Youth Football: Keep it Simple, Do it Well

An old coach once told me years ago when we were discussing offensive systems and how teams were changing to a more pro style spread offence at the time he said "Son, my experience over the many seasons has taught me to realize that if you cannot run off-tackle in football than you will not win". I agreed with him for the most part but I thought that he should run off tackle but maybe out of a different look so that we would not be so predictable. At the time he ran everything out of the I-formation to the Tight-End side. He looked at me and once again said "Son at the youth football level you got to keep it simple but do it well"

He paused in his thoughts and looked at me once again and said "And do it better than anybody else".

He was right. That season we were undefeated and won the provincial championship. His words have stuck with me all the seasons I have coached football. Keep it simple, do it well! It makes sense especially with young athletes. If we overwhelm them with a lot of plays, can they remember all of their assignments? Why not keep it simple, practice it a lot and like the old coach said "do it well". I remember running the off-tackle play in practice all the time out of the same look but against different fronts and defences, same play but we were coached up on how to run it versus every look that could be thrown at us.

So basically, they knew where we were going to run the ball most of the time but we did it so well, they had a hard time stopping it. They spent so much of their practice time trying to figure out a way to stop it that when we ran another play off the same look it usually was for a good gain. We had two other running plays we ran off the off -tackle play, a counter, and a pitch. We also ran play-action off the same play with a tight end out and a slot back delay backside.

Simple but very effective!

Cheers!

Football The Big Set-Up

Did you ever notice while watching a professional football game, particularly when one of the teams has an aggressive defence that likes to blitz allot and pressure the quarterback, that eventually the quarterback while under pressure takes a three step drop and fires a bomb deep that goes about ten feet over the wide receiver's head. We cringe and complain as obviously the receiver had the defensive back beat and a well placed passed would have resulted in a touchdown, however, if you read into it more you'll realize that the play was much more than just an overthrown pass, it was a set -up play.

It was never the quarterbacks intention to complete that pass, it was his intention that after getting blitzed and pressured on every play to get the cornerbacks to back off a bit or pay the price of getting burned deep!
The play created the mindset with the defensive backs to loosen up or be beat!

Now the focus will turn to the stacking and blitzing middle linebackers and the inside pressure that probably has resulted in a sack or several hurried throws by the quarterback. Next, you'll notice that there will be a short series of quick passes placed just behind the stacking or blitzing middle linebackers. After a few of these completions you'll notice that the linebackers are backing off now and dropping into their zones.

The set-up continues. Now with linebackers dropping you'll see the play selection include several runs up the middle for reasonable yardage followed by a couple of quick passes to the wide receivers who run a quick slant pattern versus the defensive backs that have been playing loose, followed by another run play up the middle. With the quick slants the corners have tightened up to defend it, with the quick passes behind the linebackers they have loosened up, and with the inside run plays called they are playing safe, dropping cautiously and then coming up for run support!

The defence is now vulnerable!

The offence by selecting the right plays for the situation have forced the defence to back-off and made them vulnerable, they went from an aggressive attacking and sacking defence to one that is now concerned with being more defensive.

Bring in the play-action. Now with the defence on its heels which results in more time and space for the quarterback, chances are you'll see him now run a play-action pass for the kill. The offence will give them a run look, fake the hand-off to the running back as if the play is going up the middle, the defence bites on the run,and the quarterback will drop back and this time throw a strike right on the money to the wide receiver who clearly has beaten the defensive back.

A far cry from that overthrown pass earlier in the game!



Cheers!

Key Elements to Football Defence

As a youth football coach when you begin to plan and put the dynamics of your defence together you should consider the following: Pressure, Contain, Filter, Force, and Cover.

With these elements in mind and within your defensive system make sure that you have these areas or keys covered and that your players know their assignments within the keys. Let's cover each item: Pressure- it's important that you pressure the offence into hurrying in order to take away their time and space and possibly put them in a position with your pressure that they make mistakes and as a result create turn-overs.

Contain: - its important that within this pressure that you have good contain so that they cannot get outside the pocket or the box and that everything is contained or bracketed inside. Filter- it's important that within the Pressure and Contain that every play is filtered back inside where you have your strength and more help. Force- it's important that within this filtration that you have solid run support and that your players come in force, aggressive to the ball, some coaches refer to this as gang-tackling. Finally, Cover- it's important that within the keys of your football defensive system that you have good downfield coverage.

Regardless of the front or defensive football system that you want to play these elements are the keys and your players should know their assignments within the defence.

Cheers!

Flag Football vs Tackle Football for Youth

On some football forums I've read a lot lately about some parents that struggle with the idea of placing their 8-10 year olds into contact football with the biggest deterrent being, the level of commitment needed as far as practice time is concerned. If you compare practice time between the two there is a noticeable difference as in flag football you practice twice a week as opposed to contact football where you practice 5 times a week and play once.

I think that all in all at this age you can't really go wrong in which ever way you decide to go with your youth player. As long as they participate in football that is the main goal at this point. As they grow older they'll basically inform you of what they would like to try and do athletically. Participation is the key for this age group.

The reason the extra practise is longer in contact football is that fundamentally you need to practice more skills such as blocking and tackling ,for example. Your youth football player needs to practice these core fundamentals so that they can safely play the game. They learn how to hit and how to take a hit, head position, neck position and so on. A good youth football coach will have good drills that emphasize all of these factors and never would compromise the safety of a youth football player. These contact drills would be a slow progression until the coach is confident that the player can tackle safely.

The best thing to do if you're considering tackle football for your kid is to go and watch a youth football practice and observe the drills that are done for tackling. The drills should be a slow progression and are control drills not done at full speed. Players should be of equal size and ability and the emphasis by the football coach should be on technique and not speed at this point.


Cheers!