Winning Youth Football

Our Fourth Youth Football Practice of the 2008 Season

This is a continuation of the football practice schedule my three youth football teams are following for the 2008 season as well as comments on the progress of all three teams age 7-9, 10-11 and 12-13.

We gave the kids Friday-Sunday off. While most of our competition is practicing 5 days per week, we feel very confident that using the practice methodology we employ along with the proper pace and priorities, we will be able to compete. We believe that youth football players should be really looking forward to practice and are going to make sure no one gets “burned out”, while preparing the kids for our first game on 8/23. This is the earliest game we have ever played and the least amount of practice time I’ve ever had in coaching youth football for over 15 years.

We got started with the base dynamic warm ups, team fit form tackle and angle form tackling, We are easily getting done with all of this in 10 minutes, the pace is where we want it and everyone is breathing a bit heavy at the end of it. Coaches are getting the hang of the perfection we are looking for and the super fast pace, where each small  group of 6 kids is getting a rep about every 6 seconds.

Today was a defensive day and our second day in pads.

We worked 20 minutes competitive group tacking drills, loser goes to left group, winner to right group, Close quarters tackling drills and for those progressing well, 3 slot challenge tackling drills. For those struggling, back to the form splatter tackling drills.

The competitive group tackling process helped us determine where kids were going to play on defense. We had a real good idea based on last weeks practice, but this helped us on the kids sitting on the fence. Our coaches all have a detailed description of each position and the traits required to play each position.

We divided up into and did the following for 30 minutes:

Linebackers-Open Field tackling and block shedding drills

D-backs- backpedal, 45 degree break on backpedal, Cover Post, Out

D-Linemen- Bull Rush move, Swim Move, Both moves then form tackle fit

Bearcrawlers- Bearcrawler progression per the book, relay, squeeze, squeeze to form tackle fit

D-Ends- Base alignment, base move, versus lead block sweep, versus coaches as scout on sweep, reverse, off-tackle

Team Defense 40 minutes- 3 steps and stop on ball movement, versus double tight full house, versus double tight wing, versus split with slot

Subbing every play- Every player has both an offensive and defensive position

The with coaches running backfield, sweep, boot, reverse, dive, off-tackle, play action

20 minutes Kicker tryouts-Younger team

10 minutes “game time” Deer Hunter, Dummy Relay Races

Older team 20 minutes - Punt and Kickoff teams

Stay tuned for more developments.

 

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing allowed if links are kept intact

http://winningyouthfootball.com

I’ve heard the saying “There are many ways to skin a cat” a few times and I tend to agree with it when in context. True, there are many ways to skin cats, but what do the skins look like when they are finished, are they of equal quality? Did each method require the same resources and input? Were some methods more efficient and more effective than others or are all end results and inputs exactly the same?

There are literally hundreds of cat skinning methods, if you don’t care what the pelt looks like,  here are a few:

The Unlimited Resource method:

This method requires that you have the worlds best cat skinning equipment at your disposal. You need the csz14 skinner, the zbst9 puller, the y92 injector, 4 gallons of the  inc1 chemical and 7 of the best olbg9 knives in the market place. This technique requires you have at least 1 month of work time available, 7 days a week for 8 hours per day to perform the task properly. These are the finest quality tools money can buy. While we realize most, if not all of you will not have these resources or time available, this is a very effective method for skinning cats.

 

The Inept Resource Method

 

This method is popular with skinners that think their resources so inept that they can’t do even simple things like pull skins or even trap the cats to begin with. This method often requires a ton of busy work that doesn’t add much to the end product, like washing the cat over and over and over BEFORE he gets skinned, then leaving a bloody pelt as the end product. This skinners shop looks OK from the outside, it looks like it’s in good heavy use.  This method utilizes lots of pliers and old fashioned knives and cleavers. This process requires you keep your knives very clean and sparkly, but never ever sharpen them. While the goal of cat skinners is to have a clean well cut pelt at the end, this pelt is often ragged, dirty and of very poor quality. This method is often passed down from one generation of cat skinners to the next or even in extremely deprived remote areas, one to another.

The Lion Skinner Method

This is a very cutting edge stuff even beyond the unlimited resource method. This method uses tools and techniques that Lion Skinners use. While very few cat skinners have any success using this method at all, they watch and read about Lion Skinners and think that they can succeed where no other cat skinner has succeeded. The Lion skinners use very advanced techniques that most physically and mentally mature Lion Skinners can execute. While none of the cat skinners have the tools or resources of the Lion Skinner, they try to copy their methods the best they can. Never mind that the cat is 1/20^th the size of the Lion and has much less muscle mass and a totally different pelt make up. Some of those using this method chalk their lack of results up to “preparing their assistants to be lion skinners when they grow up”. Unfortunately many of the assistant cat skinners using this method give up cat skinning altogether because of their lack of success and never end up giving lion skinning a chance when they get older. Oh and by the way when using this method make sure you have plenty of well trained highly experienced Lion Skinners doing the work, if you don’t it fails miserably.

The Average Method:

This method assumes you have the resources at your disposal that most cat skinners have, pliers, knives, wash basins. It doesn’t assume you have the best cat skinning tools available. It doesn’t assume you have weeks of 8 hour days to get the job done. It is a simple process that assumes your cats are like the average cats the author has observed over the last 15 years and assumes the skinner is a teachable person. The average method uses proven techniques that countless skinners have used to produce very high quality pelts in a relatively short period of time. It uses basic techniques, but requires these basic simple techniques be preformed flawlessly and in a specific order. It does however use a few what a handful of skinners would call  “advanced” techniques,  that if the directions are followed are quite simple to execute, even with limited tools and limited time. This method isn’t real flashy and it won’t get the skinner in any cat skinning publications, but it is usually quite effective.

What kind of skinner will you be? What will your pelt look like?

All processes end up with a cat pelt, but what does it look like and at what cost?

There are many ways to skin the youth football coaching cat, but what kinds of resources and time do you have available?  Most fit into the average resources and limited time category. With the right priorities and system/methodology your “pelts” can look better than those using the other methods. There is a “best” or most effective approach for coaching your team, depending on your inputs and constraints. Don’t get caught trying to go the unlimited resources or lion skinner route unless your resources align with the requirements. In laymans terms that’s trying to fit a 1 foot round peg into a 6 inch square hole. It will never work and will be terribly frustrating for all involved.

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing allowed if links are kept intact

http://winningyouthfootball.com

 

Youth Football Coaching Clinics in 2009

Coaches, please help me figure out where I should hold my Coaching Clinics in 2009. I will be doing the Glazier Mega Clinics at several locations as well as a Nike Clinic and the Clinic of Champions in

Reno. I will be doing more public clinics put on by Winning Youth Football in 2009, but I need input on where to do them. I need to set cities and dates now to get the presentation rooms we need and flights booked.I also need to hear from you about Sundays. I usually do these on a Saturday from 9-3. However due to time constraints I may have to do some on Sundays from 12-6 or 11-5. What are your thoughts on the Sunday clinic and times?

I also need input on topics. For those that have been to my clinics, what would you like to see? For those that haven’t been, what do you need?

Here are the clinic topics for 2009:

1) Building Character and a Winning Attitude in Youth Football- A Systematic Program

2) Installing the Single Wing Offense in Youth Football- The “Sainted Six” Series, Wedge Series, Full Spin Series, T Series. Jet Series, Double Dive, Shallow, Smash and Mesh

3) Defense Wins Championships- How to Do it With Average Players

4) Practice Organization- The Perfect Practice: How to Get 100% Perfect Attendance, Run Efficient Fun Practices and 20 Immediate Time Saving Tips

5) Developing a Dominant Offensive Line in Youth Football- Step by Step

6) Acceleration and Explosive “Football” Quickness Development- Using Plyos combined with Football Movements to Develop “Football Speed” In Youth Football

Please e-mail me at coachdave@winningyouthfootball.com or comment here.

Thank you in advance for your input.

Thursday Practice Schedule

This is an abbreviated summary of our Thursday football practice. We gave the kids Wednesday off and then had our first padded football practice on Thursday. As usual we had the expected equipment issues, making sure everyone had everything on correctly, snaps snapped, hooks holed, belts tightened etc. You can’t assume youth football players know how to put their equipment on correctly.

Fortunately it was about 90 degrees, off of the recent highs of the high 90s. We now have our dynamic warm up and angle form fit tackling down to 10 minutes. We added a team form fit tackle as part of the dynamic warmup. Our warmups are always done without helmets on including the angle form fit tackle. During the dynamic warm up we always have just 2 lines facing each other. We started the team form fit tackle starting with our players toe to toe, face to face. We want our tacklers to make contact when their toes are at the ballcarriers toes, to make sure we are not overextended and keeping the head up. Each coach of course has their 5 kids and we are requiring perfection on the fit, contact point, head placement, knee bend etc. the player is not allowed to come off the fit until the coach taps him on the head. We then back everyone off at 5 yards and do the same at a walk, then a jog. With so many first year players this extra form work was needed.

We then got our helmets on and worked competitive fumble recovery drills for everyone. We introduced our partner system during the first break and assigned partners per the book and went through the first day question/quiz. As a team we then did the 3 competitive group, close quarters tackling drills. The age 7-9 kids did splatter/mat tackling drills during this time period. Then we got into 3 slot challenge tackling for the kids that progressed successfully out of the close quarters as the younger kids progressed to the close quarters.

We split backs and line and worked the line on first and second step freezes, then we went to that freeze on the bags, then added a progression where they drive blocked the dummy. We also reviewed our base blocking rule (helmets off) and set up dads across from the offensive line and quizzed them on the rule and their progression. They did very well with that one. We worked on the wedge progression the last 20 minutes and the kids did real well with it, got all the way through it, which doesn’t happen very often.

The backs worked ball security and the pass catching progression as well as splatter mat blocking drills. During break we again reviewed the base defense and positions. The backs put in 4 of the “Sainted Six” plays in at age 10-11 and 12-13. The age 7-9 kids got one play in. We did this in skeleton format with dads holding blocking shields at the point of attack to make sure head placement was correct for the backs blocking. All plays right now are being run out 10 yards, the next practice they will be run out 15 yards.

We ended with Deer Hunter games for fun and conditioning.

All of these drills are detailed with pictures and diagrams in the book and DVDs.

We will keep you posted on our progress.

 

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing allowed if links are kept intact

http://winningyouthfootball.com

Youth Football, Our Second Practice of the Season

It cooled down to 88 degrees or so, so much nicer day today and even a 5-10 mph breeze. We are not in pads yet and started off with our normal dynamic warm ups of jumping jacks, high knees form stance on cadence, butt kickers from stance on cadence, lunges and a quick yell breakout. This took us about 7 minutes, as the kids picked up well from where we left off yesterday, About 90% of our kids are in a perfect stance on every drill now, we expect the other 10% to be there by weeks end.

We have about 73 kids split into 3 teams, age 7-9, 10-11 and 12-13, about 40% are first time players. I’m head coach of all three teams.

We did our usual angle form and fit tackle drill, doing 1 rep every 6 seconds or so. We did 8 minutes of this, By weeks end the dynamic warm up and angle form tackling fit will combined be 10 minutes long as angle form is on a jog and part of the dynamic warmup period.

Next was the snap progression drill. This drill helps us understand the players natural quickness, body control, agility and willingness to work through contact. That drill of course is in the book and goes from stance to seating the ball to running to the correct hole and 10 yards to running the hole squeezing between two coaches holding/pushing hand shield dummies together and the last progression adding a gauntlet.

Our first break included a review and “quiz” of the hole back and hole numbering using the touch method in the book.  Coaches had already made many of their line/backs decisions after our first practice and evaluation period, but the snap progression and gauntlet helped them decide on the kids that were sitting on the fence.

The line worked on our 2 step offensive lineman drill. We worked at least 8 minutes just on the first step and added the second step in about 5 minutes, working both in unison for about 3 minutes after freezing on the first step.  We then moved on to dummy fit using the 2 steps and then on to the 2 steps with dummy fit adding the drive for 5 yards. Next the line worked our crab blocking progression. Last we walked though the base blocking rule going through it in a progression. Even the youngest kids seemed to do real well, when we did our “quiz” we were getting about 95% correct answers. Lastly we grouped each o-line up and formed them into what we think will be their positions, got into the correct splits and did group 2 step drills in formation with backups rotating every snap. We were going on cadence and getting a new snap in about every 7 seconds.

Meanwhile the backs were going a modified gauntlet drill with a shield squeeze at the end. We worked 10 yard pass catching progression starting with stationary above the waist catches, then 10 yard below the waist catches, all using the progression in the book with ball seating and running the ball back to the QB. They moved on to splatter blocking drills and then deer hunter to get some conditioning in.

During one break we discussed the base defense, the importance of defense and our base scheme. (5 minutes).

We ended a good practice with a more detailed discussion on our sportsmanship standard, using lots of real world examples and asking the kids what they though sportsmanship meant.

We had a few players try and test the “ready focus” communication method/standard and we had 5-6 have to take a short run for that. We had zero problems with it day 1, but kids always test limits. It is always best to take care of that all in the first week, 5-6 violations is right at the norm if not just below. We expect zero problems with that by the end of the first week.

All of these drills are detailed in words and diagrams/pictures in the book “Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan”, or the DVDs.

On Thursday we will be in full pads, stay tuned for more.

 

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing allowed if links are kept intact

For more Info go go http://winningyouthfootball.com

 

First Youth Football Practice of the Season

This Monday was our first football practice of our young season. The temps were in the high 90s and the humidity was over 80, so it was pretty miserable. As many of you know, I am head coaching 3 teams this year an age 7-9 team, an age 10-11 team and an age 12-13 team. My preference is to coach just 1 team but there was a petition, pressure etc, so I caved. But I did put my foot down and have a transition/training plan in place so I can get back to just 1 team next year.

What did we do?

Of course we always start off with a 30 minute mandatory parent/player/coaches meeting. We set our expectations of the season and review our coaches, parent and player contracts that spell out our expectations and requirements. We leave little to chance in regards to our mission, attendance, playing time, positions (what’s best for the team), sportsmanship expectations, communication process, effort, discipline and attitude to name just a few.  As has been the custom for the last 8 seasons I gave all parents the option of getting their money back and moving on to another team if they felt this was not going to be a good fit as our mission, goals and methods are not up for negotiation and will not change.

The remaining 90 minutes of practice went better than expected. We have about 40% new rookie first time players this year as we added another team. The veteran players have up to 4 years with us and are excellent copy models for the rookie players.

In order to leverage the talent pool of our coaches we do some drills as an entire group regardless of age and others we are split into teams. All of our coaches have attended clinics put on by me and many have the book.  Of course we got the kids off on the right foot with our “ready focus” communication rule/process. The kids were great, even the real young kids were attentive after we reviewed it and let them know why and the repercussions for not adhering to the standard, We did dynamic warm ups as an entire group. As is the norm during our dynamic warm ups, we taught the stance progression and our cadence and first play, “no play” within the first 5 minutes of the first practice.

This segment lasted about 10 minutes, we will have it down to about 5 minutes by the beginning of nest week, The dynamic muscle activation movements included jumping jacks, high knees out of a stance and on cadence, butt kickers out of stance and on cadence, lunges and then a group yell/break.

We followed the first day practice plan right out of my book on page 88 and did Angle Form tackling in groups of 6 as well as the snap progression drill detailed here on the blog. We were able to use several of the fun games/drills we use to evaluate players including Deer Hunter, Towel Game and Sumo.  All the coaches had their little note pads out to write down who was finishing where in these games. All the while the kids were having a blast even in the extreme heat. We stayed in the shade and had plenty of water breaks.

We reviewed the back numbering system and hole numbering system with the group during the water breaks to conserve time. We will practice again on Tuesday and then will be in pads on Thursday. Stay tuned to see where we are at.

We had lots of smiling faces not only from our players, but from our parents as well. I had two fathers of 2 players that played on a different team than ours last year. They couldn’t get over how much different and fun our practice was versus what they had experienced the previous year, Both said they could see what we were trying to do “under the covers” and really liked our progression teaching approach.

Hope your seasons are going as well.

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing allowed if links are kept intact

http://winningyouthfootball.com

 

The Double Wing- Single Wing Offense Comparison

For youth football, which offense is better, the Single Wing or the Double Wing?

Many of you may not know that I have coached both the Single Wing and Double Wing Offenses with several youth football teams. When I say Double Wing, I mean the traditional Double Tight, Fullback at sniffer offense, not the flexbone  The Double Wing has as it’s core series the toss power off-tackle, fullback trap, fullback wedge, wing counter, some type of sweep ( several options) and a play action pass off of toss action.

I’ve Run Both Offenses

After careful study we decided long ago that my then organization of 16 teams would have a choice of running either the Single Wing or the Double Wing. We played in a league of 70 or so teams ages 6-14. As recently as 2004 I was doing Double Wing clinics for the youth coaches in my organization. In 2005 my organization went 100% Single Wing across the board. Personally I’ve been running Single Wing exclusively for the last 8 seasons.  Many coaches weighing in on this choice have coached one or the other or sometimes even neither, I have studied and coached both.

Double Wing is a Good Offense

While this article in no way is trying to disparage the Double Wing offense, I just want to share with everyone why we did what we did. I’m in an enviable position of having coached both offenses to multiple teams as well as having taught both systems to 200+ coaches in the youth programs I ran. Again, I’m a fan of all series based offenses that can hit every point of attack while putting defenses in conflict and both of these offenses do that very well. I will always be a fan of excellent execution and offenses that allow teams with average talent to succeed and both of these offenses do a fairly good job of doing just that. This is not meant as a slam to the Double Wing, I think it is a fine system and we ran it years back for just that reason.

 

Here are some base reasons why I prefer the Single Wing to the Double Wing:

The Single Wing requires just 1 puller, the Double Wing requires 4.  In non-select football, even with great coaching  I’m rarely if ever going to have 4 effective pullers. If I have several athletic linemen that can pull, my guess is they are 2 way players. Do I really want to tire these 2 way starters out by having them pull on every play but wedge? Most of the base Double Wing plays, toss, sweep and counter require 2 pullers.

The Single Wing snap is MUCH easier and safer. Too many drives die in youth football because of poor QB/Center exchanges. In our version of the snap the “QB” is just 2 yards behind the center and very low, the snap does not have to be perfect to be effective and if there are any problems the QB has a 2 yard cushion to recover. With foot to foot splits, penetration is minimal. It is extremely rare for us to have more than 1 poor exchange result in turnover for an entire season (those with the full season games DVDs can attest to this)/ That’s 1 turnover per SEASON, not game. Indirect snap (QB under Center) teams just cant make this claim.

The Single Wing does not require difficult to execute footwork for the quarterback on most ball exchanges. To give you just one example: On the base off-tackle toss play that is the staple of every Double Wing attack, the QB has to take the snap from under center (already more risky than the Single Wing snap), makes sure he clears deep enough to get out of the way of both the backside guard and tackle pulling right in front of him, tosses the ball making sure to lead the motioning wingback, then gets out in front of the running back running inside the kickout block of the fullback while making sure to make a block on the playside corner. The toss itself often involves a drop step and nimble spin and for the QB to have a chance at getting out in front of the motioning wing, the QB really needs to toss the pitch blind all the while hoping some huge noseguard hasn’t jammed the center into his lap. What this all means is training your QB takes a lot of time in the Double Wing and you better have at least 2-3 QBs at the ready. Do they have to be great athletes? No, but they need to be smart, like contact, be durable and be well trained, the offense is intricate and requires precision timing, it is not very forgiving. Compare that to the Single Wing “QB”, he rarely has to hand the ball off, doesn’t have to worry about getting run over by pulling linemen and taking the snap takes less than 15 seconds to learn. In 2005 we won a State Championship with a 4^th string “QB” at the helm. Our first team kid broke his arm in game 5, our 2^nd team kid had a swollen knee and out 3^rd team kid pulled his groin at the pool party the nigh before the big game, slipping on some wet tiles. We won the game by mercy rule with a 4^th team QB who was out starting right guard, and up to that point had only carried the ball 10-12 times. I doubt many honest Double Wing coaches will tell you they could do the same a 4^th team QB in that offense.

In the Single Wing we can get the ball to any player very easily and with very very little time devoted to it. In the Double Wing you have to teach the motion, taking pitches and handoffs etc etc. In the last 3 seasons every one of my eligible players have carried the ball and 36 different kids have scored touchdowns. Once we get ahead it is simple for any player to take a simple direct snap and run the off-tackle hole. Parents and kids love this about our offense.

The Single Wing has unmatched deception. With the Single Wing you can run every play the Double Wing has in its offense, but in every case the play is easier to run out of the Single Wing. But the Double Wing can not run many of the series the Single Wing has, including the most deceptive series in all of football, the full spin series.

The Single Wing plays hit much faster. In the Double Wing many of the plays take quite a bit of time to develop like the off-tackle, You have to wait for both backside pullers to get there, the WB to get his slow motion toss and the QB to get out on the corner. In contrast the Single Wing off-tackle play hits at full speed, the “QB” takes the ball on a dead run in a straight line path to the hole, something we feel we need when playing very fast and athletic teams.

The Single Wing is easier to pass out of, we are already in a short shot gun formation.

The Double Wing requires even its weakest players, the tight ends (in most cases) to “shoeshine” block 2 gaps to the inside, when the tackle and guard vacate to pull. There is no such requirement from the Single Wing ends, although I don’t think that block is as difficult to execute as many coaches do.

The Single Wing offers the unmatched deception of being able to snap the ball to 3 different players on every play. The defense has no clue which of the 3 the ball has been snapped to and has to account for all 3. There isn’t another offense out there that can match that claim or be more of a headache for the typical youth defense.

The Single Wing was more fun for the kids and even for me. I got bored with running 3-4 plays each game and fell in love with the Full and Half Spinner Series in the Single Wing.

In the end, the Single Wing fit our mission better than the Double Wing, was much easier to coach and we had better results with it. That’s why we made the switch.

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing Allowed If Links are kep intact.

For 350 free coaching tips:

http://winningyouthfootball.com

 

Why and How Did This Book and the DVDs Come Into Existence?

I can assure you we had no idea and absolutley no plan on selling a book and instructional DVDs for youth football, we fell into it or were pushed into it by a bizarre set of circumstances. If you would have told me 10 years ago I would be doing this, I would looked at you like most people look at the homeless psycho wanderers you see in any big city. I’m not an author in search of another revenue stream or a slick internet marketer looking for a niche to exploit. I’m  youth football coach that started two organizations from scratch who was struggling with training 70-90 coaches every year.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

In Omaha the first program I started grew from 0 to about 500 kids in the course of 5 years. Since about 70% of our kids came from Single Parent families we had a lot of coaching turnover. Most of our coaches didn’t have kids playing and over time,  the distance, cost, time commitment and “social program” fatigue becomes too much to bear. We were always recruiting and training coaches, with lots of new ones every year. It was a bear getting all the coaches on the same page. We struggled as an organization until we standardized on a set practice methodology, offense, and defense. Then the key was helping our coaches implement a system we knew was perfect for youth football and perfect of us meeting our mission. The first 5 seasons using this system my personal teams went 51-1 and we were consisently retaining over 95% of our players from year to year, the results were just incredible. We wanted all our players to have the same great experience so the goal was to get all of our coaches coaching the same way so the kids would benefit.

Clinics

We started with doing coaching clinics. Many of the coaches asked that we put many of the discussion topics into manuals they could take home and study. They just couldnt write fast enough to keep up with the information we were presenting. By year 4 we had a “Binder” with about 150 pages in it that included the offense, defense, special teams, practice methodology, adjustments, game day management and more.  We made going to the clinics mandatory for all of our coaches.

Book and DVDs

Unfortunately many of our blue collar coaches work on Saturdays which is the days we do clinics, so we decided to film the clinic for those that couldn’t attend. We then distributed the DVDs and would administer a simple test to see if the coach had taken the time to view and study the materials.  So the Binder and First DVD, “Single Wing Coaches Clinic” which was later reshot and titled “Installing the Single Wing Offense for Youth Football, Step by Step” were built out of necessity, not to market. They were built so our coaches would have the tools to make the season a great one for the kids they were coaching.

First Sale

In the meanwhile I had become a part of a Single Wing Coaching fraternity that not only meets on the internet but also has a yearly “Conclave” in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania attended by over 100 coaches ( I highly recommend it). When these guys found out I had a “Binder” an instructional tape ( yes VHS back then) and game footage,  they wanted copies. I sent many binders and VHS tapes out in those early days free of charge until my wife complained to me about all the postage, VHS costs and the time it was taking me to make all the copies etc. One day another coach requested these materials from me via e-mail, I embarrassingly told him that I couldn’t do it any longer. He said he understood but would be willing to buy it. I asked him what he thought it was worth and he said $85. I talked to my wife, she didn’t have a problem with it and so that was how we set the price for that very first package.

These first materials were kind of crude, but we still got great reviews. A good friend of mine put up the web site for next to nothing and we got busy making the materials more comprehensive and easier to use. The book has gone though several rewrites and the DVDs are now all produced in studios and professionally edited and copied. we lost our “basement” quality some time ago.

Nike and Glazier Clinics

We were contacted by Nike to do a few clinics for them after being recommended by several coaches using the system and got added to the Glazier Mega Clinic circuit in 2007. In 2007 the book also got endorsed by Tom Osborne and all of a sudden we are in the Youth Football coaching instruction “Business”. In 2007 I started offering private clinics, again coming from a request of a coach that wanted me to work with him and his team. In 2008 I started offering some of my own public clinics.

Why I do It 

After doing my 2 year study of the best and worst youth football programs in the area and learning about the Michigan State Study that says 70% of kids playing youth football today will never play High School football, I felt there was a huge need for this material. In fact when I was doing my research,  I felt pretty bad for many of the kids when I watched these teams practice. Many coaches have great intent, but they just dont know what to do or have the hundreds of hours of time needed to study and put together a program that works.

The friendships I have made with coaches all accross the country have been very rewarding. But the biggest rewad is knowing that every book or DVD that goes out the door helps make the “football” lives of 25 youth football players better, that is why I do this. We are helping kids stay involved in the sport due to much improved coaching, we are talking about tens of thousands of youth football players. We are changing the face of youth football, for the better in many communities.  I never tire of the guys that call up with the 0-10 teams that have scored 3-4 TDs their whole season  that use the system and go 10-0 the next season. I live for stuff like that, helping coaches build a love and enthusiasm of the game in their players so they keep on playing which allows them to learn the life lessons the game teaches.

 

Youth Football Coaching Lessons Learned From Coaching Girls Sports?

Many of you youth football coaches out there have daughters playing sports, we do too. Like many of you I’ve coached these sports almost against my own will, I just can’t get very excited about that communist plot designed to take over the world also known as soccer and it’s fellow traveler, t-ball. But I love my kids, so that will take precedence.

Most of the time I agree to coach the girls because I hate turning my kids down since I spend so much time coaching youth football. The other reason I coach is because of the atrociously poor level of youth coaching out there.

My Name is Dave and I’m a “S” Coach

Last spring we did the “S” word. I agreed to coach, (try not to throw up guys) bought a book, watched a couple of videos, suffered through one coaching clinic, got on the internet for tips and went to study a few practices of the best and worst soccer clubs in the area. We decided to concentrate our efforts on several critical success factors and skills and broke down all the movements into progressions just like we do in youth football. We then developed these progression and skill development drills into fun games, just like we do when we are coaching youth football. We also used many of the player management techniques in the book as well as parent management and game management philosophies.

The net result was we had a very competitive team, the kids had a blast, everyone played a ton and the parents were very happy. The parents got happier each and every game as they got to see the lack of organization, lack of “fun” level and lack of skill development of the teams we played. Up until this experience, I had never watched more than 5 minutes of a soccer game, let alone ever have played the game. Hopefully I won’t EVER  have to watch another game again unless the kids decide they want to play another season. I’m very prayerful that they will choose something else.  I am proud to say that All of the kids on the team looked forward to coming to practice and the games and all of the players gave me a nice hug before and after each game (coaching girls is definitely different).

On The Other Hand

On the other hand, this year the girls decided they wanted to play t-ball. Since I do so many football coaching clinics in the Spring, I couldn’t coach them. The mistake was I took them to the first practice. The previous 2 weeks I had been working with the girls on some of the basics, defensive stance, approaching grounders, scooping grounders, ball transfer, correct throwing motion, batters stance, plate relationship, grip, batting progression, base running, pop flys, and playing catch. Mainly I was just spending time with them so they knew I was interested and cared. I was also trying to give them a baseline skill set so they wouldn’t be nervous or afraid at their first practice.

We arrived early and saw that practice was about to start and there was only 1 coach there for 12 kids.  I asked the ”coach” if she needed any help, she said no. I asked her in a very friendly manner what was on the agenda and she replied “We just want to make sure the kids don’t get bored, we will probably let them all hit some”. Well during the first 10 minutes all the kids played “catch” with each other, which was more like fetch, there was zero instruction during this time period. Some of the kids were so green. they were still struggling to keep their gloves on properly. I knew we were in trouble.

The Disaster

Then to my amazement, with ZERO training on how to approach grounders, field grounders, ball transfer or even a stance, she assigned each player a position and started hitting infield. In the meantime, those not selected to play infield went to the outfield and were “catching” pop flies from the second coach that just arrived, again with zero instruction.

As you may have guessed, the infield drill was a disaster as she would go from player to player and instruct them individually after they flubbed up. I guess this was her idea of making sure the kids didn’t get bored. After about 30 minutes of this nonsense, it finally came to an end as she started batting practice. Each player was brought to the plate with ZERO instruction while the other 11 players shagged. Only after the player struck out did the coach come up to offer some help. There was no group reps, no group discussion, no progressions taught etc. Mind you the kids were SO BORED many were sitting down or even looking away from the batter as they took “batting” practice, even when 1 of the players ( coaches son who was 2 years older than anyone on the team) came up to bat and was spraying the infield with laser guided rope line drives. This was a huge safety issue and a lawsuit waiting to happen, the kid was a swtich hitter ahd hot over 80% line drives.

Dental Work Required

I was gritting my teeth so hard during this that I thought my teeth would be nubs by the end of this travesty they called a practice. I literally called my wife on the cell phone and faced away from “practice” until it ended. The next day we called the league president and calmly requested that my kids be placed on a team that would be safely and competently coached. To my delight the next practice with our new team saw 4 coaches playing catch the correct way with players divided up in groups of threes. The coaches tossed the ball to each player only after the player got into the proper stance, then the ball went back to the coach. I saw nice bucket drills being done with good “alligator” grounder scooping technique being taught. What a relief, I did not want to have to coach t-ball this year and the girls were now in competent hands.

What separated the first team from the second team the girls played on? One was coached by someone that took the time to learn how to properly coach the age group he was coaching. The other team may have been “coached” by someone that knew the game, but they had no clue of how to effectively and efficiently transfer whatever knowledge they had to the kids. They had no clue on how to organize an effective practice or how to make it fun. They also made the game boring and drudgery for most of the group, of which my guess is most will never go on to play beyond that first horrific experience.

Effective Youth Coaching

What do little kids t-ball and soccer have to do with competitive tackle football? The moral of the story is effective coaching has many universal truths that transcend each sport. Most guys that are very effective basketball or baseball coaches can be trained to be effective football coaches. Most of them understand how to organize practices, set priorities, break down movements and most importantly seek out help. When I was in Omaha  I coached baseball too. The last 3 baseball teams I coached were the best in the league and didn’t lose a single  game and I’m not a very good baseball player. We just took the same approach to coaching baseball that as we did in football and it worked out very well.

 

We all know that at the youngest age groups the first rule in coaching any sport is “Do No Harm”, but when a team is coached that poorly even though there is no negative intent, harm is done.

 

I hope never to be the coach that inspires teeth grinding in my players parents, no matter what sport I’m coaching.

 

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing Allowed if Links are Kept Intact

http://winningyouthfootball.com

 

 

 

Landscaping and Coaching Youth Football- Are They Really That Different?

I’ve been doing a bunch of landscaping projects recently at our home. I’m certainly no expert at doing any of this, but over time the projects have steadily improved.  If you are like me, once you’ve actually completed one of these countless projects, you like to take a look at it and admire your work a little bit. After completing the latest project, a rock pathway down to our pond, I was doing that admiration of work thing, when it dawned on me, doing these projects really isn’t that different from my experiences at coaching youth football.

The Landscaping Projects

I remember when we first moved here 4 years ago, the landscape was pretty barren, the previous owner had built the house well, but after living in it for just 18 months, they hadn’t had the time or money to do much landscaping. While I had done plenty of this type of work with my dad when I was younger and even worked for a company that did some of this kind of work when I was in my teens, that was over 25 years ago. My previous homes were all fairly mature from a landscaping perspective and much smaller, I hadn’t had to do much with them. So I had some experience as a helper, but it was old experience. We are on 20 acres now. so the possibilities are fairly endless.  We started off real small.  

The first few projects were small tree plantings, pretty simple stuff, but we even managed to mess that up from a placement, spacing and staking perspective. I had used the advice of the people we bought the trees from as well as did a quick search on the internet to find a few tips, but that wasn’t enough. The following year I got a few books on trees for Christmas and got real friendly with a man that owned a tree farm. I even went with him on a few jobs.  We planted another 100 trees that year and not only did we do a much better job of placing and spacing the trees, it went much faster as well. By the third year, we were pros. We bought our trees in bulk directly from a tree farm and even helped a few of our friends buy and plant trees. We even cut our mulch costs by 70% while increasing the quality.

On the landscaping front, we built raised flower beds, rock walls, gardens, trails and even a soon to be small waterfall. To be quite frank, the first few projects were disasters. They were disasters in design and execution both. I would see something I liked, go out and buy the materials I thought I needed (often wrong) and start building. I can’t tell you the number of trips back and forth to Home Depot these projects took or the inordinate amount of time they took. In the end, I was frustrated and most of the projects didn’t look very good either. I would have been much better off hiring the work out, it would have been cheaper even if I valued my labor at a modest $5 per hour.

The Cost 

We then looked at the amount of money many of these projects took, (rock, trees and treated lumber are not cheap) and thought there had to be a better way. While I was antsy to start more of these projects, I decided to take a step back and do some research. I found some excellent books on the subject in the internet and I took time to watch some expert landscaping crews do similar projects. We also took the time to review some homes we thought had cool designs and copied some of the better ones for our own use. We then even invested a whole $30 in a DVD which turned out to be much better than any of the books I had read or the spying I had done. In the end, the projects got much better, we had fewer trips back and forth to Home Depot, the projects took much less time and they were far less frustrating.

Coaching Football Is VERY Similar

How different were my landscaping projects from my first year of coaching youth football? I had played the game in High School and College, but I hadn’t played in about 12 years. I thought I knew what I wanted to end result to be and I remembered some of my old High School stuff. As you may have guessed, we had very mixed results that first year.

 

Every year I improved my coaching skills a little, primarily through trial and error. By year 5 I felt fairly competent as a coach but by then I also knew enough to know my teams were not as well coached as they could be. I “knew enough to know I didn’t know”. That is the path that led me to doing the extensive research as well as trial and error that led me to where I am today. Now we rarely get out coached, we retain over 95% of our kids and win about 94% of our games.

Typical Youth Football Coaching

So often we see youth football coaches go into their seasons with just the experiences they had as a High School player to rely on. A few may get on the internet and do a little research, some guys may do some planning the weeks before they start or go to a clinic,  but most just “wing it” and then are surprised when their season turns out to be a disaster. They wonder why their teams get beat by teams with seemingly less talent and often just chalk it up to luck, the referees, or the other team having better “jimmies and joes”.

Most youth football dad coaches don’t have 10-15 years to mature into descent coaches, or want to spend hundreds of hours of their precious free time doing their own research, their sons “age out” of youth football well before that happens. Most youth football coaches will spend from 110-160 hours of their lives on the field this season, yet most of them will spend less than 2 hours planning for the season or getting better as a coach. In the end, it comes down to how much do we value that the kids we are coaching have a great experience? How much do we value our time? If we give little value to either, then it makes sense to just wing it and hope for the best.

What Value ?

For me, I valued the quality of my landscaping projects and I valued my time, so I invested in getting some expertise so I could do a much better job. I went with something I knew worked and was doable by an average Joe like me.

If you value your sons youth football experience and your time, do yourself a favor and invest in a proven method and process, if not from this site, then from someone else. Why bother with the hundreds of hours of research and years of trial and error when it has already been done for you? Do all of us really have the amount of free time it takes to put a comprehensive youth system together? Do we want to take that time away from our families? In the end, the time savings, frustration savings and improvement in quality will be more than enough to justify spending the money on coaching materials. Don’t be the guy who at the end of a disastrous season filled with sniping parents and quiting players, wishes he would have gotten some help earlier.  

I doubt there is a single youth football coach out there anywhere that after a disaster season had not wished in retrospect he had been better prepared or gotten help. The funny thing is that most youth football books and most of the DVDs are less that the average youth football player entry fee or even the cost of a descent pair of tennis shoes or coaching shirt.

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing Allowed if Links are Kept Intact

http://winningyouthfootball.com