My son Bear needs a new set of shoulder pads, so I have been looking at all the shoulder pad possibilities.  I found the Football Shoulder Pads site run by Williams Sports Group LLC.  They have been selling Pads to the Florida Gators for years and recently patented some air flow technology. 

I really like the Williams pads and will be ordering the Williams WJS-22 Pads for running backs.  My son plays QB and blocks / runs more than usual in our Spin and Single Wing offensive formations and Williams suggested the running back pads. 

On the phone today with Williams, we had an interesting conversation about fitting youth shoulder pads.  They said you really need to fit them properly so you do not break your collar bone.  Here’s a video that does a pretty good job describing how to fit shoulder pads..

Also here are a few other resources about properly fitting youth football should pads

1. Hit Run Sports – Shoulder Pad Fitting
2. USA Football – Proper Shoulder Pad Fit
3. Sports Depot – Fitting Shoulder Pads

Good luck this season.

Back in February I started reviewing team websites.  These websites allow you to manage your team and communication.  I narrowed my review down to 2 website solutions

1. http://www.teamzonesports.com/
2. http://www.teampages.com

I really like both website solutions but I chose TeamZone Sports because of its price.  It is free. 

I have been using TeamZone Sports for my son’s baseball team over the last few months and can’t find a reason not to use it.  Sure there are a few cliches like the cell phone text tool not sending a complete message but 99% of the time it does what it needs to do. 

If you are not a web programmer or a techno I think TeamZone Sports is a great solution for a youth team website.  And even if you are a techno wizard, you’ll probably find TeamZone Sports a fun package. 

Let me know what you think?

One last thing, since Twitter has captured everyone’s eye the last several weeks, I think for a pure real time communication tool, Twitter has its advantages over cell phone texting; history.  Twitter can be set up to use over cell phones like SMS Texting but with Twitter you get a summarized micro blog (history) of your communication to and from the team.  I could see integrating Twitter into my team’s web solution in the neat future. 

Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!

Since my son is playing baseball this year, I visited John Reed’s site the other day to read a few of his baseball articles and order his baseball book.  Coach Reed’s football books and articles are great, and I wanted to see what he had to say about baseball.   I read through his baseball articles and Coach Reed recommended a book by H. A. Dorfman, The Mental Game of Baseball.  I picked up Dorfman’s book last night and read all 300 pages in one sitting.  It was that good.  The book is about baseball but the sports psychology in the book can be used for any sport.  There are also many football examples in the book too.  This is a must read for any youth coach.

One of the paragraphs I keep coming back to is…  “The body tends to do what it hears most clearly; the mind tells the body what it sees most clearly.  So, thinking about what you don’t want to happen greatly increases the chance it WILL happen.”  This happen to my team two years ago.  Before a game I told my team I dreamed we fumbled a ton during the upcoming came and told them do not fumble the ball.  Protect the ball.  We fumbled the ball 5 times during that game.  Because of what I said, I set my players up to fumble. 

 According to the book, a leading sports psychologist believes, “the difference between two (high performance) athletes is 20% physical and 80% mental.”  If this is true, as coaches we need to be teaching our players how to develop their mental tools. 

I hope you enjoy the book.

Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!

Ok, so I am a web geek, not only do I coach youth football, but I have been  working in the Web / Internet industry since 1994.  When I started coaching youth football again in 2006, I decided to develop a team web site and email communication strategy, since the Internet was entering more and more homes.   I still use my original 2006 Team web site and email strategy today, but I am looking to upgrade. 

I created my first team website  with a HTML editor, MS Frontpage.  The site is very simple.  A HTML editor is almost as simple as using MS Word to develop and update your website.  I also integrated a private Yahoo Group which acts as our email communication tool, calendar, picture gallery and private file area.  What’s nice about the Yahoo Group is that it stores all email communication with the team in a Blog / Forum like feature, and  you can email practice, game, snack reminders from the Calendar to the entire team.  I have found that email is the key communication tool with my teams.  Many parents just do not have time to visit a website, but email works great because it is proactive vs reactive.  If you don’t need a fancy front end to your team site, a simple and FREE Yahoo Group will work just fine. 

Last year, we started taking more video and pictures and the Yahoo Group picture gallery was getting full, so I opened a Pro Flikr account so I could post as much media content as we needed.  You can tag the media public or private depending on what you need.  The Flikr account has really worked out great. 

As you can see, all of my web features are not really integrated into one site.  I have integrated them by developing a HTML website.  I would like to find one solution for a TEAM web site that intregates all my current features into one stand alone solution. 

Web Features that I am looking for in a Team Web Site Builder

1. eMail – Listserve type feature (Historical record)
2. Calendar – eMail reminders
3. Picture / Video  – Upload & Storage
4. Roster / Stats Features
5. Customizable Page Templates
6. Domain Name Use / Upgrade
7. Public / Private Membership
8. Polls
9. Fundraising Capabilities
10. Private File Storage (Playbooks)
11. Chat / Personal Messaging
12. Blog / Forum / Bulletin Board

My youth football league went to an integrated league solution two years ago.  It has a team feature set.  So I decided to start my quest for a team website with them, League Athletics.  Here’s a list of other team web site builders:

1. http://www.ellistonsport.com
2. http://www.hometeamsonline.com/
3. http://www.eteamz.com
4. http://www.teampages.com
5. http://www.mysportsite.com/
6. http://www.teamsnap.com/
7. http://www.teamlobby.com/
8. http://www.teamopolis.com/
9. http://www.teamsporttech.com
10. http://www.seasonplanner.com/league/
11. http://www.teamzonesports.com/
12. http://www.vicid.com/
13. http://www.hitssports.com
14. http://getmyteamsite.com
15. http://www.leaguerepublic.com/
16. http://www.rosterbot.com/
17. http://www.rosterspots.com/
18. http://www.fullsquad.com
19. http://www.myteamcaptain.com/
20. http://www.tcteams.com

Over the next several months, I will review these sites and post my reviews.  If you have a team builder site that you like, please reply to this post and I will add it to my list.

I did a quick initial review of the above sites today.  I like the following after my initial look. 

1. http://www.teampages.com
2. http://www.teamsnap.com/
3. http://www.teamopolis.com/
4. http://www.teamzonesports.com/

Read the post replies for my initial comments. 

Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!

I just found this great presentation on Outisde Zone Blocking for youth football teams that I wanted to share before I forgot.

http://dscreationsgregorydouble.homestead.com/mahonz_-_outside_zone_blocking.pdf

I have just read through it quickly but looks great for SPIN Sweeps. 

Enjoy.

I have been getting several requests lately for video of our Spin Offense.  We have been running the Spin Offense for two years, 4th and 5th grade youth football.  Here are a few clips. 

The Spin offense has worked great for us.  We run the Spin and a variation of Coach Cisar’s Single Wing offense.  Last season we had a total of 1300 yards rushing and passing.  We had the #1 scoring offense in our youth football Division with close to 300 points in 8 regular season games.  We are a heavily scouted team, since we had the number 2 offense and runner up in playoffs the prior season, and we were still able to achieve a number offense ranking in our little league football Division.

I think the SPIN offense is very simple to learn and easy for youth football players to understand.  And its FUN.  I would even install for a 2nd grade team pee wee team. 

I will post more video in the next few months, so you can see how it works in game situations. 

Play for FUN and Winning is FUNNER!

I received my January 2009 issue of AFM last week and it has one of the best articles on the sweep that I have read; The Fly Guy.  I am also intrigued by the advertisement for Gilman Gear’s King Crab Sled.   Has anyone used on of these?  Another coach and myself could not stop talking about this sled.

The Jan 09 AFM  issue also includes the following articles:

1. The Fly Guy
2. Focal Tackling
3. Myths vs Facts – The A11 Offense One Year Later
4. 30 Stack Pressure Defense
5. The Shotgun Wing-T Bucksweep Series
6. Coverage Adjustments vs 3-Receiver Sets
7. The Trend to Turf

If you’re not reading American Football Monthly, then you must be coaching Soccer.  Subscribe to AFM today. 

Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!

I just wanted to say congrats to the Pittsburgh Steelers for winning the Super Bowl on Sunday.  What a great game!  The Cardinals played their hearts out and had a wonderful season.  I guess the old saying that defense wins Championships is true.

I recently received the 2008 Coaches of Offensive Line Clinic DVDs.  There are 8 DVDs in the 2008 set.  The Mushroom Society graciously sent them to me for review and to share with my youth football league in Arvada, Colorado. 

 The cost of the 2008 Offensive Line Clinic DVD set is $80 plus shipping. After watching the 8 DVDs, this price is a bargain, especially since most coaching DVDs are $40 for a 45 minute video.  You get $300 worth of offensive line coaching video for $80.  Sure these videos are done by NFL & college coaches and may be a little over board for youth football coaches, but there is still a ton of great blocking strategy, drills and skills information that we as pee wee football coaches can tone down and use. 

I love the COOL DVDs.  I rate these a 5+ out of 5 and highly recommend them, especially if you are technical football geek like me.  My birthday is in February, and I am asking my wife to order the complete COOL library of DVDs from 1996 to 2008; 13 years of COOL clinics on 83 DVDs for only $330.  Wow, what a deal!

The 2008 Set includes:

DVD 1 –  Rex Ryan / Defensive Coordinator Baltimore Ravens -
Evaluating the Opponent’s Offensive Line Strength’s & Weaknesses
**How to Defeat Drive, Reach, Down & Double Team Blocks
**Top Pass Rush Techniques-When & Why they are Used

DVD 2  – Pat Flaherty / Offensive Line Coach N.Y. Giants
Run to Win- Schemes, Techniques and Drills used in the Giants Top Runs, Strong and Weak.

DVD3  -    Joe Philbin / Offensive Coordinator / Green Bay Packers
The Packer Outside Zone Play Drill & Techniques with Multiple Personnel Front and Motion Changes

DVD 4  -  John Benton / Offensive Line Coach / Houston Texans
Protections Fundamentals & Drills – Cut Your Sacks in Half

DVD 5  -   Doug Marrone / Offensive Line Coach
New Orleans Saints (#1 NFL Team Fewest Sacks Allowed)
Protections Solid and Slide, Techniques and Drills

DVD 6 -  Clinic Dill Collection
“1 Hour 26 Minutes of Drills to help you for Fall Camp”

DVD 7   -  Chalk Talk Session
“How Linemen use Their Hands, Front and Backside Double Teams and Run Game versus Zone Blitzes”

DVD 8  -  Steve Marshall / Offensive Line Coach / Cleveland Browns
The Unbalanced Run Game vs Odd, Even, and Over Defenses, Drills and Techniques

My favorite DVDs out of the set are the presentations by Doug Marrone, Joe Philbin, and Rex Ryan.  The Friday Night Chalk talk was also very interesting and the Drill DVD was great. 

I could write multiple artciles about the presentations, here are a few quick highlights from the 2008 COOL Clinic Video Set:

1. You can’t coach a player if you don’t know what he is thinking.  Always ask him what did you see?  What should you do now?
2. Your players give back to you what you emphasize.  If you emphasize power you get power, if you emphasize speed you get speed.
3. Your body goes where your eyes are looking.  Get your eyes on your target.  Your target is a specific part of the players body not just a player.
4. Simplicity is the key.  NFL has same offensive line problems as High School.  They level of play is different but problems are same.  KISS
5. Pass Protection has Triangle Reads different for each player
6. Use your hands, they are weapons.  Keep elbows in and protect your chest.
7. You must have personal pride to play offensive line. 
8. Use the word “Hook-up” not hold.  We do hook-up inside.
9. Do not stop feet.  Feet must always be moving and low to ground.  Ground provides the power.
10. Get mental reps from players.  Test them.

There is a ton more.  These are some of my favorite highlights and quotes that are quick and simple.  There is certainly a lot more detailed information and for that you should buy the DVDs.   You can purchase the COOL DVDs here.   The next COOL clinic is in Cincinnati in May 2009.  For more information on the 2009 clinic click here. 

As I stated, I rate the 2008 COOL Clinic DVD set a 5 out of 5.  

Play for Fun and Winning is Funner.

I read an article the other day about a High School team that has decided not to Punt on Special Teams.  Based on their stats, they conclude that they have a better opportunity to make a first down vs the gains made by punting.  Since I coach youth football pre-teens, this seems like a pretty good idea, especially since punting at this age group is very risky; snap, blocking, kick / punt, and return coverage. 

Based on our Punt stats from our last season, not punting might be a good option for us.  We only netted about 10 yards from our punt team.  Our net yards per play were 5+ for the regular season.  I sent the Punting article to my other coaches, and they agree.  Not punting is a legitimate strategy for our team. 

I’ve been strategizing if not punting within the 10 makes sense.  Should you take the safety and kick-off or should you go for it and hope your defense can hold within the 10 if you do not make the 1st down?  I am thinking that within the 5 and 5+ yards to go maybe we take the safety.  We are consistent making two point conversions so we could make up the difference for a saftey.  If we are outside the 5 and less then 7+ to go we should go for it on 4th down.   Within the 10 is my only sticking point with not punting for an entire game.

Let me know if you would punt inside the 10 or go for it. Or would you always punt on 4th down no matter where you are on the field?

Play for Fun and Winning is Funner.