Some of you know that I gave up my school team when my wife had a cancer scare three years ago. Then in 2021, I offensive coordinated for a 12U travel team with a head coach that really wasn't a good fit for me. Then, last year, I didn't really knock on any coaching doors and sat out my first season after an 18 season coaching run. A few weeks ago, my best friend George (37 years coaching youth sports) told me he was asked to coach this 3rd-5th grade 8-man team in the Patrick County elementary school league. He said he would only coach if I coached with him and let him be the assistant. I would be lying if I said I didn't have the itch to get back out there as much as ever, so I agreed.
I still want to win as bad as ever, but my time off, old age and life in general has changed my outlook a little. In the past, I took winning and losing way too personally. Now I am going to coach as hard as ever and then let my kids play football and not sweat what happens. I believe we will steamroll this league but it don't matter as long as the kids learn something from and fall in love with the game.
We only had 2 weeks before the first game, and because of practice field scheduling are only getting 5 practices in those 2 weeks. I don't know what the rest of the teams look like, but we share our practice field with another team in our age and those guys are in trouble and don't know it yet. I know the coach and offered to help but he didn't think he needed it. Every time I look over at his team, the whole team is sitting on their butts while the coach is talking or they are running out trying to catch passes from the coaches.
My guys are busy the whole practice. I am trying to push, push, push to get as much practicing in as possible because the games are starting next weekend. We are drilling who's ball, knockout, board drill, gauntlet, Cisar's rapid fire play reps and CoachDPs tackling progression every practice and never have enough time. We have been preaching hit to knock the ball lose and our purpose on defense is to take our ball away from the other team any way possible. My guys are showing real aggression after our three practices. No one will mistake us for a CoachDP team, but in this league, we are going to be the bullies.
Will let you know how things go after our first game on Sept. 30.
Coach Nathan
I still want to win as bad as ever, but my time off, old age and life in general has changed my outlook a little. In the past, I took winning and losing way too personally. Now I am going to coach as hard as ever and then let my kids play football and not sweat what happens.
Mahonz and I had that exact conversation about a week ago. Perspective change (for the better) over time. Glad to see you back at it. Those are some lucky kids. Hoping all is well with the Mrs. I believe it was good news the last time I checked.
I have a coaching buddy who I believed poached some recruits from me. I took it really personally and really let my dark side run with it. Last week, that guy had a major coaching disruption. He had 4 guys who were really doing him dirty. He fired them on my advice as well as a few other guys. This is his second year and did not have the experience to nip it in the bud. On the way out, they went scorched earth. They had a parent meeting in the parking lot while my guy was running practice. Then, they deleted all footage and playbooks from the HUDL account.
I felt about 2 inches tall once I heard about all that. I sincerely and deeply apologized to him for being so petty and renewed my offer to help him any way I can. Perspective. This incident also helped me realize how good I have it. Got beat 56-0 (at least) last week. We had a team fund raiser at a local eatery immediately after. I sat in a corner with my players, well away from the parents and just shot the sh*t with them for 2 hours. Reminded me of where my focus needs to be.
Game plan? I got your game plan. We gonna run the bawl some. We gonna throw the bawl some. We gonna play some defense. We gonna run some special teams, but we better not run kick return but one time and we sure as heck better not punt.
we share our practice field with another team in our age and those guys are in trouble and don't know it yet. I know the coach and offered to help but he didn't think he needed it.
SMDH. lol
A guy gets the opportunity to get free advice from you and doesn't take it? He deserves every pitfall he runs into.
--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
In last night's practice, I had divided my guys into groups by size for tackling circuit. My two biggest players go against each other in an angle tackling drill that I have ran hundreds of times. Runner was wrong arming the ball in his left arm. Tackler makes a very aggressive hard tackle with very good form, especially for a big ole striper. Tackler's helmet hits runners left elbow and chipped a bone in runner's elbow. One of my best players out for season now. I really hate that the kid got hurt. If I could take the injury from him, I would. The tackle was good from my vantage point and I told the tackler it was. This part of football that happens sometimes is the part I hate more than anything. Never want a kid to get hurt but still have to throw the next man in and get ready for the game Saturday.
@coachdp They do deserve it!
I've been around this for 18 seasons, now. I am on our league board and am also the "coach's coordinator." Yet, whenever I try to make suggestions, give advice, hold conclaves or training sessions, or otherwise try to share painfully-earned wisdom with new coaches, I am almost always dismissed by them, usually in a condescending tone. It seems that 95% of football coaches already know everything there is to know and take offense when anyone attempts even the slightest effort to help them.
So now I just post my "free advice" for them in August, if for no reason other than to say: "Don't come whining to me. You were forewarned."
The longer I coach, the lesser I know.
I am almost always dismissed by them
--Yep.
usually in a condescending tone
--Yep.
It seems that 95% of football coaches already know everything there is to know
--Yep.
and take offense when anyone attempts even the slightest effort to help them.
--Yep. Been there for all that.
--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
Scrimmaged the team that practices beside us last night. We tore em up pretty bad.
Ran 15 plays each. In the first 10 plays with all starters, scored long TDs on a power, a counter and a pass to the backside end. No turnovers and moved the ball well except for penetration through the gap left by the puller got us on 3 plays. Will work on filling that hole and have a no pull adjustment for our game tomorrow. Backups didn't do so well but that's why they are backups. No turnovers.
On defense, we gave up one play for positive yards. Their RB trucked a couple of my guys and dragged a couple more for 7 yards. Nothing else got out of the back field. We covered 3 fumbles. Kudos to my 8 man version of the Calande 46 Guts.
Sure it would have been a mercy rule by halftime if it was a game. Told my guys they played great and was proud of them. Told them tomorrow's game will be tougher. I expect it to be tougher but I have no clue what we will be up against.
Will let you know what happens tomorrow.
Coach Nathan
Good luck, Coach.
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
Game 1
We won 14-13. The other team was tough and well conditioned and horrible at the fundamentals and rules of football. They were almost as inept at NFHS rules as the referees.
We had a preseason coaches meeting with the league director and all coaches present agreed to play by NFHS rules except for weight limits on ball carriers. Obviously, no one informed the refs. They were calling the stupid homemade rules that was agreed on the prior season (fumbled ball called dead, defense had to back up more than a yard off the line, no one over center....). 100% cost me a TD at the end of the first half.
After my starter got gassed and banged up, I had to bring in a back up QB who was not ready for prime time. I tried to talk him down off the ledge, but he fumbled the snap 3 straight times and the refs blew the ball dead instead of letting him pick the ball up and run with it. I was livid. Called time out and walked off the field to the athletic director and asked him if he was going to let this fly. He said to calm down and get through the half. He straightened the refs out at halftime about picking up lose fumbles but didn't address the other stupid ref rules. Worked with my 2nd QB at half time and we didn't drop another snap the rest of the game.
My DE crashed in and got burned on a boot leg for a long TD in the first half. We scored on our first drive before the dead ball on all fumbles fiasco. Halftime score was 7-7.
Got my starter QB back in the 2nd half after he threw up a gallon of water on the side line at half time. Decide to slow things down because, honestly, the other guys were much better conditioned than we were. Burned 10 minutes of clocked time on a classic Nathanesque TD drive to open the 2nd half and take 14-7 lead with a little under 4 minutes to go. I'm no Nick Saban but I can milk a clock with any of you 😉
The other team got one first down to about mid field. Then we stuffed them on the next 3 downs. On 4th down, my DE got hooked. Their running back got outside. My whole defense over pursued, and their guy made a great cutback, broke a couple tackles and took it to the house (cutback responsibility is on my long list of things to work on this week in practice). It was a great run. Wish I had a guy who could run like that. They ran their bootleg for the extra point try. No one was fooled this time. 3 of my guys gang tackled their QB for no gain. We took a knee with 39 seconds left and won 14-13.
We averaged 11 yards per play on offense with no turnovers and the only negative plays were the ones the ref blew dead. Going to add in a few blocking adjustments to account for these crazy defensive alignments we are seeing. All the teams I saw are packing 4 or 5 defensive linemen inside the tackles and have most of their other players a mile off the ball. Makes Sweep, Sweep, Counter for the TD too easy. I think it will be much easier for us to stay home stop all the other teams I formation bootleg than those other teams to see our single wing counter before it hits.
I am very very happy to get out of this one with a win. It could have went either way but I feel like it would have been a little more lop sided if the coaches, league and refs had of got on the same page before the game started but it is what it is. Next week we play a big slow team that got beat 28-7 by the team we beat in scrimmage last week. Hopefully we can fix our containment issues and get a little better next time.
One other thing I noticed in our game and while watching the other teams play: when we change possession, all 5 guys who are on my sideline come on to the field. If they didn't start and play on offense, they start and play on defense. On the other teams, the same 8 guys mostly stay out the whole time. I have 4 runts that I am trying to hide 2 on offense and 2 on defense. I could field a stronger team by letting them watch more and play less but I can't do that. I am going to coach them and play them to do their job the same as everyone else. I might feel a little different about playing time by playoff time, but by playoff time, my runts will be football players.
In the youth game, a touchdown without the extra point is practically meaningless.
--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
If they didn't start and play on offense, they start and play on defense. ...
I am going to coach them and play them to do their job the same as everyone else
This our league rule - that all start and play the whole game one side or the other. It can be challenging, I know what you mean by 'hiding' kids. I've been challenged on why we teach shoulder blocking instead of grabbing the breastplate. I reply, "Biology, Physics and Bio-Mechanics" no one asks any further, I think they are afraid I will tell them what all that means.
Since we draft, I have 10th, 11th, and 12th rd picks - kids who are generally medicated, or on the spectrum, or both.
We put our 10th rd'er - 80 lb - medicated kid on the OLine. Why? Because the 11th and 12th rd kids are on defense and my DC will quit if he has to have all the really weak kids. So, the bad guys - who also saw that kid in combine and chose not to draft him - plop their 130 lb, 3rd rd talent across from my 80 lb, 10th rd talent. If I tell my kid to use his pipe-cleaner arms to grab that more athletic kid who out-weighs him by 50 lbs, .... well, we're not going to win that war. So, Biology, Physics and Bio Mechanics to give him a chance.
Among the things I appreciate on this site is the wealth of knowledge and ideas you guys have, sometimes confirming what I'm doing, often exposing me to new stuff, or things I know little about. Your generosity with your knowledge and experience is humbling. The primary beneficiaries are those kids we have to hide and are trying to coach up.
On behalf of my 10th rd OT, thanx
Umm.... why does that 6 ft tall 9 yr old have a goatee...?
We don't have any playing time rule. It's just my policy. If a kid shows up to practices and wants to play football, I am going to play him, especially in a recreation league like I am coaching in now.
We don't have any playing time rule. It's just my policy. If a kid shows up to practices and wants to play football, I am going to play him, especially in a recreation league like I am coaching in now.
When I coached youth ball, we had an MPR count; 6, 8 or 10 plays per player, depending on roster size. I was glad to have the rule, because that meant more kids got coached up. Unlike middle school ball, which has no MPR rule so kids that weren't getting coached up, were never getting into the game. I still sat kids for missing practice (1 practice/1 quarter, 2 practices/1 half, 3 practices/the game), and 6 absences got you removed. There was no "excused/unexcused" absence. You already knew the allotment. Since I explained all that at the parent meeting and why I'd laid it out that way, no one ever challenged me on it. Kids who were considered "MPRs" usually got well more than the "minimum" due to the Slaughter Rule (mandatory replacement of the starters), or that they themselves often were all starters against lesser opponents, or they were blended with starters against mid-level competition.
At high school, we just used the same approach that we used at practice, "If you want in, then get in." That was my favorite way of doing things and that worked really well for us.
--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
With inexperienced players the main reason I'd rather teach shoulder blocking is that it forces their pad level down from what they might play using hands. A player taught hands blocking (only) for firing off the line with may well think an instruction to not stand up is pointless, when they can put their hands on the right place from an erect position as well as or better than they could from a crouch. This year with our team that's heavy on beginners (against competition that's more experienced) and where HC Tim coached (and had us coach) only hands blocking, we have trouble on both sides of the line maintaining low posture, and it shows in their performance.
It has other biomechanical advantages too, but they're slight compared to this one big factor.
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