Friday, October 30, 2009

Quarterbacking Fundamental Problems and corrections

When you are working with a young quarterback every minor detail matters. You want to make sure the know the skills to playing the position and how to correct their mistakes. Here is a list of problems your qb might be having and how to correct them:
  • Fumbled snaps- usually mean their hands are seperating. Have them use their bottom hand to apply pressure this will keep the hands connected.
  • Slow off the line- check to see if they are using a false step on the drop back. Try having the qb get under the center pigeon toed. I was taught this technique in college and it helped my drops tremendously.
  • Throwing low- this usually indicates not having a flat front foot or locking out the front knee. Have the front foot land flat by going heel to toe.
  • Throwing High- This could mean throwing elbow dropped, front shoulder tilted up, or back shoulder is tilted down. Keep shoulders level and slightly drop your front shoulder this should help this problem.
  • Throwing behind reciever- means you are stepping at or behind the reciever. You want to point where the receiver is going because you now have a moving target.
Bringing these key points to your players will help them come game time because they will know and feel why mistakes are being made. This will make it where they began to correct themselves and this will make a more productive quarterback.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Ways to use your Fullback


Using your fullback is a great way to gain an advantage at the point of attack. I began playing around with this idea after having offensive tackles that weren't very athletic and couldn't really get out and run when we would run our counters. So what what I began to do was use my fullback instead of tackle to get a better athlete to block athletic Linebackers. Pulling the fullback instead of a tackle could also help seal the backside end from squeezing and disrupting the play from the backside. A good formation to run this out of is a pro weak set with fullback offset weak straddling the inside leg of the tackle. I began using the fullback mainly with the counter, but later started expanding it with our inside zone(IZ) schemes.
There are many possibilities when using the fullback especially if he is one of the better blockers you have you wanna find ways to use his strengths. This is something you can use out of the spread. If you are looking for ways to use this in your spread you should take a look at the University of Florida and Urban Meyer.



Monday, October 26, 2009

Developing A Football Offensive Coaching Philosophy

ADAPTABLE
  • First off I believe whatever system you decide to use you must make sure it is adaptable. You want to make sure the numbering system is flexible enough so plays can be added easily and not cause any confusion. I've coached on teams where there was not any real set passing system or ways of calling passes, so when I would make a suggestion or create a new passing play I had to come up with creative names for the kids to remember.
OPPORTUNITY
  • I have also been around some coaches who wouldn't take advantage of opportunities when a team is weak. I believe one of the best times to attack a defense is after a turnover. This is an opportune time to go for the big play while their morale is down. If you jump on a team when they are weak sometimes they don't recover. You should take advantage of these opportunities because you could possibly keep them out of the game if you put a few scores on them quickly.
STRENGTH
  • When game planning you should find ways you can attack their weakness with your strengths. "Make the defense play your game." This is big when you want to be successful on offense, because once you start playing the defenses game you've already made it difficult for you and your players for that game. You wanna try and keep trying to execute your game plan and try not to stray.
BALANCE
  • Keeping the defense off balance is key to have success as an offense. This doesn't necessarily mean being balanced running and throwing the ball percentage wise because some teams throw the ball more than they run it, but if you look at the successful teams that use this type of system you'll notice they use screens and high percentage passes that act as running plays to keep balance. I believe in order to be successful you need to know how to pass the ball. If you play a good defense and you are one dimensional you make it easier on the defense because they lose that fear of being too aggressive.
SITUATIONAL
  • In order for players to perform consistently in certain situations you must simulate situations in practice especially with younger players. I have seen many times where coaches would get angry at a kid in a game because he reacted wrong to a situation when the athlete was never prepared to face that situation. So, in order to prepare your players put them in situations where the defense might have just guessed right and try to prevent the worse case scenarios. I purposely send a blitz to where I know we are running a play to see if we are able to identify or react to it on the snap.
EXECUTION
  • As a coach you must be able to evaluate your team to know what it is they do well. So many times you see a team running a certain offense because thats what the coach runs when you can see potential in another style of play. You must be able to practice what they do well so they are able to execute. If they are executing properly this then builds morale which is necessary for success. If they are not confident about what happens at practice then there will not be much success during the game.
FORMATIONS
  • The last part of philosophy I'll mention I think is important and a lot of coaches make this mistake is having too many plays. My belief is I would rather have minimal plays but use many different formations. This way you can practice the same plays with repetition while the defense use their practice time preparing for your different formations.