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Post by coachjtm on Nov 21, 2016 9:04:09 GMT -6
If a little kid is TRULY in danger, I don't really care about the outcome of a youth football game. Frankly, I don't even care if I get tossed out of the league for causing a major stink during a playoff game if it's going to protect the kid (even if he's not one of my players). If the league is turning a blind eye to that type of behavior I don't want to be a part of that league anyway. Again, while I agree with your point, I am simply saying I think a little keyboard warriorship going on here. I can easily see the situation proceeding in a manner where the only way the player in question isn't playing is if YOU pull YOUR team and forfeit. That particular coach was banned for life from our league this year. Two league officials were standing behind him on the sideline when he told on of his players to target another kid (wasn't my game, so I didn't get the details). This is in Texas and a lot of these "coaches" are former high school guys living out their dream. To be honest it's driving me a little nuts.
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Post by coachjtm on May 26, 2016 11:01:02 GMT -6
I've wondered about this alot. I'm a prototypical 'dad' coach. I figured if I was going to be out doing this as much as my kids I owed it to them to learn as much as I could. Our organization doesn't typically coach our coaches so I've done most of this on my own with Glazier and Nike clinics and being on here, dumcoach and listening to the Joe Daniel's podcasts; taking what I can and absorbing as much as I can.
I'd advocate to breaking it out. First year coaches should be taught to drill, drill, drill. Learn a little bit of philosophy as they go. We want to run to pass. We want to set up the counter. We want to control the edges and force plays to the middle etc.
Maybe then do a class for everything else in the 2nd year. Make sure that those guys you're investing all this time in are 1) going to be worth it, 2) can handle what your asking, 3) will execute what you need.
I'm moving to a new area and I may end up as a head coach and as such I may have to really quickly get up to speed on what these guys are doing and then get ready to put things out to my new staff.
Just my 2 cents.
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Post by coachjtm on Dec 10, 2015 9:12:10 GMT -6
Thanks Coach Slack! We're hoping to come to your camp in Dallas in March. It lines up perfectly for his birthday and it'll be a real treat to get him out there on the field with your team!
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Post by coachjtm on Dec 8, 2015 16:47:22 GMT -6
Congrats man!
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Post by coachjtm on Dec 7, 2015 21:32:33 GMT -6
So a family member is going to buy my son either of the DVD sets from Coach Slack, but not the whole set. Not one to look an incredibly generous gift in the mouth, I'd love to get some opinions on which one would be preferable. Any ideas?
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Post by coachjtm on Nov 16, 2015 22:52:17 GMT -6
Im convinced some kids are more susceptible to concussions and probably shouldnt play a major contact sport (football, bball, hockey, lacrosse or soccer).
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Post by coachjtm on Nov 12, 2015 14:32:55 GMT -6
I might also recommend getting together a playlist on YouTube. Good throws, good plays at the HS/College/Pro level of the systems you run. Drills on YouTube that you like. Put him onto that. It's helped a lot with a couple of my younger kids.
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Post by coachjtm on Nov 9, 2015 15:07:45 GMT -6
We were pretty exercised but our head coach was on us pretty good about getting in the ref & league ears about it. I'm still incredibly angry about it right now. I probably will be for a very, very long time. Ref crew we had though is widely acknowledged as the worst in our league and it's not close. We run through a specific set of tests and one of our coaches brother is a doc who is at all our games so we're covered but their side didn't let him on the field. Like I said we were all pretty shaken by it and really angry as it went on.
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Post by coachjtm on Nov 9, 2015 13:52:32 GMT -6
Had our first playoff game this Sunday (rained out previous Saturday so this was the makeup). Great game down 12-0 at half, came back to win 20-18 with 2 minutes left. The other team's star player and almost sole ball carrier (they ran 31 plays and 27 were to this kid) was knocked out on our sideline. We called the other staff over immediately, kid couldn't stand up straight, wobbled, was caught by one of our coaches. 1000 yard stare, the whole bit. Pretty clear concussion, head was hurting. They pulled the kid off two plays and stuck him right back in. Hell of a player ripped off a 55 yard TD run. He's in on defense and gets rung up by our 6th lineman (not really a TE) on a play and they keep him in. He runs 4 times on the next series, each time he's getting hit by 2 plus guys except the last one. He goes heads up on the CB (stationary and broken down) but this kid drops his helmet for a helmet to helmet hit. Immediately fumbles on 4th down and wobbles again getting back up. Then they send this kid in again after that. Finally pull him at the end of the game while we are taking a knee. Kids is stumbling, can't walk straight on the sideline and in the post game handshake is bawling, holding his head.
Our entire staff couldn't believe it. We had a league official go over but their staff swore up and down he passed a concussion test in the two plays he was off the field. Our whole league is part of the USA Football system and I feel like there has to be a better way to handle that. I'm sure many coaches on here have run into this but I personally haven't seen anything this close and would love any advice. Ranting about idiots like this only helps so much.
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Post by coachjtm on Nov 9, 2015 13:43:05 GMT -6
We finish our season (hopefully) the week before Thanksgiving. I'll go back and watch playoff film, write up some end of the year evaluations and work on some off season stuff for the kids whose parents want that. Then I'll break until Christmas. After that I'm working with our middle and high school staffs and getting a clinic together for our entire staff (4 divisions probably 25 coaches) to move to a vertically integrated system.
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Post by coachjtm on Nov 4, 2015 16:48:54 GMT -6
It's a great system especially for new organizations/coaches. It's effective, relatively simple and a pretty good A to Z guide. Any coach on here will tell you, that they will tailor a system to their kids/area/ability. But for youth coaches its worth being familiar with. I still "thumb" through my digital copy on a pretty regular basis. The interesting thing is, while i dont/didnt run his offense or defense, we use (and used) his method for dealing with players, parents, practices even when i was coaching varsity ball, and currently use it at the JRHS level. No reason not to use stuff that works!
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Post by coachjtm on Nov 3, 2015 9:44:24 GMT -6
It's a great system especially for new organizations/coaches. It's effective, relatively simple and a pretty good A to Z guide. Any coach on here will tell you, that they will tailor a system to their kids/area/ability. But for youth coaches its worth being familiar with. I still "thumb" through my digital copy on a pretty regular basis.
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Post by coachjtm on Oct 16, 2015 13:10:06 GMT -6
As a youth coach, we don't really get classroom time, but some years ago, I started doing "organized" water breaks where everyone gets their water and takes a knee while I whiteboard the upcoming opponent (they drink while I talk; all eyes on me). The whole thing takes maybe 10 minutes. It forces me to stay on point, cover only major points and keep it brief. I find they're more attentive if the last five minutes before a break is something high intensity/high speed/high number of reps like no-huddle or quick huddle drills with 20 yard get-offs, or stance and get-off drills. With them somewhat gassed/winded, there tends to be less grab-a$$, and more attention paid. From there, it's just the rest of the old recipe "chalk it/talk it/ walk it/rep it", with heavy emphasis on walking it (even bird-dogging it) before trying to rep it. I really like this. We generally don't run organized water breaks. We're in Texas we literally run water the whole practice (average practice start temp was 97 degrees last season with the first couple of weeks being 103-105 and the last few in the mid to upper 80s). I may implement this prior to the playoffs.
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Post by coachjtm on Oct 1, 2015 9:25:40 GMT -6
"that on Mondays" being the punishment conditioning.
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Post by coachjtm on Oct 1, 2015 9:24:52 GMT -6
Also have you tried filming practice/games and tracking loafs? I had a coach that tracked them at a different level from my program. He made individuals accountable, groups accountable and the team accountable on a board you could see. He had a top 5 most loafs, top 5 fewest and then loafs by position group and team. He then set benchmarks and correctional conditioning requirements. Position coaches, coordinators and himself were also required to do some of these when they hit certain benchmarks. We talked about it and he said the first year he put it in place it dropped 30%+. Second year loafs were barely a quarter the year before he put it in place. Don't know that that would work for you but, just a thought. I like this idea, but you have to hold the back ups accountable too. How do you justify conditioning requirements for a kid that played 30 snaps and loafed 3 versus a kid that played 12 and loafed one? I think it would have to be a positional basis and by percentage. For example, if one lineman loafs, that's only 20% of the linemen loafing, where as if you have two WR's and one loafs that's 50% for that position loafing. Wouldn't be a perfect system obviously, but it seems more even than an individualized system. I can ask him how he did it, but I think it was individuals who had a certain % of loafs over a week and did that on Mondays. Plus practice mattered more than games. He ran very high rep practices so 1s, 2s, & 3s all got a good number of snaps through the week. He was practically maniacal about scout team loafs. It's not perfect but when you hold not just individuals but groups, off/def and the whole team accountable, it can change things. Is that RB getting into a LB face because he made a great play in practice or because that LB should have covered his gap responsibility and read the key? One might fire a guy up for a play or a series the other makes him better.
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Post by coachjtm on Oct 1, 2015 8:33:03 GMT -6
Also have you tried filming practice/games and tracking loafs? I had a coach that tracked them at a different level from my program. He made individuals accountable, groups accountable and the team accountable on a board you could see.
He had a top 5 most loafs, top 5 fewest and then loafs by position group and team. He then set benchmarks and correctional conditioning requirements. Position coaches, coordinators and himself were also required to do some of these when they hit certain benchmarks. We talked about it and he said the first year he put it in place it dropped 30%+. Second year loafs were barely a quarter the year before he put it in place.
Don't know that that would work for you but, just a thought.
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Post by coachjtm on Oct 1, 2015 8:28:43 GMT -6
When I first started doing coaching clinics- I was taken aback by the negative attitude some of the HS coaches had towards youth ball. A love/hate relationships in some places. Part of it is earned, part of it isn't and part is laying the blame for some of their own lack of wins on someone other than themselves. It happens just like it does in youth ball- youth football coaches are some of the biggest excuse makers known to man. This is incredibly true. Last year we couldn't get the middle school staff on the phone. New staff this year and they're doing a 2 day clinic for our whole program (4 staffs).
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Post by coachjtm on Sept 28, 2015 12:48:16 GMT -6
coachd5085 I disagree completely. I have 28 kids on my 8U team. I have 8 two-way starters. That means I have 14 kids who start and another 2-3 that rotate in regularly. That means I have at most 17 kids who will play significant minutes in an average game, which by the way are full NCAA rules with adjusted extra points. Our program is in the playoffs every year, winning championships. Our guys are at Glazier clinics and we are going to a vertical integration with our MS & HS teams by choice.
We play to win. We have to. Half my kids don't have a dad in the house. About the same percentage are on some kind of assistance. Guess what? They're not learning what they need to if they're just handed playing time. They're not unique special snow flakes that need to be coddled. They have to learn that they may sit on Saturday but get better during the week. That the guys ahead of them earned something by working for it. Many don't get that lesson at home. They (#*& well won't get it from their public school. So who teaches them that they will have to, need to work for what they get? We (&@# well do and we push our kids to be the best. Our retention is over 85%. Of the kids that enter our program from age 3 where they only practice to 11, 85% of those kids will be back and of those kids over 60% end up on a middle school team.
We've had 3 NFL level players and I currently have a senior 4 year starter in the SEC and another kid committed to a Big 12 school. They didn't get there by accident and it didn't start in high school. They weren't handed anything and when you coddle some of these kids they learn the wrong lessons. Throwing a kid who isn't ready into a competitive situation can just as easily lead to that kid getting hurt and he generally won't learn a damn thing. I'll send my kids who don't see the field to a half dozen scrimmages a year where they learn what they would in a game while still learning the life lessons about earning time and working hard.
At the end of the day we will always "Play to Win." Telling kids to do anything else is counter productive and leads to getting less than optimal results from them, from you and from everyone around them.
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Post by coachjtm on Sept 25, 2015 13:47:36 GMT -6
I agree---however, I do remember when a thread a few years ago and it seemed the majority of responses here basically read "If it wasn't important, they wouldn't keep the score!!!"
I do know that it is somewhat of a double standard though...HS coaches often saying "youth job is to develop kids" (read: get them ready for ME) and they view HS as "whats important"
I dislike the one size fits all approach here. There is no reason that there can't be some leagues/divisions that are more athletic and "competitive" than others. If you want your child to play as much as any other then talk to the coaches and parents, find out more about the league etc. If it's about developing kids, that's done at practice, in the off season and at home as much as in a game. Emphasize that. Teaching kids that everyone is entitled to play the same or similar amounts because of the simple fact that they might be able to fog a mirror produces terrible results and entitled players who are only going to be hit by reality sooner or later. It's great that being opposed to daddy ball is something we all agree with. Equal playing time is not something that's productive to a lot of kids. That's even more true when you coach kids that are in one parent households or may be underprivileged. A blanket solution on playing time sometimes produces unintended negative consequences as much as it helps some other issue.
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Post by coachjtm on Sept 23, 2015 9:45:51 GMT -6
Scout team can also be chopped up & slowed down so you can work first and second steps and reading keys. This limits the physicality, obviously, but will work for getting the things your defense needs to key off of.
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Post by coachjtm on Sept 16, 2015 11:57:08 GMT -6
I'm an OC with a 3rd grade team. I've got my son at QB because he's by far got the most experience throwing the ball and the highest accuracy. Mostly he just hands the ball off. But I get both sides of this no doubt. When my son goes through middle school and he goes to TE or FB or something else I'm going to let him play through that. If he really wants to play at QB I'll have a discussion with the coaches during the off season and continue to work with him separately on his drops, reads, throws and mechanics. I'd highly, highly encourage you to step up behind the staff, work with your son on the side and take this approach. Not only will you build up a significant amount of good will with the coaches, your son will have an appreciation of what the guys who block for him need to do and quite frankly to read and understand his blocks.
Also think of it this way. A back who has line experience is a better back in pass protection and can be left on the field in more protection packages. That's not insignificant for backs. It's hard to do correctly and many backs don't do it well, not enough time is really spent on blocking for backs, and at the next level in high school and especially beyond a running back who can block is every bit as valuable as any receiver.
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Post by coachjtm on Sept 14, 2015 14:59:37 GMT -6
Could be worse I had a referee deliberately come off his line, truck me on the sideline and throw a flag. I was 3-4 feet away from the sideline behind the yard markers. Players laughed their ***es off. I'm still angry about it.
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Post by coachjtm on Sept 1, 2015 8:57:55 GMT -6
We played our first games yesterday. Our 6th graders played well, winning 28-0. The team we played was pretty over matched. They only had four 6th graders on their squad (we have 13) and they were pretty small. We took our foot off the gas after our third possession and began subbing in our 5th graders. We were able to play all of our 5th graders liberally during the 6th grade game. We also played a 5th grade only game. Our 5th graders won that 6-0. In our league, we have two 20-minute halfs with a running clock. 5th grade game is two 10-minute halfs with a running clock. We don't do any special teams. Here's the video: 6th Grade Game (LINK)5th Grade Game (LINK)woh those are some pretty crazy rules. our junior division (6th grade) plays 4 10 minute quarters, no running clock and Special teams. the only modified rules are that ball carriers must be under 75lbs at the time of weigh-ins (once at the beginning of the season), and any blitz must happen after the snap (any linebacker who moves forward presnap = illegal procedure). Holy ****. My 3rd grader is 85 lbs and is a QB. I have 3 starters on my 8U team that might, might make that cut off. That is literally insane. Are you in North Korea? Holy Mackerel.
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Post by coachjtm on Sept 1, 2015 8:53:05 GMT -6
I would also recommend building a two deep if you have enough players and then training them for their jobs. If you're putting kids that young and moving them around constantly you'll get poor results. Kids need confidence, familiarity with their job breeds that confidence and confident kids play fast. Fast players win football games.
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Post by coachjtm on Aug 27, 2015 9:26:54 GMT -6
I'm the OC but the HC calls the plays. I made the sheet and color coded it just to keep it organized and easy. I built my offense and he didn't really get his hands on it until it was ready to install. That's just his style. He trusts us to work our magic but on game day he's sucked in.
I built it one page on Excel. Now that our second install is going in it will probably be front and back. We have all of our general calls, formations and personnel on one half and on the other half are our situational calls. Once we add our full check system in our third install along with our no huddle then that will take the back half of the page he and I stay on the same page and make things work for the kids.
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Post by coachjtm on Aug 27, 2015 8:29:41 GMT -6
We are not heads up affiliated. If you're not ascribing to a particular system (ie Dave Cisar's, which is excellent btw), the USA Football is a good place to start. At youth levels anything that is sound, simple and taught effectively will work against 90% of opponents who don't do any real preparation and have what amounts to no idea what they're doing. At 5/6 and especially 5/6 tackle, blocking, tackling and running the right direction are 80% of what the kids need. Any system in particular you're looking to run (SW, Wing T, Run and Shoot (you're crazy), Spread, Power I)?
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Post by coachjtm on Aug 26, 2015 16:08:10 GMT -6
Concur. Some are poor quality. Some last half a season, a few we've had for 3 seasons. Cheap and easy to replace.
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Post by coachjtm on Aug 26, 2015 15:33:03 GMT -6
Are you Heads Up affiliated?
If so I would recommend using their blocking and tackling work ups which are great for kids. If you're just getting back in their basics that are available online, while not outstanding, are a great starting point. They're especially good for getting a brand new staff singing from the same hymnal so to speak.
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Advice?
Aug 26, 2015 15:31:05 GMT -6
Post by coachjtm on Aug 26, 2015 15:31:05 GMT -6
I've run into this before. Your son is too young to worry about this. But is it the son or the father who's worried? Neither one should worry, but it wasn't clear which one jen08 was referring to. I took it to mean that the son was worried and inferred worry on behalf of both parents in this. It could be confusing.
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Advice?
Aug 25, 2015 15:48:45 GMT -6
Post by coachjtm on Aug 25, 2015 15:48:45 GMT -6
I've run into this before. Your son is too young to worry about this. This will wear off as he grows into the division/league. He's younger/smaller than a number of these kids and he will know it. His overall experience level and skill level may be higher, but a kid's inherent "want to" can change from level to level. If he's playing up he may not have the same desire to go hit those kids bigger than him right now. It happens. He's young.
Most likely if he loves this game he will grow out of that problem. I literally have seen this same thing happen 3 years in a row dealing with this age group. Kids who killed it at flag or in a different league came in, had to deal with bigger size, faster speed playing up and just for whatever reason didn't execute. That doesn't mean he won't in the near future. Stick with your kid, support him, encourage him and help him develop the right techniques and everything else will come. He will get frustrated, but that will help him be a better player if you channel it into doing the right things (work outs, eating right, hydrating, repping skills).
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