Coaching Thread

[Baboontyme 2809]

Ok I'm starting to get involved more as my kid (8) is starting to pick up more activities. I've done the assistant thing and now I'm officially the (co) HC of his 5 on 5 flag football team. I am the OC I guess. I wound up with that position because I memorized all of the kids' names and the other coach could only remember his daughter's. 

I'm more about trying to keep a happy family at this age even though it's clear we have some players (one in particular) who are quite a bit better than the others. However, the other team didn't play with that same mindset and we got beat by 3 TDs today. 

Can kids this age even remember plays? Shit I tried to install a few simple passing plays in practice (1 hr every week before the game) and no one could follow directions. So passing plays just became, put the girl with the rocket arm at QB, and tell her to look for Noah, who I'm pretty sure is going to be a D1 athlete. It worked a few times but then I started trying to get everyone involved and it became a cluster. 

Any strategies I should know? Specific plays that kids can follow? Drink heavily?

Others involved in coaching please weigh in with your questions and stories as well.

 

[Baboontyme 2809]

I've been thinking now that I've had time to digest. Is something like this too complicated for 7/8/9 year olds? 

We have 5 plays. All involve an I form with a WR split to either side. Remember it's 5 man. In every play, the right WR runs in motions a couple steps back and towards the exchange before the snap (legal). We do ready, hike and on ready the R WR goes in motion. 

1 play is a true reverse with a hand off to the right WR who goes in motion. I will tell the others where to go after the hand off but they will ignore I'm sure. 

2nd play is a double reverse. Left WR heads towards the exchange at snap and takes the hand off from R WR. 

3rd play is just a run to the left (or right) to the RB, direct handoff, but with the R WR still in motion to confuse things. 

4th play is a QB pass. R WR starts in motion but goes up the field, I have some routes drawn up but all that's important here is the pre snap motion and the QB throwing the ball. 

5th play is a reverse where the R WR throws the ball. Also legal. Pre snap motion, he takes the reverse hand off, other kids run routes and he throws the ball down the field. 

[Jacob McCandles 202]

I coached a lot of youth football. A couple of points and questions, although admittedly I never coached 5 on 5 - just 7 on 7 and 11-man tackle.

Are coaches allowed in the huddle? If so, draws your plays on paper and have them laminated. Show the plays as you call the name of the play. Also, you play like you practice, so follow the same routine in practice.

Five plays is not too many plays, in fact it is too few. I tried to have the players memorize the same number of plays as their age; and that is the same play to the right or left. So, you should be targeting 7-9 plays, which can be run left or right. For tackle it was generally dive, off-tackle, sweep, counter, reverse, play action pass, quick pass, roll out pass (all out of shotgun). Would also add one to three I plays later in the season.

Also, think about overloading one side. That is always a killer in youth football. If D doesn't match, you have numbers strong side; if D does match run your stud weak side where he will have more field to operate. Something like this (to both Right or Left):

         C                               Slot                               WR

 

        QB                 RB

Can run QB off-tackle, QB sweep, counter to RB, reverse to WR, roll out pass to Slot on an out with WR picking or running deep, pass to WR on a fly. if the D does match the overload, have QB run to weak side and use athleticism

Edited April 23, 2018 by Jacob McCandles

[wreckatx 141]

Game changer right here:

https://www.myfootballplays.com/football-wristbands

[Both Tacos 1806]

Along with the wristbands make sure all the coaches have headsets and call sign boards for formations. Use really odd pictures on the boards. 

[TXLNGHRN10 341]

1 hour ago, wreckatx said:

Game changer right here:

https://www.myfootballplays.com/football-wristbands

That's what we've used for my kids flag football for the past 3 years and it works but the suggestion of having plays on a laminated card work really well too. Gives them a visual.
We've had lots of luck with misdirection and half back passes. 

[wreckatx 141]

2 hours ago, TXLNGHRN10 said:

That's what we've used for my kids flag football for the past 3 years and it works but the suggestion of having plays on a laminated card work really well too. Gives them a visual.
We've had lots of luck with misdirection and half back passes. 

Second all of that.  I still have the plays printed out two to a page to show the kids.  Misdirection and throws after a handoff are huge.  Throwbacks work well, too. Some of the best plays we have involve getting the defense going one way and leaking the center out for a pass the other direction.

[Gunsup 56]

It's always better to be able to run a few plays really well then have lots of different formations to run lots of plays that they don't know too well.   That idea works on every level.

[Baboontyme 2809]

Thanks all. Yeah I like this concept we thought up earlier in the week. Going to meet the other coach for lunch tomorrow and pitch it. Once I teach it to the kids and we run it for one week I think we can expand it to reverse the play from the other side and then add a couple of plays from there. 

I particularly like it because the kids all want to play RB. And in this set up the less skilled kids will all get to play RB and get some touches occasionally but the offense is actually geared towards the split end. And yeah, it incorporates a lot of misdirection so it might actually work. 

I'm going to cross train the less skilled kids at RB and C. So they can run pass routes and go to a specific spot every time if they're running a route,  or they can take the hand off and gain 10 yards without thinking because everyone on D is worried about Noah. 

[gyroprotagonist 2592]

yeah, we used the wristbands for my son's 8-9 yo team.  they allowed a coach in the huddle, but once the ball was snapped it was a penalty for the huddle coach to say anything.

Having the plays on paper (that matched the wristband plays) and  going over called play in the huddle worked well.  I can't seem to upload a damn image, but we went by color coded dots.  7 different colored dots (1 for each player).  Made things easier when swapping out positions because you just told them what color/position they were and they could focus on that.  By the end of the season I could call a play name and they could figure it out from the wrist bands if we were trying to run plays quickly.

The biggest 'killer' plays were the quick hand off leading to a run pass option.  The QB was not allowed to rush past the LOS so handing off, sucking up the defense and then throwing worked very well.

 

[Bigbend1812 12915]

On 4/24/2018 at 2:48 PM, Gunsup said:

It's always better to be able to run a few plays really well then have lots of different formations to run lots of plays that they don't know too well.   That idea works on every level.

This.

[Ghost of 3:16 7]

This is video of when my son played in second grade. He’s the qb. We smoked everyone with basically 4 plays. 

fb://group/?id=556966591088627&view=permalink&object_id=1124115084373772

 

hopefully the link works.

[Baboontyme 2809]

Did not work. 

We are doing ok. The issue is more political. It's getting everyone the ball, making sure the kids are having fun, trying not to give the ball to the superstar every play, and pacifying my co-coach who legitimately cares about winning (which is completely absurd). 

Can I play running back? 

Can I play Quarterback? 

I don't want to be Quarterback anymore. (well we only have 2 kids who can throw the ball and you're one of them)

I don't want to be RB, I want to be receiver but I want a chance to touch the ball. (Ok........???)

Other coach, who is on the field for Defense keeps telling me he wants to run the ball and play the best players. Meanwhile we lost 32-30. I don't think the offense is the problem. The Jet Sweep playbook seems to be working just fine. I'm just trying to work in touches to the girls and the less skilled boys so they can have fun, as well. 

I would do this again but not with a co-coach. My priority is not winning at all. 

 

[Ghost of 3:16 7]

Did not work. 
We are doing ok. The issue is more political. It's getting everyone the ball, making sure the kids are having fun, trying not to give the ball to the superstar every play, and pacifying my co-coach who legitimately cares about winning (which is completely absurd). 
Can I play running back? 
Can I play Quarterback? 
I don't want to be Quarterback anymore. (well we only have 2 kids who can throw the ball and you're one of them)
I don't want to be RB, I want to be receiver but I want a chance to touch the ball. (Ok........???)
Other coach, who is on the field for Defense keeps telling me he wants to run the ball and play the best players. Meanwhile we lost 32-30. I don't think the offense is the problem. The Jet Sweep playbook seems to be working just fine. I'm just trying to work in touches to the girls and the less skilled boys so they can have fun, as well. 
I would do this again but not with a co-coach. My priority is not winning at all. 
 

You can bunch everyone up. Number them 1-5. Tell them if you call thief number they have the hot route. The rest of the team runs corner or fly routes.
The hot route is an outside in dig route. If it’s done right it will fuck up the defender playing man.
We literally spent entire Halves running that. Just going 1, then 2, and so on.
The parents of the other team. Would be yelling at the coach it’s the same play..lol



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jacob McCandles 202]

Did not work. 
We are doing ok. The issue is more political. It's getting everyone the ball, making sure the kids are having fun, trying not to give the ball to the superstar every play, and pacifying my co-coach who legitimately cares about winning (which is completely absurd). 
Can I play running back? 
Can I play Quarterback? 
I don't want to be Quarterback anymore. (well we only have 2 kids who can throw the ball and you're one of them)
I don't want to be RB, I want to be receiver but I want a chance to touch the ball. (Ok........???)
Other coach, who is on the field for Defense keeps telling me he wants to run the ball and play the best players. Meanwhile we lost 32-30. I don't think the offense is the problem. The Jet Sweep playbook seems to be working just fine. I'm just trying to work in touches to the girls and the less skilled boys so they can have fun, as well. 
I would do this again but not with a co-coach. My priority is not winning at all. 
 

Co-coaching rarely works. There has to be a head coach with the final say.

[TXLNGHRN10 341]

20 hours ago, Baboontyme said:

Did not work. 

We are doing ok. The issue is more political. It's getting everyone the ball, making sure the kids are having fun, trying not to give the ball to the superstar every play, and pacifying my co-coach who legitimately cares about winning (which is completely absurd). 

Can I play running back? 

Can I play Quarterback? 

I don't want to be Quarterback anymore. (well we only have 2 kids who can throw the ball and you're one of them)

I don't want to be RB, I want to be receiver but I want a chance to touch the ball. (Ok........???)

Other coach, who is on the field for Defense keeps telling me he wants to run the ball and play the best players. Meanwhile we lost 32-30. I don't think the offense is the problem. The Jet Sweep playbook seems to be working just fine. I'm just trying to work in touches to the girls and the less skilled boys so they can have fun, as well. 

I would do this again but not with a co-coach. My priority is not winning at all. 

 

We're going through this now. We have 6-7 kids who could play WR or RB and no one wants to play QB, except the kid who has never played before and can't through the ball.
We're making the 2 best athletes we have play QB and as the season is winding down, they are just now getting used to it.