Jim Zorn needs Jeeves Help

[wlu_lax6]

So my son decided this was the year he was going to sign up for team sports and asked me to be a coach. Sure. I am in. So did he sign up for Lax...nope. Did he sign up for Soccer...nope. Hoops....nope. Nope my son signed up for Flag Football. Great...I was all set to be the assistant coach...until last night..when the head coach stepped down during the draft because his boss quiet work and he is now responsible for travel.

My experience in organized football is 2 seasons of the Microsoft Intramural Flag league. I have never played or practiced in an organized league. In short, if not for googling a bit last night (and ads for receive gloves), I would not know the proper technique for catching a football, which hand is supposed to be on top for a handoff, or how to teach anything.

So anyone got some thoughts for a novice coaching 5 v.5, no blocking, everyone is eligible receiver, 2nd/3rd grade flag football?

Practice plan, Drills, plays (My son wants to run the statue of liberty every down....he is not calling plays).
Thoughts on putting in a zone or man-2-man defense?

Over-Under on wins for my team?

[wlu_lax6]

Also Do I go with
Visor (old ball coach)

Straw Hat (I have good #22 Nascar one)

Fedora (Mine was $0.50 from JC Penny a few years back)

[Ryan]

Set The Tone™

[Gunpowder]

I would just play man.


Can you do 1 on 1 WR v. DB drills?

[A_B]

At that age I think a zone is a bad idea. One kid with some speed will beat you single handedly.

[wlu_lax6]

I think I can run whatever drills we want. I figured at that age we will be a run heavy offense (but there is a rule that within 5 yards of the end zone and 5 yards of midfield you must pass to avoid smash mouth flag football--a first down is past midfield).

As for Man v. Zone--I just wonder if we play a soft keep them underneath zone and focus on flag pulling, we just have the 5 kids cover "lanes" and then pursue, it may be safer than having one kid lose his/her man. I mean if the other team completes a 7 yard or above pass multiple times a game, we deserve to lose. My theory is our pass defense probably will benefit from lots of drops and bad throws.

[The Sybian]

Audibles. Lots and lots of audibles. Empower the QB to call them under center, after he reads the D.

[A_B]

OMAHA

[The Sybian]

I'd consult Jim Mora for post game press conference mentoring, and end every post-game talk needs to end with "now lets go eat a goddamned snack."

[howard]

1) Flag-pulling technique.

2) Pitch the ball on offense. Think rugby.

[Gunpowder]

Your planned zone defense for 5 year olds is more complex than Seattle's NFL defense. Just sayin'

[wlu_lax6]

I was all excited to start printing these out, but apparently I am allowed in the huddle and can physically put kids in their spots

[Giff]

Make sure you binge watch this before your first practice:

[Rams Fanny]

Don't forget to give the speech about the importance of staying out of Casinos and strip clubs

[tennbengal]

Also, remind them to not hit their girlfriends where tape is running.

[Rush2112]

[bfj]

...Lots and lots of...he...D.

[The Sybian]

...Lots and lots of...he...D.

Is this a CYO league?

[Joe K]

Your planned zone defense for 5 year olds is more complex than Seattle's NFL defense. Just sayin'

Yeah, I agree that you should play man. I've played a fair amount of flag football (usually in 6-on-6 leagues) and it's hard enough to play an effective zone with adults, let alone 8 year olds. Also, a big advantage of zone is having safeties back that can take away the deep pass, but I can't imagine there are too many 8 year olds who can complete long passes. On offense, I always liked end-around/reverse type plays for running plays, so that the player running the ball can get a running start before taking the handoff. Or you can just do a short pass to whoever your fastest player is, and hope that the other team isn't very good at pulling flags.

[wlu_lax6]

My assistant coach wants to implement the Jet Motion offense. Did not tell him I have no clue what that is. Google leads me to believe that his heavy on sweeps. Probably a good bet for this age. Make a bet that the fastest kid can outrun everyone and the defense can't grab flags well.

[The Sybian]

First game coaching 8v8 soccer tomorrow. I coached 5v5 last year for 1st and 2nd graders. It was pretty simple. Told 2 kids to stay back, told the other 3 to play forward, and the forwards tended to follow the ball back anyways. Coaches were on the field to help direct the kids. This year is 3rd and 4th grade, plus a handful of 5th grade girls. Coaches off the field. Last year there were 3 of us, this year I am on my lonesome. Not sure how I am going to be able to keep 8 kids in position, especially since we don't get a practice, and I am meeting most of the kids for the first time tomorrow. The guys running the league never sent out rules, so I'm not sure if we are adding goalies to the mix this year. I'm thinking if there are goalies, starting out with a 2-3-2 formation. This league is the least competitive of 3 options. It is PAL, then we have rec which plays other towns, and travel is a regional team made up of several towns. I'm expecting most of the good kids aren't playing PAL this age group, as we went from 10 teams to 4.

[mister d]

I will be the pleasant looking man with the beard heckling your strategies.

[rass]

You're coaching a team that doesn't include your kid? That's nice of you Syb.

Oldest is on the town travel team (U9 girls). They play BH (the Blue Diamonds?) next weekend.

[The Sybian]

You're coaching a team that doesn't include your kid? That's nice of you Syb.

Oldest is on the town travel team (U9 girls). They play BH (the Blue Diamonds?) next weekend.

If that wasn't clear, 3rd and 4th grade boys and girls, 5th grade girls. My son is in 3rd grade, but I didn't draft him, so he is on another team. You can't be sentimental when it comes to drafting.

[rass]

You're coaching a team that doesn't include your kid? That's nice of you Syb.

Oldest is on the town travel team (U9 girls). They play BH (the Blue Diamonds?) next weekend.

If that wasn't clear, 3rd and 4th grade boys and girls, 5th grade girls. My son is in 3rd grade, but I didn't draft him, so he is on another team. You can't be sentimental when it comes to drafting.

You're coaching a team that doesn't include your kid? That's not nice of you Syb.

[Gunpowder]

My assistant coach wants to implement the Jet Motion offense. Did not tell him I have no clue what that is. Google leads me to believe that his heavy on sweeps. Probably a good bet for this age. Make a bet that the fastest kid can outrun everyone and the defense can't grab flags well.

Jet motion/sweeps just refer to the WR coming in motion into the backfield before the snap. You see a lot of NFL teams doing it these days.

[EdRomero]

You're coaching a team that doesn't include your kid? That's nice of you Syb.

Oldest is on the town travel team (U9 girls). They play BH (the Blue Diamonds?) next weekend.

If that wasn't clear, 3rd and 4th grade boys and girls, 5th grade girls. My son is in 3rd grade, but I didn't draft him, so he is on another team. You can't be sentimental when it comes to drafting.

Just like Belichick.

[The Sybian]

You're coaching a team that doesn't include your kid? That's not nice of you Syb.

Just in case anyone missed the sarcasm, I was forced to have my son on my team. My strategy of drafting the kids with Italian and Hispanic names failed miserably. I thought my 4th grade selection of En.z.o Cap.a. ra.so was guaranteed to win me the league. Kid shows up, he is close to 6 feet tall, gotta be a minimum of 190. I had to give him my assistant coach's shirt, as he didn't fit into any of the player sizes. My two Hispanic-named kids never showed. Had another kid who is 8, and seriously could pass for 4 years old. When he came over with his mother and older brother, my wife handed the brother a shirt. Her face was priceless when the mother pointed to the player. He is smaller than my 5 yo daughter. So I had to position him next to the giant to amuse myself. My wife noticed and thought it was funny.

Anywho, the giant was the most timid and fearful guy on the field. He looked like an abused dog cowering when the ball came near. At one point, he was the last defender. Ball in the box, 18 inches to his side. The nearest opposing player nearly 15 feet away. Giant looked down at the stationary ball, looked up at the other player, looked down at the ball again, and slowly turned around to watch the other kid dribble on goal and beat the goalie. So painful.

[rass]

I did misread you the first time. If just for practical purposes (having to attend twice as many practices and games) I assumed you were kidding the second time.

[HaulCitgo]

I could go for some basic youth soccer drills. Need 2-3 fundamentals I can run every practice and then something more cumulative that helps them anticipate and move into space instead of chasing the ball.

[The Sybian]

I could go for some basic youth soccer drills. Need 2-3 fundamentals I can run every practice and then something more cumulative that helps them anticipate and move into space instead of chasing the ball.

Make a square with cones. 3 kids on corners, pass to each other, sliding to open cones to always be next to kid with ball. Can have kid in middle move towards person with the ball, blocking passing lane to one player. Teaches moving to provide a pass, and seeing which pass to choose.

[rass]

I could go for some basic youth soccer drills. Need 2-3 fundamentals I can run every practice and then something more cumulative that helps them anticipate and move into space instead of chasing the ball.

Make a square with cones. 3 kids on corners, pass to each other, sliding to open cones to always be next to kid with ball. Can have kid in middle move towards person with the ball, blocking passing lane to one player. Teaches moving to provide a pass, and seeing which pass to choose.

I'll echo that one. The kid's coach is a big fan of that one, and the passing on her team is pretty ridiculous for their age.

They beat Westfield 7-2 this morning, and completely called off the dogs in the second half. They barely crossed midfield and put on a passing exhibition that might have been more embarrassing to the other team than the score.

[The Sybian]

I could go for some basic youth soccer drills. Need 2-3 fundamentals I can run every practice and then something more cumulative that helps them anticipate and move into space instead of chasing the ball.

Make a square with cones. 3 kids on corners, pass to each other, sliding to open cones to always be next to kid with ball. Can have kid in middle move towards person with the ball, blocking passing lane to one player. Teaches moving to provide a pass, and seeing which pass to choose.

I'll echo that one. The kid's coach is a big fan of that one, and the passing on her team is pretty ridiculous for their age.

They beat Westfield 7-2 this morning, and completely called off the dogs in the second half. They barely crossed midfield and put on a passing exhibition that might have been more embarrassing to the other team than the score.

Held a practice yesterday, and this drill ran extremely smoothly in a surprisingly short time. The kids got it immediately. I doubt it will translate to a game, where there are 8 players bunched around the ball, smashing it into each others legs. The other good thing I learned about the drill is I can use it to train the kids not to switch off. They all occasionally drifted off and stopped paying attention, so hopefully this can held them pay attention. My goal is to train my defense to move off of the 18 yard line when when the ball moves upfield. Even when I yell at them to move up, they look torn to move off their spot.

[Shirley]

I always started every practice with dribbling through cones. I set up about 8 cones out (spread with four on each side), put a "gate" of two cones at the end, and then 8 more cones coming back. So they'd go out, through the gate in the middle, then come back to finish near where they started.

First time through - both feet and do a pull back through the gate at the end. Second loop - right foot only (stress using inside and outside of foot). Third - left foot only. Fourth time, both feet again and they should be faster.

I love the square drill mentioned above as well. You almost can't spend too much time working on moving without the ball.

For similar results, I like to do 2-on-1 monkey in the middle as well. That one gets them moving and I stress over and over how the kid without the ball has to move to get open.

Any time you can make the drills into mini-competitions (like monkey in the middle or races), they tend to go much better.

[elflaco]

get them moving, get them touching the ball, stay away from lines.

started off our U9 season with a resounding 1-nil win, courtesy off a left-footed shot off the far post by 'lil flaco from the right side of the box. yep, very proud. especially since he does that w either foot while my left foot is useless where a soccer ball is concerned.

Worked with the same kids last season, we were horrendous (grr.... the whole flighting system in nj, there is a rant coming..), so far we played in a tournament last weekend, had a blast although we went 1-3 and thought we were in for tough time yesterday.. yet the game yesterday, much more of 1 player to the ball, several instances of 4-6 passes in a row and our goalies (one each half) actually stopped shots by diving in the proper direction. they actually did (almost) what we practiced.

also, over the summer my men's club hosts twice a week sessions in weehawken (3hrs each night) for kids -- don't know how long your practices are, but its best to be ready to go before the kids arrive ... 3-4 stations set up.. short explanation (30secs) and then lots of movement... i ran several of those sessions.. most of my drills came from here: lots of good drills on this app - free and works well on a tablet or even phone.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ises&hl=en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[A_B]

I liked "Edge of the World" drills. Pair two kids up, one kid starts running towards the end/sideline and one kid kicks it and the other has to stop it from going out of bounds, preferably as close to the line as possible. Works both lead passing and ball control. After each successful stop, they move back a few steps. I always did it to the sidelines , so once they completed it from all the way across, they would switch positions and the runner would be the kicker.

[The Sybian]

My situation is a bit different, as I have the kids aren't all that interested in soccer. Half the team has never played before. A couple of these kids are decent athletes, so hopefully they will learn and improve. One kid is phenomenal. He is very fast and able to dribble through the opposing team. He just doesn't have much help, and he looks to pass. I don't want to tell him not to pass, but he probably shouldn't on most chances. I'm working on getting the kids to pass with the instep instead of their toe and trapping with the instep rather than trying to step on the ball. As a kid, we used to do a drill where everyone would dribble in a fairly tight space and you had to try to kick everyone else's ball out of the square while protecting yours. I want to try this, but I don't think most of the kids can deal with this. I am also trying to keep the good kid learning while practicing with the rest of my scrubs. I'm just trying to make sure he uses his left foot much more.

[wlu_lax6]

Time for my checking on this thread

Things I have learned as flag football coach this year going into the last game of the season (first win this past Saturday)

1.) Orange Uniforms continue to bring me bad luck in rec sports (this goes way back to my early years of sports)
2.) Knowing lots about football is a disadvantage at this level. My Asst. Coach is trying way to hard and putting in way too complicated stuff. Long passes, fancy routes....simple plays with funny names are the way to go.
3.) Man to Man is for suckers. Soft Wide zone (we run a 5 man flat zone at 7 yards off the ball covering lanes from sideline to sideline). Only risk is we don't get a good flag grab as any pass over 7 yards is a roll of the dice.
4.) Short passes are the only ones you should throw. Pick plays, crosses, and quick passes to receivers not running routes are huge.
5.) Misdirection runs are key (reverse, fake reverse, option pass/run are the difference makers).
6.) My team executes the Statue of Liberty to near perfection (if the rules did not prohibit it we would fumblerooski).
7.) My son may have a career as a long snapper.
8.) One of the 2 kids who is actually capable of throwing a spiral (and the better one at that) has no interest in being the QB.
9.) First pick in the rec draft is a curse because you also end up with the last pick (which is the kid who stops in the game to pick those rubber pieces from the turf).
10.) Most kids have no clue if they are winning or losing during the game (Even when we don't score).
11.) Flag football is such a better sport than low quality youth soccer at this age. Especially if you judge your coaching success on the number of kids who are actively involved in the game (i.e. get a run, pass, or play the key organizing roll on your defense).
12.) I should teach a class on how to put in 14 individual plays and a new defense to 10 2nd graders in a 60 minute practice.