|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 30, 2009 9:59:08 GMT -6
I coach youth football in a rough neighborhood. I don't have long nights. But, I do have long days. Ya'll are going to think I'm full of s**t on this one. But, this is all happened on our 3rd game of the season. BTW, there was no prior notice to any of this.
.... When your starting FB doesn't show up to the game because his father- who's fresh out of the pen- decides to show up at his house the night before and give lessons on behavior and decides he now wants to be a real dad and role-model.
..... When your starting Center doesn't show up for the game because his mother thinks it's more important to take the family out of town to visit her brother- whom we think is also currently locked up.
...... When your starting BB doesn't show up for the game because his mother & step-father thinks it's more important to play keep away from the only person in the kid's life that's semi-responsible enough to make sure that he showed up to the game- his biological father; whom is also fresh from being a guest of the state of Texas.
...... When the smallest, least athletic m.p.p. on your team finally shows up to the game right before half-time because his mama 'just didn't feel like getting up that early'. And, you're on the verge of weeping tears of joy because, up until that point, you only had 9 players on the field against the toughest team in the league.
Yeah... 'f' my season.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 30, 2009 8:31:03 GMT -6
We used to give our players fruit and gatorade at half-time. But, my wife was the team mom and in charge of distribution. She has awesome organization and management skills. No one got anything until after the coaches were through with our half-time talk & adjustments. When we were finished. My wife and I made eye contact. I'd nod my head. She'd say in a loud voice, something like, "Tigers! Get ready for your snacks!" and, snacks were in place and done within about a minute. My wife did not allow the parents to give their kids the half-time snacks directly. The fruit had to be in baggies, gatorade at the ready. My wife and my two daughters and/or, two parents that she pre-designated were the only ones allowed to distribute the goods. She also had the parents & players under a gag order. No talking. Hand the stuff out. Prents get back to the stands. It was all done with military speed & precision. I used to giggle and shake my head. The other coaches and I had tried handing out snacks once. It was like herding cats. That's why my wife took over. I don't refer to her as Sergeant Major for nothing.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 30, 2009 8:11:32 GMT -6
How the hell does he text while in practice?!?! Where does he keep the phone, in his thigh pad pocket? Youth football: At last Wed.'s practice, we had been doing full contact blocking drills for about 10mins. I stopped the drill since it was time for a break. My RG walks over to a nearby tree, picks up a phone and calls his mother. I was the one that had given his brother and him a ride to practice. I never saw a phone. He had to have had it in his pants.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 29, 2009 12:46:23 GMT -6
Mariner42,
I don't coach HS. So, I probably shouldn't chime in on this. But, here goes.... I thought m.p.p. rules only applied to some youth leagues. The Bench; it is your friend. Use it. None of them would ever see the playing field again, except from a sideline view. Once the other players know that the cancers will never play again, the cancers will lose status.
Position changes. That should be unnecessary. But, positions are not birthrights. Move them to other positions. Since they are so-called 'skilled position' players, I'd move them to D-line and/or O-line.... where they'll suck and therefore can't justify being placed higher on the depthchart at their new positions.
You are not obligated to ask them to do anything more than once- or, at all. You ask them to do a drill or, whatever. They give a half-hearted effort or, outright refuse. You replace them and continue. Never ask them to do anything else...ever. Since they don't do anything, they don't play. They can't say that they've never been asked.
I don't like negative motivators nearly as much as I like positive ones. But, in this case, if you really don't have the choice about removing them from the team. You don't have to kick them off the team. You metaphorically put their heads on pikes as examples for all the rest of the senior pariahs to learn from.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 29, 2009 12:04:31 GMT -6
"[The coaches failed to make] our points more compelling than their fat little girlfriends. Now their fat little girlfriends have some obvious advantages....." Leach might as well have stopped right there. Any coach that tries to compete against those 'obvious advantages' is in for an uphill battle. My guess is very few coaches- if any- have ever won. One of the very few advantages of being a youth coach; I don't have to compete against that.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 28, 2009 10:22:27 GMT -6
As for face-painting/eye-black, whatever; I'd say, "No". I allowed our AC's wife to put eye patches on our players faces before a game. I was having to deal with pre-game stuff and figured it would go quickly while I talked to the refs, other coach, etc... Nope. I was wrong. It took too long and was a complete distraction. I wouldn't allow the music either unless it was something your players were already used to. I know of a team that blares music pre-game. But, they do it every game and their players are used to it. It doesn't seem to be a distraction for them. On the other hand, that would create chaos on our team were I to introduce it this late in the season.
|
|
|
Styling
Oct 25, 2009 12:18:49 GMT -6
Post by tiger46 on Oct 25, 2009 12:18:49 GMT -6
In the spats thread there's a lot of talk about kids wearing them just for show and about kids being too worried about looking good. While I agree that we want to keep individualism from detracting from the team concept I don't think there's anything wrong with kids wanting to look good. Before a game, when the players are primping themselves into their usis, I'll sometimes hear a coach complain about it or even yell at them. Before every game that I ever played, though, the last thing I ever did before leaving the locker room was put my helmet on, go in the bathroom, and look in the mirror to see how I looked. Had to stand in line to get to the mirror, too. Kids today want the coolest looking facemask? So did I. They want a favorite player's number? Guilty here, too. Nowadays they wear wrist bands. We wore forearm pads, a totally useless piece of equipment even in the day of the forearm shiver. I know coaches who say that they never did that. I'm not calling them liars. I just think that most are victims of selective memory. It's all about being a kid. I too was that way. I HAD to have FOREARM pads. And they looked so sweet. Good Call Phantom. ;D Oh, yeah, the forearm pads! Our coaches would not issue them to anyone who didn't earn them. You had to earn them in practice. I was so happy when I earned mine. I was the only CB with a pair. As far as I was concerned, if you were a CB without forearm pads, you weren't playing hard enough. I thought the pads made me look more intimidating to WR's. I was also the smallest kid on the team. Looking back, I'm pretty sure no one was intimidated by the midget wearing forearm pads. Of course, I wasn't above clubbing WR's- and, anyone else I could find- in the earhole with them whenever I thought the ref wasn't looking.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 22, 2009 20:17:54 GMT -6
Youth Football... 9>10yr olds.
Best Quote: Got a kid with Forest Gump type intelligence; except that he's also A.D.D., big, fat and lazy. Now, this kid hasn't even put up so much as a gnat's effort all season to block or tackle. He will literally just fall over if an opponent touches him. I have no choice but to play him since we're short of players. During last practice, I lined him up at right DT. Three plays in a row, I see the kid actually put forth effort to play football for the first time. So, what was the kid doing....? He was blocking our right DE to keep the DE from making tackles. I stop everything. I was walking up to him to ask'_____, what in the world are you doing?!" Before I can even get a word out he grins at me. Proud as can be, he points at our DE and says, "You see me, coach?! I was blocking him. He couldn't tackle nobody! TOUCHDOWN!"
2nd Best: The same kid in the last game... He's always too lazy to get in a 3pt stance or, even a 2pt stance. He just stands and sucks on his mouthpiece like it's a pacifier. Other team quickly figures out that he's hopeless as a defender. They run right at him. They don't even bother to block him. He just looks at the RB as he runs right by him for a long TD. While the play is still going on and the rest of our defense is downfield trying to chase the RB down, a little midget about the size of a 6yr old on the other team that, I guess, needed to feel good about himself runs over and pushes fat Forest Gump down to the ground. Btw, until he had gotten pushed to the ground, Gump had never even moved from where he was sucking on his pacifier. Next time we're on defense, Gump lines up as a 40 tech OLB for no reason known to mankind or coach-kind. Of course, the other team runs right where he should've been- not that it would've mattered- for another TD. I step out on the field, regardless of rules, ask him what is he doing? He starts babbling incomprehensibly and points at the midget that had pushed him down the last time he was on defense. So, I guess he was trying to hide from the midget. We lost the game 13-0.
Which all of that leads to the 2nd best quote of the season. At the end of that game, Gump's grand-dad walks up to me and asks, "When are we going to start winning, coach?"
Yeah...'f' my season.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 22, 2009 0:34:22 GMT -6
I don't know anything about coaching any position at that level. But, after reading all of the posts and everyone's evaluations of various programs, coaches, and QB's, I do have a question.
Why does Matt Leinart suck?
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 17, 2009 7:15:30 GMT -6
TDM, Have you tried getting them to close their eyes and visualize plays? I haven't done that this season. But, it is something that I did in past seasons. Before games, I'd have my players line up at their positions, close their eyes and mentally walk through their assignments on certain plays. I'd say things while their eyes were closed to reinforce, not only stepping the right way, but also mentally taking the snap, pancaking their opponents, etc... After that, they could open their eyes and we'd physically walk through the plays. I didn't have them close their eyes for defense and ST walk-throughs. But, I still made them visualize their assignments.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 7, 2009 15:08:17 GMT -6
This would be silly. But, it would be fun for me to watch and I'd pay to go see it.
Grab bag offenses & defenses.
At the start of each week, a rep from each team reaches into the offense and defense bags. Whatever they pull out are the offenses and defenses that they have to run. Now, every conceivable offense & defense in the world doesn't have to be included and certain adjustments can be allowed.
Now, here's my wrinkle. It's sort of like a game of cards. Let's say it's a 10 game season. At the start of the season, each team has 5 offenses & defenses that they can run. No team is told what they are. They have to grab each one each week. Obviously, a real grab bag isn't needed. The teams can just find out what they have at the start of each week. Now, after five games, every team knows what cards they have. They then get to choose what they want to run for the next five games. However, they can only run that offense/defense for one game. The next game, they have to play one of the others that they pulled. The fun would be in watching the team's strategy of when, where & how to play their cards. There would be a 're-shuffle' for the play-offs. Say there's two play-off games & a championship. All 5 'O's & 'D's that the team are available. But, the team's are only going to get to grab bag 3 of the 5. Now, they know what 3 'O's & 'D's that they have for the post season. But, they have to decide the best strategy of how to use them.
|
|
|
we won
Oct 6, 2009 9:58:03 GMT -6
Post by tiger46 on Oct 6, 2009 9:58:03 GMT -6
TDM, Congrats!!! dcohio, I have the youth football version of your d-line.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Oct 3, 2009 11:27:37 GMT -6
I know that my post has no value on the topic. I've not been a big NFL fan for a few years, either. But this year, I went to the Cowboys vs. 49'ers pre-season game. It was great to finally see a pro level game in person. The size and speed of the players, the communication going on between them, the coverages and passes were all above anything that I've ever seen at lower levels- including D1 college. I especially liked the timing routes that were thrown. I'm not saying I've never seen timing routes thrown at lower levels. But, the frequency and accuracy at the NFL level was exciting to watch. I could also see defensive adjustments and what the players on both sides were reacting to a lot better than when watching at home. admittedly, the TV timeouts, etc... sucked. I think that I have not become more of a fan of the NFL in general. But, I have become more of a fan of going to watch an NFL game live.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 30, 2009 23:42:30 GMT -6
Austin, Tx.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 23, 2009 17:32:26 GMT -6
Airraider,
I've used the soapy water method in my backyard. But, I don't know if it will work for multiple ant beds and wide areas.
I turned my waterhose on very low. Inserted the hose down the fire ant bed until I met resistance. The ants will begin swarming out of the hole. More importantly, they will bring out their larvae with them. I then just drowned them with soapy water. Just to be sure, I dug up the bed and sprayed all that dirt with Raid before re-packing it in place. Worked just fine.
Keys: 1.) Watch your feet. 2.) Keep the water very low. You want the bed to flood slowly so that the ants have time to grab the larvae before abandoning the bed.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 21, 2009 15:28:21 GMT -6
"I don't have much say as i'm only a position coach from the (Youth level) so my opinion really doesn't hold much weight."
Coach, you have to solve that problem before any advice from anyone will truly do you or your players any good.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 21, 2009 14:56:44 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 16, 2009 8:12:07 GMT -6
deucej11,
I'm a youth coach, also. In my limited experience (5 seasons), there are very few youth coaches that I have met that are smart enough to admit that they don't know something and big enough to accept asked for criticism. And, I've never met one big enough to accept unasked for criticism and make changes. And, being that you were new to the staff, the HC could easily have mistaken your intentions by suggesting how to improve his offense. I consider myself to be an open-minded HC. But, if someone that I just brought onto the staff started telling me how to run my practices, etc...it would have thrown up a red flag even with me.
That being said, I think your post was fine. You were brought on to work with backs & WR's. It was your job to let the HC know what areas your group needed to improve and how you thought that you could get the job done. You didn't tell him to scrap the spread or, that his way of practicing sucked. You did a nice job of offering up drills to achieve improvement on what they were already doing.
As a youth HC the one thing that I hate to hear from my AC's- especially on game day is, "That play ain't working, coach. We need to call something else." We don't have the luxury of coaches in booths. My AC's have specific things to watch for to help with play-calling, as do I. "That ain't working" with no elaboration on what he saw that was causing a problem, etc... isn't worth crap to me.
As for practice, if an AC thinks he has a way to improve what we already do, I want them to tell me. And, if he wants to change what we do, he definitely needs to come talk to me. Obviously, no HC wants an AC that continuously questions what the HC does. And, after the HC has made a decision that should be the end of it. It's now that AC's job to get done whatever the HC wants done.
Examples: Had an AC go behind my back and change the way our DB's covered WR's before our play-off game. His changes were stupid beyond all measure. Opposing team scored two TD's from simple pass plays. I was less than happy with him. Had it not been a play-off loss and the end of our season, I'd probably have fired him. However, had he came to me and offered his suggestions, I'd have not said, "That's stupid". I'd have explained to him why we do things the way that we do and, what problem areas I see in what he wanted.
Another AC had a better way of improving the way I taught log blocking and kick-out blocks. He came to me with his suggestions and explained why he thought his way was better. I gave him the go ahead and his way was better. I really appreciated the results.
Seems to me that your better off without them.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 15, 2009 0:16:07 GMT -6
tothehouse
"I teach the media class at my school. I have 8 student filmers. My goal this year is to have them set up everything and be 100% in control of the filming situation. That is a lot to ask of these kids...but I expect them to follow through......"
Is there any way that you can set it up as a course- or, part of a course- and, give out grades as part of the class?
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 8, 2009 7:36:34 GMT -6
Have you tried setting goals and/or benchmarks for him?
.i.e... Okay, stud, you're goal is to get 5x first downs or 3 x runs of 15+ yrds, etc... One of my methods to make sure that my backs are giving full effort is that my O-line is responsible for my backs. If my O-line is not satisfied with the effort my backs are giving, they are authorized to have him replaced immediately. No questions asked.
BTW, is he motivated in practice? You can use chasers to catch him when he's being lazy. If all else fails, you may need to follow Khalfie's suggestion and bench him.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 7, 2009 9:53:12 GMT -6
I think one player/coach film session per season is beneficial. I coach 9>10yr olds. I've done this. I will do it again I can find a place this season. Adhering to the old adage "A team makes the most improvement between the first and second games ( with no verification on my part), I picked out what I wanted from the first two games of the season.
I showed the players the differences of where they improved and what they were still doing incorrectly. I made them go over the techniques verbally and do walk-throughs right there in the room that we used. We drilled for improvements at the practice following film day.
The film day cost us a practice. But, I felt it was necessary. After that one player/coach film session, I didn't do it again. I didn't need to. The first practices following games, I'd gather the coaches & players for the 'Game Report' of what I saw on film. Players ate up the info like it was coming from a burning bush. They didn't question it when I pointed out their errors. Having seen film once, they accepted what I was telling them was true.
But, I think film benefits the coaches more than the players. My AC's are supposed to have specific duties during plays- things they are supposed to be watching for. You can audit the play calls and determine if coaches are spectating instead of monitoring their assignments.
You can also pick up on players' bad habits. For instance, our BB had a bad habit of looking back when lead blocking in games. He didn't do it in practice. But, he definitely would sometimes do it during games.
As alluded to earlier, film day had a serendipitous benefit. It helped eliminate players pleading their cases and making excuses. Trust me, they tried all of it during film day. I felt like Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction. Hit the rewind button in mid-excuse. I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? Oh, you were finished....? Well...allow me to retort.
1.) Here's your assignment. 2.) Here's you. 3.) Here's you not carrying out your assignment. 4.) Here's why you failed to carry out your assignment. 5.) You got anything else to say? 6.) Didn't think so.
Move on to the next issue.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Sept 5, 2009 10:54:50 GMT -6
Right now, I'm just wondering who is going to be the one that locks this thread. The level of competition is fierce. Let's size up the competitors. Each contender is formidable in his own right.
tog- Now, some say he ain't the quickest at swinging the lockdown/beatdown stick. But, he has an uncanny sense in knowing what's worth posting about and also when a thread has gotten out of hand. And, there's no doubts his lockdowns are deft and dealt with precision. I know a lot of money is on phantom's speed. But, when it comes to tog, I say there's still a lot of fight left in that old dog. Don't count him out.
phantom- The leading contender when it comes to lockdowns/beatdowns. A lot of the smart money is on him to bring the thunder. He's definitely got that California West Coast style of locking down threads. He is swift, accurate and is not afraid to pull the trigger on any out of control subject. He can strike from long distance and is just as deadly locking down a post just from viewing the subject line as he is as going in, and reading individual posts.
Coach Huey- The Grand Patriarch. The Big Dawg, himself. He doesn't get in to mix it up a lot in the thread lockdown/beatdowns. But, when he swings the hammer on a thread you can just see the lightning bolts of destruction burning that thread to a crisp. When Coach Huey blasts down a thread, there ain't no doubt to where it came from.
In any case, it's going to be a doozy! Grab your popcorn! We got Texas thunder accuracy vs. West Coast speed! We got it all! Let the lockdown begin!
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Aug 19, 2009 0:05:07 GMT -6
Might as well let someone a lot better than me explain it.
Coach, do you have any specifics to how you're setting up wedge? Or, specifics to what is going wrong with your O-line? You said that they were clumping. Where are their aiming points when they are forming the wedge? Is your O-line recessed from your center?
Once you get your players to get the technique down, you should make them believe in the wedge. It shouldn't be too hard. When properly executed, even I couldn't stand in front of our wedge. My 9>10yr olds would blast me right off the line.
I always made a big deal out of running the wedge in practices. I would shout warnings for all to hear that we were about to run wedge. I would make a scene of making sure all players were clear of the wedge. I'd then brace myself with a handshield and proceed to get launched downfield by my O-line. It was a huge confidence boost to my O-line.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Aug 18, 2009 17:27:03 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Aug 17, 2009 9:11:49 GMT -6
My friend and I were talking about that a few days ago. He's a former Panther from the Wing-T days.
EDIT: I can rib him about Gaines needing to shake the dust off of a bunch of old, out of shape alumni like him and have them put on a leather-helmeted demonstration of how they played football back in the day.
I can just imagine all the knees creaking and joints popping- not to mention the jerseys stretched to bursting over all those beer bellies.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Aug 17, 2009 7:02:35 GMT -6
The list of trackstars who didn't contribute to football teams is long and distinguished. What is relevant to this board however is deciding how we can take what Tyson Gay is experiencing and use that to better our programs. He worked harder than he ever had before, and ran the best race of his life, THE BEST RACE OF ANYONE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY, only to be crushed. How can we use that experience to help develop our own players/program? Being a competitive person, I'm sure Tyson Gay wants to perform better. But, he has no reason to feel crushed. A silver medal is not a consolation prize. They don't hand them out just for showing up and jogging down the track. Tyson Gay has a nagging groin injury. It is worse than he was telling anyone. He never used it as an excuse and persevered through four rounds of eliminations, broke the American 100m record and, earned a silver medal. How could coaches of any sport not be able to use that achievement to inspire their athletes? If you aint first, your last Yep. 2nd place is only the 1st loser. And, no one cares about which team comes in second at the Super Bowl, either. But, if I were Tyson Gay I think I'd laugh in the face of anyone who held those kinds of attitudes towards me. Or, I'd shrug my shoulders, tell them I did the best that I could and invite them to go do better.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Aug 17, 2009 0:28:53 GMT -6
The list of trackstars who didn't contribute to football teams is long and distinguished.
What is relevant to this board however is deciding how we can take what Tyson Gay is experiencing and use that to better our programs. He worked harder than he ever had before, and ran the best race of his life, THE BEST RACE OF ANYONE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY, only to be crushed.
How can we use that experience to help develop our own players/program?
Being a competitive person, I'm sure Tyson Gay wants to perform better. But, he has no reason to feel crushed. A silver medal is not a consolation prize. They don't hand them out just for showing up and jogging down the track. Tyson Gay has a nagging groin injury. It is worse than he was telling anyone. He never used it as an excuse and persevered through four rounds of eliminations, broke the American 100m record and, earned a silver medal.
How could coaches of any sport not be able to use that achievement to inspire their athletes?
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Aug 12, 2009 20:41:04 GMT -6
Yes, firehose works well. Our local fire station was more than happy to donate whatever I wanted. Another method that I came up with but, didn't implement was to use cheap football discs. I found some cheap ones at Academy. shop.soccertutor.com/PhotoDetails.asp?ShowDESC=N&ProductCode=6A1011I painted one side of each disc so that they would be shaded and put mailbox sticker numbers on them. I was going to use them so that the players would understand hole numbering and shading. But, since I decided to do away with hole numbering all together, I just used them as markers on drills. One thing I'd recommend if you can get firehose is to ask for 10yrds of it, if possible. On one side, mark the positions. On the other side mark of yards. Youth players don't really understand fighting for yardage. It helps when they get a visual of just what 10yrds consists of. Again, cheap markers set at intervals was a nice substitute. During drills, I'd put markers at 3, 5 and, 10yrds on each side. It helped my 'O' & 'D' understand what fighting for every yard meant.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Aug 10, 2009 15:24:11 GMT -6
I coach 9>10's. I've never let a player call a play in a game. Although, once my TB made one up in the huddle. And, he scored on it, too.
Late in the season, I let designated players call plays in a scrimmage. Of course the backs were mostly calling their own numbers. So, I designated our RG as the play caller. Our RG was our pulling guard and I felt that he had a better feel for what plays were working and what plays weren't. The other o-linemen were throwing suggestions at him even though they weren't supposed to be. I let it slide. But, I made the backs shut up. They had no input.
It didn't surprise me that the plays the o-line picked- and, when to call them- were netting more yards. During the course of the season, I had spent time with them during water breaks, etc... explaining some of the reasons when and why that we call certain plays because my AC's seemed indifferent to the information. And, sometimes the O-linemen would clue me in on something I'd missed.
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Aug 10, 2009 12:56:00 GMT -6
I, too, like the SW for that age group. I used Dave's. As far as ease of coaching, the base plays were pretty much 'find the RG's (puller) tailpad and follow it'. You'll probably use different coaching terminology. But, in the end, it came down to following the tailpad. Almost every player on your team will be able to understand that. Once they understood that concept, I could bend the rules when needed (no pull, decoy pull, a couple of plays that I installed). But, it was rarely needed. I would use the Wide Tackle 6 on defense. Although, a simplified version of Calande's 46 Gambler defense could work as well.
|
|