Talk about teaching fundamentals....

You are pulling my chain right? They can't be that "special."

what position do they play?

My six year old knows the answer to these questions. Just goes to show, that parents need to be more involved in the development of their children. They should already know this before they get to you.

I'm not trying to point fingers here. But, as coaches, who do we think is responsible for our players knowing such information?
I'm a youth coach. I've learned to never assume a player- at any level- knows anything that you haven't directly taught to him. I live right across the street from my kids' Jr. High. I've been to a Jr. High game and saw stances so terrible, it's as if the players had never been taught. Although, I've walked by their practices and saw the coaches working with them. I've been to a HS game and heard a player getting chewed out by his coach for something that he didn't know. So, not only do we have the responsibility to teach things to them, we have to hammer those things into their heads repeatedly.
For my 9>10yr old players, I've gotten out tape measures, cones, etc... to show them what 3ft./1yrd means. Show them how far 10yrds are. I do the math on my whiteboard for them and make them participate. Punts are rare at youth level. To make them understand playing downhill, in defensive drills, I demonstrate the difference of giving up 2.5yrds(first down) and giving up 2yrds(our ball) per play. On offense, we stress to them what it means to strive for that little extra half-yard.
Is it crucial that a player knows the conversion of feet to yards? Probably not. But, it is fundamental knowledge what we coaches want them to have. Maybe we go overboard. But, it seems to help them understand the game of football better.
Example: My LB's are 4yrds off the LOS. When I mark 2.5 yrds off from the LOS, they get to visually see just how little margin for error they have. They have to read, react and get to the ball-carrier quickly with good technique and bad attitude.

Not necessarily. So...they don't know their measurements. Maybe they'd know them in meters. Doesn't matter. They see the distances. How far do you have to go for first down? Answer: from this stick to that stick. How long is the field? A: from this chalk line to that line.

Similarly, the only reason to look at your speedometer while driving is when they're clocking you with radar or other means. Otherwise, you see how fast you're going, and can tell whether that's a safe speed for the conditions.

On paper, true. The fact is this info is fourth grade stuff and these kids don't know it. That means that it's fair to infer that there's a lot of other stuff that they don't know or figure out.

This does not relate to the conversion portion but sometimes I think we give the kids too much to see. We all want our players to understand how things relate to what they are doing. So we draw up 11 on 11 and start moving backs, rec and the whole bit. That kid is trying to see 11 moving parts when that is not what we are asking them to do. I think this is why the smart kids get it. They can break it down to smaller parts on their own and make connections. The other kids can not or have a hard time. Those teams you play that are always good fundamental teams I bet most of them break it down into small parts. Remove all the other stuff and work on the most basic concept of it an dbuild from there. Like a scaffolding teaching method.

Points well taken. I just have a hard time believing what I hear from people sometimes when they make comments like "the varsity coaches are a bunch of idiots, the program would be better off if some of the youth coaches were running the program." And, that my friends is a cancer and does nothing to benefit the kids who are playing for the coaches who are trying to win.

Don't get me wrong, any youth coach is worth his weight, if he can teach the little things, but a lot changes when you go from a local youth league to a statewide 5A championship.

In some ways, too much success at the youth league could have some negative implications (don't read too much into this statement) I think a good program overall can curb the "premadonna" ideal from kids as they enter into the program their ninth or tenth grade years.

BTW, youth coaches are some of the best teachers of fundamentals there are. The good ones that is. What's more, the good ones are good and usually don't act like it. It is really a breath of fresh air.

Again....I was definitely not trying to point fingers at anyone. I hope that coach mce86 did not take it that way. I apologize now to coach mce86 if my post was taken that way. I am a youth coach. He's a HS coach. Football is something I coach on the side. Coaching football is part of his profession. I was not trying to tell him how to coach football players. I was commiserating with him about having to teach things to players that we assume that they know. And, that we can never assume that they already know anything. Football programs with feeder schools would possibly be exceptions to me. I think HS coaches that have feeder programs should be able to expect their players to be handed up to them with some basic knowledge of what they're doing.

I grew up in a small town. No tackle football until 7th grade. But, it was a feeder system. We learned things about tackle football in 3rd thru 6th grades before we ever played a down. It was part of our P.E. curriculum. And, of course, we all played sandlot football. I was not- and, am still not- an expert on football. Nor, will I ever be. But, when I first tried to be a youth coach, I assumed everybody knew some basics of football.
Fast-forward to the kids(9>10) and (11>12) that I coach today. I coach kids in a poor neighborhood. They play recess and street football, too. Also, to the best of my knowledge, I have never had a single boy on one of my teams that has never played Madden NFL. All of them own it or have played it.
Given my background and theirs; I was a bit shocked when I found out how many of them didn't know the difference between 'offense' and 'defense'. lol!

Btw, one of the least enjoyable experiences for me when I go to HS & Jr. High games is to have to listen to some @$$hole in the stands bad-mouthing the coaches on the field. Last season, I left a game early because of one of those jerks in the stands. This 'expert' was spewing utter garbage. But, he had everyone around him believing his crap although he was proven wrong time and again by the play on the field. What was worse was that he wasn't the only football expert sitting in the stands. He was just the loudest.
Maybe that's the trouble with football. There's always more expert coaches sitting in the stands giving opinions than there are of us dumb coaches on the sidelines actually doing the job.

tiger46, I got a lot out of your post, I think I am going to talk about measurements when I work with younger kids. Great comments.

The unfortunate fact of the matter, my friend, is that your students are just the right age to start breeding... At the very least, I'm only about 10 years older than these kids, so I won't have to worry about them taking care of me when I become "infirm". However, those of you in the generation that came before me; WATCH OUT.