Defending Our Game

If you haven’t been camping out under a rock for the last few months, you know our game is under attack. The game we love and devote so much time to in order that our sons and players can gain the life lessons most of us learned from the game, is being viciously assaulted on many fronts. Some are calling for an out right ban on youth football due to the concussion issue or not allowing kids to play until age 13. One of the major problems in today’s society is that perception is reality and that perception is shaped by those who are yelling the loudest and the most often.

In all fairness, there are football people who did offer up some kindling to get this firestorm started. The NFL and it’s “Bountygate” scandal didn’t do the game any favors.  While the youth game isn’t the NFL, many soccer moms think that youth football is a microcosm of the NFL and what happens in little Johnny’s league is just a mini version of what happens in the NFL. We also had some youth coaches who didn’t understand how to teach safe blocking and tackling or how to recognize concussions. While those coaches are rare today, their legacy lives on. And like it or not, soccer moms make a lot of decisions on whether little Johnny is allowed to play youth football or not.

As most of you are well aware, Bountygate is the least of our worries. The concussion issue is what is dominating the airwaves these days. Concussion diagnosis and prevention has been a point of emphasis for the last 2-3 years. More fuel to that fire was added when Hall of Fame player Junior Seau died of an apparent suicide last week. Speculation was that his depression and subsequent suicide was caused by concussion issues. The Seau suicide was a tragedy, by all accounts Junior was a solid citizen. However there is no evidence that concussions played a role in his death or even that suicide rates are higher among NFL players than the general population. It should be noted that Samoans have one of, if not the highest suicide rate in the world and the US has a very high suicide rate compared to other developed nations.

Another interesting scientifically verified statistic is that former NFL players live much longer than the general population. Did you have any idea that was a verified truth? Many would have you believe that all these former NFL players break down and die prematurely in their 50’s. Well that isn’t the case at all, they are OUTLIVING the general population. A study was commissioned by the players union to study this very topic.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh), began it’s data collection in 1990 and released its findings in January, 2012. They studied 3,439 players who were in the N.F.L. for five seasons or more. They found a lower death rate among former N.F.L. players than among men in the general population — the institute had expected to find that 625 members of the group it studied would be dead based on estimates from the general population, but instead found that 334 of the retired players had died. Yes, those alive were almost DOUBLE the number compared to the general population. These numbers are amazing considering the number of 300 lb plus players and African-American players who are in the NFL, since these groups typically have much higher early mortality rates than the general population. So the next time someone spouts off that National Enquirer like “stat” that NFL players are all dying prematurely in their 50’s, please set them straight with the facts.

When it comes to youth football, again it’s an entirely different game. We don’t have 300 lb players who can run 4.8 40 yard dashes and who can bench press 225 lbs 35 times. Statistics say that 70% of youth players won’t play High School football, let alone be part of the 2-3% that go on to play College Football or be one of the 1 in 20,000- 30,000 to go on to play in the NFL. The NFL is the cream of the cream of the cream of the crop, genetic freaks who have honed their bodies into athletic machines capable of inflicting significant hits to one another. But the NFL players abilities have very little correlation to what the average 10 year old can do with his body and in turn to other players.

In fact the Mayo Clinic did a study of 913 youth football players on 42 different teams age 9-13. Back in 1997 they found that “most injuries that occurred were mild and that youth football injuries were uncommon.” According to Mayo Clinic spokesman Michael J. Stuart M.D the findings showed that “the risk of injury in youth football does not appear greater than the risk associated with other recreational or competitive sports.” Most of the injuries were mild and the most common type was a contusion, which occurred in 33 players. Four injuries (fractures involving the ankle growth plate) were such that they prevented players from No player required hospitalization or surgery. Again scientific fact flies in the face of those who would want you to believe that you are somehow an irresponsible Neanderthal parent if you want your son to play youth football.

Most of us coach youth football because the game did something for us and we want to pass that same thing onto others. We want kids to experience being part of a team, teamwork, perseverance, selflessness, goal setting, commitment, hard work, making friends, being coachable, delayed gratification, humility, grace, overcoming obstacles, competition, having fun and much more. There are people out there who for whatever reason either don’t understand what youth football is about, had a bad experience from a “bad apple” program or coach or simply oppose kids learning and embracing some of those traditional character traits listed above. Don’t let the haters and naysayers dominate the “debate.” Know the facts and Share the data so people can make legitimate and honest decisions about their child’s involvement in youth football. An additional footnote, I’ve coached youth football for over 25 years and not a single one of my players have ever been diagnosed with a concussion from anything they did on the football field.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

Most of the coaching tips on this blog have to do with technique, scheme, practice methods and motivating youth football players. Sometimes it may make sense to take a step back and look at the big picture and examine why we coach and what type of impact we MAY have with the kids we coach.

Last week I saw a front page article in the sports section of the Omaha World Herald. It was about a DI basketball player who I had coached that was having some success. His name is Kang, he is a Sudanese immigrant who has an interesting story. His family fled Southern Sudan, when Kang was just young child during the height of the brutal civil war there.

Kang and I met for the first time when I was handing out fliers for baseball at the local YMCA. He was a very tall and shy kid who seemed out of place. While a lot of the kids came over to me and picked up fliers, Kang kept to himself. I walked over to him in the gym, smiled and asked him if he wanted to play baseball. He looked confused and a little afraid and said, no. I asked him if he knew what baseball was, in a very thick accent, he said no. I explained to him that it was a game, a game with a ball and a bat and that all that mattered was it didn’t cost anything, he would have fun and he would be part of a team of young men that would eventually become his friends. All he had to do was show up the next day at 6:00 at the field across from the housing project he lived in and he was good to go.

The next day, to my surprise Kang was there, one of the very first kids to show up. He wore tan colored jeans, a t-shirt and dress style shoes. Most of the other boys had baseball caps on, gloves in hand and were dressed in baseball pants or sweat pants, all of them wore cleats or tennis shoes. When we divided the players up for teams, Kang went with the 11 year olds, even though he was nearly 6 foot tall and weighed about 140 lbs. I thought he had misunderstood what we had asked him, but when I talked to him about it, he insisted he was 11 years old, even though he had no clue when his birthdate was? You could tell he was apprehensive about this whole thing, his body language and facial expressions said he felt out of place and was a little embarrassed about his situation. I handed him an old glove I keep in my bag for just these type of situations and off we went.

As you might have guessed he had a pretty miserable first practice. Kang was a righty and he really struggled with the glove on the left hand thing. Wearing dress style leather shoes he was also slipping and sliding all over the grass field, the infield was muddy and we didn’t use it that day. He threw like a girl and his batting swing, well it was without question the most awkward thing I’ve ever seen. Thank goodness he was being coached well, all the players start at “atomic level” basics. That means lots of drills with no balls, no gloves and no bats. Lots of bucket drills and step by step throwing and hitting progressions. By the end of practice he seemed to enjoy hitting the ball off the tee and he really got into our little bag relay race game with competing teams.

It was obvious Kang felt extremely out of place and was way behind everyone. This was partly due to the fact he had never played baseball before and the other was he just hadn’t grown into his body yet, he was very uncoordinated. I made sure to praise his effort in front of the team before we dismissed and then took him aside. We talked about how much fun he was going to have, that he would get better, that he would make friends and that we were very excited and fortunate to have him on our team. I measured his foot and let him know I would have a pair of used cleats ready for him WHEN he came to practice the next day. I also promised him that if he came to every practice in the next 2 weeks I would get a glove for him that he could keep. I promptly went down to the local thrift store and spent $10-$15 and got him a set of cleats and glove. I bought some new laces, washed the shoes in the washing machine and oiled the glove up.

Kang showed up to practice the next day, I met him with a big smile and said I was glad to see him. He was very excited about his “new” shoes and I let him use the glove. He had to let me take the glove back at the end of practice; it wouldn’t be his to take home for another 12 days. We did the team buddy thing and I assigned him to a very mature and compassionate veteran player, they bonded well.

That year was the wettest spring on record and the field we were using was a disaster. No one had pulled a permit on the field for over 3 years, it was in an area that was too dangerous, glass, cans, rocks and all types of debris in the grass and infield. Even if we had good weather the field wasn’t dragged until mid May and we couldn’t drag it ourselves because the city had the gate locked and wouldn’t give us a key. To that end, we went into our very first game without every have taking infield or simulating a game.
Prior to us getting 15 runned in that first game, Kang came up to bat. After taking ball 1, taking strike 1 and swinging at strike 2, he was hit by a pitch. Not knowing the game, he ran to the dugout and sat on the bench, he thought he was out. What a game baseball would become if all you had to do to get someone out was hit them with the ball, interesting concept. Our first base coach quickly ran to the dugout and took Kang with him to first base, there were giggles all around but Kang didn’t seem to mind as long as he wasn’t out, he was all smiles.

Kang never matured into much of a baseball player but he came to every practice. Maybe that’s a good thing as he had no birth certificate. The league was very understanding and let it slide after watching him play in that first game. Not only did he come to his practices, he came to every practice of our 2 other teams. He just liked “being around.” He was almost always waiting at the field when I arrived, first to show up and last to leave.

When our youth football season came around, he wasn’t much better. He was physically strong, but had the “gentle giant” complex, he didn’t want to hurt anyone and he still struggled a bit with the language barrier. The football league was more difficult to work with when it came to birth certificates. Thank goodness the church that sponsored his family were able to put something together to satisfy the rules people. He made a few friends and just like in baseball, he became a coaches favorite. We were all rooting for him probably more than he was rooting for himself. His parents never attended any games.

Basketball is where he really shined. We were blessed with a very strong basketball coach who only asked Kang to do one thing on offense and one thing on defense that first year. Coach worked tirelessly with him on basic fundamentals and built off of those base skills and confidence Kang gained in his first year of play. Kang went on to have a stellar career in basketball. As a High School senior he was 6’8” tall and led the state in blocked shots. He got multiple DI offers and ended up going out of state to play. He was the first in his family to attend college and will graduate in May of 2013.

Did we have anything to do with his success? We won’t ever know, but I do know I’m glad I went out of my way to get him to come out for baseball and encouraged him stick it out. You never know how much a smile, encouraging word or some extra effort may affect the path of a young man.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

How does the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal affect youth football? Probably a lot more than you might think. No matter where you come down on your opinion of the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal and the suspension of defensive coordinator Greg Williams, we all have to acknowledge and understand how this action affects the youth football game.

What happens at the upper levels of the game impacts the lower levels. Many parents are not savvy when it comes to the game of football. Many parents think what they see on television on Saturdays and Sundays are microcosms for what happens at all levels of the game. Even though parents can see that one game is played by super freak athletes in large stadiums and junior is playing in a minimum play league with 50 people in attendance, to them football is football. If you don’t think that’s the case, then why do you hear about the need to run pro based schemes? Why do so many parents think their kids will be playing on Saturdays and Sundays when their kids aren’t in the same universe talent wise and never will be when compared to the College and NFL guys? Many parents and football moms are clueless.

When the game of football is tarnished at one level it affects all levels, including us. Many parents don’t have the time or the ability to discern the differences in the levels of the game and think what happens at one level, probably happens at another. In today’s internet and social media age, any youth football problem in Timbucktoo, Vermont is front “page” national news within hours. While 99% of youth coaches are doing the right thing most of the time, those 1% outlaws are the ones getting all the headlines. That 1% is what many of the public see and moms and dads are basing their opinion on what the game of youth football is all about on the actions of those 1 percenters.

This isn’t the fall of 1970, where the only choice for most boys was youth football. Today there is soccer, fall baseball, BMX, skateboarding, martial arts, select basketball, video games, the internet, doing nothing and many other choices.  These are all competitors to youth football that for the most part didn’t exist 40 years ago. If the PERCEPTION is that football isn’t  a reasonably safe activity for Junior to be playing there are lots of other choices for mom and dad these days.

Football seems to be getting all the bad press, much of it well deserved and some of it probably due to the fact there is a subset of people that would love to see our beloved game go away. These people view the game of football as an archaic simple minded misogynist American tradition beneath the level of what enlightened educated worldly civilized people should participate in and they would like nothing more than deny everyone else the right to play. These football haters would prefer that young boys be attending ballet class or playing co-ed soccer at the YMCA where every game ends in a tie and both teams join hands after every game, sing KUMBYA, discuss current events and their their feelings and drink juice boxes together.

Has it really come to that? It’s getting there and look for the hate football crowd to use the bounty scandal and the concussion issue to further their cause. What can we do? If we don’t police ourselves, someone else will do it for us. Is it good to tell your players to play physical football? Absolutely. Is it ever acceptable to tell your players to injure another player or “take him out” ? Never, it’s reprehensible. Youth football players don’t understand figures of speech, they will almost always take you literally. So don’t talk in that way and quite frankly in spite of what many youth coaches think, those spittle raining get in your face, play physical “pep talks” go in one ear and out the other for most youth players today. Personally I haven’t used that approach in a pregame speech in over 16 years. Today’s player wants you to keep it real and they see right past cheap theatrics, you lose face with them when you resort to these type of shortcuts.

Go the extra mile, if you see a coach on your staff or in your organization acting in an inappropriate way that damages the game, do something about it. Respectfully talk to him, reason with him and if he’s way out of line and won’t change his ways, help get him moved on to something else. The game should be bigger than any one person. Let’s protect the game for our kids and future generations of kids who need it now more than ever before.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

Becoming an Elite Team

Youth football coaches can learn a lot from teams and programs that dominate other sports. This years State Basketball Tournament in Nebraska offered a few prime lessons for me and I’m not even a basketball fan. Omaha Central won the state championship in the states largest class for the 7th time in 8 years. They have over 2,000 students. Ravenna High school is in one of the smallest classes with just over 150 students and won the state title in C-2, their 4th title in the last 8 years.

Central had not had much recent success in basketball until coach Eric Behrens took the reins 11 years ago. Since then they’ve been on a roll appearing in 10 state tournaments and winning 7 of them. This year ESPN ranked them as their 37th best team in the country, while Max Preps had them at 22nd. Central finished this season at 30-0, the first team in the states largest class ever to go undefeated. Why have they done so well for so long? In addition to being known for great fundamentals, coach Behrens has set the bar very high and scheduled the very best out state teams from Kansas, Iowa and Missouri to play non-league games. This isn’t something he’s done lately, it’s something he’s always done, going back to his early days of coaching AAU basketball and crossing the nation to find and compete with the nations best. In 2013 he has Oak Hill Academy on the schedule, the number one ranked high school powerhouse from Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. Most Oak Hill teams have 11-12 DI players on the roster and have been a perennial national power for decades.

Ravenna is a tiny high school of just 150 students in rural Central Nebraska. Coach Paul Beranek has built a powerhouse over the last 20 years by setting high goals and competing against the best teams in the region. His teams have won 4 of the last 8 state championships. I’ve seen his youth teams playing and competing in regional and national tournaments with just 6 or 7 players. Yes, he starts his kids playing against the best, even at age 9-10. Back in 2003 they gave one of my programs select teams a real scare, taking us to overtime after we had built a 20 point halftime lead. At that tournament he asked me if we would be willing to travel out to their place and play a football game after our fall season ended. That was back when I was coaching in Omaha, not in the rural area I’m at now near Lincoln. I took an 11-0 team that was pretty good sized and athletic against his very average team and they hung with us, we only beat them by 2 touchdowns.

At the high school level Coach Beranek always schedules to play in non-conference tournaments against teams that have anywhere from 1,000 to 2,200 students. Back in 2006 they nearly knocked off the defending largest class team in the state, Bellevue West. West at that time had over 2,000 students, more than 10 times the population of Ravenna High School. Playing better competition has definitely paid off for them.

Who cares if you lose? If the goal is to max out the potential of your team, why not play the best teams you can find? It’s difficult to get better beating teams by 30 or more points every week. Playing better competition exposes your weaknesses and if you’re playing against a well coached team, what greatness looks like. Back in 2003 my age 9-10 team was very good, but we were rolling the competition. But unlike the previous year we weren’t going to get overconfident or complacent and lose in the title game. Why? Because we played 2 extra non- conference games against 11-12 year old teams, one of which was a league champion. We won our league championship game- in a 31 team age bracket 46-12 and ended up 11-0 and won a state title. In 2005 my age 9-10 team of non-select players won a 29 team age grouping winning the title game 30-12. We kept sharp by scheduling and beating 2 very good select teams which chose from over 120 players. It wasn’t an easy decision to make and sometimes it’s not the most popular decision to make. But if you want your team to be great, scrimmage and play against great teams. Once your kids get into those scraps and see that they can compete, even in slivers of time, it gives them confidence.

If you want to make your program an elite program, set the bar high and schedule the very best teams you can play. We’ve been doing that since 2003 and it’s worked extremely well. We schedule teams from other conferences and other states, finding the very best teams available. When your kids see they can compete against the very best, playing the regular run of the mill youth team is a walk in the park.

You may be thinking, hey I can’t even win my division, how can I schedule the very best in my state or region and think my kids can compete? Coach Behrens and Beranek were in the very same boat as you. They didn’t start winning their division or league until they started thinking bigger, setting bigger goals and playing better competition.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

Offensive Line DVD, Defensive DVD, Book

In an effort to help the coaches using our DVDs to be more effective coaches, we’ve added text addendums chocked full of diagrams, pictures and detailed explanations of how and why we do what we do. This also has allowed us to add some of the new things we do without having to reshoot the entire DVD.

For the Developing a Smothering Defense DVD, this is a 170 page e-book that you get immediately upon purchase as a download. There is no extra charge for the e-book. It contains every individual position development drill, group drill and team drill we use on defense. Every tackling drill, pursuit drill, ball hawking drill and scheme implementation and development drill we do is included. It also includes more detail on our Monster, Zebra, Squeeze and Mirror adjustments to the base scheme as well as echo, Eskimo, stack, EAT and snake stunts. We also go into game planning, adjustments and scouting as well. It also includes a daily very detailed defensive day practice plan for an entire 14 week season. Most coaches use the addendum to print out individual drills, group drills, team drills, schemes and stunts to use in practice. Gone is the need to sit in front of the television and make copious notes and illegible drawings.

The Developing a Dominant Offensive Line DVD also includes an addendum now. It is about 85 pages and like the Defensive DVD is in e-book format that is instantly downloaded just a few minutes after you order the DVD. The e-book details every offensive line drill, group drill and team drill we use. It includes some new adjustments and techniques we use to develop young linemen into a cohesive team along with some great methods used to get kids excited about playing the most undercoached an unappreciated positions in youth football, the offensive line. It also includes daily practice plans for the offensive line as well as every blocking scheme and implementation tricks we use.

The Winning Youth Football Step-by-Step Plan e-book download has also been updated. Every year we make small maintenance changes to the book, this year it was more of an engine rebuild. If your book is more than 2-3 years old and is dog eared and beaten up, think about getting a new one and passing the old one on to another coach who needs one.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

Top of the Route Drills For Youth Football

One of the great things about doing coaching clinics are the people you meet. At the Glazier Mega Clinic in San Francisco last month the driver picked me up at the airport and then went to pick up another coach. This coach was outgoing and talkative and was very interested in the youth game. He wanted to give me some ideas to use, I was all ears. For the first time in my life I was thankful we got stuck in traffic so that I could get a 90 minute one on one tutoring session from Jeff Reinbold. Jeff was the receivers coach for June Jones at Hawaii and SMU as well as coaching stints in the NFL and CFL. He had also coached youth and High School football to boot, so I was all ears.

After we reviewed some of the basics, he talked about perfecting catch mechanics at the top of the route. Instead of running the entire route, just run the last 4-7 yards of the route and practice your catch mechanics and after catch moves. Practice those throws that are behind or low like we see all the time in youth football. It allows you to get a lot more reps in a small amount of time. It also allows you to keep your receivers fresh and focused instead of running them to death. Many receivers coaches simply don’t get much indy practice time and you have to make the most out of it. This was also an approach Raymond Barry used to help him become one of the greatest receivers of all time and one we have been using the last 3 years with very strong results.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

What Are You Working on Right Now to Make Your Youth Football Team Better?

Have you taken the time to look back on last years season to see where you need to make improvements? You know how the saying goes about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If you have, it may make sense to get some input from a trusted and knowledgeable assistant coach or yes even a competitor. Over time many good youth football coaches are willing to help others and yes that even means competitors. While some youth coaches can be petty, my best adversaries over the years have always been well balanced guys who were more than willing to offer opinions when asked. If you don’t have either, put your film on Hudl and beg a strong coach to take a look at it.

What needs to change in order for you to meet your mission with the inputs and dynamic you are in? I know some coaches that are changing their entire defensive scheme, the one they’ve used for years simply because it wouldn’t accommodate the lack of talent they had, square peg in round hole with horrendous results. Thankfully that’s not us, this year I’m integrating more football speed development and body control development into our practice schedule. We are getting very creative about it, making sure to combine at least 2 football skill or scheme type movements with 1 football speed or body control development movement. We don’t want to waste any practice time and are going to kill 2-3 birds with 1 stone with most of our movements this year. We are also developing a more detailed plan of integrating players into our team culture through a football-pre school for new players using some new methods learned from coaches in other sports. We are also tightening up our Defensive Tackle play, looking at better block destruction and play methods.

To make these changes I’ve bought 8 DVDs and 2 books and attended about a dozen sessions at coaches clinics. If you aren’t attending coaching clinics, you are really missing out. While not every session is going to be a winner, there are usually at least 1-2 things you can take from each session to apply to your team. Stick around after the sessions and ask questions or exchange e-mail addresses. I’ve done 3 coaches clinics so far this year and plan on attending several more. Not only do you get to hear some pretty good speakers when you go, but you meet and talk with other youth coaches in your same shoes, you never know who you might run into.

Last week at the San Francisco Glazier clinic, the speaker service picked me up at the airport. They stopped to pick up another speaker at a different airline. He was the Receivers Coach for June Jones at Hawaii and SMU. He had been taught the run and shoot by Mouse Davis. Coach was very interested in youth football and had actually coached it. He insisted on helping me improve my receiver play. We got stuck in traffic for about 90 minutes. It just goes to show you, you never know where you might be able to find that next nugget to help your kids play better next year.

Here are some of the clinics I’m speaking at this year:http://winningyouthfootball.com/footballclinics.php

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

How do you avoid meltdowns when you are coaching youth football?

First of all, you have to prepare for possible meltdown situations, they can and do happen, not only in youth football, but at all levels of the game. Last year in the Capital One Bowl we saw a prime example of a classic meltdown in the Nebraska- South Carolina game. The Cornhuskers scored first to take a 6-0 lead to then have their PAT run back to make it a 6-2 game instead of 7-0, a 4 point swing. Nebraska totally dominated the first half in yards, time of possession and most importantly physicality. They held South Carolinas offense to a single score. NU was leading 13-9 with just 1 second remaining in the half, with the Gamecocks on their own 49 yard line. South Carolina scored a touchdown on the last play of the half on a Hail Mary bomb. You could see the look of defeat in those Nebraska kids eyes as they had their heads bowed down and slowly trotted to the locker room for halftime. Nebraska never recovered from that, getting shut out in the second half in a 30-13 loss. I saw 2 games this year at the Pop Warner National Championships in Orlando where a team that scored right before the half and was still trailing, won the game.

A nearly identical thing happened to one of my youth football teams a few years ago. We were riding a 30 plus game winning streak into a game against another undefeated team. We led 12-0 and had another touchdown called back. We also had a long run to the opponent’s 10 yard line called back on a penalty. On defense we had limited the other team to just 2 first downs. But just before the half they broke a long run to our 30 yard line and with just 2 seconds left in the half, they threw a Hail Mary pass that by some odd miracle dropped right in-between 2 of our defenders who had great coverage. So instead of leading 20-0 or 27-0 at the half, the score was now 12-8. As our kids came off the field, for the halftime break they looked like they had just lost the game.

As coaches we were disappointed we had missed our window to salt the game away, While the coaching staff was still upbeat, our kids were acting like we were losing the game. What did we do wrong and how do we make sure it doesn’t happen again?

The mistake we had made was in the week prior to the game we had built up to the kids how well we were going to play. Everyone in the league was uptight about playing this opponent. They had shut everyone out they had played to that point and were putting up some great numbers on offense. They were very athletic across the boar and well coached. I felt we matched up reasonably well and if we executed to near potential, we would win by 2-3 scores. Many times I’ve seen us play good teams like that, get up a couple of touchdowns early and have the game develop into a rout. In an attempt to bolster our teams confidence to get them to believe they were on par with this behemoth team, I let our kids know that I thought they would win and win big if we practiced and executed well that week. We went on to lose that game 20-12 after giving up a quick score and onside kick in the second half.

What I SHOULD have been telling our kids in the week leading up to the game was while I thought we would match up well, that the game was probably going to come down to the fourth quarter and that we should expect an up and down game. I should have told them, we were playing a very good team and that while I thought we were better, they should expect a wild play to go against them at some point in the game. How we picked ourselves up and responded would determine the game.

You could see “that look” and bad body language from our kids as they slowly trotted to our assigned area during halftime. The coaching staff agreed to be very upbeat at halftime. We smiled and talked about how we had dominated the first half with the exception of the last 90 seconds and went into detail about all the things we were doing well. As usual we talked about a handful of adjustments we would use in the second half and then we made a critical error. We talked about the 2 missed scoring opportunities we had and what “could have been” had we avoided those penalties. By looking back and ending halftime by looking over our “spilled milk” we didn’t put the past behind us to quickly move on- we dwelt on it. That was a huge mistake.

If you want to cause a meltdown at halftime, dwell on those 1-2 plays that put your team into a funk. Want to set your team up for a meltdown- set their expectations in such a way they can never be met. Be realistic, set reasonable expectations, be positive and don’t dwell on a few mistakes that are water under the bridge. Nothing you can do is going to bring that play back or take points off the board, all you can do once a mistake is made is to calmly point out how not to make that mistake again and move on.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

Letting the Other Team Score- Not Just for NFL Coaches

Yes, you heard that correctly, letting the other team score on purpose to try and win a game. It not only happens in the Super Bowl, it happens when you are coaching youth football too. If you watched the Super Bowl this year between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, you saw a situation where letting the other team score on purpose, made complete sense, we aren’t talking about some kind of “mercy” score, we are talking about letting someone score to win the game. New York had the ball with a first down and goal from the 8 yard line and with just 59 seconds left in the game and the score 17-15 in favor of the Patriots. The game wasn’t in doubt, the Pats had just one timeout. So all’s the Giants needed to do was to run 3 plays, run the clock down to 1 second, call timeout, kick the field goal on the last play of the game and go home with the Lombardi Trophy. The Giants field-goal kicker had been perfect for the season on extra point kicks and field goals inside the 30.

But if you watched the game, that isn’t how it played out, Patriots coach Bill Belichick had other ideas. He told his defense to let the Giants score on purpose, so his offense could get the ball back with about 56 seconds left to play and with a timeout in their back pocket. Belichick isn’t someone that likes to put the destiny of a game into the hands of his opponent. While the Patriots would have to score a touchdown to win the game, with Tom Brady at Quarterback, Welker at receiver and one of the top offenses in the NFL, they certainly have a very real chance to score a touchdown and win the game. It was a brilliant move that gave the Pats a punchers chance to pull out the game, instead of helplessly letting the game unfold to a last second field goal for the Giants. Even with 3 dropped passes and a sack on that Patriots final drive, the game came down to a final play, that just missed connecting in the end zone, what a finish. The Giants would have been better off just taking a knee 3 times and kicking the field goal on the last play of the game. That would have been much safer than giving Tom Brady 56 seconds and timeout to score a touchdown and win the game.

How does this apply to youth football?
I’ve seen a very similar circumstance with a friends team in Florida. They were losing 21-20 with just over 1 minute to play. The opposing team had the ball on my friends 10 yard line and they had a first down. My friends team had 1 timeout left. The opponent had a very strong team, but they weren’t very good at PAT kicks, which were worth 2 points. In fact, they were so bad at kicking, they didn’t even bother attempting a kick the entire game. My friends team had been hitting almost 60% of their kicks and were pretty confident in their kicker.
So these were his options:
Try for a strip and hope to cover it and go 90 yards with the ball. Or go for the strip and hope to cover 90 yards in less than 1 minute on offense.
Try and hold the other team out of the endzone on 4 attempts, with the slight possibility of getting the ball back inside their own 10 with just a few seconds left. My friends offense would have to cover about 95 yards in less than 10 seconds- 1 play more or less.
Let the other team score on purpose. Expect that they will go for the 1 point PAT, get it and be up by 28-20. Receive the kickoff and get field position on their own 40 or better. Now only needing to go 60 yards in the final 60 seconds, score a touchdown and make the PAT kick to tie the game up and send it into overtime.

Well as you may have guessed, my friend let the other team score on first down. As he expected, they ran the ball in for the 1 point PAT to take a 28-20 lead. Fearing a long kick return the opponent kicked short and my friends team got the ball to start off at their own 45 yard line. They went on to score a touchdown to make it 28-26 with just 6 seconds left to play. They then made the PAT kick to bring the score to 28-28 and taking the game into overtime. Momentum was on my friends side as the opponent fumbled the ball on the first play of overtime and my friends team went on to score on their second offensive snap.

Thinking outside the box isn’t just for the NFL guys. When coaching youth football, especially with some of the special rules many of us have, it makes sense as well. Keep this scenario in the back of your mind, you never know when you might need it.

Copyright 2012 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. This article may be republished but only if this paragraph and link are included. http://winningyouthfootball.com

2011 Coach of the Year
Dan Schlager- Jupiter Mustangs, Jupiter Florida
Midgets- age 12-14
Treasure Coast Pop Warner League Champions
Southeast Pop Warner Region Champions
Pop Warner National Champions

2011 Worst to First Coach of the Year
Cleveland Spruill- Redskins, Woodridge, Virginia
Age 11-12
League Champions Dale City Youth Football
From 0-8 to League Champions in One Season

2011 Gold Standard Coach of the Year Award Winners- First Cut-More Being Posted Soon

Tony Holland, Hampstead Ravens Youth Football, Hampstead, Maryland
Rich Lawrence, Lions Youth Football, Tacoma Washington
Richard Staklinski, Manalapan, Braves, Manalapan, New Jersey- AYF National Champions
Jeff Wagner, Laurel Lions, Laurel, Montana
Larry Cain, Redskins, Dale City, Virginia
Michael Wright, Elmore Packers, Elmore, TN
Ted Danecki, Kadena Tigers, Okinawa, Japan
Adan Echeverria, Melrose Park Gaels, Chicago, Illinois
Jeff Mauk, Loveland Titans, Loveland, Colorado
Jeff Miret, Port St Lucie Pirates, Port St Lucie, Florida- Pop Warner National Champions
Chris Szekeres, Cranford Cougars, Cranford, New Jersey
Brandon Greenwodd, Syracuse Storm, Syracuse, New York
Jackie Hale, South Point C, Southpoint. Ohio
Lawrence Smith, Chilliwack Giants, Chilliwack B.C. Canada
Eric Butterfield, Cowboys, Lake, Ohio
Jim Sansone, Bulldogs, New Haven, Connecticut
Mark Rice, Glencoe Trevians, Glencoe, Illinois

All Award winners names will be posted on the Coaching Awards Page of the web site.