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Post by 33coach on Oct 22, 2021 14:24:32 GMT -6
This year marks the first year i havnt coached youth football along with HS...its been a crazy 10 year ride..5 of which ive been pulling double duty (Varsity and Youth).
i had a thought on my mind, that it might be fun to compile a list of things former youth football coaches (and even current ones) would do if you have to coach youth/MS again.
1) spend more time teaching the game, and less time teaching specifics. 2 years ago i got 3 games in and realized my punt returner didnt know what a fair catch was.
2) preseason, make the kids watch football - whether thats hosting a party at my house or whatever...as a team watching football...as most kids dont even have cable anymore.
3) let the QB call plays - idk about you guys, but our system was always so simple and rules based...i could teach a kid to call based on If/Then statements. kinda go old school and the coaches dont get to coach while the players are on the field.
4) end every practice with a competition that isnt football related. - sometimes, kids just need to have fun.
.... what do you guys got?
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Post by bobgoodman on Oct 24, 2021 7:30:09 GMT -6
I've been coaching youth football since 2007, albeit with one season and parts of two others off. I was tapped to be HC in 2016, but had to move so was an AC in pre- and early season instead, and wound up starting at the bottom again in 2017 where I moved to. Doesn't look like I'd be likely to have a HC opportunity with the club in 2022, but maybe I can wangle it. 3) let the QB call plays - idk about you guys, but our system was always so simple and rules based...i could teach a kid to call based on If/Then statements. kinda go old school and the coaches dont get to coach while the players are on the field. It might not be the QB -- maybe not even a player on the field -- but this is something I've always wanted to (but was never in authority to) do. I think it's part of teaching the game. They say the players even in the pros don't call the plays, but so what? There are a lot of things they don't do any more at higher levels of the game that are done at lower levels. I don't think I'd do it from the first game of the season, but I'd want to have at least a couple players by the end of the season capable of "coaching". This I totally disagree with. If the kids aren't having fun with football, what are they doing there? I find the tendency after practice ends is for them to want to play touch or do something else that is football related. In recent years as an assistant with a club where they're very serious (and fairly successful) about preparing kids to play in the local HS, one thing I've come to chafe at is the relative lack of full contact in practice, especially since we have no minimum play rule here. They want to avoid getting kids hurt, and are going along with the de-emphasis of practice contact that's been sweeping the game but which I think is inappropriate for children. Where I coached 2010-16, something a few of the HCs did and which I thought was overdone then (and a sign of lazy, uncreative coaching) I now think was a very good thing: Once or twice a week for 15-20 minutes at a time, the team would divide into 2, 3, or 4 groups that would run multiple Oklahomas -- little scrimmages -- continuously. I used to complain that we weren't teaching form enough, that our players' form was lousy. Where I am now, we coach form much more, take greater advantage of equipment (sleds, chutes, dummies, tackle wheels, etc.), but I don't think the kids get enough competitive contact, and not enough fun in practice. It's not like we never go to full or partial contact, but it's not even enough to get them game-ready IMO. Some drills could be modified to "touch" or other low-contact forms and still be little games that would be fun; I don't think there's any need to get totally away from football for the kids to have fun.
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Post by 33coach on Nov 3, 2021 15:46:22 GMT -6
This I totally disagree with. If the kids aren't having fun with football, what are they doing there? I find the tendency after practice ends is for them to want to play touch or do something else that is football related. i get what you are saying. but its no big secret that football isnt a fun sport. its actually miserable compared to all the other sports. 99% of "playing football" is practice, and 25% of that 99...is conditioning. as far as sports go. football sucks to play...but doing it makes you a better person.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2021 16:07:34 GMT -6
I only did youth football one year. More now than ever though.Know it all. Master of one. Just get them to execute one thing in all phases. Kiss my ass on a series, dtdw, wing t, run n shoot. One play, one formation. One alignment one call on defense. Being cute, being smart, being anything other than stance, start, alignment assignment is just dumb. Then keep em moving, going and send them home. No lectures, no team meetings, Get them the hell out.
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Post by olsenray61 on Jan 18, 2022 8:11:31 GMT -6
In all my years as a JrHS/MiddleSchool football coach I realized the most important thing is not what the coach knows, but it's what the kids understand! I teach the game of football by starting with the history. During our summer practices I have players research and do a presentation on the founding fathers of the game and their importance to the development of the game. The presentation is no longer than 5 minutes and must be memorized! It's amazing the job the kids do and how years later they still remember the presentations.
The basics of the game are a key for understanding. It's been mentioned that a player didn't know the meaning of a fair catch signal. We as coaches think the kids know the game and what we are talking about but they haven't a clue! I started coaching with questions! I found that this provide a great learning environment for the kids.
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Post by bobgoodman on Jan 21, 2022 19:51:39 GMT -6
In all my years as a JrHS/MiddleSchool football coach I realized the most important thing is not what the coach knows, but it's what the kids understand! I teach the game of football by starting with the history. During our summer practices I have players research and do a presentation on the founding fathers of the game and their importance to the development of the game. The presentation is no longer than 5 minutes and must be memorized! It's amazing the job the kids do and how years later they still remember the presentations. I'd like to see your script. Many people assign credit for changes to Walter Camp, when all he did was chronicle them, not originate (or in some cases even advocate) them. The one change we do know he pushed was to 11 players a side, but there's no evidence he personally favored that, he just represented the Yale players, who'd previously been introduced to 11s by someone with experience with the Eton field game. Also, the IFA didn't invent the practice of snapping the ball back. I don't know who introduced it, but the University of Michigan players were among those using it, so it wasn't coincident with a rule change but preceded it. Some of the changes the IFA adopted may have come about because the RFU rebuffed their request for correspondence, and the RFU laws didn't reflect their administration. Meanwhile it seemed the Canadians were hardly interested in standardizing their game at all, so they never sought liaison with the RFU during that period.
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