Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Flag Football Coaching Advice

I got nominated to be the coach of a first and second grade flag football team. It is 8 on 8 with a coach, probably me, as QB. Any advice for defense formations, offensive formations, and offensive plays.

There are websites with that info.
At that level you give it to the fastest kid and try to get outside and turn the corner.
On defense you try not to let them get outside.

Best of luck...

At first grade it's more like "whomever gets the flag from the kid with the ball gets a free Popsicle..!"

If you're going to run plays, keep the playbook very limited and very simple. Run everything out of one or two formations at the most. Most of all, teach basics, and let the kids have some fun. On defense, teach the kids how to move to the ball, play with their heads up, and once again, have fun. I'm not a big fan of flag football, as they don't learn tackling skills, but I see it's benefit at this age level too.

I'll tell you what my brother told me when I got drafted to coach the same age kids, different sport though.

What you are about to do is similar to herding cats. Be patient. Break your practices up into different groups with other parents' help so you keep the groups small when you are practicing a drill or skill. This limits the stand-around time which is the worse thing that can happen to a little kid participating in a sport. It also allows you to rotate groups between different drills, again to minimize boredom.

Keep it fun for them. One thing I have seen used somewhat with success is to have the kids compete against parents occasionally on a drill, race etc. Young kids love to see parents participate and they love competing against them. Challenge them with prospective rewards if they do the drill well, improve from the previous time, or better than the parents can.

Good luck and good on you. Coaches are so important in young kids' lives and we need more good coaches who coach for the right reason, to help the kids.

As a coach of a 7 and 8 year old tackle team....teach them how to line up, teach them the right positions and try not to move them to all the positions. There are too many for the kids to learn, how to PROPERLY accept a hand off, and run STRAIGHT, not dance through the line like the RB's do on TV.

We have 4 formations. Split right, split left, lead right, lead left.

Split formations
From these formations, we have a few plays on each one, Rocket rt, (pitch to the right) rocket lt, (p.left) quick pass from each of side of split (3 steps and pass), and wing pass. Split wing runs for pass down field and TE stays put on line and gets the pass.

Lead Formtions

Pretty obvious here. No split wing, and the FB runs off guard either LT or RT.

On Defence,

Teach the kids their positions and make sure they know what it means to "stay home" on their position. At this age level, busted plays are the ones that go for big yards most of the time beause all the kids want to chase the ball. Teach them that isn't how the game is played.

That should get you a good start.

You should also check out "headup.com" and USA Football. Quite a bit of useful youth FB information there.

Very important. Be prepared for the parents who wouldn't step up but now that you have, they know more than you do and feel free to tell you how things should be done at any time.

Just because a parent was a jerk, I never took it out on the kid. But I did tell the parent, every kid gets a chance, but the ones who listen and do what they are told get the best chance. Some parents didn't like that.

On the whole the kids are great and have a much better idea what's going on than the parents. I loved working with the kids. As someone else said, make sure it's fun. But also for many it's there first dose of discipline and learning to follow directions when they are so easily distracted. It's really a balancing act.

True. A number of my kids, both girls in softball and boys in baseball had never really experienced much, if any discipline. Some responded well. Others just so-so. Guy I coached baseball with was a harder nut than me and he didn't accept any bull from the kids. Was a little painful at times for even me to watch.

Most of the girls' parents were not involved at all. The boys' parents were much more involved, sometime to our detriment. Some of the parents did not like the discipline at all. I had a girl quit because she didn't get a lot of playing time which was a direct result of her not attending practice. I didn't lose a minutes worth of sleep over it.

It is really important to set limits and guidelines on the parents right away to avoid the coaching from the sidelines crap.

Good luck.

When I coached football for my son and softball for my daughter, my biggest disappointment was the parents who used it as little more than a baby sitting service. I had one kid on the football team, who would always be the last one to get picked up, and on one occasion we sat there for a full hour after the lights were shut off on the fields waiting for his mom to pick him up. Of course she came from the bar, with another guy, not the kid's dad. It's pretty bad when the 8 year old kids says, "aw, not HIM again!"

Parental participation is a very sensitive topic for me. That experience was the last time I ever tolerated that kind of behavior from the parents. 'Coached several teams after that and the first thing we did on the first night, was send the kids on a brief run with another coach to the end of the park and back, and I handed out a parental code of conduct to all the parents and immediately went over my expectations. Some parents didn't agree, but most did. Those that knew this was part of the "deal either asked to be placed on my teams, or placed elsewhere. I never had any problems with the parents after that in regards to attendance. If you can't make time for your own kids, something's very wrong there.

Your coaching the parents as much as the kids.

I always send home little half sheets of paper at least once a week with info to the parent about what the kids are learning, the proper nomenclature, even little field diagrams with indications of plays. If parents "get it," then the kids will be really easy to coach.

With little kids like that, the biggest problem is "chasing the ball." Don't let them do it. Teach fundamental positions. Teach fundamentals of those positions. The kids will hate it until about halfway through the season when they start winning due to better fundamentals. By the end of the season, if the kids and parents buy into the plan, they will be unbeatable even against superior athletic talent.

Thanks guys and keep the advice coming.

I do have 2 years of 5-7 year old T-ball coaching, so I know what I am into with kids and parents.

I am just uncertain plays and formations. I am thinking about 3 or two formations and calling plays from the huddle. Formations: 1 like a goal line, 1 spread, and one offset.

9 kids on the team and 8 can play on the field. Thinking about trying to put the kids at their individual best positions, using everyone, and slightly favoring the better players.

Football is complicated, these kids are young, and I want it to be fun and competitive.

Yeah, have fun! Seriously! The kids can really learn some good fundamentals about the game from you and your fellow coaches. They can also learn some good life lessons here.

Failure is a part of life and it doesn't have to ruin your day. As a matter of fact, it can be fun and you always learn something about yourself from it.

That's a powerful lesson for them. Teaching them to have fun, work hard, and roll with the punches is foundational. I think that you're going to have a ball (pun intended)with this age group!

Kids are frequently more perceptive than their parents. Too bad bad parents have all those chances to screw them up.

I really like football; it is the flag rules that are throwing me off.

There is a little competitiveness on my part as well. The league has teams that are split up regionally. There are two teams from my/my boy's region. The other team has 5 coaches and the team was built with requests not random or a draft. These guys basically said my boy was not good enough for them. My boy works hard, listens, and can run all day. I will work with him, and we will bring it.

That said I am not going to be the a$$hole coaching kids, honestly...honestly. I am just slightly offended that my boy was not good enough when he outruns all but one in his class in track events. We are not in the clique.

Seen it happen before. When the clique kids move up to open competition it will even out. In the meantime "all" you have to do is outplay them every chance you get. Tough at that age, but it will get better.

You probably know this, but if he is what you say he is, let your boy set the example without you setting him up as the example.

Tell the little boys to never tie the flag to their jock strap. Or, if you do tie it to your jock strap, don't let a fat kid make a diving two handed grab on your flag.

I am not saying my boy is a future superstar. I honestly think he has potential at some sports. He does have respect and listens. His schoolwork is good as well. These other coaches are anointing the varsity starters for 2024.

My boy's biggest issue is drive. When I can get in his head he usually does really well. If I establish a reward system and he starts having fun, he will be motivated.

Show 'em 4 Twinkies with the admonition that whomever hustles the most....gets the Twinkies!!

Give a short dissertation on the meaning of 'HUSTLE'!!

I've coached a fair amount of flag football including at that age level. My experience is 5x5, but so it may be different. However, the comments about the kids chasing the ball are spot on. If you've got a few kids with speed, use a lot of fakes and misdirection and mostly running. I guarrantee the defense will fall for it. (This changes when the kids get older and it becomes almost entirely a passing game and those types of plays take too long to develop.) On defense, teach them to stay home and "try" to teach zone. Put your best player as free safety.

A lot of coaches use their kids to demonstrate everything or be the example because they know, or think they know, that their kid will do it right. All I'm saying is don't overdo it. Eventually the other kids resent it. You should be able to find two or three kids to spread it around with. It builds morale. 10% will never get it regardless of what you do but don't give up on them.