Skip to main content

Football 101 Part 1: THAT KID

By
Darrin Sheffer

Image result for i have no idea what i'm doing
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing

We all have that one kid, the one who believes he knows everything about football because he watches the NFL, but he doesn't know how to put his knee pads in his game pants.  He is also the same kid that never remembers his assignments on O and D and still complains about not getting playing time.  As coaches we have all had THAT KID, and many of us have had teams full of them.  If you haven't read my post a few months ago 0-8, How A Losing Season Made Me a Better Coach part 2: Never Assume a Players Football IQ please click the link below:


I teach/coach at a school where we have a 60% Hispanic population, not a population of kids who are familiar with American Football.  I coached the freshmen level team last season, we had about 25 kids on our team, only about 6 of them had any significant football background.  So as a team, we basically needed to start at Level Zero: "Good Morning Men, this is a football...".  You might believe I'm joking, but I'm not kidding.  My players had almost 0 football IQ, we had to take time away from learning formations, plays and fundamentals on the field to teach vocabulary and basic rules.  

Image result for football
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/nike-set-to-launch-national-7-on-7-football-league-in-five-major-cities/

As coaches we like to think of ourselves as incredibly knowledgeable in the game of football and believe that we have the best football IQ in our school.  Sometimes it's true, sometimes it isn't.  You may be the smartest X's and O's guru around, but that doesn't mean squat if you can't translate that into your players.  It's something that may coaches, including myself, have taken for granted: HS football players don't know squat about football.  It does not matter if they have played youth football for years or haven't ever strapped on a helmet.  It does not matter if they watch football all weekend or play two hand touch with their buddies all the time.  They still don't truly understand REAL football.  In some cases, especially when you have a high number of these kids it can really hurt your chances of being competitive.  So what can we coaches do about this?  

Image result for classroom
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/decrease-classroom-clutter-increase-creativity-erin-klein

In college if we were planning to take a Chemistry class, we needed to take a lab safety test a week before class started.  If we did not reach at least an 85% on the test we were required to take a two week night course on lab safety basics.  After the class we were to take the test again.  This process continued until everyone passed the test.  What if football coaches did something similar for our HS players?  Something like a Football 101 course where they taught the kids basic things like vocabulary, rules and team specific basics in a classroom setting?  We could even come up with a test that they need to pass before they stop taking this course.  

Would you be interested in learning more about this?  I have lots of ideas of what coaches need to teach their players.  I don't want to make one huge post so I am going to break this post up into a few parts so stay tuned for future posts.  If you have any ideas you want expressed please comment below.  

Stay Obsessed

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quick Screens From Wing-T Offense

Quick Screens from Wing-T Offense By Darrin Sheffer                 When most coaches hear Wing-T Offense they usually don’t think about passing, however there are a few ways that a Wing-T coach can utilize his receivers on the edge.  Delaware Wing-T X-Now Screen One of the simplest ways to attack the boundary using the Wing-T is to use an X-Now Screen or Quick Screen.  Preferably, unless you have a QB with a rocket for an arm, I would rather use this play when the X receiver is to the boundary.  In the case of using the Right Formation we would like to have the ball on the left hash with the X lined up on or just inside of the numbers, this will give the QB a nice easy pass and the X a bit of room to maneuver.  I would teach my X to use the sideline and get as many yards as possible but you might have a different preference on the Now Screen. An idea that you could use...
Post a Comment
Read more

Football 101 In The Classroom Part 1

Football 101 In The Classroom Part 1: Level Zero Vocabulary By Coach Sheffer Hey coaches!  A while back I started a blog series called Football 101 where I stated that coaches should consider teaching their players the basics (vocab, rules, etc.) of the game in the classroom before they get to the field.  Well, I'm back now with some examples of how I would go about teaching the basics of American Football to today's youth. https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1162901 For some background I am a High School Science Teacher at a school with a high number of ESOL (English as a Second Language) students and kids that just plain out don't understand American Football.  I have a few years experience teaching science vocabulary to these students with some success and I would attempt to do the same with the Football vocabulary.   I am attaching a file below called Football 101: Level Zero Vocabulary which you can use however you like.  Don't plan o...
5 comments
Read more

Unconventional Formations #1: Coach Slade Singleton's X/Z Over Formation

By Darrin Sheffer With Contributions by Coach Slade Singleton Twitter: @slade248 Photo provided by Coach Slade Singleton Coach, is your offense... Boring?  Predictable?  Looking to add some spice to your offense?  I suggest you find yourself an Unconventional Formation.  Now understand that I'm not suggesting that you need to find a whole new offensive scheme, I'm just saying you should really be thinking of adding something new and something that not a lot of other coaches have the balls to do.  Some coaches may be afraid that adding something on top of what they already do will ruin their strategy.  What if I told you it didn't need to?  What if I told you that adding ONE unconventional formation won't be too expensive to teach?   I want to first thank Coach Slade Singleton Co Author/ Unlocking The Air Raid DNA (link below) for allowing me to write about one formation that he uses and I just freaking love, his X/...
3 comments
Read more