kevind
Freshmen Member
Posts: 56
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Post by kevind on May 19, 2010 5:43:12 GMT -6
Hi coaches I was wondering when coaching a group of kids that have never played football before what do you focus on every practice and how much time do you spend on fundamentals vs. schemes
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Post by utchuckd on May 19, 2010 6:54:41 GMT -6
We do stance/footwork every day. We also have a blocking and tackling period every practice, regardless of whether we're focusing on offense or defense that day. These are more vs. air or dummies working individual technique than live or team type work.
We are in individual 60-70% of the time, more than that early in the year.
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Post by daveinsarasota on May 19, 2010 7:21:36 GMT -6
I would definitely work on stance, start, blocking and tackling. You can break them up by bigs and smalls, or skill vs. nonskill. Although everyone needs to learn all aspects of the game, it makes no sense to burn CPU cycles trying to get an obvious O-lineman to carry the ball or take a handoff effectively. He needs to focus on stance, start, blocking and tackling.
If they are first year players, and you are playing other teams who are predominately first year players, be very simple in your offense. Dive, Sweep, Power...knowing what I know now, if I was a tiny mite coach, we would never pass until the last couple of games, and that would be a very simple pass to the TE. At tiny mite, you don't even need to concern yourself with an effective counter.
If you are executing Dive, Power, and Sweep, with effective blocking, and good fundamentals from C-QB exchange (crucial at this level), handing the ball off correctly, taking the handoff correctly, and hitting the hole properly, you will be hard to stop.
WhatI find is that too many coaches at this entry level will have a playbook with 20 or so plays...practice them all, but end up running a handfull of those plays in a game. Imagine how good they would be if they focused on those handfull of plays.
Defensivley, keep it simple. A basic 6-2 or something to that effect. Teach the Ends to contain, and have the D-linemen respect their gaps. Put your best athlete at Safety...he will be making most of the tackles, since at the entry level, it is easy to get burned, and you need to guy with the wheels, who has a chance to cover every breakdown on defense.
IF you keep the offense and defense very simple, you will have much more time to devote to what is most important...fundamentals.
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Post by mhcoach on May 19, 2010 7:46:12 GMT -6
Kevin D
We have certain drills we do everyday. Team, we start every practice running a pursuit drill for our Defense. We also try to work our Miami tackling circuit everyday. When we break into Indie time each group has their every day's. Oline Stance, 1st step, & Punch. Backs handoff snake, Stance, Block. Wr's stance, takeoff's, stalk. DLine, stance, rip, & hands. LB's Stance, reads, & Sheds. DB's Stance, Spot drill, & baseball turns. We try very hard to incorporate these drills every day. Then depending on where we are in our progression we work, inside run, outside run, 7 on 7, half line & others. This is dependant on what stage our team is at on the learning curve. As a youth coach particularly with 1st year players more time is needed on the fundamentals. D I S stated it perfectly, what I can add is for you to know inside and out exactly what everyone does on those few plays, & simple D.
Joe
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Post by bluedevil4 on May 19, 2010 18:56:08 GMT -6
This year, we spent the entire first week on just footwork and fundamentals. We did not practice any blocking or tackling and did not install any of the system.
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Post by FBCoachMike on May 19, 2010 23:09:45 GMT -6
Everyday: Birddog drill as a team; 3 station tackling circuit; 15-20 minutes of Indies; rest of practice is team period.
Offense day run offense on air 20 reps; run offense vs. skeleton defense (defense that we'll see that week); then finish with 10 minutes live including some goal line.
Defense day: 4 down linemen and ILB's run inside drill; OLB's and DB's run perimeter drills; then full defense against skelly offense primarily for run fits, pass reads (go through opponents plays per scouting report). Then 10 minutes live. Finish with a pursuit/rally drill which can be for conditioning also. Finish off with drill called Sharks and Minnows.
Our 3rd practice (thursday) we Birddog, tackle circuit; then run through special teams; run 10-15 minutes of defense vs. skelly offense for run fits and reads. then run offense on air for 20-30 reps running subs in and out. Then run offense vs. skelly defense. for the most part, I try to run Thurs like pre-game so they are used to what's going on on Saturdays so they aren't freaked out...it's not exactly like Saturday pre-game, but you get the point.
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Post by davecisar on May 20, 2010 6:38:19 GMT -6
Hi coaches I was wondering when coaching a group of kids that have never played football before what do you focus on every practice and how much time do you spend on fundamentals vs. schemes Excellent question, In a 2 hour practice after the first 3 weeks, with 1/2 rookies, 1/2 vets we are probably half and half indys and team BUT we always are working fundys during team. With first year players we are really working first step, first 2 steps, pad level and breaking down tackling to the atomic level- lots of proper foot placement and fit drills Let's say we are running offensive plays on air: I have one of my coaches watching/holding accountable 3 of my linemen, another working the 4 other linemen ( we are Double Tight), have another working 2 backs and the other working the other 2 backs. We hold everyone accountable and coach up on EVERY SNAP: Perfect stance Perfect alignment Correct first step- at correct angle, with correct foot, with correct distance, with speed, no false stepping etc Proper pad level Proper foot to contact relationship- feet on runners toes, feet on defenders toes etc Proper head placement Assingment execution- blocking correct player etc 100% effort- finishing plays- fakes etc We freeze these reps, ig you are blocking you freeze on your POA imaginary target, we will have coaches with bags at the POA- you freeze upon contact with the bag, no one is released to the next rep until each player gets a tap from his coach Team doesnt mean you stop coaching fundys, we do lots or reps on air and defensive recognition in team where we work the holy heck out of fundamentals- BUT your coaching staff has to have a good eye, stay on task and really hustle. |
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Post by bobgoodman on May 20, 2010 11:17:42 GMT -6
Although everyone needs to learn all aspects of the game, it makes no sense to burn CPU cycles trying to get an obvious O-lineman to carry the ball or take a handoff effectively. But you might have to, if you have low numbers of players. Or if you don't have assistants who can be teaching one skill to some players while you're teaching another to others. |
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Post by daveinsarasota on May 21, 2010 7:27:09 GMT -6
Although everyone needs to learn all aspects of the game, it makes no sense to burn CPU cycles trying to get an obvious O-lineman to carry the ball or take a handoff effectively. But you might have to, if you have low numbers of players. Or if you don't have assistants who can be teaching one skill to some players while you're teaching another to others. Sure, but in reality, you should always have multiple coaches teaching various skills, at all times. That is the job of the head coach to secure capable assistanst. My point, is that there are players that you know for a fact will be lineman...not backs. I know it becomes difficult for coaches to even admit this...but it is just true. That said, time is much better spent teaching skills apllicable to what they will be doing. |
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