The Hideout Play in Youth Football

The Hideout Play is an old standard “trick” play that seems to get dusted off the back shelf and recycled every few years. Sometimes called the “2 out and 1 in” or “sleeper” play, the common name is “hideout”. The goal of the play is to get the defense to think a player heading off the field is not part of the play. Often this player will jog off like he is going to the sidelines and ease up just before he crosses the boundary line. He then stays on the field just inside the sideline boundary.  In some cases to add effect he may even turn his back to the field and converse with a group of players on the sidelines or even his coach. The offense then snaps the ball and throws to this wide open receiver for an apparent touchdown.

Is This Play Legal?

Some coaches may argue that as long as the hideout player is in the huddle, he is eligible as long as he aligns inside the sideline boundary. One nuance to this play is many teams will bring another player off the bench just as the offense breaks huddle. This gives the illusion that the incoming player is coming in for the “hideout” player. I’ve even seen the hideout and incoming player slap hands like they are doing a substitution. For added effect sometimes the QB will even act like he is giving the incoming player the play with a short whisper etc

This is no doubt a very clever play, but it is always illegal no matter the league you are playing in. All youth football leagues use either NFHS or NCAA rules as their base, and both say this play is illegal and will flag you for a 15 yard penalty.

 What the Rules Say

SECTION 6 ILLEGAL PARTICIPATION
ART. 4 It is illegal participation:
d. To use a player, replaced player, substitute, coach, trainer or other attendant in a substitution or pretended substitution to deceive opponents at or immediately before the snap or free kick.

Case Book:

9.6.4 SITUATION B: Following a kickoff return, A1 and A2 enter the field while A3, A4 and A5 move toward the sideline. A5 stops within the 9-yard marks while A3 and A4 continue to the team box. The ball is snapped without a huddle and the quarterback throws a forward pass to A5, who has gone downfield as a wide receiver. RULING: This play is illegal because a pretended substitution is used to deceive the opponents. The penalty of 15 yards for the illegal participation foul will be administered from the previous spot since the foul occurred at the snap. (9-6-4c)

While I have no problem with trick plays like hook and ladders, backwards bounce passes, fake punts and the like, I’m not so sure about this play. Like the “wrong ball” play, it should have no place in youth football.

Thanks to Coach Knight and the other referees that helped me with this ruling.

Copyright 2009 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. Republishing allowed if links are kept intact. For 400 Free Youth Football Coaching Tips or to Subscribe to Dave’s free Youth Football Coaching Tips Newsletter go to : http://winningyouthfootball.com

Seattle Clinic-

Thanks to all that attended last weeks clinics in Seattle, especially the guys from Canada that took flights and ferry rides to get there. We did one private clinic for my friend R Swain and one public clinic in Issaquah. There were 5 worst to first teams at the Public Clinic. It’s always rewarding to talk to those coaches as they beam with pride about how well their boys played and the great memories they created for the kids.

Congrats to Coach Swain for engineering a worst to first season last year. In 2007 his team only won a single game and scored just 38 points for the season. In his first year running our system his team scored over 260 points and went 8-0 and with the same exact squad of kids. Needless to say his kids and parents were a bit shocked by their newfound success. So were his fellow organization coaches and competitors.

We wish them well in the coming season and look forward to hearing how much better Coach Swains teams will be after adding in the standard base adjustments and the Burst Series.

                        The Silent Count for Youth Football

A silent count is often used in youth football by teams trying to gain an advantage. On a silent count, the ball is snapped to the quarterback after the offense has gotten set, the quarterback lifts his hands slightly signaling to the center it is time to snap the ball.  What happens most often is these football plays go for descent gains because the defense isn’t expecting the snap. A handful of youth football teams even try and go “Silent” for an entire game.

The Entire Game?

While I’m somewhat of a fan of going “Silent” for a play of two each game, I don’t think it really makes sense for doing it an entire game. One of the biggest advantages for your offense is knowing the snap count, the defense doesn’t know the snap count. Hence your offensive linemen can anticipate the correct count and come off the ball a split instant faster than the defense, which should be responding to ball movement. If you go “Silent” both teams are looking for ball movement and the offense loses its advantage.

Once a team goes “Silent” for a play or two most defenses “get it” and the offense loses it’s element of surprise. Most well coached defenses work off of ball movement anyways, so this tactic even when used sparingly rarely works well against well coached teams.

Other Problems

Another problem with this type of snap count is motion. When using motion, timing is critical. Most motion backs leave their stances on a cue from the quarterbacks cadence. The motion back also has landmarks he uses to vary his speed again based on cadence. Example: Our cadence is Ready, Shift, Down, Ready, Set, Go, the motion back starts his motion on the “R” of ready, and he has to be at the midpoint of the tackle on the “G” of go. The motion back varies his speed based on the landmarks and cadence, if he sees he is approaching the tackle and the quarterback is still on  the “Y” of ready, he has to slow down, on the other hand let’s say the motion back is 2 gaps away from the tackle and the quarterback is on the “S” of set, the motion back better speed it up. We use 3 different types of motion so this is very important to us to say the least. While a silent count team can signal motion to it’s motion backs with a flick of the heel, they can’t give the motion back any verbal cues as he goes in motion, a huge disadvantage.

In the Real World

In youth football, many of the teams that I’ve seen using the silent snap count often look like a machine gun coming off the line of scrimmage. First the center and quarterback move, then you see the rest of the offensive line coming off the ball like some kind of domino chain reaction event. It rarely looks like an effective way to get off the ball quickly and in unison.

Silent count, ok for a play or two, not very effective if used on every down when you are coaching youth football.

Copyright 2009 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. Republishing allowed if links are kept intact. For 400 Free Youth Football Coaching Tips or to Subscribe to Dave’s free Youth Football Coaching Tips Newsletter go to : http://winningyouthfootball.com

Face Tackling

Had a question come to me via e-mail this week from a first year youth coach: Is face tackling legal in youth football?

The current NFHS Rule book defines Face Tackling under NFHS 2-20-1.b (Illegal Helmet Contact) as, “Face Tackling is an act by a defensive player who initiates contact with a ball carrier with the front of his helmet”.

This is a 15 yard penalty and was put in the rule books over 20 years ago. Unfortunately many coaches that are coaching youth football haven’t played for over 20 years and don’t know that not only is this illegal, it can be dangerous. Leading with the head or face inherently puts undue pressure on the head and neck. This can be a very dangerous method of tackling at the youth level.

This penalty could also be invoked against those players who are taught to “bite the football”, a popular tackling coaching point with many football coaches. Often players instructed in this fashion initiate contact with the facemask, which is a clear violation of this rule.

Make sure you are teaching safe AND legal technique to your kids this season.

The Jupiter Christian “Miracle”

This past weekend I was a speaker at the Pop Warner Treasure Coast coaches clinic held in the West Palm Beach, Florida area. Also speaking was Bill Powers, head football coach at Jupiter Christian High School. Bills teams have won back-to-back State Championships and are on a 28 game winning streak. The amazing thing about this story is Jupiter Christian prior to Bills arrival had never had a winning season. In fact the 2 years prior to Bills arrival the team went 2-17 and were outscored by over 600 combined points. The previous head coach resigned, declaring the football program “dead” and suggested it be discontinued.

Under Bill Powers leadership, the school has not only gone 45-5 and won 2 State Titles, but they are now competing with and beating schools with much larger enrollments. Jupiter Christian has just 250 students, but Jupiter regularly competes against schools with student populations of 400, 600, 1,000 and yes even one with over 2,000 students. In 2008 they played 3 different 4A schools with enrollments of 1500 or more. Perennial powers like Glades Day dot Jupiter Christians schedule as well as even out of state powerhouses from North Carolina and Georgia. This season their schedule includes several 4A schools again and even a 5A school (Lake Worth) with over 2,000 students. These guys are the Fresno State of High School football, anyone, anytime, anywhere.

What Kind of Ammo?

What seems so odd about this story is the team is not made up of big kids or great athletes. Not a single Jupiter Christian player from a Bill Powers team has gone on to play Division I football under scholarship. In fact starting quarterback Marshyl Rothman wasn’t even sure he liked football, he was a hockey player and stands just 5’8” and 170 pounds. Starting fullback/linebacker Will Powers (Bill’s son) started as a sophomore on the offensive line, before moving to fullback. At just 5’7” and 185 lbs he looks like a throwback in those 2007 game clips, wearing jersey number 65.

Watching Jupiter Christian game film is like watching a David vs Goliath movie nearly every game. What I noticed first was the shocking disparities in size especially in the offensive line. In many of the shots it looked like a college team lining up against a Pop Warner Midget team. The second thing I noticed was the incredible quickness of Christians offensive line as well as the outstanding execution and consistent effort of this entire squad.

From Youth Coach to State High School Championships

Another kicker to this unlikely story, Bill Powers and his staff had never coached High School football prior to taking over at Jupiter Christian. Bill was a former State Trooper, then Stock Broker, then successful business owner. He had however been a very successful Pop Warner coach. Yes folks, he went straight from Youth Football to winning State Titles in the High School ranks. His offensive line coach Tom Morton, offensive coordinator Jim Davis and assistant Tim Derrico all coached with Bill in Pop Warner.

Fortunately for me, my good friend Kevin Justice knows Bill Powers well and he arranged for Bill and I to have lunch and dinner together during my Florida stay. I wanted to find out what was so special about Bill Powers and how he engineered this amazing turnaround. Bill Powers has a very strong presence, at age 49 he looks just a few years removed from being able to strap it up and play himself. Just like his offense, he is very economical with his words, he uses just the minimum to get the job done, there is no fluff. Confident, but modestly giving credit to his assistants, players and supportive administration, he is an easy interview, my kind of guy.

How They Did It

When asked what 5 actions of his had the most impact on turning the program around, he didn’t have to think at all, the answers flowed quickly. He felt the number one reason for the turnaround was getting the kids to believe they could win. He constantly bombarded them with stories of the unlikely hero, the player or team that everyone thought was too small or not athletic enough to prevail, but did. He told his players about friend Sam Mills, a 5’7” Pro Bowl linebacker, who no one wanted out of high school. After a stellar career at Montclair State, a Division III school, Mills was cut from 2 NFL squads as well as a CFL team. A full 2 years after playing his last college down, he caught on in the USFL and his coach Jim Mora took Mills with him to the Saints and then later to the Carolina Panthers where he went on to play in 5 Pro Bowls. 

Powers sold his kids on the idea they had no choice but to outwork their opponents in order to compete. He made them face the harsh realities of the numbers and size disparities they would be facing and sold them the only solution was to outwork their opponents. Their mantra is “overachieve”, it guides their every action, they break every huddle with it. They are relentless, whether they are lifting weights, doing speed training, doing 7 on 7 or playing lacrosse for Jupiter Christian with you guessed it, Bill Powers at the helm. Bill is a huge fan and proponent of football players playing lacrosse.

Powers and his staff started at ground zero with this team and they haven’t strayed very far from their ground zero practice plans. They are fanatics on perfect fundamentals, pad level, footwork, swinging the hips, they leave nothing to the imagination. They don’t scrimmage much, but work every day on the basic blocking and tackling that is the cornerstone of every great team. The schemes Bill Powers teams run are not complex, in actuality they probably run fewer than 20 different plays. But they do use many formations and motions to gain advantages. Bills offense mirrors his minimalist approach to the game, breaking the game down to a few critical success factors and requiring perfect execution and sustained effort of 4-5 seconds on every snap.

Jupiter Christian’s coaching staff demands it’s players play with enthusiasm, 100% effort and execute. They hold the kids accountable to that standard and by all appearances it looks like the kids are “all in” to use a popular poker phrase.

Coach Powers was also quick to credit the school administration for their support as well as the hard work of his very dedicated but now growing coaching staff. They endlessly study film to improve their teams. While they certainly meticulously analyze every opponent on film, you find this staff of film junkies looking more at how they can improve their execution and get every last bit of talent squeezed out of the hand that was dealt them. That includes things like having one of your best young running backs starting on the offensive line.

Lessons Learned

One of the biggest benefits I get from all the coaches clinics I do is getting to sit down and learn from guys like Bill Powers. Lucky me, I get the benefit of his 4 years of real life experiences, without having to suffer them myself. Simply put, there aren’t many like him though, to have done so much with so little in such a short time period and with a coaching pedigree many long time coaches would raise their noses at.

For those of us out there who are trying to turn around a difficult situation, there is hope, there is a template you can follow, it can be done. But the answer is in economy, don’t try to do too much, but what you do, perfect it. Get the kids to believe in themselves, that they can succeed, give them hope. Know what you have and what you have to do in order to have success, be the very best fundamental blocking and tackling team in your league.

Hold your kids accountable to playing with enthusiasm, 100% effort and perfect execution. Care about your players so they go “all in” and you can get the kind of effort Bills kids give. Coach with enthusiasm and intensity and lead by example, you can teach work ethic. As Coach Powers showed, there are some concepts that are universal to both youth and High School football teams, it’s up to you if you decide to apply them or not.

Many thanks to Bill Powers for spending the time with me to help me understand how they achieved this remarkable turnaround, so other coaches out there can help their kids have a much more enjoyable season. He is the finest, best of luck to him and the Jupiter Christian kids this year with the brutal schedule ahead of them.

Here are some clips of Bill’s son Will Powers and the Jupiter Christian Eagles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BvtjYIhUKk

Copyright 2009 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. Republishing allowed if links are kept intact. For 400 Free Youth Football Coaching Tips or to Subscribe to Dave’s free Youth Football Coaching Tips Newsletter go to : http://winningyouthfootball.com

Boyd Epley, is often considered to be the “godfather” of modern strength and speed training for football. Boyd has published many articles on proper weight and speed training for young men age 10-14 as well as the college kids. I’ve spoken at the same clinics as Boyd, his presentations are always off the charts. My hands always get tired from writing so many notes, when I attend his sessions.

I first met Boyd in 1990, he is a class act. I’ve had the pleasure of talking with Boyd fairly in depth in this off-season about youth strength and athletic development both in person and via phone and e-mail. This article spells out his thoughts and everything he professes in this article can be applied to youth football as well.

Published Tuesday May 19, 2009

Q & A with Boyd Epley: ‘Tailor athletes’ training’
BY DIRK CHATELAIN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The thought of offensive linemen sweating on a treadmill sends Boyd Epley into a tizzy. But we’ll get to that in a moment.

Epley, the architect of Husker Power, guided Nebraska strength and conditioning for 34 years. After helping design the Tom and Nancy Osborne Complex, he left NU in 2006.

He moved to Colorado to work as director of coaching performance for the National Strength and Conditioning Association, which he started in 1978. Epley, who turns 62 next month, has shifted focus to high school athletes.

“I still have a lot of gas in the tank.”

Epley visited Omaha during the weekend to speak at a strength and conditioning conference. In a World-Herald interview, he offered opinions on a range of issues: the Husker strength program under James Dobson, Creighton strength coach Zach Duval, the departure of Steve Pederson and Dave Kennedy and what he perceives as widespread problems in athletic training.

That’s where we start:

Epley: “One of the things that made Nebraska successful, which is a little controversial, is running. We did not run as often or as far as a lot of people do. Sport coaches tend to overdo that. They do it for mental toughness, for whatever reason. But the way the body works and the way the game of football is played, there’s need for recovery after each play. There’s a burst during the play and then a recovery period.

“The body has an energy system that has three parts. The part that football uses only has about six or eight seconds of fuel. So during the rest period of a football game, the tank refills so that you have full power on the next play. If you train football players properly, they will have a great burst, then great recovery and be fully ready for the next play.

“Some coaches don’t do that. They decide that aerobic training is what they want to do. They switch to a completely different energy system. The athletes have to pace themselves. They don’t get recovered. They don’t have strength or power in the fourth quarter.

“Coaches, new or old, don’t understand how the energy systems work. That’s kind of an epidemic.”

(Before Epley goes on, it’s worth noting that Kennedy, who oversaw football strength and conditioning during the Bill Callahan era, strongly emphasized long-distance running.

Among Kennedy’s workouts, each player had to complete a timed two-mile run during summer conditioning. According to former Husker Jake Andersen in 2007, they ran 13 200-yard dashes in a day. In 2004, Le Kevin Smith said: “Coach K has run us severely. I’ve heard stuff from people I know around the country, and it’s a joke compared to us.”

Kennedy did not immediately return a message left for him on Monday.)

Q: What other sports does burst and recovery affect?

Epley: “Volleyball ­— when do you ever run more than two steps? Baseball is really a burst sport. Shot putting. Yet we have coaches that are reading your newspaper that are out running their linemen and shot putters and high jumpers and people like that 1½ or two miles at a time.

“I would recommend that the NCAA make a new rule that says: Coaches need to train their athletes in the correct energy system. If they had a rule like that, it would force coaches to learn what energy systems are, and it would protect the athlete.

There’s a researcher, Dr. Greg Haff, at West Virginia medical school. Basically, he boils it down to: Any distance running will just almost destroy your strength and power. On the other hand, any strength training will immediately help your endurance. … So any strength helps an endurance athlete. Any endurance destroys a power athlete.”

Q: What did you notice about the strength and conditioning program under Kennedy, who has since moved on to Texas A&M, and Bill Callahan, now with the New York Jets?

Epley: “There were some things that needed to be changed, but it wasn’t my role to change them. It was (Kennedy’s) program. There were some things I would’ve changed, but those things were probably better left unsaid.”

Q: You’ve turned toward helping high school coaches and athletes. Be more specific.

Epley: “I’m working on a 12-week template for coaches for summer conditioning and also an 18-week curriculum for physical education classes. … Right now, a lot of high schools are a little off track.

“They may have one or two good supervisors at a high school, but there may be six or seven that are involved in physical education or weight training classes that really don’t have the background. They aren’t certified or they just haven’t had the training. As a result, students are on programs that, who knows what’s going on?”

Q: What would you emphasize to high school strength coaches?

Epley: “We have some people who are so concerned about how much weight a student can lift that it puts undue stress on their back. We’ve seen some injuries in Omaha in high schools where the focus is on how much weight you can lift …

“When we’re talking about athletes, we’re talking about improving performance, not a focus on improving how much weight you can lift. That’s where some of our young strength coaches are. They get too focused on how much weight is involved.”

Q: What is another problem you see in regard to strength and conditioning?

Epley: “We’ve focused on 40-yard dash all these years. Actually, 10-yard dash is much more important in identifying talent. Coaches are just hung up on what they’ve always done. If you don’t beat an athlete in the first few steps, it doesn’t matter what your 40 time is.”

Q: You worked three years for Steve Pederson — not in strength and conditioning, but in facility improvement. Describe your relationship with Pederson.

Epley: “Steve was my friend. I liked Steve. I think Steve was one of the most creative people I’ve ever been around. No matter what big idea I would bring to him, he would always seem to make it a little bit better.

“An example: the names etched in marble in the entryway of the Osborne Complex. I had those scheduled to be on the second floor of the complex, so people during games would be able to see them. He moved them to the entry of the lobby, right by the waterfall. … He just had a knack for making things very impressive.

“Now he made some bad decisions, maybe hired some people that were the wrong people for Nebraska. He’s gotten a bad rap, and there’s a lot of people that don’t like Steve. … Whether people like it or not, a lot of things he put into place are still being used today. He did a lot of good things for the state of Nebraska.”

Q: What do you think of the changes at NU since you left?

Epley: “I was very happy to see Tom Osborne named athletic director. The word I used then was ‘healing.’ The state needed Tom Osborne.”

Q: Did you have an opportunity to return to NU after Osborne returned?

Epley: “Coach Osborne and I did have discussions … but it was more what I would recommend and who would I recommend. We went over a list of (strength and conditioning) candidates, and we discussed who might be best for Nebraska … but once Coach (Bo) Pelini came, he made the decision on who they would hire for strength coach.”

Q: You hadn’t met James Dobson before he was hired as strength and conditioning coach at Nebraska. What do you think of him?

Epley: “I think he’s young and energetic. His philosophy is very good. It looks like Nebraska is back on track …

“I don’t follow it as closely as you might think. If I was to try to tell you what they’re doing, I’d be wrong because I’d be guessing. … But when you win nine games, that’s a pretty good indication that things are going in the right direction.”

Q: You’ve created a strength and conditioning tree that stretches across the country. What’s it like to see guys like Zach Duval, Creighton’s strength and conditioning coach and a protégé of yours, finding success?

Epley: “It’s an ego thing. It’s like watching your children. I saw Zach grow up. His father, Rick, was the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator at Nebraska. When Zach was 11 or 12 years old, he got one of my books and he got confused on one of the warm-up drills. He asked his dad if he could come and ask me how to do it properly.

“I was in the fieldhouse one day and he had it all screwed up — probably because I didn’t write it very clearly. He is a guy who probably lived the Nebraska (strength and conditioning) program more closely than anybody. He did it as he grew up.”

Coaching Against Press Coverage In Youth Football

How do you defeat press coverage when coaching youth football? Most non-select teams in youth football do not play press coverage with their defensive backs, as it requires very physical and athletic corners. Press coverage almost always has the defensive backs right in the face of your receivers, with the defensive backs playing very physical, they will try to get their hands on your receivers and try to jam them up at the line of scrimmage. You may run into a team or two a season that may run press coverage part of the time or if you go play in a tournament, you may see a stacked team run press coverage all of the time. In either case if you are a good coach, you want to be prepared.

Press coverage is almost always man coverage in youth football. Remember this isn’t the NFL, a defensive back can put his hands on the receiver as long as the ball is not in the air and until the receiver has made it evident he is no longer a potential blocker ( after he is behind the defender). If you throw a lot of timing routes like slants, arrows, short hitches and screens, press coverage often completely disrupts the timing and effectiveness of these plays. On longer routes the defensive strategy is to take receivers off their route paths and slow them down, giving the blitzing linebackers more time to sack the quarterback before the receiver can get open or to his spot.

Beating It

To beat press coverage, you have to create space between your receiver and the defender. Space gives your receivers an opportunity to make a move and put additional space between themselves and the defender before the press contact can be made. You do this by alignment, making sure your primary threat receivers are off the line of scrimmage by putting him in a flanker, slot or wing position. The most effective way to put space between your receivers and press coverage is to then put your biggest threat receiver in motion. The motion creates additional space and if you motion under another receiver or even across the formation, the defenders often have to switch man assignments, creating havoc and creating space for your other receivers as the defense realigns.

Other Solutions

Another way to counteract man press coverage is by technique. If a receiver wants to get outside, he can use a swim move to get by the defender. If he wants to go inside he can use a rip move, if he wants to run over or go to either side of the defender he can also use a club move. If you have a dominant athletic pass catcher and the defender is less physical than your man, these are effective techniques to beat press coverage. Even if the defender is physical, he may tire of having his forearms clubbed every time he tries to put his hands on your receiver. I’ve seen defenders completely stop putting their hands on receivers after getting clubbed a few times in a row.

The Shallow

Against press coverage teams you always want to take vertical shots downfield early as well as run “shallow” routes. Shallow routes are routes where the receiver runs parallel to the line of scrimmage at the heels of the defensive linemen and across the formation to the other side. We often match this with slants from both receivers from the opposite side, to create a wide open short zone we can hit the shallow receiver on, on the run. That type of route is usually wide open versus teams that use press coverage, as those teams often like to blitz linebackers as well. Just run to that open space and make them pay for the blitz with a pass that hits very quickly and usually has some nice yards after catch possibilities. The shallow is extremely effective using motion towards the quarterback.

While we could use some of these concepts out of our base set, we usually run them out of our Spread Single Wing set, the one we use to run the Jet Series out of. Obviously you could adapt these concepts into nearly any offense.

This is something you want to work on as the season progresses because eventually you are going to run into a team that has the kids to employ press coverage. Our jobs as coaches is to make sure we put our kids are into a position to succeed.

Copyright 2009 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. Republishing allowed if links are kept intact. For 400 Free Youth Football Coaching Tips or to Subscribe to Dave’s free Youth Football Coaching Tips Newsletter go to : http://winningyouthfootball.com

Unfortunately the world of youth football today is often driven by politics. In the last two weeks I’ve had four different coaches share with me their frustrating stories. In every case these coaches were putting up with incompetent, ego driven “coaches” or administrators that were more concerned with their own coaching reputation than they were with the best interest of the boys playing the game.

Where Else But Youth Football?

I’m not sure there is any other field in life where someone that has had constant and even horrific failure feels they are somehow an expert. Does the architect of buildings that consistently fall down offer advice to other architects whose designs have won national awards and have never crumbled? Does the mutual fund manager whose fund has gone down in each of the past 10 years offer buy advice to Warren Buffet?  Does the owner of 3 failed restaurants offer his recipes to Bobby Flay? Of course not, none of these people have any credibility or would have the gall to do so, they would be laughed out of the room. BUT the consistent failure in youth football, seems to love to give unsolicited advice, and especially to those that are doing well.

Recent Examples

Last week I had a youth coach e-mail me, his team had gone 8-1 last year, all of his players decided to come back and his parents loved him. He was being hassled by an administrator in his league who has not coached a winning team in his last 10 seasons. Last year in fact, this administrators team scored just 3 touchdowns for the season and in several of the games, they didn’t even record a single first down. He ended up losing over a third of his team.  Yet this admin person felt he had the expertise to offer advice to the 8-1 coach about his X’s and O’s and practice methodology.

Another coach, let’s call him Don, e-mailed me last week about his organizations teams. Last season they had 6 teams entered in their league and they won a grand total of 3 games, 1 of which was by forfeit. Don said he wasn’t sure if any team in this organization has had a winning record in the last 3 years and he said they were having huge problems with retention. But when Don suggested the organization consider making some changes in X’s and O’s and priorities, he was told, “nothings wrong with the way we are doing things now”, that the system Don was suggesting they consider “would never work”.

Yet Again

Another coach told me about him taking a perennial loser and going from worst to nearly first last year, finishing at 7-1 and going to the playoffs for the first time in 4 years, while all the other teams in the organization finished below .500 and sat home during the playoffs. He was told he “got lucky” and his system would never work next year after the other teams were used to seeing it.

How can anyone that has consistently failed try and tell someone that has succeeded they are doing something wrong and do it with a straight face? I realize it is human nature these days to try and minimize ones failings, but do these guys realize how insane crazy they sound?

You Are Right

Know that if your kids are all coming back every year, your team is competitive and your kids block and tackle well, all is right in the world. Teams with the best fundamentals and practice priorities win in youth football. Realize that when someone chalks your teams success up to luck, one good player, weaker division that year, new novel offense blah blah blah blah it is just the failing coaches way of trying to make himself feel better about his lack of coaching success. It is the “new” American way, make excuses about your lack of success and minimize others who have had success.  Then put huge obstacles and special rules in place that have nothing to do with making the game or the league better, but give unreasonable and unwarranted advantages to the failing coach.

The absurdity of it all is revolting to most of us gown-ups with common sense. Sure anyone can have that “perfect storm” and have a bad season, but how can someone that consistently loses feel he has the competence to guide others that have had success? Just know that the green eyed monster of jealousy will nearly always raise its ugly head once you have succeed where others have failed.

How The Excuse Maker Coach Can Help Us

Let’s not pooh-pooh these blowhards just yet. You can learn from them, think about what they do and do the exact opposite, because if everything they do is wrong, the exact opposite would be right wouldn’t it? This video clip may help you understand it better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODdW_Xxyj2g

I’m never rude to these guys, unfortunately most of them are too proud and set in their ways to admit failure or to take any advice from anyone. Just be nice, smile and feel bad for the kids playing for them. They remind me of one of those really bad and clueless American Idol singers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEh4P56VsQE&feature=related

 The losing coach telling you how to coach is like this superhero telling Paula how to sing or Simon how to judge. It’s bizzaro world.

More Detail on the Stalk Block

One of the more difficult blocks to master for receivers is the stalk block, but with some simple coaching points and drills, you can get your players to execute it fairly consistently. The stalk block is a block on a defensive back by a receiver or slot with the goal being to keep the defensive back out of the path of the ballcarrier. Some coaches just like to have the blocker shield the defender from the ball carrier, others like coach Ron Brown likes his kids to drive the defender after contact.

In youth football blocking in space is what separates the good teams from the great teams. The stalk block is often the difference between an 8 yard gain and a 25 yard gain. It is 70% attitude and commitment and 30% technique.

How It’s Done

The first step is to take the correct angle for the stalk block to make sure and gain leverage. If the defender is to the receivers outside shoulder, the receiver attacks the defenders inside shoulder. If the defender is to the receivers inside shoulder, he attacks the defenders outside shoulder. If the play is on the other side of the field, the receiver must take a shallow angle and attack the defenders inside shoulder.

Secondly the receiver needs to keep a 3 yard cushion with the defender as he runs his “route”. The receivers first steps have to be at full speed to get the defender to think pass first and to get the defender to backpedal. The longer you can keep that defender backpedaling the more distance you put between him and the ball carrier.

The Cushion Limit

Once the cushion between the receiver and the defender gets to be shorter than 3 yards, the receiver needs to slow down, gather himself and position himself to block the defender. He should lower his butt, keep his knees bent and be ready to move to either side with his feet moving. Some people call this buzzing the feet, what this does is makes sure the receiver has his feet moving to insure he is able to engage the defender.

Make the defender come to the receiver and commit to a direction. At this point the receiver can use whatever blocking technique your offense is committed to in space. Some prefer the receiver to contact with hands and release, reposition contact and release, others are just looking for a “pick” type block, they just want the receiver to get in the way. We like our receivers to maintain contact once they have engaged the defender. We don’t look for him to drive the defender downfield, but we do expect him to stay engaged with a both hands and a bit of the shoulders, making sure not to get outflanked.

The Feet

Obviously feet are the key to this block. We do plenty of mirror type drills with defenders going against receivers, often with the receivers putting their hands behind their backs. The goal is to never get outflanked using quick feet to stay in front of the defender. We also do lots of defensive back read and react drills. We put receivers one on one with defensive backs, the receiver is signaled to down block, stalk block, run a smoke, go, slant or arrow. Obviously we are working both sides of the ball on this drill and get plenty of stalk block reps with our receivers live on defensive backs.

While this is a more difficult block because of the space issue, if the receiver sells the pass route and uses these techniques and drills, it is a doable block in youth football. Make sure and hold your receivers accountable for making this block. I tell my kids that they will never see the ball if they don’t consistently stalk block well. Remember with the exception of Texas and Massachusetts, this block has to be above the waist.

Copyright 2009 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. Republishing allowed if links are kept intact. For 400 Free Youth Football Coaching Tips or to Subscribe to Dave’s free Youth Football Coaching Tips Newsletter go to : http://winningyouthfootball.com