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Posted

Signed up to coach my 6 yo sons flag football team this fall.  Will be my first time coaching and his first time playing.

Will be a coed 5v5 team and a mix of first and second graders. 

Any tips?

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

I sound like a softy but I'd make sure everyone got a couple of touches a game. I helped out with my son's a few years back and that's what we did.  Every kid got to walk back to the car and talk about their carry or catches with their family.  It was awesome.   You want to create a love of the game at this age and make them want to sign back up next year.  Plus keeps parents off your back.  

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 1
Posted

Also, let the parents know what's expected of them. Show up and cheer for everyone.  We aren't gonna have any yelling at the refs or coaches.  They're 6. It's not that important 

I had to talk to another dad because he was yelling at a 20 year old kid ref.  He understood.  I think his wife had a talk with him too. No problems after that.  

Have fun.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

I just wrapped coaching a team of second graders.  A few random tips:

1.  Surprisingly common-sense, but buy a whistle.  It gets their attention and you don’t have to raise your voice.  It also gets them familiar with that as the stop-start of play.  
 

2.  Move everyone around.  Kids are going to be asking to play the same positions and you’ll want to try to balance playing time.  
 

3.  Have at least five plays of you can install quickly.  I’m presuming your league lets the coaches remain on the field, so you can have a binder with your plays and help line everyone up.  They need to be super simple (like 3 runs and 2 passes) because the objective early in the season is just to execute.  Fumbles and bad snaps are killers in a game with limited number of possessions.  
 

4.  Later in the season you can do some misdirection and it’ll blow the opposing kids minds.  They just don’t have the years of watching football where they understand zones.  
 

5.  I’ve got two kids that just do not have the maturity to follow instructions and I try to hide them in spots where the responsibilities are simple (I.e., away from the ball like in WR or corner).  
 

6.  Probably of the 10 or so touchdowns that have been scored against us, 8 of them were because the corner let the runner get outside of them and the safety took a bad angle.  I’ve worked with them on that all season and maybe you can do better knowing that going into it.  
 

7.  A huge problem the boys have is taking a handoff at full or 3/4 speed and we induce a lot of negative plays on defense as a result (this is probably the single biggest thing we do well on offense).  In our league your defense can’t cross the line of scrimmage until the ball has moved out of the QB’s hands, and if the runner is taking it and then starting to accelerate he’s going to run into our guys.   
 

On offense we spend 90% of our practice time working on stuff like that-my son says he hates it (he’d rather goof around and play tag) but it’s football, not recess.  

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
4 hours ago, LCHorn said:

I just wrapped coaching a team of second graders.  A few random tips:

1.  Surprisingly common-sense, but buy a whistle.  It gets their attention and you don’t have to raise your voice.  It also gets them familiar with that as the stop-start of play.  
 

2.  Move everyone around.  Kids are going to be asking to play the same positions and you’ll want to try to balance playing time.  
 

3.  Have at least five plays of you can install quickly.  I’m presuming your league lets the coaches remain on the field, so you can have a binder with your plays and help line everyone up.  They need to be super simple (like 3 runs and 2 passes) because the objective early in the season is just to execute.  Fumbles and bad snaps are killers in a game with limited number of possessions.  
 

4.  Later in the season you can do some misdirection and it’ll blow the opposing kids minds.  They just don’t have the years of watching football where they understand zones.  
 

5.  I’ve got two kids that just do not have the maturity to follow instructions and I try to hide them in spots where the responsibilities are simple (I.e., away from the ball like in WR or corner).  
 

6.  Probably of the 10 or so touchdowns that have been scored against us, 8 of them were because the corner let the runner get outside of them and the safety took a bad angle.  I’ve worked with them on that all season and maybe you can do better knowing that going into it.  
 

7.  A huge problem the boys have is taking a handoff at full or 3/4 speed and we induce a lot of negative plays on defense as a result (this is probably the single biggest thing we do well on offense).  In our league your defense can’t cross the line of scrimmage until the ball has moved out of the QB’s hands, and if the runner is taking it and then starting to accelerate he’s going to run into our guys.   
 

On offense we spend 90% of our practice time working on stuff like that-my son says he hates it (he’d rather goof around and play tag) but it’s football, not recess.  

This is great, thank you.  Will def make sure to underscore the respect for refs. Agreed, they are 6 and 7 so no need to get nasty. Honestly, no need at any level.  

Any tips on plays that work well and did you design yourself?  Our league doesn't provide any practice plans or playbooks so curious as to where to start. 

Posted
1 hour ago, EvilCaseMcCoy said:

Will def make sure to underscore the respect for refs

I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that.  The whistle practice is mainly so you don’t have to yell to grab their attention because a group of boys can’t sit still for longer than 5 seconds at a time. 
 

1 hour ago, EvilCaseMcCoy said:

Any tips on plays that work well and did you design yourself? 

Just Google five man football plays and decide on which formation you want to start out of.  You can number the positions or use a letter (like big boy football).  Because you only need a few plays it’s easier to figure out a couple that’ll send most of the defense to one side of the field while you send the ball the other side.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

Typically, every kid has to touch the ball once, but if you really want to be fair, you'll let the kids do more than just that, but a lot of the teams only care about winning and usually hand it off to the fastest kids on their team the most. There may be spots where they have to throw the ball usually within like a couple yards of the goal. If your kids are good at paying attention, a lot of the run plays should be a reverse or even like double reverse to help get them open into space, if not, kids tend to run at each other.

Posted

Typically each kid has to touch the ball once, but you might actually double check what the actual rules are.  That said, there might be a pre-season coach/commissioner/org meeting where some rules are negotiable.  You might be able to get more touches/playing time for each of the kids.  These kinds of things are great because it helps you to figure out which other coaches take it too seriously.  They're easy to pick out if you propose certain things.

Also - with 6 year olds, I think your experience might be night-and-day compared to what @LCHorn had with 2nd graders.  If you successfully get 1 misdirection play out of 6 year olds, you would be coach of the year :)

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

Good luck. I coached basketball for both my son and daughter, baseball (son) and flag football (son). Flag was the worst. Yet somehow I coached 3 separate teams because other parents knew it sucked and no one would step up. My first year was 2nd/3rd coed. It was the only year we had a decent team, yet during one game - a loss, not coincidentally - I counted EIGHT kids on our team that cried. No exaggeration. Only 1 of them was a girl (she cried every week). 

My tip is coach them to use the sidelines on defense as a defender. Do not be that kid that chases the other team to the sidelines and then allows the ball carrier to cut back. My kid was particularly good at doing that. 

Everyone wants the ball, everyone wants to play QB, and then when they go 3 and out or throw a pick, they cry. Especially Mary Jo. 

I'd do it again, though, those are some good and funny memories. 

Coaching hoops and baseball on the other hand was a blast. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

Additional context. Every time my kid played, the seasons I coached and others, he wound up on a team of "randoms". Many/most of the other teams in the league stayed together and moved up together. The coaches all had complex systems that the kids had been running for years. So his teams sucked every year, including the most of the years I coached. Mercied many times. That was a decent part of the reason it was not super fun. 

Posted
On 5/10/2025 at 8:08 PM, Covri said:

Where does this league play? What are the rules?

Found the rules.  Some of note:

Every player must touch the ball 3x.  We must keep a log of their touches.  A snap and accepting the snap do not count.  Must be a run or a target in the passing game.

The QB cannot advance past the line of scrimmage and cannot be moving during a handoff.  I guess so no option plays?

There are no running zone.  Including 5 yards on either side of mid fiend and 5 yards from the goal line.

Defensive players lined up closer than 7 yards presnap cannot pass the line of scrimmage until ball is handed off.  Players lined up further than 7 yards presnap can blitz.

1 coach is allowed on the field during play. 

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
2 hours ago, EvilCaseMcCoy said:

Found the rules.  Some of note:

Every player must touch the ball 3x.  We must keep a log of their touches.  A snap and accepting the snap do not count.  Must be a run or a target in the passing game.

The QB cannot advance past the line of scrimmage and cannot be moving during a handoff.  I guess so no option plays?

There are no running zone.  Including 5 yards on either side of mid fiend and 5 yards from the goal line.

Defensive players lined up closer than 7 yards presnap cannot pass the line of scrimmage until ball is handed off.  Players lined up further than 7 yards presnap can blitz.

1 coach is allowed on the field during play. 

 

These are actually pretty good rules overall. If they enforce the 3x touch even better.

I’ll follow up more with this later, but remind me if I don’t. Running reverses and counters helps spread the kids out on offense. The kids on the defensive line never listen to the no rush rule and it’s rarely enforced unless it’s blatant (in my experience). The kid 7 yards back that can rush should just run chaos up the middle, it’s kindergarten and the kids panic. It’s fun too for the bigger kids who aren’t as fast to just disrupt up the middle.

It’s all about who has the fastest kids end of day. Make sure the slower kids feel used. Talk about winning but don’t focus on it. It’s crazy how many parents and grand parents complain about calls in youth sports. Teach sportsmanship not winning imo.

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
3 hours ago, EvilCaseMcCoy said:

Found the rules.  Some of note:

There are no running zone.

Thank God. Freaking learn how to man block as Darrell Royal and Woody Hayes intended. I don't care if they're 6- never too young to learn how to take on a pulling guard.

  • Haha 1
Posted
16 hours ago, NWBuck said:

Thank God. Freaking learn how to man block as Darrell Royal and Woody Hayes intended. I don't care if they're 6- never too young to learn how to take on a pulling guard.

That's not outlawing zone blocking, it means you can't run running plays in short yardage situations. It's usually you have a set of downs to get to midfield, and another set of downs if you make midfield to get into the end zone. You can "punt" on 4th down (or 3rd if it's a 3 down league) by just giving the other team the ball back and they have to start from their own 10 or 20 yl. It's a good rule for the purposes of safety. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
I just wrapped coaching a team of second graders.  A few random tips:
1.  Surprisingly common-sense, but buy a whistle.  It gets their attention and you don’t have to raise your voice.  It also gets them familiar with that as the stop-start of play.  
 
2.  Move everyone around.  Kids are going to be asking to play the same positions and you’ll want to try to balance playing time.  
 
3.  Have at least five plays of you can install quickly.  I’m presuming your league lets the coaches remain on the field, so you can have a binder with your plays and help line everyone up.  They need to be super simple (like 3 runs and 2 passes) because the objective early in the season is just to execute.  Fumbles and bad snaps are killers in a game with limited number of possessions.  
 
4.  Later in the season you can do some misdirection and it’ll blow the opposing kids minds.  They just don’t have the years of watching football where they understand zones.  
 
5.  I’ve got two kids that just do not have the maturity to follow instructions and I try to hide them in spots where the responsibilities are simple (I.e., away from the ball like in WR or corner).  
 
6.  Probably of the 10 or so touchdowns that have been scored against us, 8 of them were because the corner let the runner get outside of them and the safety took a bad angle.  I’ve worked with them on that all season and maybe you can do better knowing that going into it.  
 
7.  A huge problem the boys have is taking a handoff at full or 3/4 speed and we induce a lot of negative plays on defense as a result (this is probably the single biggest thing we do well on offense).  In our league your defense can’t cross the line of scrimmage until the ball has moved out of the QB’s hands, and if the runner is taking it and then starting to accelerate he’s going to run into our guys.   
 
On offense we spend 90% of our practice time working on stuff like that-my son says he hates it (he’d rather goof around and play tag) but it’s football, not recess.  

183bbbd21232fe1ad03b0c93138961ff.gif
Posted
On 5/10/2025 at 1:24 PM, LCHorn said:

I just wrapped coaching a team of second graders.  A few random tips:...

I have tip #8 to add to your seven listed above:

Make sure you teach them how to do the team shuffle around the vomit on the field (The Replacements) because too much red Gatorade in a young stomach on a hot day is a thing.

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