Last night, I gave my little dudes the night off so that I could watch my son's team play. This game was one I wanted to see because I've coached players on both teams in multiple sports. I basically pulled for the offenses.
It was a well-played game for the most part. However, the one thing I didn't like was that I saw so many errant snaps from center from the other team. Some were moonballs, some hit the ground. It definitely wasn't consistent. When I talked to a few parents from both teams, they said that every team (rec ball and travel) has this problem and I "needed to chill out".
Obviously, I disagree with this assessment, as I work my three 8U centers pretty hard to ensure a good snap. It's paid off as we've had very problems with the snap this year.
So, I'll ask you guys: Is anyone else seeing a pattern of bad snaps or am I just the grumpy old dude that says, "In my day..."
Fight 'em until Hell freezes over, then fight 'em on the ice -- Dutch Meyer
We feast on bad snaps. All the teams in our league put the snaps on the ground a lot except for two teams, us and the other undefeated team who we play next. Kinda funny how the teams who take care of the ball seem to win more games.
We have had a few hiccups snapping to our blocking back on wedge plays. My center does a good job but sometimes he gets a little too excited to block or get in the wedge and sends the snap back too hard but it is a problem that I have worked through many times over the years and is not a big problem so far. He is getting better and we are working to get the back up ready too.
We see the dribbles and the moonballs nearly every game. Which is why we're UC.
If I were to move up to the 5th -6th grade level, I'd probably do at least some shotgun, depending on the C & QB we had. But for our level, I just don't see the risk / rewards, favoring the shotgun snap. Esp. since we lose the deception we get with the ball disappearing when the QB turns his back to the D.
That said, our back-up qb comes back next season and he has a good arm, but really slow feet. Our G's plow him over several times every practice as they try to trap / pull. If he ends up our qb we may have to go shotgun.
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
Bad snaps at the youth level (both from Gun and UC) have been common since I first started coaching the game. It was something that I recognized that if we didn't allow to happen with us, that we could have a definite advantage come game time. That turned out to be true, and we had a definite, immediate advantage because of it.
I was watching several youth games this weekend...one moon-shot after another, for both teams. If you took out the occasional "big play" (which was the only way that either team could score), each team had negative total yardage for the day, I'm sure. The penalties, followed by the bad snaps, followed by even more penalties (almost all were pre-snap), brought a new level to horrid football.
--Dave
"The Greater the Teacher, the More Powerful the Player."
The Mission Statement: "I want to show any young man that he is far tougher than he thinks, that he can accomplish more than what he dreamed and that his work ethic will take him wherever he wants to go."
#BattleReady newhope
Few youth teams work on their snaps enough, so yeah. I say if you can't make it a high enough percentage pass with your snapper distracted by opposition, go under center (conventional or sidesaddle), or at least shorten the ball's flight. You have no business starting plays with a low percentage pass.
With the 7th graders I'm coaching this year, our center turned out to be a natural who didn't need a lot of practice. With 8Us, I doubt any should be snapping the ball farther than Dave Cisar has them.
I reffed 4 varsity games this seasons and even with the "good" teams there's bad snaps from gun. I would say my rough estimate is 80% snaps are good across the 8 teams. Every team has at least 2 snaps in the dirt/turf or through the uprights (yes that happened lol).
I can explain it to you, I can't understand if for you.
I reffed 4 varsity games this seasons and even with the "good" teams there's bad snaps from gun. I would say my rough estimate is 80% snaps are good across the 8 teams. Every team has at least 2 snaps in the dirt/turf or through the uprights (yes that happened lol).
See, this is what I mean. Why do coaches accept such a high percentage of failure? Seems to me the problem is spending too much time with the snapper doing general line work instead of having a station of his own practicing just snaps for the same length of time. Plus have a backup or two rotating between snap and regular line practice. And the snapping station needs to include defense pressure. Coaches seen to assume the snap is routine, even when their experience shows it is not.
Coaches seen to assume the snap is routine, even when their experience shows it is not.
It's been that way from the dawn of man. We stay away from all that shooting-yourself-in-the-foot stuff because it's easily the most controllable.
--Dave
"The Greater the Teacher, the More Powerful the Player."
The Mission Statement: "I want to show any young man that he is far tougher than he thinks, that he can accomplish more than what he dreamed and that his work ethic will take him wherever he wants to go."
#BattleReady newhope
Why do coaches accept such a high percentage of failure?
Because you are talking about coaching a F U N D A M E N T A L. When was the last time you were at a practice and saw a fundamental being coached as a fundamental? Especially at a youth practice? What I see is directions being given on plays. Or watching to see what happens(?) when they line up two players to crash into each other.
--Dave
"The Greater the Teacher, the More Powerful the Player."
The Mission Statement: "I want to show any young man that he is far tougher than he thinks, that he can accomplish more than what he dreamed and that his work ethic will take him wherever he wants to go."
#BattleReady newhope
Why do coaches accept such a high percentage of failure?
Because you are talking about coaching a F U N D A M E N T A L. When was the last time you were at a practice and saw a fundamental being coached as a fundamental? Especially at a youth practice? What I see is directions being given on plays. Or watching to see what happens(?) when they line up two players to crash into each other.
I see quite a bit of teaching of basic skills. Some of it isn't done as systematically as would be optimal, but I don't see only the scenes you describe.
It's just that some of the basic skills don't get the coaching proportionate to their role in the game. Snapping is one of them. Receiving or covering a kickoff -- play of the entire "kick" or "receive" team -- is another. Producing fumbles and recovering them. Learning the triangle to pin an opposing ballcarrier to the sideline. Playing off blocks.
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