Hustle To The Line!

Having been raised on teams where you were required to run to the huddle and then run (well, jog) from the huddle to your position, it drives me crazy to watch our team break from the huddle and stroll to the line. If I ever become an offensive coordinator or head coach, that is what I am going to teach my boys.

Not just because that’s what I was taught, but because:

1. By practicing it, we increase the tempo of our practices and get more reps in.
2. More reps for your defense in practice, too. Plus it teaches your D to be ready faster.
3. Also more reps in the game, and a faster hurry-up mode.
4. It may intimidate the opposing defenses.
5. It puts your players in the right frame of mind, and gives them a mental edge.
6. It teaches your players good habits.

Enh, maybe I'm making too much of it, but I don’t think it takes that much time to teach your kids to hustle to the line, and I think the time spent teaching it will, at worst, be made up by the extra few reps in practice.

Don’t Be A Control Freak

This morning, on a sweep around the right side, our running back got caught behind the line of scrimmage by about three opposing players. In his futile struggle to resist the growing tide of players converging on him to bring him down, he tossed the ball to his blocking back, who was then free to run 80 yards down the field for a touchdown. Great play!

But was it? The players showed great initiative to turn such a busted play into 6 points, and we all congratulated them for their terrific heads-up play. But what if the toss had been off target – after all he was in the process of being tackled – or if the second RB had missed the ball? We would be getting on his case for trying such a risky maneuver. We had certainly never taught him to do that!

So he took a risk and it paid it off, but it is not a risk we want our players to take, because more often than not, it ends poorly, sometimes in disaster. Should we reward process or results?

If we decide to reward results rather than process, then we send a signal to our players that it is OK to ignore the coaches’ advice (orders) if you think you can do better.

Well, you certainly don't want to punish a player who makes the play but did it by not playing his position correctly. We are not control freaks. So that means you're going to reward (and punish) based on results. That is, you're going to wait to get on your DE’s case about abandoning his containment responsibilities to pursue the play until he gets burned. Which is too late.

But there's no teacher like experience. I think it is OK to let your kids go “off the reservation” now and then, even if it does come back to bite you in the end. Let them experiment. Youth football isn't that important, and the lessons they learn from getting burned in youth football will serve them well when they are older, playing in high school, when their split-second on-field judgement can draw on this experience.

Be forgiving when your kids don't do what they're supposed to. It cuts both ways: sometimes they do the wrong thing and it turns out great, and more often than not, when they do the wrong thing, it turns out badly. Best to make those teachable moments, when you explain to your players what they did wrong and why you tell them to do it differently in the future.

When Should You Take A Knee?

We took a knee this morning on a PAT attempt late in the 4th quarter. It would never have occurred to me to kneel down on a PAT, but that’s because I've never seen it before on TV. I certainly would have taken a knee at the end of a game when we are leading and have the ball, but that's because you see that all the time on TV.

Youth football is not TV football.

So that got me thinking, When, if ever, should you take a knee in youth football?

On Tuesday, we were losing 6-0 in the closing seconds of the game, Robertsdale had the ball. They took a knee, we called our last timeout, and they would be able to run the clock out and take home the W. That’s how TV football works, so I guess we figured that was the script they were working off. And we were OK with that, if a little disappointed in the loss. As it was, that was not the script Robertsdale was working off. They were faking us into thinking they were, and then, on the last play of the game, they ran a wedge play that carried 50 yards before the ball carrier was chased down at the 10. As the coach jogged down the field watching his player run down the field, he was heard muttering, “Icing on the cake, baby. Icing on the cake.” In a league where margin of victory can be a tie-breaker in the playoff seedings, a case could be made for always trying to score – for running up the score for that matter. But our league specifically does not use the score as a tie-breaker (says so in bold print on the standings sheet published every week), presumably to avoid teams running up the score. So it would appear that the opposing team’s plan was pointless. Scoring would not have helped his team any, but it would have made our kids feel bad. What was he trying to teach his kids?

You could make various arguments about teaching your players about never giving up, about never showing mercy, or some such, but I do not find those arguments convincing. People are naturally pretty cruel, and I don't think kids need to be taught to rub in their victories. If the kids are gracious winners, it is not because they are naturally that way, but rather that their parents have taught them that way. Who are you, a volunteer youth football coach, to undermine the teachings of a child’s parents?

So if you're leading and victory is yours, should you kneel down in the final seconds and walk away like they do on TV? Or should you keep playing, knowing that the win or loss is less important than the kids getting more experience? And I mean your subs and MPP’s. If all you're going to do is run your best players, then you're no better than that Robertsdale coach we met last week.

If you do decide to run your subs through a few plays, there are a few landmines you need to avoid: you should not give the appearance of running up the score if you are way ahead. This means conservative high-percentage ball-control plays. If the game is close and you choose not to kneel down on it, emphasize to your subs who are going to run the ball to hold onto the ball at all costs. The last thing you want is for a sub taking his chance to impress the coaches (and his friends and parents) and coughing up the ball to the other team, which then scores a winning TD as time runs out. If you choose not to kneel on the ball in this situation: (1) make sure the ball carriers know the importance of holding onto the ball, and know that the enemy will be doing everything they can to strip the ball; (2) if the worst case comes to pass, make sure everyone knows that it was not the fumbler’s loss, it was the coach’s, who made the conscious decision not to take a knee. Take responsibility for your decision.

This is my opinion: you should never take a knee. The only purpose of the kneel-down is to preserve a victory (unless you're that Robertsdale coach and you're using it to lull your opponent into a false sense of security before you try to run up the score), but there are more important things than winning a youth football game: namely, improving your players. Put on your subs and your MPP’s and let them run some plays. It is not only for their enjoyment, but also (and more importantly) for their experience.

Question: Does this policy change during the playoffs? (Answer: Yes, but not because of the importance of the game, but because playoffs are win-or-go-home. If your objective is to get your players more experience, a win is the best/the only way to do it in this case.)

How To Win Big

(Given the title, this will probably be my most-read blog post, but this article is not about what you think it is about.)

We won this morning 31-0. So when you're up 25-0 late in the 4th, what do you do? We played our subs, our MPP’s (minimum play players); we let players who do not usually carry the ball carry it more. And we still scored a late touchdown. We were not trying to embarrass the other team, but you can't give the ball to a player who does not often get it and tell him not to try; he's needs to impress the coaches to give him more playing time and more carries.

After the touchdown late in the 4th to go up by 31 points, do you try for two? (In our league, you are awarded 2 points for a successful PAT by passing.) Certainly not. But if not, do you go for 1 at least, or is that unsporting? As it was, we took a knee, something I would never have thought of, but it’s a decent thought.

So if I ever have a team of my own, I’ll need to formulate a victory plan. At what point do I start pulling in my MPP’s for more than the minimum? What plays do we run/not run, bearing in mind we want to give our backups experience, but we also do not want to appear to be running up the score. One of the lessons for your players is how to be a gracious winner. You might think of running low-percentage plays (e.g., pass plays) to get your players game experience, but if they’re successful, it looks like you're running up the score. I think, rather than getting your better players practice on your more difficult plays, you are better served getting your subs more game experience with your basic plays.