Jun
4
2010
You know that youth football season is getting close when it is time to start picking up your football equipment. Most organizations will have one or two days where the kids show up to a predetermined area to get their gear. The type, quality and amount of equipment you receive will dependon the club you are playing for. Many of the more exclusive youth football programs, which charge allot to play for them, may buy new equipment each and every year.
Most organizations provide at a minimum the helmet, shoulder pads and some type of uniform. The helmets should be certified and reconditioned every other year and each helmet should have a sticker with the date the certification is good through. The certification is best if done from a reliable company such as Ridell or Shutt. Make sure to check the helmet for this verification sticker and do not accept any helmet that does not have this on it. A few of the more exclusive programs in our area buy new helmets every year.
When getting your child fitted for the helmet make sure to watch the process carefully. Hopefully the club has a responsible, knowledgable person fitting the helmets on the kids, but watch the process just to make sure. The proper way for a helmet to fit is firm. There is to be absolutley no movement left to right, front to back or up and down. The front pad needs to press firmly against the fore head, while the jaw pads need to have no space between them and the jaw bone. You need to feel the back area, above the neck towards the back of the skull, to make sure the shell of the helmet is protecting the skull of the child. These are general guidelines and by no means a complete guide, so please make sure to check with an expert to confirm the helmet is fitting your son correctly.
Shoulder pads are the next piece of equipment to look at make sure they are fitting your son correctly. A simple test is to lift up the plastic pad portion and verify that the soft pad area covers the entire shoulder. Next check all the hardware to make sure there are no pointy screws or metal pieces sticking out. Next check the clamps to make sure they fit well and review the straps confirming they are in good shape.
Most of the other equipment you may receive is rib guards, girdles and pads for the pants. I would give it a good look over and if you don’t like the quality of the equipment, feel free to buy your own at the local sporting goods store. You can get new, good quality pads relatively cheap.
In conclusion, make sure to take your time and check over the equipment you get from your organization. It will be a hectic day, so you will have to take on this responsibility yourself.
May
31
2010
Every once in a while a gift may come from your youth football opponent and we live by the old saying never look a gift horse in the mouth. For example, you find yourself in a situation where the other team is overpowering your team at the line of scrimmage. I mean to the point where they are getting 4-5 yards per carry directly off tackle or up the middle. You have made all of your adjustments, but there seems to be nothing you can do.
In a flash, the opposing coach, who has just driven the ball 50 yards down your throat, decides to show you how smart he is and starts throwing the football. I don’t know if it is ego, or just stupidity, but I see this situation happen every year, at every level. Maybe the opponent thinks they’ll catch you in a big play. I do not know what their thinking is, but never look a gift horse in the mouth! This brainiac now has a second and long, if he didn’t turn the ball over and begins to panic. What does he do now? He starts throwing the ball even more. He took a dominating good situation and made it go bad.
On another occasion we were struggling with our season and needed a win badly to qualify for the playoffs. We were facing our neighboring nemesis, who gives us fits every year, and were concerned we were in big trouble as they were playing fantastic at the time. As soon as the ball kicked off, we notice something very strange. None of his key players were in the backfield. We thought we made a mistake on our scouting report, but looked over on his sidelines and noticed his studs were sitting on the bench. Not just one or two of them, but all six of them. A gift from the Gods, as we went on to an easy win. This victory gave our players the confidence we needed to finish our season on a strong note, making the playoffs and competing for the championship. We did find out in the off season that the opposing coach was having parent problems regarding playing time and we making a point in this game. He had a completely different agenda for this game than we did.
In conclusion, we do not care why these situations happen, but we know they do happen and we need to be ready to take advatgae of them when they occur.
Apr
30
2010
The above question is the most feared amongst coaches who are coaching a new group of players each year. The reason this question is feared is because it is always asked by a problem parent. Some crazy parent, who likes to hear his, or her. own voice and is going to be a pain all yea is the one asking these type of questions. These are the type of people that live miserable lives and their sole purpose in life is to ruin your life as well.
No sane person is going to care if their seven year-old is the quarterback. This person is announcing out loud, they only care about themselves, screw the rest of the team and it.s all about me. You know the type, there motto is “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine”.
Do not let these low lives even get started. Set up a parent meeting, early in the season, and set the ground rules. Set your expectations, rules and have a zero tolerance policy. Make sure all parent’s know when, and how, they can approach you with any questions or concerns. Do not give theses psychos a stage where they will have an audience. Many people just want to embarrass the coach, or like to show everyone who they are. Bury these people fast, by banning them from practice. then games and lastly bench their kids. You hear me right, take it out on the kids. This is, of course, an extreme action and must be approved by the head of your board of directors, but it works 100% of the time.
All parents have an unrealistic, completely biased opinion of the child’s abilities and they cannot handle the truth. Many parents will question you and you need to answer them respectfully, just not repeatedly. Keep your league directors updated on any and all occurrences from day one so there is a history and no surprises when, and if, this boils over into a problem.
In conclusion, be cautious of the parent’s who early on start questioning what you are doing. Be extra cautious if the are questioning the positions you have assigned the players. The actual answer to our original question “How do I make Sure my 7 year old is the Quarterback?” is to be the head coach, and your kid better earn it, or get ready for a backlash like you’ve never seen.
Apr
22
2010
How much weight is a safe amount for a youth football player to lose for the upcoming season? If you want to compete against the better teams that you will be facing, during the upcoming football season,then you will need to have the oldest, best players from the age group you are coaching. Common sense tells us that the team with the oldest, largest and fastest players will have an extreme advantage over their opponents. Therefore, it is in your best interest to have as many of these type of players on your roster as possible.
Now there is a right way and a wrong way to accomplish this goal. I cannot make a blanket statement of “use your common sense” since over the years I have watched complete idiots think the can sweat twenty pounds out of a kid in a month. Any coach found promoting this kind of behavior should be banned from coaching for life. Every coach needs to have the best interests, and safety, of the players as their top priority.
I would never recommend any player be asked to lose more than ten pounds or ten percent of his body weight, whichever is the lesser amount. That means only players over 100 pounds can even be considered as a candidate to lose the ten pounds. I do not care if the kid weighs two hundred pounds, ten is the maximum I will allow. The next criteria, and this one is important,is the individual situation for the player. By losing 4 or 5 pounds will he now be able to play with his own age group, or carry the ball? These are positive reasons for a player to try and lose weight.
The next big hurdle is the attitude and mindset of both the individual player and especially the parents. if the player and the parents are not “on board” forget about it. Many parents do not want their child to lose any weight under any circumstances. You must respect their wishes and move on.
In conclusion, you want to try to keep as many of the older faster kids on your squad, but only be using realistic methods and the blessings of all involved.
Apr
9
2010
We received a recent question from a fellow youth football coach. He coaches the older level players in the 6th through 8th grade level and is having problems with his quarterback turning the ball over via the interception. The question is copied below as we received it and our response will follow below the question.
I’m the coach of a youth flag football team (11-14 year old’s). . .our quarterback has a great arm, but he always finds a way to throw an interception. Are there any drills or tips that would help/prevent him from throwing so many interceptions?? The basic rules of our league state the defense is allowed to rush our quarterback from 7 yards away, and we play with no offensive line.
Our first question would be what kind of an offense are you running? All passing offenses need multiple options to be successful. That is the main reason having a passing game at the youth football level is so difficult. You need to be running a scheme with hot reads (meaning if there is a blitz the receiver runs a certain route, like a slant) and check-down receivers as a safety valve in case all of the primary receivers are covered.
You need to have set routes as well as timing routes. If the quarterback is throwing too many interceptions, and there is no offensive line, then the problem is the quarterback and receiver are not on the same page. Video tape your games and show both players the reads you want them to make based on how the defense is playing them. Maybe your offense is not reading the coverage right. Some man under, zone deep coverages can be tricky for the young players to read correctly.
Review the tape and I’m sure you’ll be able to pinpoint the problem.
Apr
5
2010
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.
Apr
5
2010
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.
Apr
5
2010
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.
Apr
3
2010
A recent question we received was – Is the 4 – 4 Stack OR Base 5 – 3 A Better Youth Football Defense? The question is repeated below. There are many different types of defenses to run when coaching a youth football team, however a coach needs to be practical on which one to use. At the very young ages most teams cannot pass at all so you will want to run a base defense that can stop the run. Here is the question from our customer.
I coach youth football…….8-10 year olds. Last year we gave up a total of 8 TD’s in 9 games and went 8-1 running the base 5 -3. The good thing about the 5 – 3 is you clog the line but also are able to get your subs into the interior of that line 3 at a time so they can get their minimum plays. I am leaning towards the 4 – 4 this year because we have 2 studs at OLB and 2 studs at ILB. I have both returning starting DE’s and can work the inside of the line with my minimum play kids they just won’t get their plays as quickly as when we ran the 5-3. For anyone that has ever ran the defense or know of it how basic is it as far as gap assignments and all to teach to the boys? Like I said, I have 8 of my returners back on D when the A team takes the field so I have allot to work with. If I go to a 5 – 3 then I am losing talent at one of my LB spots. Sure I could work them into a SS role and bring them up to the strong side with the LB’s but still…….so any help is appreciated.
Our answer is pretty basic, if you went 8-1 why change? Add a few stunts and rotations, but why would you change the entire defense? Work on schemes for the team that beat you and solidify the returning player’s positions. Our youth football playbook on the Base 5-3 is perfect for the 8-10 year old age group.
Apr
3
2010
A recent question from one of our readers asked if the I formation was a good formation to run at the youth football level. We love the I formation, in fact one of our coaches started 11-0 last year with the exact offense show in the Power I playbook on the site. Below is the question as presented to us and our answer.
Is the I Formation Good for Youth Football?
I don’t know if this is what we should run but this is what the head coach wants?
The first question that comes to our mind is regarding the head coach. How much experience and what are his qualifications for coaching youth football? Has he been there for years and has a proven track record? Having a proven track record is important since we have many coaches with many years of experience that do not know how to coach at all. These type of people have no business being anywhere around kids, yet they continue to coach year after year. Some of these guy continue to coach for a variety of reasons, like being on the board of director, so first you need to look at the head coaches qualification.
If he has been around awhile, treats the kids right and has success I would be a little more trusting. I would question anyone who is making a decision on the offense they are going to run without knowing your talent yet, unless this is grade school ball and you know all of the returning players and their ability.
If the head coach has little or no qualification, I would suggest coach elsewhere. He will not listen to you and you’ll probably butt heads all year, so save yourself the BS and move on. I have not had many parents help me with the direct coaching decisions due to this reason. I have enough to do all year and do not have the time to be arguing with someone who is on a different page than our staff.
The I formation is great and we used it to help our team to an 11-0 start last year. Our playbook is basic, but effective and that’s all you need at the 9-10 year old level.
