General ressources to better learn the game

read this entire site

Not that you have to play the game to understand it but there is a lot more out there than whatever "tapes" you watched. There is way more than x and o's. You talking about scratching the surface it's because everything out there has been done at one time or another much earlier. I suggest you look into the history. Look at Pop Warner. Look at single wing. The more you know the past the better idea you have of this game. Don't just look at offense/defense/special teams, look at mental toughness, team management, situations, drills, technique. It's endless. I've been coaching Gor 32 years plus the years I played and there's always something new to learn.

If you want to learn to coach the game, this is the spot. If you want more of a rudimentary understanding watch a bunch of football games on TV/Youtube. Yeah, the announcers may not give you 100% accurate info all the time, but you are just learning the game and you can weed out the falsehoods later.

Also, pickup an old version of Madden Football the video game. I know, sounds sacrilegious, but if you play the heck out of it you will understand the game a lot more in regards to play, game management, and various plays.

I would like to put forth a few principles/ideas for you as you proceed with your coaching journey; I hope these will be helpful!

1: Before anything else, remember that you want to make sure your players can excellently execute the skills, routes, etc that you ask them to use. It's the old Bruce Lee principle: I don't fear the man who has practiced 10,000 different kicks 1 time each, I fear the man who has practiced 1 kick only, 10,000 times...It does you and your players no good to have super snazzy facemelter (ask if you dont know what that means...) systems on offense and defense if they cant do any of it well. 5 plays ran excellently is better than 50 plays ran poorly.

2: Offensive line should be your number one priority on offense, before QBs, RBs, TEs, and WRs. It does you no good to have amazing QBs, RBs, TEs, and WRs if your line is a pile of hot garbage. Make sure those dudes get COACHED UP and are absolute machines with whatever you ask them to do. You want your best assistant coaching OL, or if you have to, YOU should coach OL. A good offensive line will not only protect your QB and give them time to throw, they can also clear a path for runners who are as slow as LA traffic to get at least a few yards.

3: Design your offensive and defensive systems around the players you have, and dont try to force them to run a system that doesnt fit them. And also at the same time, design a basic framework for your offense and defense that is the same year to year that you can fit each year's specific system (that fits that year's players) into. The most important part of that is language/terminology.

4: This one is up to you as far as how far you want to take it, but if you want to be a head coach one day, try to, over time, learn every single position inside and out, on both sides of the ball, and learn as many offensive and defensive schemes inside and out as much as possible. This way, you can make sure that each part of your offense and defense is as good as can be. You dont want weak spots on your team because the LB coach doesnt know what he is doing. If you know everything inside and out, you can help provide the LB coach with the knowledge he needs.

5: Remember, NUTIF: (T)here (I)s (N)o (U)niversal (T)erminology (I)n (F)ootball. Some fields, like the medical field, the military and police, firefighters, etc, have common/uniform, agreed upon terms for different things. In the medical field, the dorsal side of an organism is the same, no matter what hospital and operating room you work in. Unfortunately, this is not so in football. For one coach, a fin means one type of route, where for another coach, a fin means another kind of route. Now, there are some terms that are very commonly used, or almost universally used, but it's still inconsistent across the country (and world). Try to keep this in mind as you learn, and be prepared to explain what your terms mean to other coaches.

6: Be patient but also be firm when you need to be, and tailor your coaching to each individual personality on the team. Some need more encouragement, others need someone all but screaming in their face, etc. Treat everyone fairly, but don't try to interact with them all the same.

And finally, 7: Approach each season with the players by telling them how good they want to be as individuals and as a team is up to them. No one is forcing nor expecting them to be superstars, this puts the accountability for their season on them, and gives them ownership. If they want to play like superstars, that's up to them. If they want to play like hot garbage, that's up to them. Hopefully most will respond well to this approach.

Best of luck!

Im definitely agreeing with you on this one sir. I read it a year ago and for someone just looking for general information on defense this is kind of a timeless classic i reckon. But thats also its weakness to me as its - again - feeling like only scratching the surface (i might be wrong and missing something here of course - if i do please let me know ;-)

And thanks for recommending, I appreciate it.

I would phrase it more as it’s building a foundation rather than it’s scratching a surface. It isn’t going to as detail oriented as it is talking about principles- not a specific defensive system

It has been my experience that understanding of these general principles allow someone to advance their learning much better than someone who cuts their teeth learning a very specific defense. Those who only know one defense and not principles have trouble finding solutions and adapting.