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Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 19:18:11 GMT -6
Yeah, Snoop coaches. I guess he's a pretty good coach. I think he won his own league's championship a few times. Although, I'm not sure if that's because he's a really good coach or because he got to pick the best players for his team because all the kids wanted to play for a celebrity coach. Probably a little bit of both. Could any of it be because people fear the consequences of beating him? Like letting the boss win at golf, poker, etc.? Well, I suppose that's possible, but I sure hope that's not the case. I really doubt that it is. Coaches everywhere are just too competitive to do that, IMHO.
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Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 19:16:22 GMT -6
Yeah, we'll be fine, and hopefully we'll end up with a roster of about 25 or so, which is much more manageable than 34. We'll actually be better off in some ways as some of the kids that are leaving don't have great work ethics or attitudes, but we'll miss at least 2 of them a lot. If you remember from the videos I've posted, #5 is one of the fastest, most athletic kids I've ever coached, and #33 broke a ton of tackles between the tackles - he doesn't have great speed, but he's a tough inside runner.
We were in PW back in the 90s and left because of the problems you cited (plus they seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of money from their member programs). I'm not happy about going back to PW at all. Unfortunately, it's out of my hands. I'll just do the best I can with the hand we're dealt.
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Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 11:57:00 GMT -6
Coaches... C'mon now... Why does it have to be an either or? Before there was a Cisar... there was a Reed... to be honest... I think a newbie coach should go Reed before Cisar... it makes you appreciate the details. Its like anything in life... if you get too much too soon, you won't appreciate it. Reed gives you just enough to be more successful than those not willing to do research... that success will motivate you to find more answers... such as Cisar, and then you really appreciate your learning and growth. You have to walk before you run... Reed was walking... Cisar is running. Again... I think both bring value to the game... sure one is intermediate while the other is advanced... but it takes tough times to be able to recognize and appreciate the good times. IMHO ;D Good point. Reed does at least provide a framework and some basic pointers on practice organization and such. It's not bad stuff for a new coach to start with. I guess what really bothers me about Reed moreso than his materials, is his arrogance and his condescending attitude. I mean this guy actually said in one of his books that he's qualified to coach in the NFL - he's barely a competent youth coach, but in his mind he's ready for the NFL. Unbelievable.
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Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 9:46:07 GMT -6
coachdoug, I've read many of your posts on this site and I know you are a dedicated coach. So I really feel bad that you're loosing all those players. But, and I'm only saying this to maybe give you a way to look at it a little differently, 34 players on a youth team is just way too many, IMO. I cannot imagine how you manage to get all those players meaningful playing time. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not trying to be critical. Just hoping to help you find a silver lining here. Justryn2 - I agree, it's really hard to get everyone into the game in a meaningful way with 34 players (although we had 6 season-ending injuries last year - none of which happened on the football field - so we only had to deal with 28 most of the season). I think we did a pretty good job with it last year. Unfortunately, we'll have to take whoever signs up (up to 35 players), so if we get a bunch of first year players sign up, we'll still have a bunch of guys to get into the game, but now they'll be rookies instead of vets. My attitude is I'm going to coach whoever shows up and we only want the kids that want to be with us anyway (although I know these decisions are being made by their parents - I think all the kids would rather be back with us). We still have plenty to work with and we're going to have a fun, successful season regardless. It just a little bit of a kick in the gut right now. I think I'm more upset with our board than anything else for making the decision to change conferences wthouth really thinking it through and making sure we had a solid option to go to. This new conference will probably be fine in 3-4 years, but it's really hurting us right now.
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Post by coachdoug on May 30, 2009 9:35:19 GMT -6
Yeah, Snoop coaches. I guess he's a pretty good coach. I think he won his own league's championship a few times. Although, I'm not sure if that's because he's a really good coach or because he got to pick the best players for his team because all the kids wanted to play for a celebrity coach. Probably a little bit of both.
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Post by coachdoug on May 29, 2009 23:42:27 GMT -6
It's not just called the Snoop Dogg league, it actually is his league. He started it about 4-5 years ago ostensibly to provide more opportunities for inner-city youth to participate in organized football. There already were plenty of options (Pop Warner, AYF, Jr All-American, and several independent leagues) around greater Los Angeles, but he probably did provide some new opportunities in a few communities. In a lot of cases, though, he just poached players already playing in other leagues. For instance, the Long Beach program in our league basically went from being pretty strong to defunct within about 2 years because so many of their players went over to the Snoop Dogg league.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what happens with Snoop's son now that he's in HS. He has his son enrolled at Long Beach Poly, which is almost always ranked in the national top 10. The head coach is Raul Lara and his son, Emmanuel Lara, played QB in our league and is currently a freshman at LBP, as is Snoop's son, who also plays QB. I know Snoop has made some signficant financial contributions to LBP, but I can't see Coach Lara letting that influence his decision making, especially when it involves his own son. I haven't seen Snoop's son play, but I understand he's pretty good. I have seen Emmanuel play, and he's okay, but not incredible - good footwork and mechanics, but not much of an arm. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds over the next few years.
Anyway, if you're curious about Snoop's football league, I don't know the website off the top of my head, but just Google Snoop Dogg Youth Football and you'll find it. Also, I have made a couple fairly lengthy posts about Snoop's league here in response to some questions from Dave Cisar, so you can do a search here to see that conversation.
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Post by coachdoug on May 29, 2009 22:59:15 GMT -6
Well, I just got a call from our team's head coach earlier today. It looks like were going to lose about 17 kids total from our roster of 34 last season. Four we knew about last year - they decided that football just wasn't their game, another one is moving on to high school, two others moved out of the area, and another two are staying down a level (more on this below). But the other 8, including our entire starting backfield (all three running backs) are defecting to the Snoop Dogg league. I don't think it had anything to do with our coaching or their experience on the the team - the thing all the parents are citing is economics - they say they can play for a lot less in the Snoop league. I suspect that when it's all said and done, their going to find that the overall cost is closer than they think. Nonetheless, they're gone.
I also suspect that our program's decision to leave our old conference and start a new conference with only 2 other cities had a lot to do with it. The new conference has joined Pop Warner, so we can fill out our schedule with Pop Warner teams from Orange County, and be eligible for the national Pop Warner tournaments. The Pop Warner affiliation is full of problems. We got rid of the older-lighter rule years ago because it was being abused. Now that we're playing under Pop Warner rules, we have to allow older-lighters. And, they also have a minimum weight rule, so we're losing two more players because they won't make the min weight, so they'll get moved down a level and have to play as O/L on that team.
Anyway, instead of having probably 27 returning players and our biggest problem being figuring out how to get everyone enough touches, now we probably have about 17 returners and will have to replace our entire backfield. I guess we have our work cut out for us.
Oh, and we're also losing our def coord, who's going with his son over to the Snoop league, which means that now I'll be the def coord. That's fine with me - I've actually coached mostly defense over the years anyway, but I really enjoyed working with the offense with this group last year. I'll still be involved with the offense to an extent, but I'm sure I'll have my hands full with the defense. I'm sure I can do better than we did last year defensively, but I'm losing the entire secondary and about half the linebacking corp, so it's going to be a challenge.
Anyway, I just needed to vent a little. I'm a bit depressed at the moment and I'm just not happy about these developments. Thanks for hearing me out.
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Post by coachdoug on May 29, 2009 18:28:39 GMT -6
Well, as long as we're taking Reed to task, I'll chime in on the GAM, which I've had a couple of seasons of experience with. It is fundamentally unsound for a few reasons: - No defender is responsible for the C gap, leading to the problems with the off-tackle area frequently cited when discussing this defense. Yes, the LBs usually end up aligned in that area, but they have man-coverage responsibility on either a TE or a back, so it's asking a lot for them to control the C gap and follow a receiver in coverage.
- The DEs are the only force players, but Reed has them boxing deep in the backfield making it very easy to just kick them out of the play and continue running the ball inside the DE, but outside everyone else.
- The mirror players are supposed to line up inside their assigned receivers in man coverage, and play press, but also follow the ball and come up in run support on running plays. When asked how the heck they're supposed to do that, Reed's coaching point is simply, "Don't worry about it, the kids will figure it out."
- For the reason above, this defense is very susceptible to play-action passes. If the offense makes any kind of decent fake at all, it is almost impossible for the LB to stay with the TE on a quick out. I tried a bunch of things, and I could not come up with any way to stop this play in a GAM defense.
- Since there really isn't any safety, there isn't any deep player as a last line of defense against gadget plays or anyone breaking free. Basically, if any one player fails in his responsibilities on any given play, it could lead to a TD.
Even his time management book, which has received high acclaim (apparently even Bill Walsh praised it), is full of unsound concepts and ommissions. For instance, Reed seems to be saying that anytime a team has the lead (even in the first quarter) it should go into a full slowdown. Conversely, anytime a team is behind (even in the first quarter), it should go into full hurry-up mode. Seriously - in his book he criticizes the Seahawks for not going to a full hurry up down 3-0 in the second quarter of Super Bowl XL. Obviously, this is just foolish. Most coaches would agree that for most of the game, you're far better off just running your offense and trying to score as many points as possible. There is a point at the end of each half when time management issues become a higher priority, but Reed gives no indication when that point is. I would think that this piece of information would be one of the most important issues to address in a time management book, but Reed doesn't even mention it. He also completely ignores the fact that there may be game planning reasons to be in a slowdown the entire game regardless of score (like if the other team has much better athletes and you'll be sure to lose a shootout). If the Giants had followed Reed's advice in Super Bowl XXV, they surely would have lost to the Bills that day, and Scott Norwood would probably have had a long and succesfull NFL career. When I pointed all this out to Reed via email, his only response was to blame his son for some minor error that I had also mentioned and just ignored everything else.
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Post by coachdoug on May 25, 2009 19:39:21 GMT -6
Well, I don't use use either of their systems, but I've read a bunch of both of their materials and I've met Dave Cisar personally, and tried to communicate with Reed. Here is how I would sum up the differences: - Cisar has an astronomically better track record. Reed's teams have done well, but I'm not sure he's even won a conference championship, whereas Cisar's teams have gone something like 98-5 over an 8-yr period in several different conferences in a couple different cities.
- Cisar makes himself much more available. You can always find Dave here and he's always very responsive to anyone that asks his help or asks any questions about his system and/or materials (it does help to be respectful, though ... LOL). When I've emailed Reed questions, I've typically gotten answers along the lines of, "Buy the current edition of my book." This is after I've already told him that I've spent about $200 on several of his books, including the one in question, but the material on the subject question is only in a revised edition of one of his books that came out since I bought it.
- Reed is extremely arrogant and condescending. Even in his own books, and talking about his own players, he'll say things like, "Players this age are too stupid to handle this concept." Some people may appreciate how "direct and honest" he is, but I find it appalling. Conversely, I have never known Cisar to be anything other than respectful and courteous to other posters, coaches, players, and his audience in general. Dave may cite his W-L records and some other stats too often for some, but if that's his worst fault, I'll take him in a heartbeat over Reed.
As coachkell, said, "No brainer ... Cisar, hands down."
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Post by coachdoug on May 24, 2009 1:57:02 GMT -6
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Post by coachdoug on May 16, 2009 9:59:30 GMT -6
We've had the same issue in our program for years. It's not good when coaches from different teams use different terminology and numbering schemes because they have a difficult time communicating. Coaches from different teams in the same program can be a big help to each other since they see each other play so much, but only if they can communicate. We have tried at various times forcing common terminology/numbering on all coaches in the program and it hasn't gone over well. I think it can be done, but exceptions should be made if a coach wants to use an established pre-packaged system like Gregory DW or Delaware Wing-T, or Cisar's UBSW, all of which come with their own unique terminology and/or numbering systems.
I don't think it's realistic to force a scheme on all coaches across the board. Maybe you could if you used one of the systems I just mentioned, but even then, you'll probably lose good coaches if they don't use that system, so you better be sure you have 100% buy in from competent coaches or it won't be a good tradeoff for the guys you'll lose.
I think probably the best thing you can do is to try to establish common terminology and numbering (as much as possible) and make sure you train all new coaches coming into your program so that at least all the new coaches are on the same page - within 3-4 years you should have pretty good consistency within your program. JMHO.
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Post by coachdoug on May 6, 2009 21:24:32 GMT -6
Interesting project, Dave. I wish you the best of luck with this endeavor. What is going to happen to the teams you're coaching now in 2010? Will they all have moved on to HS by then? I wouldn't think you'd be able to coach your existing teams in addition to taking on a major project out of your area. Of course, you routinely do things that I wouldn't think anyone would be able to do. LOL. BTW, you might want to mention if there are other criteria that you will be looking for, such as age, select vs. non-select, national affiliation of league (PW, AYF, Jr AA, etc.), weight limit rules, other special rules, etc. Letting people know what type of situation you're looking for might help you find the best possible candidates a lot faster. Good luck - I'll be anxious to see how this unfolds. Doug, Lucky for you the flights your way arent very good, otherwise I would be hounding you day and night to coach with me out there with an LA area team. Lucky me is right - if you came out here, you'd undoubtedly take over some team that I penciled in as an automatic win and turn it into a loss for me. LOL. Seriously, though, I'd be honored to coach with you if the opportunity ever presented itself.
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Post by coachdoug on May 5, 2009 16:13:50 GMT -6
Interesting project, Dave. I wish you the best of luck with this endeavor. What is going to happen to the teams you're coaching now in 2010? Will they all have moved on to HS by then? I wouldn't think you'd be able to coach your existing teams in addition to taking on a major project out of your area. Of course, you routinely do things that I wouldn't think anyone would be able to do. LOL.
BTW, you might want to mention if there are other criteria that you will be looking for, such as age, select vs. non-select, national affiliation of league (PW, AYF, Jr AA, etc.), weight limit rules, other special rules, etc. Letting people know what type of situation you're looking for might help you find the best possible candidates a lot faster.
Good luck - I'll be anxious to see how this unfolds.
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Post by coachdoug on May 1, 2009 22:46:28 GMT -6
I do agree with the part that at 6-8 age range you shouldnt have more than 10 plays and 2 formations, but as the kids get older you have to expand your play choices I guess that's where we disagree as I've coached older teams and I still don't use more than 7 or 8 plays. I guess it's one thing if you are moving up with the team and most of them know it, but every year I've coached I've had rookies and every year I've coached I've had to retrain half the team to block and tackle properly because the coaches who have had them in the past spent too much time on X's and O's and not enough on proper technique. I'm always amused by these arguments and I will reserve judgment until I have a better idea of exactly what everyone is talking talking about. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen coaches arguing about whether it's more appropriate to have 5-6 plays or 120-150 and see these coaches almost come to blows, only to find out that both coaches are saying the exact same thing. One coach has 5 or 6 plays and swears that's all you need. Another coach has the same 5 or 6 plays, but runs each to both sides out of 3 or 4 different formations with or without a couple different motions and says he has 120-150 plays and they both have EXACTLY the same playbook. I wouldn't waste too much time on this argument, just keep it simple for the kids and make sure they can exucute everything you install perfectly before you install anything else and you'll be fine.
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Post by coachdoug on May 1, 2009 2:38:48 GMT -6
Coach - the biggest mistake most upper-level coaches (i.e. high school and above) make when speaking to youth coaches is to get too caught up in their own scheme. Whatever coaches in the audience do not run your scheme (in most cases that will be pretty much all of them), will tend to very quickly tune out. So, try to keep your talk to generalities that all coaches can use regardless of scheme. For instance, all youth offenses should have the following components: - be series based - explain what a series is and how to use complementary plays depending on how the defense responds to the base plays
- have blocking rules. it can be GOD, or OIL or whatever, but as long as it makes sense within the scheme it's better to give the kids a framework to build upon. just keep in mind that different series/plays may have different blocking rules.
- try to avoid schemes that are talent dependent - even if you have a stud QB, if you try to run a QB dependent offense like a run & shoot, if that QB gets hurt, you'll be in a world of trouble.
- make sure your scheme matches the talent you have - don't be afraid to adjust your thinking based on what you see in training camp. don't force a square peg into a round hole.
- try to avoid running the same offense as every other team in your league. if everyone is running "I" (or DW or SW or whatever), if you run anything else, you'll be much more difficult to prepare for and your opponents will waste a ton of practice time trying to simulate your look (and they'll do it badly).
- use the passing game to get your best athletes the ball in space (preferably with blockers). at the youth level, the passing game is generally best used as an extension of the running game (or to get big plays off play action in unexpected situations). use sound concepts to get a receiver open, and give the QB very simple reads. asking a 9 yr-old QB to make a 5-step drop, read 2 or more defenders and then throw to the open receiver is a recipe for sacks and interceptions.
Defensively, all youth defenses should have: - Gap Integrity - hopefully this is self explanatory.
- Force - a CB, DE, or OLB (or S in some schemes) should be responsible for turning the play back inside to the rest of the defenders.
- Inside out pursuit - middle and backside LBs as well as DL should not overrun the ballcarrier and should protect against cutbacks. likewise, someone should be staying at home to protect against reverses - at the youth level, this is generally a DE, but it could be an OLB or a CB.
- Alley - if the force and pursuit defenders are doing their jobs, any ballcarrier on a sweep or off-tackle play will be funnelled into an area between the OT/TE and the flat that is generally referred to as the "alley." The alley defender is generally a safety at the youth level, but it could be a LB or even a CB (in an inverted cover-2 scheme).
- deep coverage - a defender must be responsible for keeping all offensive players in front of him and preventing big plays - this is almost alway a safety, but it could theortically be a BSCB on a rollout. this player must be "selling insurance" and protecting against any "gadget" plays at least until the ball crosses the LOS.
On special teams, you want to make sure to: - understand the field position/probability of big return trade-off on both kickoffs and punts and act accordingly. in youth ball, most teams put their best athlete deep, so you do not want to kick the ball to him. if you do, you can expect a big return or a TD 25% of the time or more. on kickoffs, NFL teams average about a 25% recovery rate. you should be able to do better. in most cases, kicking deep will result in the other team starting possesion between their own 35 and 45 yard line plus about a 10-20% chance of a big return. an onside kick will give them the ball at about their own 48, but you'll have about a 30-40% chance of getting the ball, and almost a zero percent chance of a big return.
- punts are even worse - if the other team's best athlete catches a punt in the air, it's almost a 50% chance of TD - all punts should be kicked out of bounds. actually, there is almost no reason to ever punt in youth ball, but that's a whole other discussoin.
- on return teams, stress catching the ball in the air - most long kicks result from the ball rolling a long way after it hits the ground. also, spend a lot of time preparing for onside kicks - even teams that try to kick deep will often kick short because youth kickers are just not that consistent.
- stress kicking PATs. most youth leagues give 2 points for kicking the PAT and only one for running or passing it in. this gives a HUGE advantage to teams that can kick a PAT. it's not that hard - and developing kickers will provide a big benefit to the HS program as well.
A few other general points: - stress fundamentals. teams that block and tackle well tend to do well regardless of scheme. likewise, teams that block and tackle poorly tend to do poorly regardless of scheme.
- coach what you know - if you know DW, you're better off staying with DW in most cases than trying some other scheme, even if it's just because you'll coach it better. however, don't be afraid to learn something new, and try it once you know it.
- make sure your schemes match your talent. especially if you have to take all comers, which is common in youth ball. if you have a bunch of minimum play players (MPPs), don't put them in a scheme that asks them to do things they aren't capable of being successful at. if you have a bunch of MPPs (most non-select youth teams have about 5-10), you have to have a scheme that has a few places to hide these players while they are learning the game. please note that you shouldn't ignore these players as they may mature into fine players in time, but while they are learning, you do not want to place them in a position to fail. or as Dave Cisar says, put them in a position to add value on every snap.
- spend some time with the rule book. most youth coaches have no idea what the rules are of the game they are coaching - frankly, it's just embarrassing. please implore them to at least look over the rule book and maybe point out 10 or so rules that are commonly not understood by parents & fans (i.e. the rules that are different from the NFL and NCAA).
- make sure you're teaching more than just football. studies show that most youth football players will step on the field in high school. however, if you can teach your kids a love of the game along with values like sportsmanship, dedication, commitment, discipline, teamwork, etc., then you will have provided a valuable service to your players, the local high school, and the community at large. this should include things like monitoring their grades, not tolerating disrespect for their parents off the field, enforcing team rules, etc.
- I know you said other coaches are addressing practice planning, but the biggest difference between successful and unsuccessful youth programs is how well run their practices are and how much time is wasted during practice. this area really cannot be stressed too much, so don't be shy about discussing it, even if other coaches will be addressing it as well.
Sorry so long, coach, but I hope that helps.
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Post by coachdoug on Apr 25, 2009 20:59:42 GMT -6
Just got back from the clinic - great stuff. You don't have to be a SW guy to get a lot out of it. In fact, only about 20% the clinic was about the SW, everything else was about defense, practice planning, game management, character development, dealing with parents, etc. There was a lot of great info for any coach, regardless of your scheme. And Dave was actually pretty entertaining. All in all, it was a very pleasant and informative day.
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Post by coachdoug on Apr 3, 2009 12:28:07 GMT -6
Well here is one of me things I here a lot from parents that question their kids about playing football. They seem to always ask "Are you ready to get hit"? I know there is no way to get around contact aspect of the game, but is that a good way to present the game to 5-9yr old? You get hit = you get hurt Ex. Hey Billy you want to play football this Fall? "You sure you want to get hit?" The coach in my soccer meeting was remarking that he had asked his son that, I just shook my head thinking why scare him. From what Dad had said his son has been asking to play for sometime. So I'm thinking his son has seen how the game is played. I recall my first season of contact (1st grade), had no clue what was going on that early Sat. morning, All I knew was mom put me in the car, took me to the football field (tryout day) she signed something, coaches slapped a number on me and said run from here to there coach will time you, rest is history. NO long talks about getting hurt etc etc. I found out in a few weeks after tryouts. I don't recall asking to go, So whats with using scare tactics on youth that actually want to do certain sports like football? I never meet a coach or league that intentionally wants kids to get hurt. I hope I'm making sense here?? FYI haven't beoken a bone or suffered any season ending injury during my days on the field. That kind of stuff drives me nuts, too. I wonder if that same coach asked his kid if he was ready to get kicked in the shins and in the head when it was time to play soccer? Those things happen far more often in youth soccer than kids getting seriously hurt playing youth football, especially at the younger ages, where the kids are simply not big enough, strong enough or fast enough to hurt each other, especially with all the protective equipment they are wearing. Another thing that drives me crazy is parents that say they won't let their kids play football until high school, citing safety concerns. Okay, so if you're going to let your kid play the game at the high school level, where the other kids will definitely be big enough, strong enough and fast enough to actually hurt him, don't you think it might be a good idea to learn the game and proper fundamentals (like how to block & tackle without getting yourself hurt) in a much safer environment? I mean, seriously, what are these people thinking? Sheesh ...
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Post by coachdoug on Apr 1, 2009 15:17:23 GMT -6
I'm still not really seeing any benefit. You really only need one coach, not the entire staff, to run warm ups. Besides warm ups should only be about 5 minutes - 10 minutes at the absolute most - so your other coaches still need to be there pretty close to on time anyway. As far as esprit de corps, all of our teams practice on one of two fields, so they can see the other teams every day at practice. They don't need to warm up with the other kids to be aware that they exist and that they are part of a larger organization.
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Post by coachdoug on Apr 1, 2009 13:07:53 GMT -6
In our program every team practices completely separately from the others. We do nothing in groups with other teams. Even when we've had multiple teams in the same age/weight bracket we keep them completely separate. The downside to having multiple teams warm up together is that it would probably waste time, and I don't think there would be any benefit, so I'm in favor of keeping each team's practice separate.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 31, 2009 15:01:15 GMT -6
Our fee is about $250 plus $50 in prepaid raffle tickets that they can sell. So they pay $300 up front and get back $50 if they sell the raffle tickets. Players can request additional raffle tickets to sell to help reduce the cost. We also offer various discounts for signing up early and if a family has multiple children in the program. Regular season is 8 games (which I guess would be the guarantee you mentioned), plus however many postseason games the team qualifies for.
Gear that is provided includes helmet, chinstrap, mouthguard, shoulder pads, practice pants and pads, game pants, game jerseys (home & away), and game socks - all of which (except mouthguards and socks) must be returned after the season. The program collects a deposit on the equipment which is returned when all the equipment is returned. Most teams buy their own practice jerseys, and players must supply their own jock & cup, girdle & pads, and cleats. We used to provide girdles, but since they are practically underwear and don't last long, plus with all the new padded undergarments available, we stopped doing so about 5 or 6 years ago. We have provided cleats on occasion in the past when we've gotten a donation of cleats from a supplier, but it is not our regular practice. Players are encouraged, but not required to get team logo equipment bags, jackets, hats, and other merchandise. At year-end all players get a trophy. Team & individual photos are also included in the base fee.
Regarding fund raisers, we have done several in the past, but generally everyone seems to prefer paying a higher fee up front and not having to deal with the hassle of selling candy or whatever and then having a bunch of the junk around their house. Now the only mandatory fundraiser we do now is we have a "Jog-a-Thon," which we incorporate into our conditioning week. Players get pledges from friends, family, their parent's co-workers, etc. for each lap they run, and the final day of conditioning is the Jog-a-Thon. Prizes are awarded for the top fundraisers.
Individual teams do not charge any separate fees outside of the league registration fee. Coaches can, however, take collections for certain things. For instance, as I mentioned above, several teams get their own practice jerseys. Generally, the head coach will organize it and order the jerseys (this way he can get all the players in their proper game #s to reduce confusion) and collect the $$ from the parents. Some coaches will take a collection to get scouting films made (although most coaches eat this expense themselves). If a team is going to travel, they can do their own fundraiser if they need to.
Each coach is provided with a first aid kit, 20-30 ice packs, an equipment repair kit (basic tools and extra straps, clips, screws, mouth guards, chin straps, etc.), about 4-6 balls (varies year to year), 1 kickoff tee, 1 PAT tee, 2-3 standup dummies and 2-3 shields. Most years coaches are also provided with hats and polo shirts. Coaches are on their own for whistles, stop watches, clipboards, cones, whiteboards, etc.
Sorry so verbose - I know that was probably a lot more info than you wanted. Anyway, I hope it helps.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 31, 2009 11:00:49 GMT -6
We do things largely the same way. Everyone in our entire league - coaches, players, parents, board members, etc. - signs a code of conduct form. Similar to Dave's "Ready/Focus" we use "Eyes, Ears & Mind." We explain to the kids on the first day that when a coach is talking we need their complete attention - their eyes should be on the speaker, their ears should be listening and their minds should be fully engaged with what is being said to them. Then any time a coach says, "Eyes," everyone is to immediately stop whatever he is doing, even if he is in the middle of a sentence, and respond "Ears & Mind," and give the coach his complete attention. As Dave mentioned, you enforce running a couple times the first week for anyone that doesn't follow along perfectly and you will have no problems the rest of the year. We started doing this 2-3 years ago and it's one of the best things I've ever done. Wish I had known about it earlier.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 29, 2009 13:20:52 GMT -6
I think jhalfie's advice is excellent. The younger they are the less you need to ever "break them down." Just focus on positive reinforcement and get them to love the game. Once they love the game and really want to play, then the only punishment you'll need to motivate them is the threat of reduced playing time.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 28, 2009 18:58:58 GMT -6
Not sure about the coach at that time, but I know of one team that started in Mt. Vernon NY as a church-organized team starting in I don't know what age group, stayed together over some years and moved a little south to become the Bronx Crusaders in the Mid-East Football Conference (one of the more prominent adult leagues at that time), and later that team moved a little further south to Queens because of the location of their coach at that time. I also know of a junior team in Saskatchewan who, when they got to college age, wound up with so many of them at the local college (which at that time had no varsity football) that their team became their varsity team, even keeping its name. However, to comply with CIAU eligibility rules, they did have to drop all of the players who did not go to that college, which I'm told were hardly any. I think they brought their coaches with them, but I don't know whether any of them became paid faculty. Of course these occurrences were in areas that did not have prominent HS football programs. Many of the players in each case probably went to schools that didn't have their own football teams. And in the Saskatchewan case it probably helped that there weren't many other colleges nearby, let alone ones with CIAU teams. Uh .... Bob .... are you feeling okay? Did you mean to post this here in this thread? I'm not seeing the connection.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 27, 2009 9:43:13 GMT -6
why am I in this league? That's a good question. As soon as you said the HC provides a list of his MPPs, my first thought was "what's to prevent him from just naming his best players as MPPs?" I don't know all the details of how y'all administer this, but on the surface it sounds like just about the stupidest way possible to go about it. From some of the other things you've said about the league and its rules, you might want to seriously consider finding another league. You're in Northern Virginia, right? I know there are plenty of leagues there to choose from.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 23, 2009 22:17:07 GMT -6
Do your centers snap head up or down? I'm curious on this as I may use a sniffer formation next year. I'm interested in what this sniffer formation is and what it has to do with the style of snapping the ball. Do you mean a pistol formation with a sniffer behind the one getting the snap? "Sniffer" as I understand it just refers to a tight formation with the backs close enough and low enough to sniff the rear end of whomever they are lined up behind. It could be a SW or a DW formation or probably others as well, but I think it's usually a SW formation. WRT the snap, in a SW sniffer formation the backs are close enough in that it should be a much easier snap than a deeper formation. Although from what others have posted, apparently the center snaps to several different backs in different directions, so even with the short distance the center generally keeps his head down.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 22, 2009 21:12:50 GMT -6
I agree with you, I don't think there is really any difference. In fact, for teams running Dave Cisar's version of the SW, a low 2-yd snap should be even easier to do blindly than a standard shotgun snap.
It sounds like some leagues or maybe even some officials are making up their own rules with regard to this. The Federation rule on the matter is that a center may not be contacted by any defender until he has the opportunity to defend himself when making a long snap in a scrimmage kick formation. The definition of a scrimmage kick formation is that there must not be any player under center and there must be a player in position to receive a snap at least 7 yards deep. Standard shotgun formations and SW formations generally don't have the QB any deeper than 5 yards, so they do not qualify for this protection. The relevant rules are 2-14-2 and 9-4-6.
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Splits?
Mar 22, 2009 14:15:52 GMT -6
Post by coachdoug on Mar 22, 2009 14:15:52 GMT -6
One thing you can do is have them use their arms every time they come to the line of scrimmage. For relatively tight splits, each player raises his outside arm and everyone adjusts until hands are on are shoulder pads. For larger splits, everyone lifts both arms and goes hands to elbows, or hands to hands for much wider splits.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 21, 2009 0:54:48 GMT -6
Life's not fair... Dad's are supposed to love their babies more than the next kid... If he can do it, without destroying the foundation of the team... what's the problem? We're painting with a broad brush... You don't treat all kids the same... you treat all kids equitably... This entire theory of fairness... is incorrect. You treat kids in the manner they need to be treated. Son or not. I'm not sure who you're responding to here, but I mostly agree with you. However, I've seen a ton of coaches that have claimed that they are not showing favoritism or giving their own kid special treatment because "I'm tougher on him than any other kid" or whatever, when that is, in fact, special treatment. I was not suggesting that all kids be treated the same, but holding one kid to a different standard just because he's your son (or any other reason) is NOT treating him equitably. "You treat kids in the manner they need to be treated. Son or not." That is something that I totally agree with and hope all the dad coaches on this forum will take to heart.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 20, 2009 14:18:45 GMT -6
Ah, I knew there had to be a method to your madness. I never measure 40-yds either, although I usually do just use 30 (or even 20 with the younger kids). I was just playing around a little. It's all good.
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Post by coachdoug on Mar 20, 2009 14:09:20 GMT -6
27 yards? I like that .... 25 is too short and 30 is too long ... excellent, I'll have to use that ... LOL
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