Post by paullmccarty on Nov 10, 2008 21:55:22 GMT -6
Coaches,
There is very little out there for 8-man football. I have found and printed most of the materials I could on-line.
I just completed my second year of coaching offense at the Junior High level in 8-man football at a Christian school. We dressed out an average of 9-11 players while most teams that we played dressed out 20 - 30 players. The grades are 6th thru 9th grade with very few rules on who can play. I think the only stipulation against 9th graders playing is that they cannot start at the varsity level.
Four of our players were 6th graders with three of them starting both ways by the end of the season due to injury or academic problems.
Bottom-line: We were over matched athletically in every game but one (which we won 26-20). Therfore I installed a double wing direct snap power offense, putting my best athlete at Superback.
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We ran one straight power series from this formation, one series where spread both wingbacks wide toward one side and motioned one toward the QB, one series with one WB and one guy split wide to the same side, and finally one rocket type series where I had the QB under center with one wingback and a sniffing FB.
By far our best series was our basic power series. We utilized tight line splits for the five o-linemen, with blocking rules and double teaming at the point of attack with a kickout block on the contain man and one or two pullers through the hole. Our base plays were powers, blasts, sweeps, counters, and wedges.
We were competitive against every team we played except for one. My question is we still finished the season only 2-6 and I need to know if I am on the right track and is there something I can do to get us over the hump?
Remember this is 8-man football, often played on full size fields, sometimes played on 80 by 42yd fields. 8-minute quaters.
Let me summarize a typical game against perhaps the best team we played. We received opening kick-off. Took 6 1/2 minutes and scored touchdown and 2 point conversion. We successfully on-side kicked and took 6 minutes and scored a second touchdown. They scored T.D. and 2-pt conv on the first play from scrimmage. We only get one first down but run the clock out till half. My boys are just out manned and even though we are up 14-8 I can tell that they are going to have big hill to climb to keep it up in the 2nd half. The other team scores 30 unanswered points in the 2nd half and win the game 38-14. They move to a TNT front with a 5-man line on defense and three athletes at LB playing a little deep, but coming up quickly to stop the run. My boys just can't stop the penetration in spite of the line splits and the sweep would be there, but all three of their LB's are faster that my pullers or Super-back.
My goal in the off-season is to get these boys stronger and in better shape with a good weight/off-season conditioning program. Again my question is should I stay with my power offense or is there something else I can add?. My line of thinking is I can always get my boys stronger, but I will not always be blessed with speed.
My plan right now is to stick with my basic offense an perhaps at a spinner series. I have been reading on-line about a "spin offense", but again I must adapt it to the 8-man game. Any input from coaches, especially 8-man coaches who have had success with the double wing or a similar power offense would be greatly aprreciated. Thanks.
V/R,
Coach McCarty
There is very little out there for 8-man football. I have found and printed most of the materials I could on-line.
I just completed my second year of coaching offense at the Junior High level in 8-man football at a Christian school. We dressed out an average of 9-11 players while most teams that we played dressed out 20 - 30 players. The grades are 6th thru 9th grade with very few rules on who can play. I think the only stipulation against 9th graders playing is that they cannot start at the varsity level.
Four of our players were 6th graders with three of them starting both ways by the end of the season due to injury or academic problems.
Bottom-line: We were over matched athletically in every game but one (which we won 26-20). Therfore I installed a double wing direct snap power offense, putting my best athlete at Superback.
-----X-X-C-X-X--
---X-------------X
----------X-------
We ran one straight power series from this formation, one series where spread both wingbacks wide toward one side and motioned one toward the QB, one series with one WB and one guy split wide to the same side, and finally one rocket type series where I had the QB under center with one wingback and a sniffing FB.
By far our best series was our basic power series. We utilized tight line splits for the five o-linemen, with blocking rules and double teaming at the point of attack with a kickout block on the contain man and one or two pullers through the hole. Our base plays were powers, blasts, sweeps, counters, and wedges.
We were competitive against every team we played except for one. My question is we still finished the season only 2-6 and I need to know if I am on the right track and is there something I can do to get us over the hump?
Remember this is 8-man football, often played on full size fields, sometimes played on 80 by 42yd fields. 8-minute quaters.
Let me summarize a typical game against perhaps the best team we played. We received opening kick-off. Took 6 1/2 minutes and scored touchdown and 2 point conversion. We successfully on-side kicked and took 6 minutes and scored a second touchdown. They scored T.D. and 2-pt conv on the first play from scrimmage. We only get one first down but run the clock out till half. My boys are just out manned and even though we are up 14-8 I can tell that they are going to have big hill to climb to keep it up in the 2nd half. The other team scores 30 unanswered points in the 2nd half and win the game 38-14. They move to a TNT front with a 5-man line on defense and three athletes at LB playing a little deep, but coming up quickly to stop the run. My boys just can't stop the penetration in spite of the line splits and the sweep would be there, but all three of their LB's are faster that my pullers or Super-back.
My goal in the off-season is to get these boys stronger and in better shape with a good weight/off-season conditioning program. Again my question is should I stay with my power offense or is there something else I can add?. My line of thinking is I can always get my boys stronger, but I will not always be blessed with speed.
My plan right now is to stick with my basic offense an perhaps at a spinner series. I have been reading on-line about a "spin offense", but again I must adapt it to the 8-man game. Any input from coaches, especially 8-man coaches who have had success with the double wing or a similar power offense would be greatly aprreciated. Thanks.
V/R,
Coach McCarty
