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Post by coachweav88 on May 13, 2008 18:39:31 GMT -6
Coaches,
It seems like basketball is always having open gym. I was wondering if football coaches could do something similar like "open field". Anybody do something like this? What could you do? Would it be productive?
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Post by seagull73 on May 13, 2008 18:58:12 GMT -6
Football is always at a disadvantage. Soccer, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, field hockey, & everything else you get better by just playing. Football is more scheme driven so I don't see an advantage to open field. If you could teach drills and have everyone run through them it would be great but in my state (Maryland) you can't give any instruction.
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Post by touchdowng on May 13, 2008 19:14:46 GMT -6
Over the years we've ran Flag Football tournaments (but it was $ motivated) - pissed the Bball coaches off and that was sort of an unintended results but one I liked - at least with this particular coach.
Nowadays, our players love to go play pickup FB after their done lifting and it's very common to see 20+ guys throwing the ball around on the field after the coaches have locked the weight room up.
I'm not sure what they're accomplishing but I always wondered what do all the gym rats accomplish during open gym except to play pick up games.
Football is more gross motor skilled than other sports so I'm not sure that an open field would have as much reward as would be intended.
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Post by phantom on May 13, 2008 19:49:38 GMT -6
Coaches, It seems like basketball is always having open gym. I was wondering if football coaches could do something similar like "open field". Anybody do something like this? What could you do? Would it be productive? Put bluntly, "open gym" means practice. One advantage that basketball has is that it's indoors and outsiders can't watch basketball coaches coaching in the offseason. |
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Post by lochness on May 14, 2008 5:50:19 GMT -6
We hold "open field" sessions that are open to the entire community (ie: Pop Warner, Jr. High, and HS football players). We spend half of the time doing speed work, agility drills, and conditioning, and we spend the rest of the time doing basic football skills (stance and start mostly) and a fun 7-on-7 format.
It's good in my eyes for the same reasons that dcohio mentioned. It's a football related activity that is fun, gets the kids together, and is active and involves some relevant skills.
It's also "legal" in our state because it's a "town-centered" event, not just specific to the HS kids.
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Post by gschwender on May 14, 2008 6:01:01 GMT -6
I agree fully with the last statement, and i do think that basketball is at a great advantage. They call it open gym but really it is practice. The difference is when the coach moves from a supervision role to a instruction role. I have seen b-ball coaches (both at my school and others) have "open gym" but really it is practice--you truly can not tell the difference between their b-ball practice and "open gym." Of course football coaches might have kids do agility drills that resemble or may even be "football" drills but they also teach agility which is beneficial for all sports. But when b-ball coaches have full blown practices is in my opinion just wrong. For one it is against the rules and it teaches kids that they will do anything (break the rules) to win. Also I have seen that kids practice practice practice b-ball all year and then the season rolls around and they burn out. I think that the words "open gym" should mean that the kids get together to work on things that will improve their game. Most football kids have their play books by the summer and can practice things that might move them up on the depth chart. Of course when they are on school grounds they should be supervised but not coached like i have seen some b-ball coaches do.
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Post by gunslinger on May 14, 2008 9:34:18 GMT -6
"Ultimate football"- The ball is advanced by the pass only. Any player can throw it to any player in any direction. Everyone is involved, it's fun, and it's a workout.
If the ball hits the ground it's a turnover (reduces contact...no fighting over the ball, fumble recoveries, etc.) and goes the other way as soon as the other team picks it up... no line of scrimmage.
The only time you'll have a LOS is to start the game or after a TD when you "kick off."
Rules of Note: You can't take the ball away from someone that already has possession. You can stand in front of the player with the ball and jump, hold your hands up, etc. to make a more difficult throw. If you were to bat the ball down, it would be a turnover and your ball.
Add two or more balls and it really gets crazy.
"Two pass football"- just like normal touch football except there are two footballs on each play.
Both footballs have to be complete for the play to count. The ball is advanced to the point nearest the goal.
An interception occurs when both balls are intercepted or one ball is intercepted and the other is incomplete.
This game involves more people than normal touch but not as many as "ultimate." However, it does more closely resemble football.
A couple of things that I always got out of these activities...
Who are my leaders? Who do the kids select to be their QB? Who's team ALWAYS wins? Who can throw/catch that I didn't know about?
You can learn a lot just by watching your guys compete. Especially if you are new to a school or you've got a new group of kids...freshmen, 7th grade, etc.
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Post by gunrun on May 14, 2008 9:50:07 GMT -6
I think it is valuable, because kids don't play pick-up as much anymore growing up. When they get to H.S., some of them still need to be taught how to juke a defender--stuff they should have learned years ago.
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Post by CoachMikeJudy on May 14, 2008 10:37:24 GMT -6
We ran an open field a couple of years ago. It was held on Tuesdays and Thursdays after weight lifting. Our practice field was on the corner of the 2 busiest roads in the city, so there was no way we were going to be out there and organized without getting pinched. We decided to have the uppeclassmen take charge.
The kids ran it- it started off just playing around- pickup style. When the numbers grew, some of the older guys expressed that they wanted to practice what we did. So we let them.
They'd come to the office and get a stopwatch, bag of footballs, and pennies.
We gave them a list of stuff they "could [should]" do and posted it everday on the whiteboard in the football office.
They started with fade drill for 10 mins warmup. Just like practice/pregames.
They had a list of stuff to do- i.e. 2 hitches ea side, 2 slants ea side, 2 10 yd outs etc...then they broke into teams (we had rosters made up for them) and they ran 7 on 7.
They had to bring the equipment back by 5:30. Us coaches typically worked inside with the linemen doing some extra agility stuff (kickslide/power step to death) out of sight from the community.
It worked- it was a little less organized than I would have liked and we probably could have made it better but I changed schools after the following season.
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Post by coachweav88 on May 14, 2008 13:22:18 GMT -6
We hold "open field" sessions that are open to the entire community (ie: Pop Warner, Jr. High, and HS football players). We spend half of the time doing speed work, agility drills, and conditioning, and we spend the rest of the time doing basic football skills (stance and start mostly) and a fun 7-on-7 format. It's good in my eyes for the same reasons that dcohio mentioned. It's a football related activity that is fun, gets the kids together, and is active and involves some relevant skills. It's also "legal" in our state because it's a "town-centered" event, not just specific to the HS kids. DC, is this legal in ohio? What if you have 2 high schools schools in your town and you opened it up to both schools? |
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Post by lochness on May 14, 2008 13:27:26 GMT -6
We hold "open field" sessions that are open to the entire community (ie: Pop Warner, Jr. High, and HS football players). We spend half of the time doing speed work, agility drills, and conditioning, and we spend the rest of the time doing basic football skills (stance and start mostly) and a fun 7-on-7 format. It's good in my eyes for the same reasons that dcohio mentioned. It's a football related activity that is fun, gets the kids together, and is active and involves some relevant skills. It's also "legal" in our state because it's a "town-centered" event, not just specific to the HS kids. DC, is this legal in ohio? What if you have 2 high schools schools in your town and you opened it up to both schools? That is also legal in our state. It's considered a "football skills camp" if you invite another team and have some integrated drills. I have no idea about Ohio, I'm not from there. |
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Post by tye2021 on May 14, 2008 13:50:08 GMT -6
Another benefit to "open field" is that if it's truely open you may get some guys out there that haven't come out for football that could wind up being quality players if you can recruit them.
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Post by Coach Huey on May 15, 2008 10:36:05 GMT -6
teach some games like "ultimate football" that are similar to ultimate frisbee. there are a number of variations one can use for this. set it up so that you play across the field using less than half. also, incorporate rules so that every type of kid could actually get involved. now, the "open field" can be several of these games going on at once. just provide footballs. it is basically kids getting out, running, catching, covering, being active together. it doesn't do much in the way of teaching them how to run your offense, how to tackle, how to do this or that. it is simply a way to provide an avenue for kids to bond, have fun, and get a little exercise with a football.
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