What are the mst cmmn mistakes yuth-ftball caches make? by Jhn T. Reed Cpyright 1999, 2000, 2001 Jhn T. Reed Order Frm Caching hme page Having any assistant caches wh are nt yur brther, sister, sn, father, spuse, r ther clse relative r lngtime persnal friend. Abut 95% f yuth ftball head caches make this mistake. If yu have assistant caches wh played ftball in high schl r cllege and wh have kids n the team, mst f them will argue endlessly with yu abut everything. The dissenters will ften g against yur instructins when yur back is turned. Mst will bad muth yu t their sn and t the ther parents n the team. If yu miss a practice r game, these men will put in the systems and plays they want and abandn yur apprach while yu are away. If yu stand firm against sme change they want, sme will g t the bard and try t get them t rder yu t d it yur assistants way r t get yu fired. Read my lips. N assistants wh are nt trusted relatives, prven in past caching with yu, r lngtime clse persnal friends. See my cach staff size article. Wasting practice time n cnditining and lw-pririty drills. An efficient practice with minimal standing-arund time will take care f cnditining better than pure cnditining drills like calisthenics, gassers, running the stadium steps, grass drills, and the like. Because f limited practice time and players usually ging bth ways, yuth caches can rarely find time fr drills. Teaching assignments and making sure each player knws them takes pririty and cnsumes almst all practice time, especially early in the seasn. Subjecting players t sadistic ftball rituals like leg raises r bull in the ring in the name f cnditining r tughening. The real reasn is t let middle aged men impress kids with hw tugh the middle-aged men were when they were kids. I shuld sell tee shirts that say, the lder my cach gets, the better he was and the mre blivius he becmes t hw little we care t yuth players Taking mre than 20 t 30 secnds per play in practice. The typical yuth ftball practice features caches talking fr three t five minutes between each play while the players stand arund listening r staring int space. Nt wrking ut the details f blcking assignments against varius defenses and making sure the players knw them. Failing t give centers, lng snappers, hlders, passers, and ptin quarterbacks enugh reps s they can master their assigned skill. Failure t use the best athlete n the team as the place-kick hlder. Failing t insist that linemen stay lwer than their line ppnent. 100% platning, that is, prhibiting any players frm playing bth ffense and defense. The best 11 shuld be n the field as much as permitted. Typically, that means abut seven guys g bth ways and yu nly platn abut fur each n ffense and defense
Failing t hld a parent meeting at which yu explain yur ffensive and defensive schemes and plicies n psitin assignments and playing time. Failing t practice and perfect administrative duties like getting substitutes in and ut f the game n time. Neglecting t spend at least 15 minutes n each f the six special teams per week. Ignring the need t teach and practice clck-management techniques. Killing their wn drives by thrwing incmplete passes r interceptins. Varying the snap cunt (r even having a snap cunt), thereby causing false starts, which, in turn, result in punting away pssessin f the ball n the series in which the false start ccurred. Failing t fix bvius prblems like repeated fumbled handffs r incmplete passes. Giving prestigius psitins ut n the basis f neptism rather than ability and team need. Putting all gd players in the backfield r at wide receiver and all weak players n the line. Failing t insist n ten minutes per practice f perfectly executed frm tackling. Failing t insist that kickff and punt returners catch the kick in the air. Failing t scut upcming ppnents. Running practice scrimmages against yur wn ffense and defense. The ne team I guarantee yu will nt face during the seasn is yur wn. Yu shuld never run yur ffense against yur defense. I am talking abut the scheme, nt the persnnel. When yu are practicing ffense, have yur defense line up in the upcming ppnent s defense, nt yurs. Ditt when yu are practing defense. Have yur ffense line up in the upcming ppnent s frmatins and run their plays. Failing t videtape all games and sme practices, identify prblem areas, and fix them. Putting undisciplined gd athletes at cntain n defense instead f disciplined players. Kicking ff and punting t the ppnents best running backs. Letting receivers backpedal r d 360-degree spins when trying t catch lng passes. Just run under it. Letting players hit full speed and tackle t the grund in practice. A mnth r tw f full-speed hitting is necessary t get rkies ver their fear f hitting. Veterans needs t shw the rkies what hitting lks like and feels like. One r tw sessins f full-speed hitting are als necessary t ascertain which players belng in the ffensive and defensive line and wh wants t make tackles. But full-speed hitting shuld generally be eliminated frm practice by the end f the secnd mnth. Accepting penalties as an inevitable part f ftball, r, wrse, as a welcme sign f aggressiveness. Yu will generally be frced t punt r turn the ball ver n dwns in the same series that yu draw a penalty n ffense. On defense, penalties enable an ppnent wh was abut t have t punt t yu t keep the ball fr fur mre dwns.
Having t many plays, frmatins, and defenses. Yu shuld have abut fur t twelve plays (the lder the players, the mre plays), ne r tw ffensive frmatins, and ne r tw defenses. Yu d nt need mre and it will be a bear just t teach that many. Failing t give yur defense enugh practice stpping the mst difficult plays: sweep, reverse, fake reverse, cunter, slant pass, halfback pass. Substituting minimum-play players as an entire 11-man unit (usually with a nn-minimum-play quarterback and running back). Minimum-play players shuld nly be substituted ne at a time at flanker (split end if yu are using a full-huse backfield ffense like the duble-wing r wishbne) n ffense r interir line n defense. An entire ffensive unit f minimum-play players will almst invariably g three and ut, ften lsing yards in the prcess. Yu nly get 6 t 10 pssessins a game. An all-mpp defense ften gives up a tuchdwn n its first play. Assigning the mst junir, inexperienced cach t the ffensive line. That was my first assignment when I first started caching. In my final years, I als cached the ffensive line myself as head cach, but then I did it because I had figured ut that it is the mst imprtant unit and the ne mst in need f caching. Thinking that if the players des it, I must drill it. Very few things need t be drilled. See my article n drills. Lking fr excuses fr lsing instead f trying t find ways t win. I am starting a cllectin f yuth-ftball-cach excuses fr lsing. If yu have heard ne nt included in this list, please send it t me. \
Yuth-ftball-cach excuses fr lsing We re slwer than ther teams Our kids have nt been tughened by living in a highcrime neighbrhd We have t much recruiting cmpetitin frm sccer in ur area We re t small I have t many kids wh are n Ritalin We dn t have a winning traditin We are a 13-year-ld team in a Jewish area and many players miss many Saturday games t attend their wn r each ther s Bar Mitzvahs (Sunds like a legit excuse. I just thught it was interesting. And yu thught yu had prblems!) what d yu expect frm a bunch f mamma's by's that have never gtten int a fight befre... Never say r tlerate statements which fllw the frmat: We have n hpe f winning because f the fllwing facts which are utside f ur cntrl:. Either fcus n finding ways t win amng the things which are in yur cntrl r get ut f the way and let smene else d it. I attended several yuth practices just t bserve. Except fr visiting the practices f a fur-time Pp Warner wrld champin cach, I have nt been t anther cach s yuth practice since 1989. I was appalled. My impressin is that the vast majrity f yuth caches have n clue what they are ding. What they d appears t be a crude recreatin f their high-schl r cllege ftball prgram, nly they frgt the nitty-gritty details. All they remember are the daily rituals like cnditining and drills. They mimic the way ftball caches used t talk thirty years ag, sputing tugh-guy clichés right and left. Ya gtta stick yer nse in there! r Lay the wd n im! They run cnditining drills whse main purpse appears t be t cause the players t feel pain and wish the drill was ver. They run ftball-related drills heedless f whether any f their plays r defenses calls fr the skill being practiced r whether the players have already mastered the skill in questin. They run excruciatingly slw scrimmage perids where the team might run five plays in twenty minutes. They are blind t the fact that half their players d nt knw their blcking assignments and mve n t the next play even thugh the last ne was a disaster.
At pre-seasn ftball camps, players ften put n an end-f-camp skit in which they impersnate their varius caches. The typical yuth-ftball practice truly bears mre resemblance t such skits than it des t a well-cached high-schl r higher level practice. If yu have n training at ftball caching, at least use cmmn sense. Yuth ftball starts with a play, nt with cnditining r drills r fundamentals. Put in yur first play first. Then, run it and see if it is ging smthly. If the center and quarterback fumble the snap, which they will, they need t step aside and practice that. If a handff is being fumbled, the persnnel in questin must step aside and practice that. Set up a scut defense and walk thrugh the play ver and ver until every single ffensive player is abslutely sure whm he blcks against each ptential defense. Finally, run it live against a scut defense and watch clsely. When there is a breakdwn, find ut what caused it befre yu prceed. Fix that prblem immediately. It may require a different player in a key psitin, r a drill t imprve technique, r a change in the way the play is run. The main pint is put in yur play and perfect it befre yu mve n t the secnd play r defense. That will frce yu t d sme drills and ther caching. But nly d the drills yu are frced t d in rder t make the particular play wrk. N way d yu have time t d generic drills fr n reasn ther than yu did them when yu were in high schl. Gd luck, Jhn T. Reed Jhn T. Reed, a.k.a. Jhn Reed, Jack Reed, 342 Bryan Drive, Alam, CA 94507, Vice: 925-820-7262, Fax: 925-820-1259, Email: jhnreed@jhntreed.cm