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Hey Ayden. Great question. As a general rule of thumb, I line my CBs five yards off the ball. I generally do not get any closer than that because, since flag football is strictly non-contact, you cannot press the receivers. So, I give them a cushion. I make an exception to this rule when the opponent is only a few yards from breaking mid field. In this case, I tend to line my corners up just in front of the line of scrimmage and encourage them to use inside leverage. This will help to avoid giving up quick, easy first downs over the middle. Also, if I find that the opponent is taking a lot of deep shots, I may push my corners back to about 7 yards off but no farther. Otherwise, you invite your opponent to start attacking short. Thanks for watching!

@@aaronthecoach I know the wristbands are the way to go. I cannot recall having an issue learning my plays when I played football. I was cornered into coaching this year on top of my busy schedule but when I commit I give it my all. We are struggling to learn our plays. Coach what do I do they ask me on top of being obliterated on the field. Its consuming me because I was very good and just a winner mentality. I keep the kids having fun and learning but can't help to feel down for losing in my on space. So I am constantly thinking about ways to get better. How many practices a week and how long. We can practice more than two day. My practices last 1:30 but goes by so fast. I'm coaching 5th and six graders.

@@ayden3461 Hey, Ayden. Thanks for the great questions. Sorry for the long period of inactivity. I have several new videos planned out and I intend to cover exactly this! Unfortunately, sometimes we lose and we lose big. If it happens multiple times in a row, the kids tend to take it to heart and start believing they are not good enough. This lowers morale and kind of creates a self-perpetuating cycle. My biggest tip would be to NOT have too many plays. Having too many plays can be an obstacle for playing solid football. Especially with kids. If you're struggling to learn plays, narrow it down to maybe 6 plays and master those. Often, as coaches, we think "man, these plays really didn't work. I better make some new ones." That only makes the problem worse because we are introducing more plays and scrapping what we have already learned. Don't overcompensate for losses; be consistent. Honestly, based on what you said, you have a great amount of time to practice. I have been in leagues where I only had a single 1 hour-long session per week. As long as the kids are still having fun, 2-3 practices at an hour and a half is great. You don't want it to start feeling like a chore. But if the kids love being there and you have the time, feel free to increase that. Again, just be cautious not to over do it. Here are my recommendations. 1. Like I said, don't go in with too many offensive plays. Limit the number of plays you are using and focus on executing them perfectly. If you're really struggling, don't be shy about just going in with 4 plays. Having wrist bands are great but you have to remember, seeing the play diagram and being able to pull them off are two different things. While practicing those plays (pass plays in particular), have your quarterback pay attention to how the play develops so they don't fixate on just one person. Understanding how the play develops will make the play more powerful and the players will be able to run them more consistently. This consistency will help them evaluate who is open and who isn't and the defense won't necessarily recognize it as the same play. It will also help to understand a defense's weakness. For instance, you might find in one game, the opposing defense struggles with covering the deep receiver. In this case, you might be able to take deep shots and win with big plays often. On the other hand, some teams might struggle with basic flag pulling, in these cases, use short routes to get the ball in the hands of your players and depend on them winning in space. 2. Practice defense. A LOT. Don't just focus on the offense. One of the benefits in having fewer offensive plays is that it gives you time as a coach to evaluate your defense and have them work on improving their techniques. In fact, I generally recommend people focus more on defense than offense. Defensive concepts are much less intuitive than offensive concepts so they take more time to master. This requires practice so kids can see success with these concepts for themselves and start trusting that they actually work. To do this, it really helps to have at least one other coach. You can have one person focusing on deep coverage and another focusing on shallow coverage and/or the rusher. We all have our biases and, if we do it alone, we may be focusing too heavily on where the ball is. So, we see what the rusher is doing but we might not be looking at blatant but fixable issues in coverage. Try to focus on what different positions on defense are doing. If you don't have another coach, just systematically focus on different parts of the defense with every play. 3. Make your practices count. Try not to spend too much time talking. Spend some time early to get everyone on the same page then focus on execution from then on. Also - and this may be a little controversial - don't spend too much time on drills. Maybe with the exception of flag pulling drills. Otherwise, at least 75% of your practice should be scrimmaging or focusing on running your plays. Have your team run them in practice just as they are going to do in real life. IE, communicate the plays to them from the sideline (or however your league allows), have them communicate the play in the huddle, break the huddle, and get to the line and line up quickly and properly. In other words, teach them game-time urgency and discipline. Don't allow the pace of practices to be too lax. Teach them to run it like a game-time simulation. This will teach them how to play in the actual game. Doing this will allow you to focus on execution and make the most of your practices. Giving too much instruction may backfire. It will take time away from actually playing and kids might not remember it too well. They will likely not understand the nuances of the play calling and other aspects of the game to the extent you do. And, you don't want to unintentionally discourage them by making them feel like they just don't get it. Instead, rely on building muscle memory and a few simple mantras repeated over and over. For instance, I recommend constantly reminding them with quick, short phrases like "play through the whistle!" and "create separation!" Just explain to them what these concepts are early and keep repeating them to the point where it becomes muscle memory. Just a note I want to make that expands on what I already said about "They will likely not understand the nuances of the play calling and other aspects of the game to the extent you do." This is so critical to remember. You mentioned that you were good at football and had a winner mentality. Some people are naturally talented and have an innate understanding of how to create separation, how to catch and throw, how to bait a receiver into thinking they are open, et cetera. These are talents that not everyone has. So, that can sometimes be more difficult to coach because we can't empathize with those who don't have that ability. We might find that we drift toward the talented athletes on the team and almost create an unspoken expectation that "hey, I need you to win this game for us." This becomes incredibly problematic because it places stress on those players and other players see it too. So, they get the mindset that what they're doing doesn't matter too much because their perceived deficiencies will be masked by the play of others. I'm not saying that's what you're doing but it seems to be a common reflex. Have belief in the lesser athletes on your team and let them know you believe in them. In doing so, they will start believing in themselves and that can make a world of difference. I have discovered some great athletes by bringing them out of their shells! You definitely need to learn to get the ball in the hands of your natural playmakers but the most important thing is building up everyone's understanding of what they need to do. Always remind them that it is a team sport and that everyone needs to pull their weight. Using my above recommendations should definitely help with that. Sorry if this is way too long! I just get excited about this topic and enjoy talks on it. I really hope that it helps though. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. I appreciate it! Best of luck to you.

@@aaronthecoach Hi Coach Aaron! Man, I appreciate your response advising me in many areas of the game I struggled with. Some of the advice you provided I thought of after deep thinking about what I could do better to improve my team's performance. I have searched for help on this topic on CZcams and various other websites. Every first-time coach and experienced coach should read your post. There is plenty of content about plays but little about how to deal with losses, and setting up a system for practices. I spoke with my school athletic director and he agreed that we need to have a workshop that prepares new volunteer coaches on how to coach flag football. We have one more game to go against the Jets and I am paying for indoor practice tomorrow in preparation for Monday's game. I have learned a lot and am thinking that I may volunteer next year for the love of helping these kids and the game and to show that I have grown as a coach that can win games.

Hey, thanks for the question. This is a great opportunity to provide some clarification on the rules. You're correct, the rules state no blocking. However, that refers to blocking by the offensive players only. They cannot block or screen. However, the defense blocking the path of the ball carrier is not the same thing. Defenders have no duty to move out of the way of the ball carrier. If the ball carrier continues straight into the defender as you mentioned, it would be the ball carrier initiating contact. It would be up to them to redirect and avoid contact with the defender. Defenders lose a lot of advantage when they intentionally move out of the way and attempt to grab the flag from the side. The idea for the defender is to force the ball carrier to slow down or change direction. Thus giving more time for the defenders teammates to come in for assistance. In fact, the official resources from NFL Flag Football teach squaring up and pulling the flag; just as I teach in this video. Here is a direct quote from their official website: "The initial position you want to take when pulling an opponent’s flags is similar to the stance you would take in tackle football-the difference is that you’re pulling their flags instead of physically tackling the player. First, align yourself in front of the ball-carrier, which will give you more time to pull their flags and make it difficult for them to get around you. Then, square up your shoulders and slightly bend your knees, keeping your eyes on the flags (not the player)." I appreciate the question. I hope this provides some good clarification and helps to set your team up for success! On the other hand, I feel the need to mention that offensive players are required to get out of the way of rushers on the defense. For instance, if the rusher is coming up the middle and the center (or anyone else) is standing in the way, the center must get out of the way so not to obstruct the rusher's path. Otherwise, it is considered blocking or screening. Also, it is important to keep in mind that not all leagues play using NFL Flag rules. Always be sure to verify the exact rules of your league. Thanks for watching!

@@aaronthecoach Aaron, Thanks for the thorough response and the quote. That clears that up! I'm not a coach, just a dad trying to understand what is going on out there ;)

@@HubLocationSound No problem at all! I enjoy detailing responses like that just as much as I appreciate making the content! Sometimes it is easy to take information for granted and not go into detail about certain things. But when someone asks a question in the comments, it is a good indicator that there a bunch more who wonder the same thing but don't ask. So, again thanks for asking and I'm glad it cleared things up for you!

Absolutely! I'm glad it was helpful!

Maybe it's a clip from 2020?

Wokism

Thank you so much! I appreciate you watching and for taking the time to comment. I hope the video helped you out.

Thank you so much. I have some more planned. Been super busy so I haven't had time to work on them recently, unfortunately. I'll get some more out here though!

Thanks so much for watching! Sorry for the delay. Been busy and haven't been able to dedicate any time to the channel. I got some more videos planned though. Do you have any coverages in mind you'd like to see covered here?