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Post by jhanawa on Jul 21, 2009 11:05:12 GMT -6
starting out with 18-19 is tough to do, ideally 23-25 is a good number to start with. If you can't get anymore out, I'd say go with one big team because you are bound to lose some kids. If you platoon and go one way you'll have a huge advantage but there probably will be complaints about playing time. If your kids play both ways, you'll have to use mass substitutions, which is a great advantage if managed right. Remember, if you had two teams you would have had two sets of starters anyway, right? Start 11 on defense, 11 on offense, and mass sub with the remaining 11-15 kids.
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 20, 2009 12:40:59 GMT -6
There could be an issue with terminology if we use it "open air". When I coached with him we used to just call the play and snap it, now we signal every thing in our offense when in no huddle. He doesn't know the signals but I have no doubt that we'll be scouted very thoroughly before we play them. They will log everything we do and have reports spilling out of their computers. Since I'm sure he'll research everything I've ever written on here for the last 4+ years (Hello Matt...LOL), I won't go into details about what we'll do against his team, but we will be ready to play. Obvious solutions are to huddle up or use wristbands, both of which we already do. Of course we've been teaching the entire team to speak in Japanese just in case....LOL
In reality it will still boil down to blocking and tackling, it always does.....
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 20, 2009 11:42:50 GMT -6
Our freshmen team will be playing a school with a coach on it that I coached with at a previous school. He has my playbook. IMO it doesn't matter, its about execution, not them knowing our plays. Really, it might be to our advantage with them having it, lots of stuff in there for them to worry about...LOL
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 19, 2009 22:47:09 GMT -6
I can only speak for how we do it. For us, using the whiteboard and film is a big deal, it helps a lot. It's very important for us to teach the whole picture because our perimeter blocking assignments change based on coverage/alignment when running the option. For the most part, our kids make the calls to adjust blocking on the line and the perimeter based on what they see, so its important they know about defensive structures. When installing schemes, we draw the plays against the common fronts/coverage looks we will see during the season. For us, being mostly gun spread, we see a shaded front 5,1,3,5, a true odd front 5.0.5, or a TNT/bear look, 7,3,0,3,7. WE draw the plays against these common looks, however, as far as our blocking rules, we teach looks, not fronts. Passing game wise, we teach our receivers, backs and QB to pre snap look at the secondary's depth, leverage and eyes to determine coverage and how to attack the leverage with their stem. We teach our players to recognize defensive structures and to understand what the defenders responsibilities probably will be based on their alignments. Our QB's are expected to be able to draw and describe in detail any formation, defensive front, secondary alignment/coverage, blocking scheme, receivers & backs assignments, QB responsibilities, progressions, reads, etc. They are tested and drilled on this repeatedly. Do we teach our kids a lot? Sure. Overkill? Probably....LOL....Lots of people think we do too much, maybe their right but they aren't coaching our team...LOL.... IMO, if kids can learn Algerbra then they can surely learn football....lol I'm sure we could win lots of games doing a lot less, however, I enjoy watching the light bulbs go on, watching the excitement and enthusiasm when the kids learn something new. I enjoy giving the kids "ownership" in the offense and watching them bloom within it. I probably got off tangent there a bit but the things talked about are why we use the methods that we do.
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 19, 2009 19:06:48 GMT -6
Bob, I think showing them the Big Picture pays off in the long run rather than being position specific, particularly in the passing game, understanding where people are and the concept of spacing is important. It may take more time up front but is worth the investment.
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 19, 2009 10:55:17 GMT -6
This is with our 8th grade team and our Frosh team. A few things we use that I think help, chalk talks with Q & A where we make the kids get up and draw the play/assignment, written tests and having kids use 3x5 flashcards to study at home with. The written test's are good because they correlate directly to playing time. Showing film cutups of plays after chalk talking it is a great way to burn it into their memory banks. I know this can be a challenge facility wise, in the old days we brought greaseboard, a inverter, TV and extension cord to the field and had kids huddled around the TV on the field....lol
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 18, 2009 16:11:21 GMT -6
I stopped handing out printed playbooks about 5-6 years ago, we went to giving out disk's in Power Point. The funny thing is, when we did paper we put them in 1inch binders and made them give them back at the end of the year with their equipment. Most looked pristine, never touched...LOL...with the disk's, I'm surprised at how much the kids actually do look at them. They will ask questions about things on it, which is a good thing....
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 16, 2009 15:31:12 GMT -6
Our Midget team is going to be very physical, if they stay healthy I see a very good season for them. Our incoming kids for freshmen football, from what I've seen, are going to be very good also. I'm very excited to get going with both teams. Our frosh schedule might be one of the toughest in the state though, we've redone schedules and its nothing short of brutal, we play five powerhouse programs, one of which has won the last three 5A state titles in a row. There's only one team on our schedule that I'd say is a pushover, everybody else is tough.
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 12, 2009 22:22:19 GMT -6
I think a lot of how much kids can learn, and how quickly, is based directly on their interest level and not the practice time involved. Really, nothing matters if they aren't interested....they'll nod, say yes sir, go through the motions, but if they aren't interested, is a losing battle.....Now, If they are interested, they can learn everything you want them to know about the game of football within a short period of time. I guess my analogy would be, how long does it take the average kid to completely master and memorize every level of a video game? Why is it that they can remember every play on Madden or NCCA 2009 but forget the HS team plays? What is triggering their learning while playing the video game? Interest, excitement, visual cues, sound, physical feedback, competitive nature? How do you incorporate these learning stimuli into your teaching football? IMO keeping it up tempo, fun, competitive and exciting is a good way to keep their interest.....whether its for 1.5 hours or 2.5, if they are interested the time flies by and they don't notice it....
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 8, 2009 22:33:54 GMT -6
We've never had tryouts, we always get what shows up. At that young age, I'd look for mental and physical maturity, aggressiveness, coordination and coach-ability.
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 8, 2009 22:32:02 GMT -6
Go to the defensive drills section on this site and look at Brophy's post of Rutgers Drills, 4 video's, free, EXCELLENT stuff....
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 7, 2009 14:29:50 GMT -6
We mix it up between the following... 4 Quarters of Burma Roads or... 4 Quarters of "quicks" team lines up in equal lines, on one hit hands go to the ear holes and stay, on two hits they go to the thigh pads and stay, any flinching gets "overtime". The four quarters are mixed between sit ups and pushups with sets of 25 for each quarter.
In the first few weeks of preseason we rotate between them daily, as we get into the season these drills usually aren't necessary, we usually are pretty focused and in good shape.
Our intent isn't to mimic "Gitmo" or to be sadistic or mean, it is simply to develop mental and physical toughness both individually and as a team.
As far as off season conditioning, we have a great weight room/plyo circuit program in place but IMO there still is a need for these "old fashioned" methods. Not saying its how anybody else should do things, its just how we do things.
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 6, 2009 22:48:54 GMT -6
The cheering part is optimistic. Gasping and wheezing is more realistic.
In lots of cases several years gone by can lend oneself to exaggerate, however in this case, "gasping and wheezing" is pretty accurate...LOL...at least starting out the first few times...no doubt about it they are physically and mentally demanding..... On a historical note, the reason that these were named Burma roads was after the famous WWII Burma Road supply line zig zagging through the mountains and jungles of Burma under fire from the Japanese, it was a pretty rough road....
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 6, 2009 11:22:10 GMT -6
4 times through (4 quarters of mental toughness) unless there is "overtime", which is given to the entire team for anybody loafing....say there is a line of 25 kids, as soon as the first kid hits the first bag, the next kid goes, so there are 4 kids going through it at the same time....describing it here it doesn't sound as tough as they actually are, by the 4th one your legs feel like lead, it takes mental toughness to push through it (which is what we want).....if you have more kids you can add bags or do a second station at the same time....but honestly having personally done them, that line can never be long enough...LOL
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 6, 2009 10:01:14 GMT -6
Back in the day we used cross-body blocks instead of tackles.
Thanks for bringing back that cherished memory. Years of therapy trying to forget Burma Road shot. More nightmares and sleepless nights.
LMAO, I didn't care much for them either when I played......but they are good for developing mental/physical toughness. Most of our kids actually like them, however, I think their is a plot by some of our bigger kids to steal and burn the bags....LOL
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 5, 2009 11:45:45 GMT -6
Burma roads are where we place 4 stand up bags about 40yds apart from each other zig zagged down the field, one team line with kids clapping and hooting/hollering while teammates are going...they run full speed and tackle the bags, 160yds plus the jog back to the line...we do it four times (4 quarters) unless there is overtime.....
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 3, 2009 20:25:38 GMT -6
Part of its physical and most of its mental. Our practices are very, very up tempo, we don't huddle and everything is on the move....our entire practice is like a two minute drill, however, we still like to do some form of team building/mental toughness conditioning both during practice and after practice. I don't care much for sprints or gassers, but I do like our Burma Roads and Team Pursuit drills at the end of practice as well as our mental focus drills.
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 2, 2009 17:34:16 GMT -6
the One Step passes were from gun.
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Post by jhanawa on Jul 2, 2009 11:04:46 GMT -6
I just downloaded the free Kinovea software and its pretty cool. One of the many neat things about it is that you can put a stopwatch on a play and time it frame by frame.....anyway......as I'm playing around with it I started comparing times between plays from gun and under center. Some interesting comparisons.....these are 8th grade kids but the time comparisons should be similar with older kids....
First, snap times, I took some random samples from various games..... under center, .20 shotgun snaps: average shotgun snap is between .40 and .50 from ball movement to QB's hands, QB is at 4.5 yds.
Throwing One Step hitch: 1.36 seconds Throwing One Step slant: 1.56 seconds Jet Motion with slot time in motion before the snap: .80 to 1.03 seconds depending on which kid.
Run Play Times Under Center FB Wedge ....1.1 to 1.2 seconds to get to the LOS....FB is at normal depth and QB uses Midline footwork. Gun Wedge, QB at 4yds, 1.53 seconds for FB to get to LOS
Under Center TB off tackle power, QB opening and sprinting ball to TB....1.6 to 1.7 seconds for TB to get to the LOS....
Under Center Iso, QB reverse pivoting to TB in "I"....1.90 seconds to LOS Gun Iso, QB reverse pivoting to TB in split backs.....2.13 seconds to LOS
Under Center Veer time for FB to get to LOS....1.26 Gun Veer time for the FB to get to the LOS.....1.8 to 1.9 seconds....
Interesting stuff.....
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Post by jhanawa on Jun 28, 2009 18:42:43 GMT -6
Guys, we are a midget team from Arizona and are looking for out of state travel or scrimmage games. We run spread option/air raid offense and 3-4, 3-3 on defense.........We are a non select (we get whatever shows up in our zone area) azcyfl team that would be interested in traveling to or hosting out of state competition. Here are sme clips from last year, we will have all new kids this year except for 3 returners who were in 7th grade last season..... let me know asap if you are interested.....thanks... coachhuey.com/index.cgi?board=youthoffense&action=display&thread=30663
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Post by jhanawa on Jun 28, 2009 18:27:32 GMT -6
All of our assistant coaches also have to fill out a form and pass a background check, which in this day and age is a good idea IMO. I think its important to encourage kids at any age to play as many sports as possible, football, wrestling, track, basketball.....in that order....to develop athleticism and talent........sorry, baseball doesn't make the athletic list...LOL...
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Post by jhanawa on Jun 28, 2009 18:20:50 GMT -6
We've had 3 dad/coaches, all never directly coached their kids but other positions. Before it all started, it was made clear that there are no "fathers" on the team, only coaches/dads.....by that I mean we are equally a dad to all of our kids and care about them all equally......It can be tough but not unachievable, we've never had a problem with it, if we did we'd dismiss the parent immediately. In fact two of our dad coaches have stayed on after their kids have finished playing for us and are a HUGE asset to our staff! Can't express how much these guys mean to our program, they are very important to our success.
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Post by jhanawa on Jun 27, 2009 17:58:52 GMT -6
Most of our coaching staff has been together for 12 years now, a few new guys who've been with us for about 4 years who had boys play for us and stayed with us after their boys were done.... we rely heavily on our staff, each position coach takes his boys and gets the job done. I've said it before and will again, having a good solid coaching staff is an absolute pleasure, we are very fortunate to have the guys that we have. I've been on a few staff's where it wasn't cohesive and its frustrating.
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Post by jhanawa on Jun 21, 2009 20:28:30 GMT -6
The sales pitch does seem misleading, and it seemed like more 2x2 than 5 wide but they looked decent, but who wouldn't if you have 4 DI kids on the line....heck, I'll "sell" you my "system" for $2.00, you can save $198.00 if you order now....LOL.....
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Post by jhanawa on Jun 20, 2009 18:44:23 GMT -6
We coach in Arizona. I don't think a nation standardized heat standard makes sense, Arizona and Alaska have different views on heat....LOL.....I think common sense and a strong emphasis on proper hydration is key. We give unlimited water and emphasis diet and hydration as well as avoiding the monster drinks, caffeine and soda. We want our kids drinking water throughout the day, we make them carry water bottles around throughout the day in classes. Heck its a dry heat anyway, I walked 36 holes when it was 122 degrees here and never thought anything of it....I'll take dry heat over Midwest 95 degree/95 percent humidity anyday.....LOL
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Post by jhanawa on Jun 12, 2009 19:47:59 GMT -6
In our youth league we get what shows up, we've never had tryouts or cuts. Just my opinion but I'd look at work ethic, desire and intelligence first, then athleticism. I'll take coachable smart kids first, if they are athletic then its a bonus but not necessary to be successful.
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Post by jhanawa on Jun 6, 2009 19:41:02 GMT -6
Your 1 car wash away.....
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Post by jhanawa on May 30, 2009 18:18:24 GMT -6
34 or 17 returners, I've never even dreamed of that luxury LOL.....in our association our staff only coaches Midgets so we get the previous years junior midgets and any new kids coming in. I think the most we've ever had was 5 returners who were big 7th graders (too big for jr. midget) the previous year. There are a lot of teams in other associations who keep their kids together ( in more stable areas of the city) all the way from pee wee's up to midgets, they are usually very good. I'm sure with that base of returners you'll be very good. Too bad about switching over to PW though, we moved away from it a few years ago because of all of its politics and problems.
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Post by jhanawa on May 30, 2009 14:23:22 GMT -6
The best athlete I've coached that made it big time was Eric Johnson, he went to Nebraska as a DB and won a national championship there and then went on to the NFL with the Raiders. I think the best are yet to come though, we have some special kids coming up...
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Post by jhanawa on May 20, 2009 20:16:08 GMT -6
Dave,
There was a Midget team here in Phoenix that wasn't very good and was trying to run Single Wing, any interest in coming down here and meeting with their coaches? I don't know them personally but could look them up if your interested. Southwest is cheap and fly's Omaha to Phoenix.....I'd love to see your Single Wing in action as we are spread with obvious SW/WT roots...
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