We receive many different questions from coaches across the country and like to post some of the more common questions and give our thoughts and opinions. The questions below we received from Pete in Seattle, Washington.
”I coach a youth football team and we are in the playoffs. The team we will play runs to the outside. They are bigger and I need to stop them before they beat my linebackers around the corners or they will score a touchdown.”
This is a common question we receive at every level, as well as every state in our nation. Every coach wants to know how to stop the opponent’s superior speed. There is no magic defense or system that will automatically make your team faster, or them slower, but with the proper scouting and preparation you can look to harness that speed and hopefully slow it down.
The first step is to have a complete, updated and thorough scouting report of your opponent. The key questions are:
- Is the whole team fast?
- Is it just one speed back?
- Is the back just fast or elusive as well?
- Any tendencies for certain plays?
- What big plays make him most comfortable?
- Can our fastest defender match up with him if we use a spy?
Your goal needs to have your defense trust each other and work as a unit. Eleven good players working together as a team will always out perform one stand out individual. You defense needs to take the star player out of his comfort zone. Focus on making him go to areas of the field that he doesn’t like or is not comfortable with. If you can get inside his head, he will take himself out of the game mentally. If this happens he will not be a threat physically either.
If you have a player he you believe can stick with him, use a spy defender. We love to run a spy out of our 34 defense since we can use a safety and the offense doesn’t even realize what we are doing.
Our coach above mentioned using his linebackers for outside containment and I believe this is wrong, especially against a fast backfield. Use your corner backs as outside run containment and roll the safeties into a two deep zone. This is an easy adjustment for your defense, while a hard coverage to recognize for the offense.
Many individuals who played high school, college and even semi pro football are now married and have a real job, however, they still want to stay involved in football. One great way is to become a volunteer youth football coach. Youth football goes by many different names which include pee wee, midget, little guy, Pop Warner and junior football as well as many more names.
There are many different leagues and organizations where can volunteer to help. A quick search on google, or in your local phone book, will show you the options available. I’m sure there’s everything available from flag to tackle football with the ages ranging from 4 to 14 years old. You will find competitive leagues, non-competitive football, local leagues as well as travel teams. There are private organizations as well as park district level teams.
Coaching children is completely different from playing or being involved with the high school or higher levels of football. Everything you do needs to be tweaked and adjusted for the appropriate age and skill level you are coaching. If you have never coached little kids before, I suggest you spend at least two years as an assistant coach helping a long-term, well established successful coach. You need to learn from a successful coach, not just one who has been coaching forever. Many coaches have been at this for many years, yet continue to make the same mistakes because they never learned the correct way to coach kids.
In addition to helping out, you should continue to learn as much as you can about YOUTH football. As I have stated before, youth football is very different than older levels of football. The younger the kids are the more difficult it is. Far too many coaches try to relive their youth by attempting to install far too sophisticated offensive and defensive schemes. You need to study only youth football since there are many different concepts you will need to instill into your players.
Do not take your old high school playbook and think you can teach it to a bunch of eight year old and have success. You will learn from experienced youth coaches that there are only a few specific drills and skills you need to teach the players to have a successful season. As the players get older you can add more detailed plays.
In closing, if you decide to coach youth football, please make sure you get a good foundation before you just take a team and hope for the best.
A recent question we received from a fellow coach was:
Where should I put my best players on defense when coaching Youth Football? Should I play him at linebacker or at defensive end? I am coaching a 7 and 8 year old team.
Should I put my best 2 kids at linebacker or at defensive end on defense. There is only 2 passes attempted per game roughly…
I forgot to mention that defensively, we have to play heads up on the offensive lineman. No nose tackle, etc.
When coaching such a young age group level, there is no real passing threat you need to worry yourself with. Some coaches will chuck it deep and see if they can out run your secondary, but if you have a disciplined safety that should not be a big concern.
It really depends on the defensive scheme you decide to use. If you go with a 5-3 Defense then you will want to use you best players at the defensive ends position. The defensive end has outside run responsibility and your best player should be able to stop the outside sweeps and turn the running back into the middle of your defense.
We run a playbooks.info/playbooks/defensive-playbooks/3-4-playbook/”>3-4 Defense where you need to put your best players at safety. In the 3-4 we run our safeties have both outside run containment responsibilities as well as inside gap responsibilities like a linebacker. There responsibilities vary depending on the stunts, blitzes or slants we are running on that particular play.
I coach 7&8 yr old football team. Should I put my best 2 kids at linebacker or at defensive end on defense. There is only 2 passes attempted per game roughly…
I forgot to mention that defensively, we have to play heads up on the offensive lineman. No nose tackle, etc.
Defense, Defense Articles, In the News, Midget, Peewee, Pop Warner, Youth Football | admin April 5, 2010 | 
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