Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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46 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Authors don't know their subject, February 7, 2000
I found this book to be way off the mark. The author(s) have obviously never played or coached youth football. A 4-3 defense, which the authors recommend, is one of the worst defeneses in youth football because youth teams almost never pass the ball. You can run off tackle all day on the 4-3.For the same reason, there is no point in running offenses designed primarily for passing at this level, such as the pro set described in the book. Passing in youth football is used primarily as a change of pace to the run and to keep the field open for inside running. It's obvious that the authors are not youth coaches but rather people who watch too much football on TV. They took the pro football philosophy and tried to apply it to youth football. Youth football is an entirely different game. Pro football is a highly skilled game utilizing elite athletes that have literally one-in-a-million talent and years of experience. Youth football is a bunch of average kids who may or may not have played football before, and you have to take this into account when developing your game strategy. Offenses that emphasize running will be much more successful than pro-type passing offenses, as will defenses that are primarily designed to stop the run. Worst of all, the authors emphasize that the kids should have 'fun', and not to worry about winning. I have a real problem with that. In my experience, winning is the most fun you can have, and makes all of the hours of hard work worth it to the kids. Telling your kids that losing or winning doesn't matter belittles the effort that they have put into all the practices and all the games. If you win, the reward is self-evident. If you lose, well, accept defeat gracefully, but don't teach the kids to be comfortable with losing. That's a terrible thing to do to a kid. Turn a defeat into a learning experience so that next time you will be better prepared to win. You can't win'em all, but teaching a kid that winning doesn't matter does nothing but teach him not to try too hard in the first place. This book is terrible.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad, but not that good either., September 1, 1999
By A Customer
This book does a good job of getting you to figure out what your priorities are, and WHERE THEY SHOULD BE! At the youth level coaching is a position of many responsibilities. You aren't there to win every game (although you owe it to your players to try) but you ARE there to see to it that they have fun. That's what football is about. This book does a great job of stressing that. The problems come when it tries to get into the actual game. The book shows offensive and defensive formations that are worthless in youth football (the split back "pro" formation on offense, and the 4-3 defense). Youth football teams run on almost every play, passing formations and passing defenses are of no use at all. The book also spends way too much time on flag football rules and formations. Youth football is different from youth FLAG football, and books should be written for one or the other but not both of them. If you're looking for a book to help show you WHY to coach, this is it... but for HOW to coach, you'll have to look elsewhere.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emphasis on coaching, not football information., August 16, 2002
By A Customer
This is a fantastic book for coaches that already know quite a bit about football, but are not sure how to best transfer their knowledge to a bunch of 6-12 year old kids. The book advocates a "games approach" to teaching football. It keeps the kids interested and thinking. It has worked great for me. When it is time to switch to the next teaching drill/game I nearly always have multiple kids asking, "Can we do it one more time?" We worked on kick off and kick off returns for 45 minutes yesterday using the "games approach". The kids learned a lot and they were begging to do it again. It was 95 degrees and these kids are begging to run the full length of the field over and over again!!! If you are fairly comfortable with your football knowledge, but not sure about coaching techniques, this is a fantastic book. Even if you are an experienced coach, you might what to look at this fresh, innovative approach to coaching kids.
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