there is a free download on this subject on his website.
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Post by coachdoug on Nov 16, 2015 22:20:35 GMT -6
I don't mess with this stuff anymore. As soon as they show signs, they come out and never go back in. I had a kid a few years ago who had a mild hit on an opposing RB at the sideline. Kid got "shook up" but didn't act symptomatic. After the game, he fell down and started crying because of the pain he was experiencing. Got rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a severe concussion. Major wake up call for me. Thank god his dad was a former collegiate player and understood how I didn't see the signs. It didn't look even close to being a hard hit to him either. We've gotta cover our behinds and get educated on this stuff. Yeah, I've had similar experiences. In 1999, I had a kid get his bell rung. Just as I was dialing for an ambulance, the kid started pleading with me that he was okay and to let him back into practice. Thankfully I stuck to my guns and called for the ambulance - the kid was still throwing up a week or two later and wasn't cleared to return until almost a month later - I can't imagine what might have occurred if I had given in and let the kid back into practice. In another case, just last year (2014), I had a kid get a concussion during a game. When it happened, I had no idea what happened, I just saw our kid walking around on the field after the play, acting loopy. We pulled him out, and sent him for medical attention, where it was determined that he had a concussion. When I looked at the game video, there was nothing there - he got blocked and went down, fairly gently - there was no head bouncing off the turf or anything like that - watching the video, I can't believe it caused a concussion, but I guess there is cumulative effect to sub-concussive hits over time. I'm not sure I believed that before, but it was pretty clearly evident in this case. In any event, I'm with several others in this thread - if there is ANY doubt, I'm holding the kid out. No win is worth the future well being of a kid.
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Post by coachdoug on Nov 15, 2015 12:21:06 GMT -6
Why wait to get the best possible throwing motion ingrained in his motor patterns? Why allow someone else (who you think is not as good as others) ingrain these motor patterns into your boy? I would suggest you get him to a Darrin Slack camp and see what he thinks of that While I agree with what you're saying, I don't think that was really the question the OP was asking. I thought the question was not "I'm unhappy with the level of coaching my son is getting, and wonder if I should seek out a camp or a QB coach to help develop my son in the offseason?" That seems to be the question you were addressing. The question I was trying to answer was more along the lines of "I think my son has a ton of potential, and while I think he's getting okay coaching, I know he could take it to another level if I could get him into some camps or with a top QB coach to develop his skills in the offseason. But, he doesn't really want to do football stuff in the offseason - he's involved in other sports - and I generally support that position. So, should I force him to do more offseason work or would that be counterproductive?" One thing that I might suggest to the OP, that addresses both concerns, would be to buy your son Slack's C4 QB Throwing Mechanics DVDs. I think there are 7 DVDs (about $200 if memory serves me correctly) with pretty much everything a sub-varsity QB needs to know. Give it to him for Christmas or as a birthday gift, and then let him go through the DVDs at his own pace. Just be familiar with them and the techniques Slack teaches, so if and when your son asks to throw with you, you can give appropriate feedback.
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Post by coachdoug on Nov 11, 2015 13:52:53 GMT -6
I agree with jrk5150. If he doesn't want to do anything out of season, making him do so will probably backfire. When he decides he wants to do the extra work, just be ready with something to have him do. Do your research on camps, clinics, videos, etc., and be ready with a plan when he says he's ready. He has plenty of time, and so much can happen between now and when he gets to high school, so relax and enjoy the ride.
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Post by coachdoug on Nov 9, 2015 14:37:05 GMT -6
Off season? Is that really a thing? I don't know what that means. We have the pre-season, the regular season, the post-season, the strength & conditioning season (for older players), the skills development season (these last two generally run concurrently), the winter league season, the spring league season (I generally do not participate in these last two seasons, but they are available in this area), the 7-on-7 season, the clinic/camp season, and then we're back to the next pre-season. I don't have any idea how an "off-season" fits in there anywhere.
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Post by coachdoug on Sept 25, 2015 14:40:29 GMT -6
As far as I'm concerned, Friday night ball is where the Ws and Ls count. Everything beneath it needs to be developmental with a strong focus on getting the kids playing time so that they can continue to grow and build skills. ... NOW, if these HOF coaches subscribe to this philosophy at their phuckin' JV level, then you'd better bet that youth coaches better subscribe to it too. First of all, why do Ws and Ls count at the varsity level? Seriously, most of the kids are still minors - shouldn't it still be about fun, learning life lessons, growing and developing skills they can carry with them for the rest of their lives? Saying that's important for a 17 year old, but not for 15 year old, or a 13 year old or whatever is pretty arbitrary. For the most part, people's livelihood isn't affected by the performance of their athletes (yes, I know HS coaches can and do get fired, but a tiny percentage of them rely on their coaching income as their primary source of income), so why should winning matter at all below the college level? Seriously, this approach makes a lot more sense than saying that winning arbitrarily starts being meaningful in the middle of high school, but is completely irrelevant prior to that. I think I see what's happened here - you're operating under the assumption that the youth program is a part of the high school program (either through the school system or the high school runs and sponsors the youth program). If that's the case where you are, then your attitude makes a lot more sense. However, that is not the case for the vast majority of us. I send kids to multiple high schools every year (over 20 different high schools in the past 4 years alone). No high school does much of anything to help and support us (other than the school where we practice and play, and for which we pay a small fortune - over $15K this year - for that privilege). If some local HOF coach (and yes, we have several of them around here as well) wants me to get on board with his philosophy, then he better pony up some support for our program - anything short of that is the height of arrogance. That's a bit TIC - I have excellent relationships with most of the HS staffs in my area and they love getting our players because they have been taught proper fundamentals and have learned a love for the game, and generally do very, very well at the HS level (and in some cases beyond). Honestly, I don't know why you're being so combative - other than acting like "competition" is a dirty word, and the insinuation that youth programs have an obligation to serve their local high schools, I think you're saying the same things that most of us here say all the time. You're just doing it with an attitude that you have it all figured out and everyone else here is a complete moron. Anyway, good luck with the rest of your season.
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Post by coachdoug on Sept 24, 2015 9:15:07 GMT -6
Of course, the exact same thing could be said about high school sports.
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Post by coachdoug on Sept 23, 2015 12:29:17 GMT -6
I'm going to be blunt here; IT'S YOUTH FOOTBALL. This isn't a time for stats or anything else; this is the time for the kids to have fun and learn to play the game, regardless of the position. My youngest is a helluva FB; I've been coaching for many years and began working with him on footwork and ball carrying drills the day he said he wanted to be a RB. He's a DE and OG this year on a team that hasn't won a single game. Do I care that he's playing DE and guard? Nope. Why not? Because the team needs him there and because he's learning and doing a good job at his position. Do I care that he was upset about the move? Nope. Why not? Because it's a learning experience for him in team work. Do I care that they've lost every game? NO!! Why not? BECAUSE IT'S YOUTH FRICKIN' FOOTBALL! I'm not working with the team and I do see poor coaching but the guys out there aren't treating the kids poorly and the team is enjoying the game. The three coaches don't have much of a clue but I'm not saying anything unless they ask for my advice; it's their show and they're treating the kids right. I could have coached his team and I chose not to because I had already committed to my current position. So, to conclude my rant; get over it. It's youth sports. Good for you that you've been able to teach your kid good values and that his coaches are teaching the players and treating them properly. It sounds like your son has a love for the game and will be happy playing any position. However, if I may be blunt, it is naive and misguided to think that things like position, playing time, competitiveness and coaching don't matter simply because it's the youth level. First of all, your situation sounds pretty rare - I can tell you from personal experience (22 years coaching at the youth level) plus 100s (if not thousands) of conversations here and on other boards, that coaches that don't field competitive teams almost always are not teaching their players much and are also almost always not treating the players properly. Coaches that do things right are almost always competitive. So, when youth coaches make daddy ball decisions, make the kids do endless bear crawls/up-downs/other punitive conditioning, run poor practices, play players in the wrong positions, and generally field lousy teams that get physically beat up every week, do you know what happens? The kids on those teams generally don't have much fun and retention sucks (i.e. the kids drop football and try another sport instead the next year, or maybe even in the middle of this season). When that happens, they rarely say, "Well, that sucked, but I'm sure it'll be better in high school, so I'll try again when I get there." No, once they leave football, they almost never come back. So, if that happens in the youth program feeding your high school, you will quickly see all sorts of talent walking around the hallways, and you'll have strong teams in soccer, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, wrestling, volleyball, etc, etc, but you won't have any talent on your football team because the crappy youth program drove them all into other sports and they won't even give football a chance when they get to your level. I hope this never happens to you or your program, but if it does (and I've seen it happen plenty of times at other places), I think you will have a very different opinion on whether these things matter at the youth level. Maybe not for your son, or you as his father, but for most kids and in terms of the overall mission of the youth program, these things matter ... a lot.
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Post by coachdoug on Jul 22, 2015 14:13:26 GMT -6
Whenever the roster gets above about 25 or 26 players, this really starts to be an issue. Here are some of the things we've done in the past to deal with it (let's hypothetically assume a roster of 30 for example purposes):
- Have as few two way starters as possible. If you have 8 guys going both ways, you'll only have 14 starters (8 2-way plays, plus 3 offensive players, plus 3 defensive players). That means you'll have 16 kids that have to get into the game to get their minimum plays. If you're going to try to get them all in at OG, OT, or WR, you're going to have a very hard time getting their plays done and you'll have a bunch of upset parents. Let's say you have a handful of special athletes that you just can't justify taking off the field (in reality, you can and probably should), so let's say you only have 3 guys going both ways. Now you'll have 19 starters (3+8+8) and only 11 you have to work into the game - that's a lot more workable.
- Have rotations at various positions. For instance, let's say we're running a 4-4 defense. We'll have 3 guys rotate between the 2 ILB positions. Same for OLB, DE, and DT, and we'll have 4 rotate between CB & S. So, all together we'll have 16 "starters" on defense and a roughly equal number on offense. So let's say that 7 or 8 guys are in the rotations on both sides of the ball, that gives us more two-way players, but also means we'll have 24 or 25 players in the "starting" rotation (each of those players will play roughly 2/3 of the game in their position) in total, and only 5 or 6 that need to get worked into the game to get their plays. That's a way better solution.
- Make sure you're competitive. I know, easier said than done, but winning (especially winning easily) makes it much, much easier to get everyone plenty of playing time. In games we know we're going to win easily (and at the youth level, the "any given gameday" adage doesn't apply - we all know there are teams that could play each other a million times and the better team would win every single time), I'll start the backups, and they'll often get more playing time in blowout wins than many of our starters. It's tough to do that when the games are close, and it's really tough to do when you're losing. Even in what appears to be a blowout loss, it's tough to sub a lot, especially if the other team still has their starters out. For instance, think of a game with a final score of 33-12. It sounds like both coaches should have been able to clear their benches and get everyone lot of playing time, right? Well, what if the winning team scored their last TD in the last minute. If you were losing 25-12 in the 4th quarter (a two-score game), would you effectively give up and put in all the subs against their starters? It's tough.
- Script the first 10-20 plays on offense. It will be less for "reading" offenses (SW, DW, WT, Option, etc.), but this will allow you to maximize the number of subs on the field every play right from the beginning of the game. I'm usually well past halfway done with minimum plays by the end of even a 10-play script because we're typically getting 3 or 4 subs in the game on every play. Because it's scripted, we'll have practiced it in order, with subs, 3 or 4 times before the game, so the kids all know what to expect, and we usually execute well and score.
- Another strategy we've used, but haven't for a few years is to have a separate MPP offense. For example, one year we ran a double-tight wishbone and called it Jacks. It consisted of all MPPs at G, T, and TE, plus a backup QB (so 6 or 7 MPPs, or all we had, all out there together). We put starting linemen at C and in the backfield (sometimes we left one starting RB back there as well). We run a Power/Blast type play, a Counter, a Sweep (all with no pulling), and a couple play-action passes. The group practiced as a unit and developed a lot of pride as Jacks. Their deal in games was as long as they were getting first downs, they wouldn't be pulled even if they already had completed their minimum plays. They had several long scoring drives for us, which they were very proud of. While I'm not crazy about separating out players like this, I don't know that any of the other systems allow these kids to feel like they really contributed as much as this one. And, of course, when ever we got ahead by a safe margin, the Jacks offense played the rest of the game, and often did very well.
There are several things I hate seeing and hope most coaches will avoid:
- Place a MPP kid at WR, have him split out as far as possible (30+ yards from the ball) and simply not move. That's just demeaning, but I see it all the time.
- Have a rotation of MPPs play WR and sprint deep every play in an attempt to fatigue their CB. While this is marginally better than the one above, it's still insulting to the players and amounts to basically having them run conditioning drills during the game, not really participate in the game.
- Have MPPs play line positions and just dive on the ground every play. If you're talking about A-gap bear crawlers, I'm okay with it so long as they're actually doing something productive (i.e. the way Dave Cisar teaches it), but if the kids are just being told to drop to the ground and make a pile up, no, that's dangerous and wrong.
- Play MPPs in a position where they'll be exposed. If a kid is playing DT and doesn't do well, chances are no one in the stands will notice, but if a kid is playing CB and he gives up a long TD pass to a better athlete (or can't make the open field tackle on a better athlete), everyone is going to see and know that that kid got beat. It's humiliating to the kid and can be a reason why a weaker player won't return the next season. It's one thing for the kid to know that he's not very good, but it's something else to be exposed publicly so everyone else knows it as well. A lot of times, if we can just keep these kids coming back, they eventually get a lot better, and sometimes even become stars.
- Blow off putting them in the game for the first 3 quarters because "this drive is too important" and then by rule have to put them all in at once on defense at the start of the 4th quarter and then blame them post game for giving up the winning TD.
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Post by coachdoug on Jul 20, 2015 8:16:51 GMT -6
Some of the biggest differences:
- Practice Time. High school is typically strength & conditioning & chalk talk all off-season & summer (plus 7-on-7), then 2-a-days and daily practices until school starts. Once in season, HS typically gets about 20 hours per week with the kids (practice, weight room, film study, meetings, etc.). In youth, it's typically 10 hours per week from around Aug 1, then 6 hours per week after Labor Day.
- Game Time. HS is 12 minute quarters, most Youth is 10 minute quarters, with some only 8 minute quarters.
- Minimum Plays. No such thing in HS. Major issue to plan/strategize for - how to get those weakest players into the game, adding value and not hurting the team.
- Physical ability of the players. HS players are young men and can perform accordingly. You have to completely change your mindset with youth (especially younger ages), who may only be physically capable of throwing the ball 15 yards, or making a catch if it's throw right to him and there's no defender, or may even not have the muscle development to get into a proper stance.
- The size of the field. The actual size of the field is the same, but especially for the younger guys, it plays much bigger. At the HS level, you can string plays out to the sideline, but at the youth level, if their stud RB breaks contain and he's as fast or faster than your guys (good chance, since it's usually the other team's fastest guy), all he has to do is win a 30-yard or so dash to the sideline, then turn it up and outrace everyone to the endzone. Imagine HS playing on a 100+ yard wide field, or the NFL playing on a 150 yard wide field, and it will give you an idea of the dynamics of an 8u game.
- Parental input. I think this is about the same from what a lot of my HS coaching friends tell me, but it's worse at the youth level, if simply because the parents are paying directly for Junior to play, so they feel they have the right to interfere and tell the coaches what position he should be playing and such.
- Player commitment. In HS the kids just go to practice after class is over. In youth, they need rides from the parents, and the parents can and will keep kids out of practice to do homework, for family functions, etc.
There's more, I'm sure, but those are the biggest things just off the top of my head.
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Post by coachdoug on May 4, 2015 6:44:23 GMT -6
Yeah, there are a bunch of people who have done exactly that. There is certainly a market - there are about a million kids playing youth football, so if the average team has 25 players, that's 40,000 teams, each with a coaching staff. Now a large percentage of those are too egotistical or bull-headed, or just don't know what they don't know, and will never consider spending money learning how to teach a game they think they know because they've either been playing it or watching it their entire life. It isn't something that's going to make you rich, but you can definitely sell some books or videos. Some of the guys that have had some success selling their youth systems include:
- Dave Cisar - _ (SW & WT6) - Steve Calande - not sure what his website is, you can find him here or at dumcoach - he is currently the Head Varsity coach at East Catholic in Hartford, CT. He runs DW and the 46 GAMbler defense. - Glenn Harris - _ (Spread) - Clark Wilkins - dumcoach.com (he's run a mulititude of systems over the years) - Jack Reed - not sure what his website it, and he's kind of an ass (probably won't help you at all unless you buy his stuff first), but you can just google his name. (SW & GAM)
There are a bunch of others, but those are the guys that come immediately to mind. Good luck.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 13, 2015 11:05:11 GMT -6
In our league there are only special rules like this for the Mitey Mite level (8-9 yrs old) (and probably Tiny Mite, which is even younger, but we don't have that level in our league). I'm not sure if that's a PW national rule, or just in our league. All other levels (JPW and above) have no restrictions on defensive alignment.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 10, 2015 22:24:43 GMT -6
I would imagine that baby oil is pretty hypo-allergenic, but that's just a guess.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 4, 2015 16:51:52 GMT -6
Not sure what you're getting at - maybe you could supply more details. Off the top of my head, I would say you teach it the same way you teach anything - break it down into its component parts then drill each of those parts. So install the blocking with the line then rep it (a lot). Install whatever you want the receivers to do (stalk block? down block?) and rep it. And install the footwork, tracks, and reads for the backfield. I would start with doing this on air first just to get the movements down, then add the read (you may want to pre-call the read initially, but you should have them start practicing the read as soon as possible, as they will need as many reps as possible). Option is not something to dabble in - if you're going to do it, go all in. If you want to be successful, plan to have well over a thousand practice reps before your first game and probably 3-5 thousand over the course of the season, so that means 50-100 reps per practice.
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Post by coachdoug on Dec 1, 2014 23:40:11 GMT -6
We will be playing the Reno (NV) Miners in the Pop Warner Super Bowl Tournament next week in Florida. We are in the Unlimited Division (11-14, no weight limit). Does anyone know anything about them? Schemes? Players? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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Post by coachdoug on Nov 27, 2014 15:21:00 GMT -6
I am relatively new to coaching youth football...I am looking for good resources to increase my football knowledge...books especially...but any resource would be great....suggestions? Clinics: - Glazier - Nike COY - Anything local put on by your area colleges or high schools Websites: - CoachHuey.com - DumCoach.com - Delphi Forums - Google whatever schemes you want to run and you'll find a plethora of sites devoted to various systems Camps: - Offense/Defense (full pads/contact) - Pretty much all colleges and a lot of high schools put on some type of off season (typically summer) camp Books/Videos - National Football Academies (Darin Slack). By far the best thing for QB play, but they also have camps and materials for other positions (especially receiver) as well. - Winning Youth Football (Dave Cisar). Dave's materials are excellent. Even if you don't want to run his schemes (SW and WT6), there is a ton of value in his materials wrt practice planning, teaching kids, developing character and generally approaching coaching in a professional manner. - Youth Football Guru (Glen Harris). If you want to run spread, Glen's stuff is a great place to start. - Coaches Choice. These guys have 100s (1000s?) of videos for every coaching topic imaginable. Some are great, others not so much. Look for the topics you're interested in and check out the reviews and buy one or two at a time. I generally always pick up 1 or 2 at every Glazier clinic I go to (they always have a booth/station at the Glazier clinics). - Jeff Teed ( www.coachteed.com). He collects playbooks and will trade with you for free or sell you a collection of 100s (1000s?) of playbooks for $20-$30. There's plenty more out there, but that should be more than enough to get you started. Good luck.
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Post by coachdoug on Nov 18, 2014 12:25:28 GMT -6
Ask about him approach to practice planning. Ask about overall philosophy - goals & objectives type stuff. How does he handle playing time disputes? How does he handle parent issues?
Give him a handful of hypotheticals and ask him what he would do. e.g. Your assistant's kid, Archie, wants to play QB and so does another kid, Kyle. Kyle may be a little better at QB than Archie, but he can also play other positions - he's the fastest kid on the team and looks like a great little running back. You decide that the team is better off with Archie at QB and Kyle at RB. Kyle's mom comes to you after practice demanding to know why Kyle isn't playing QB when he's clearly the best player on the team and you're destroying his chances at a college scholarship. How do you respond?
Another example: You're ahead by 6 points. The other team is at your 20 yard line. There are 15 seconds left in the game. It's 4th & 10. They just took their final timeout. You are going out to the huddle to talk to your defense. What do you tell them?
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Post by coachdoug on Nov 2, 2014 21:26:53 GMT -6
We won our championship game last night 28-20. It was a lot harder than it should have been. We've never been behind all season, but found ourselves behind 6-0 and 20-14 in the first half. Then we settled down and played much better defensively the rest of the way. Offensively, we made a ton of mistakes (3 lost fumbles, and a bunch of overthrows that we normally complete - I think my QB was a little too hyped up), and let them stay in the game. Our best lineman couldn't play (tweaked back), which really affected our running game and pass pro, and it was raining on and off all night, which definitely affected our passing game (they were a DW team, so they didn't mind the rain at all). I expected to have the outcome decided by the 2nd or 3rd quarter, but instead it came down to almost the last possession. We scored to go up 28-20 with about 4 minutes to play - if we make the PAT, it's a 10-pt (2 possession) game and it's essentially over. Instead, they blocked it, and I was extremely nervous as they covered up our onsides attempt then got a first down or two before we finally stopped them on 4th down. A couple of knees and then we got our big, shiny trophy. It was stressful, but ultimately a very satisfying night.
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Post by coachdoug on Oct 22, 2014 21:30:33 GMT -6
Won on Saturday 24-8 - played very sloppy and gave up a ton of first downs defensively (we ran less than 20 plays on offense). We finished the regular season 7-0 and with the #1 seed in our playoffs. We should end up in the championship game against a team we defeated 46-29 a few weeks ago. It was closer than the score would indicate - it was 32-29 with them in possession of the ball on our 20 in the middle of the 3rd quarter - we broke it open in the end, but honestly, it could have gone either way. The rematch should be fun.
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Post by coachdoug on Oct 14, 2014 22:09:38 GMT -6
here is my question. many coaches i know are leaving the old Team Warmup at the beginning of practice, and going to a modular "Position based" warmup. that incorporates all the dynamic warmups that we would normally do as a team, but also includes position skill type drills. who else is doing this? have you seen any real benefit? We do 7 minutes of team dynamics followed by 7 minutes of position specific warm ups - generally Settle-n-Noose for backs & receivers, and agility ladders for linemen. Definitely have seen benefits in terms of overall efficient use of time and getting in more football-related reps vs. the old-school way of lining up in rows for 20 minutes of static stretches. As far as position specific vs. general team, I'm not sure, but if I had to drop one or the other, I would drop the general team dynamic warm-ups. The position specific stuff incorporates real football moves, so it's more efficient in that it addresses two issues at once, but until I see some documentation that says that general dynamic warm ups are not helpful, I'm going to continue doing both.
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