Hey y'all, I'm about to start my 3rd season of coaching youth football (but my first as head coach) and was wondering if there were any former players/coaches that had any tips/drills to offer.

To our friends from across the pond - the football I am talking about is the kind that requires people coordinated enough to use their hands as well as feet. Feel free to move on to the next post.

I'll be coaching in the Mitey Mites division - kids age from 7 to 9 and the max weight is 90 lbs . I assisted last year in this division but the head coach bailed after he realized that his kid was not cut out for football.

Last year I handled the offense and we started out ok, but then we lost a couple of kids on the O-line (one moved and another got too fat) and it got rough on us, to say the least. We also had a few malcontent kids that didn't make life easy on us (especially since 2 of the kids were other coaches sons).

I'll have a young team (I only have 4 returning 9 year olds from last year) but I know a lot of the kids (I coached some of them as 6 year olds in the flag division) and they are pretty smart and quick, although not big.

Anything y'all can offer will be graciously accepted.

Um what type of offense do you run? I played all throughout high school and was captain ::flexes:: haha. But nothing says discipline like updowns and wind sprints, yet that takes away alot of the fun but into unbelievable shape. 9 year olds too little for the sled? haha. If they are hitting; I say 3/4 speed hitting drills? blocking drills also? You said you have undersized kids. Maybe you should run a wing T of sorts/ if your not already. This adds alot of deception and you can work alot of different formations out of it which facilitates a speedy offense. Just my $.02 i'm quite interested in your feedback.

add oklahoma and box drill if you want to see some 9 year old carnage. What is blood alley?

Hey, thanks guys.

Last year I ran a slightly modified version of the Double Wing. League rules mandate a 6-2 defense and double tight end line on offense. They didn't allow motion on offense either, so it was a very basic double wing. I did have a couple of plays that I'd pull the guards on, but we didn't get to practice them enough to make them as successful as they could have been (see post above about malcontent kids). For the most part at this age it's straight up drive blocking, not something that too many 8 year olds can do well.

I was considering the Power I this year to try and get some isolation to the outside. I'd love to see the look on some corner's face when 3 kids come barrelling toward him on a sweep, hehe. The wishbone is not a bad idea, tho, and would be easier to run up the middle with. Maybe combined with a wedge on the line.

Normal drills I have in mind include up/downs (we called them grass drills when I was a kid), form running (knees high, then kick the butt, then german march, that kinda stuff), but I'm thinking I want something for agility other than the crappy carioca shit.

I like the blood alley idea. We did that last year but either one on one, or sometimes 1 on 1 with a ballcarrier, not 2 on 2 with a RB and LB. Me likey that one.

All practices will end with windsprints, I don't think anything builds speed better than that (combined with the form running stuff).

My favorite practice story from last year:

We had a kid on the team named Chris who was the perfect prototype of a linebacker. He was big, relatively fast, and lived for contact. He was also the perfect team captain, always trying to help out the smaller, younger kids and probably did more for motivating the team than the head coach did.

We also had a kid named Kyle who was the total opposite. Lazy, never listened, and was picking fights with the other kids constantly. Unfortunately, Kyle was the son of one of the other assistants, so this did more to hurt team morale than anything else.

We were doing one on one drills one day and Kyle was being his typical jackass self. He had already taken 2 cheap shots on kids and refused to run laps when the HC tried to reprimand him. I was on the offensive side with my son, Chris, and 9 other kids, while Kyle was on the defensive side. We had 3 cones lined up about 3 yards apart and I would hand the ball off to a kid and he would run the 'tunnel' while one of the defensive kids would have to tackle. We told the offensive kids not to dance around, make one quick move and get by. Nothing crazy, your normal one on one drill.

Kyle had a habit of staying way too high and leaning back when tackling (or, more appropriately, attempting to tackle). Almost every kid could get by him with a quick counter step. When Kyle was up next on D, it was my son's turn on O. I leaned down to him and told him "no moves this time, just run him over". My son looked up at me and smiled and said, "Ok, I'll give it a shot."

Now, you have to realize, that my son James was 8 years old and all of 63 pounds last year, with gear on. Kyle was 9 and probably 80-85. However, anyone that has played football understands that leverage is just as important, if not more so, than weight or strength when it comes to delivering a hit. Luckily for me, James understood this all-important principle.

The first confrontation went something like this: I blew the whistle and slammed the ball into James' midsection. He took about 5 full speed steps straight at the immobile and upright Kyle (he looked something like Gigantor, with his arms spread out), and instead of the normal head fake and cut, James dropped his shoulder right into Kyle's gut and blasted him. He didn't quite lift him off the ground, but he knocked him flat on his back. James stumbled, but kept his balance (partially by planting his hand on Kyle's helmet as he was on his back) and ran right over him. Kyle reached out to grab James' ankle as he went by but missed.

Well, I was pretty happy with the result, to say the least. The other coaches were pretty happy (well, except for Kyle's father). The other kids were pretty happy, too. Kyle, however, wasn't too thrilled. He slowly got up and moved to the back of the line. I yelled over to him that maybe next time he should listen to us and get low. He shot me a nasty look and I just smiled at him. Hehe.

Chris, well, he was REALLY happy about it. So happy, in fact, that he leaned over to me and said, "Hey coach, can I do that to him the next time?" I leaned in close and told him that would be fine by me, and to 'adjust' his position in the line to make sure he would be up against Kyle when the time came.

A few more kids go through, nothing too special. Then it's Chris on O and Kyle on D. Knowing what was coming, I again reminded Kyle that staying low was important. Again, I get the look. Ok, fine, don't say I didn't warn ya, kid.

I blow the whistle, hand off to Chris, and then the rest happened like it was in slow motion. You guys ever see the old highlight of Earl Campbell, when he runs over someone, maybe it was Nolan Cromwell, back in the '70s? How about when Jeremy Shockey of the Giants crumpled some cornerback in his first preseason game? Believe me when I tell you, those hits had NOTHING on the one Chris delivered to Kyle. This was the kind of hit that instructional videos are made of. ESPN would devote an entire episode of 'Jacked Up' around this one. It was such a thing of beauty that I get goose bumps just thinking about it.

Chris had Kyle's toes about a foot off the ground. His arms got knocked back so far that you would have thought his shoulders got dislocated. To add the perfect insult to injury, not only did he blast him like the space shuttle on launch day, but he then stepped on his gut as he ran through him. I almost wet myself, it was that good.

That was pretty much the end of practice for Kyle for that day. He didn't get hurt, other than the wind being knocked out of him (and a cleat mark on his stomach), but he sat for the rest of the day. Needless to say, I and the other coaches all chipped in to get Chris ice cream afterwards.

Man, I can't wait till August 1st.

An awsome hit is definately and awsome hit no matter what age and if some ass gets put in his place for it so much the better.

After reading that post I want to play again so bad. God I miss football.

Be honest with the kids. Tell them that in football, you have to be smart enough to understand the plays and dumb enough to think it is important.

Whatever u choose keep it simple. My first head coaching job was for a brand new league w/ mighty mites. Only 1 player (my son ) had any experience. Neddless to say I was sacred for the kids. I had played but never coached. I ran the single wing which I know is old school. Did this about 4 years ago. We were 5-4 which was respectable. We lost 1st game due to coaching error by me and my offensive coordinator. Called bad play on 4th and 1 middle of fourth quarter. We only ran 7 plays. I loved the unbalanced line which only 1 team adjusted to and beat us. Be prepared for all the kids to have their ups and downs. I commend u for stepping up for this team. Any questions PM me. Be more than happy to talk football. By the way where are you playing?

thanks AA. I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm already getting butterflies, lol.

I am starting to like the single wing idea more and more as I think about it and do some research on it. I also just found out that last year's rule that forced all teams to run a 6-2-3 defense is gone, so I have that to worry about.

There's some good info on www.johntreed.com, he has a pretty cool defensive scheme (based on the old 10-1) and is an advocate of the single wing. I may throw down some cash for his books.

I just found out earlier this evening that I'm getting another player, an 85 pound 9 year old, so that will definitely help.

When I played little league football we ran the power I and used the number based system to call plays. The QB was 1 FB 2 TB3 and HB 4. And the left side of the line was numbed 2,4,6,8 for the gaps between the O-Line and right side was 1,3,5,7. To run the TB to the right the coach would call 35 and the tail back would run offtackle.