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ForSkins
August-9th-2009, 10:53 PM
OK, just found out I'll be coaching my son's first/second grade flag football team this season. I've got NO coaching experience...

So where do I start? anyone have drills? practice breakdowns? plays?

Here's the format.

I appreciate ANY help or pointing me to ANY resources online...

...where's my whistle.?

The Team:
The team will consist of approximately 12 – 13 players. Offense will always have one more player than the defense. There will be 7 offensive players playing against 6 defensive players. For that reason, the quarterback will not be an eligible receiver since he is not being guarded.

Defensive Guidelines:
A defensive player will either be a linebacker or a defensive back.

Linebackers will be positioned three (3) yards off of the line of scrimmage. Defensive backs will be five (5) yards of the LOS.

No defensive player may enter the three (3) yard area off of the LOS. This is a free zone for the offense. The defensive player may not enter this area until the offensive player has either touched or caught the ball. No interceptions can be made in this three (3) yard zone.

A defensive player cannot go forward until a pass has been attempted (ball in the air) or a handoff has been attempted. The will be no zone coverage. All defenses must be man to man coverage. Double teaming a offensive player is allowed, however, you must realize one of the offensive players will be running “free” at that time.

Interceptions may be returned for touchdowns. Fumbles are dead at the spot when they touch the ground. If a handoff is fumbled up into the air, it may be returned for a touchdown. Under no circumstances is there to be any downfield blocking to help aid a defensive player returning a ball.

Offensive Guidelines:
The offensive makeup is: 1 Quarterback, 1 Running back, 3 Ends, and 2 Receivers. The Ends and Receivers must be on the LOS and only one of them may go in motion if you so desire.

One running play is allowed, but not required, every four downs. A running play will require either a handoff or a lateral (pitch).

A pass must be forward. It is considered forward if it moves forward from the quarterback’s position. It is considered a forward pass if the quarterback throws the ball forward and the receiver is still behind the LOS. All passes must be overhand. No underhand or shuffle passes are allowed.

No downfield blocking is allowed to aid the offensive player. No picks, stiff arming, or jumping over a tackler is allowed. Absolutely no running over (bulling over) a defensive player (this is a 10 yard penalty and loss of down). All other infractions, the ball becomes dead at the point of penalty.

The ball is put into play by the head official handing or tossing the ball to the quarterback. The quarterback has five (5) seconds to handoff of throw the ball. If the ball is still in the hands of the quarterback after five (5) seconds, the play ends and is considered a run.

General Guidelines:
Quarters will be 12 minute continuous clock.

Punts are dead ball plays. The center will snap (or toss) the ball to the punter. The punter will take their time and kick the ball. The ball is down as soon as the receiving team gains possession of the ball. Any forward bats of the ball will bring the ball back to the first point of contact. There are no fake punts since it is a dead ball play.

There are no kickoffs. The ball will be put into play on the 35 yard line.

Touchdowns are 6 points. A passing PAT is worth 2 points while a running PAT is worth only 1 point. Running for a PAT does not count as a normal running play.

A violation of said rules is considered illegal procedure and a five (5) yard penalty.

No coaching or instructing players after the play has started. The on-field coach must be five (5) yards behind the deepest player.

It is not mandatory, but recommended, to have preset plays. This speeds up the game as well as gives more opportunities for additional plays.

RammsteinSkins
August-9th-2009, 11:05 PM
Focus tons on discipline, rules, and sportsmanship.

SonOfWashington
August-9th-2009, 11:18 PM
Scoring more points than your opponent is key in winning games.

LLandryistheshiz
August-9th-2009, 11:23 PM
Scoring more points than your opponent is key in winning games.

Truth. And never forget, 90% of the game, is half mental.

Bubble Screen
August-9th-2009, 11:30 PM
OK, just found out I'll be coaching my son's first/second grade flag football team this season. I've got NO coaching experience...

So where do I start? anyone have drills? practice breakdowns? plays?


I would run the Bubble Screen. :)

ForSkins
August-10th-2009, 09:37 AM
Thanks guys...I was looking for something a little more "tangible" but your enthusiasm is great!

hockeysc23
August-10th-2009, 09:48 AM
Wow that is a ton of rules for that age group in my opinion.

I would focus on keeping it simple. A couple plays that they can learn very simple routes and have 1 good running play to go to incase they have trouble getting ready.

The simpler the better, understanding the game, making sure everyone gets a spot at every position would be more important at this age group then winning every game.

pointyfootball
August-10th-2009, 09:56 AM
Thanks guys...I was looking for something a little more "tangible" but your enthusiasm is great!

ForSkins:

I've coached FF for a few seasons, although we've done NFL Flag Football, which I'm a big fan of. It's 5v5, no kicking, field is 50yards long + 10 yard endzones. Blitzer has to be 7 yards back and straight in front of ball. QB can't run.

I'm not familiar with your type of flag football, and to be honest, it's going to be tough for the QB if he has 6 receivers running routes. Even Peyton Manning can't keep track of that many.

In my experience, flag football is all about getting the ball into a player's hands who is going full speed, hopefully in the opposite direction the defense is going. For that reason, we (10-12 y/o's) did a lot of end-arounds, center drags, flare-outs, etc. I think for 7-8 y/o's running will be your staple, which is going to suck for you considering you are only allowed to run the ball 1 out of every 4 downs. They will most likely struggle to throw any kind of pass accurately longer than 3-5 yards.

FF is won, IMO, by the team that is the best flag pullers. My team this past spring was phenomenal in every area, except pulling flags. If it would have been tackle, we would have destroyed the league. We would have a RB pinned behind the line of scrimmage and dive in for the pull, coming up empty. Practice flag pulling EVERY practice, if only for 10minutes.

Here is a good website that has some good flag football discussion, and some good plays.
http://www.y-coach.com/forums/index.php?showforum=24

No matter what, make it fun. Kids want to play flag football to be able to catch/run/throw the ball. Don't rely on only one or two players to do all the work, even if it means you lose games. If kids didn't want to touch the football at that age, they'd play tackle.

Good luck, and enjoy.

PF

Die Hard
August-10th-2009, 10:19 AM
Wow that is a ton of rules for that age group in my opinion.

Agreed. I coach 8-11 year old tackle football... and we'd have a hard time following those rules :)

With all due respect... as a first year coach (and I was one 4 years ago in over my head) you're going to get killed unless you perform due diligence and learn from the best programs in your league (ie. drills, offensive/defensive schemes, etc).

Kids that are 10-11 year olds can be very athletic and capable in the right hands (ie. coaching). And good coaches will have a good system with proper progressions.

Why do I say that?

Because you're going to need a VERY tight "system" down... if you can only have 1 run play per 4 plays.... with NO OFFENSIVE BLOCKING... and the QB has 5 seconds to make a throw (or the play is called dead). Damn, that's going to be rough unless you know what you're doing.

So instead of trying to re-invent the wheel... visit some practices of the better programs in your league.... and copy-cat. Coaching is all about copying the best of whatever anyone else does. At leas until you're confident to start changing things yourself.

Good luck. And remember, don't be so hard on yourself. There's a learning curve for coaching too. We learn.. just like the players do.

TMK9973
August-10th-2009, 10:38 AM
Hey - I coached FF for 5 seasons, 3 leagues. 1 league was similar to yours. How old are they?

gots lots of drills that can help, and have plays that you can run. It's really not hard for the QB, he should have 1, maybe 2 receivers he is looking for. The rest are decoys.

Reverses, half back options, etc.... can make the game really fun!

Also - Drills - besides running plays, don't miss defense. BEST D drill I ever ran (and did every day at practice) was you make a square with cones, everyone is in the square with a flag. Everyone is trying to pull everyone's flag. If it comes off you go out of the square until you put it back on.

After a little bit of that, you then make the rule that once they their flag pulled they are out.
This drill DOES cause lots of players to bump into each other, and the 1st few times you do it, it is messy and unorginzed. But we were the BEST Flag pullers in the league. Kids were not scared to bump into each other and grab the flag.

TMK9973
August-10th-2009, 10:45 AM
read the rules again. Get a claification - Can you hand off to a half back and have him pass? And if so, does that count as a run?

90% of our plays was a half back option. RB's split in the back field, you have your best player being the Right RB, QB hands it off to him and both RB sweep left.
The Right RB eaither follows the left RB for a run, or pulls up and stops and passes to someone (Keep in mind, keep options limited. Before the play, you tell him he is eaither going to Run, or pass to THIS person. Change up who the person is). Also, if you want to have fun, you have the Right WR take a step backwards, the Right RB get the ball, moves left, stops, and throws it back to his right. If it's completed, there will be no one in front of him.

Zguy28
August-10th-2009, 11:10 AM
Wow. Those rules suck.

I coach Flag Football in the Spring, but its NFL Flag Rules. Google NFL flag football. You can adjust the playbook to meet your rules I think. And it walks you through play calling and pass routes etc.

ForSkins
August-11th-2009, 05:04 PM
Thanks. The google search of NFL Flag helped a lot.

RammsteinSkins
August-11th-2009, 08:10 PM
Trick plays!

CounterTrey75
August-11th-2009, 10:46 PM
Trick plays!

I agree, I've been coaching for 3 years now and the mis-direction/trick plays are the most fruitful. I ran a ton of reverses, double reverses and half back options with great success.

Also definitely work on flag pulling. The box drill, as TMK mentioned, is an excellent excersise.

Zguy28
August-12th-2009, 08:57 AM
Thanks. The google search of NFL Flag helped a lot.Yeah, my kid had played flag in other leagues with home town rules and it sucked. When we started a new league this year and went NFL 5-on-5 it was way more fun. NFL rules really encourage and favor passing and virtually eliminate the power run or sweep.

pointyfootball
August-12th-2009, 10:01 AM
Yeah, my kid had played flag in other leagues with home town rules and it sucked. When we started a new league this year and went NFL 5-on-5 it was way more fun. NFL rules really encourage and favor passing and virtually eliminate the power run or sweep.

We play NFLFlag and I like it as well, as long as rosters are capped at 8-9 players. On just about every play we have an end-around. QB can fake handoff, end can take handoff and run or pass. Misdirection, at full-speed is huge.

S.T.real,lights,out
August-12th-2009, 10:08 AM
Truth. And never forget, 90% of the game, is half mental.


:laugh:

Classic!!!