Posted by: @terrypjohnson

Sadly, my league -- and the GRPA for that matter -- has rules against doing some of these things. For example, you can't do a direct snap to any other than the quarterback. That means no FB Wedge (which you couldn't do anyway because it's an A Gap run), no side-saddle T, and no Single Wing where the halfback is on the left leg of the center and quarterback on the right leg. I'm surprised that I didn't get a flag for the guard reverse that I ran. Perhaps there's a good reason for this rule, but I never figured out what that might be.

If a league's going to adopt restrictions like that, I'd rather see them put the ball in play by the American 7s rule.  There's no snap, just a player in the backfield with the ball who can declare play live when he wants to.  Everybody can see who has the ball to start the play, and because there's no snapper there's nothing special about A gap, so you can eliminate rules about either side's rushing the A gap.

Posted by: @bob-goodman

Posted by: @terrypjohnson

Sadly, my league -- and the GRPA for that matter -- has rules against doing some of these things. For example, you can't do a direct snap to any other than the quarterback. That means no FB Wedge (which you couldn't do anyway because it's an A Gap run), no side-saddle T, and no Single Wing where the halfback is on the left leg of the center and quarterback on the right leg. I'm surprised that I didn't get a flag for the guard reverse that I ran. Perhaps there's a good reason for this rule, but I never figured out what that might be.

If a league's going to adopt restrictions like that, I'd rather see them put the ball in play by the American 7s rule.  There's no snap, just a player in the backfield with the ball who can declare play live when he wants to.  Everybody can see who has the ball to start the play, and because there's no snapper there's nothing special about A gap, so you can eliminate rules about either side's rushing the A gap.

 

That makes WAY too much sense, Coach Goodman. Therefore, it would never fly 😉

Ahhh...Super Smurfs. 

Yah...Im still hungover and I dont even drink. 

I was the "blocking and tackling" coach for a 8u team this season.  We used the same format as my 12 u, small groups, lots of reps, little breaks between reps. I had them for 1 hour a day, while the second hour was scheme stuff. 

By seasons end the online was moving the defensive front 1 yard on average before the ball hit the Los. The scheme was "block who's infront of you" not ideal but not my focus. Just shows how important your ability block is more valuable then scheme at this age.  Defensively after week 3 no one scored onnus and no one got a first down.  

Take home would be do the same drills all year no variables. Once a variable was introduced the confidence in each player went down and resulted to more poor reps.  Ide argue these kids blocked and tackled better than my 12u.  So I'll use this exact approach with them next season. 

They ran a generic I Formation offense with iso, sweep, and power, with occasional end around and qb keep. Defense was a 6-2 as mandated by the league. 

My first year coaching a tackle team was a 2nd grade team 3 years ago.  I had coached all these players in prior flag seasons, many since the age of 4, but they were all new to tackle.  By "lurking" on this site I was able to gain the knowledge that blocking and tackling skills were way more important than any scheme.  We repped blocking and tackling for several weeks before we installed any offense or defense.  Most of the kids became very aggressive tacklers, and a few of them even learned to block.  We also stressed the "importance" of the ball and had a 4-to-1 turnover ratio.  We went 9-0 and only allowed 2 TDs on the season.

We ran the 10-1 on defense and had multiple kids in the backfield on every play, and stressed contain.  Most offenses didn't stand a chance because they hadn't been taught the fundamentals of blocking and maintaining blocks.  On offense, we ran a shotgun split back set with double TEs and a single WR.  Jet sweep was a big play for us since it got the ball out of the backfield quickly.  We also ran RB sweep and power with the other RB lead blocking, and QB keeps off of each.  Our backs were our best blockers.  We were also able to run "Beast" formation by keeping it simple with only the backs and WR lining up differently. 

Hope this helps,

-Chad