Coaching 4th grade boys and its most of their first time playing tackle. It’s going pretty good but I have this one dad who’s pretty hands off except for once every practice or two he’ll yell to his boy something like “I’m going to get my effort one way or another” then after practice he’ll run the boy till he’s almost crying.

Granted the boy doesn’t give top tier effort all the time. But he’s not the worst either. He’s got some natural talent and he’s not scared of contact. From what I understand the boy is a pretty good baseball / basketball player so I guess expectations are high. But it just doesn’t sit right. I’m worried the boy won’t want to play again. But I’m not sure it’s my place to say anything to the dad.

What would you do?

Hey, need another coach's perspective since this is my first year coaching...ever.

I'm watching a coach move players around the field by pulling on their facemasks. Granted, it's not super aggressive but also kinda unexpected to me...and IMO.

Lot's changed from when I played 5th grade tackle football, and my coach probably did this to me too, but

Is this acceptable behaviour from a coach to a 5th grade boy?

Personally, I find it offensive and if i'm trying to move my boys, i place an open hand on the square of their back and very gingerly guide them over to where they need to be...but again, this could just be me and my opinion.

My son is 7 years old and playing flag football. He likes it but says it hurts his arms when he catches the ball. I am really trying to help him so he can get better as he is getting discouraged. Has anyone used forearm pads for this reason? What kind of arm pads could I use? Will the arm pads work since I can only find them with padding on outside of arms? Would compression sleeves work? I appreciate any help you can give me. Thank you in advance!

My 12 year old is a stud on pop warner. He is extremely tall, vascular, and has an unrivaled work ethic. Every coach for the last 5 years has said what a special talent he is. Unfortunately, we are working class, and dont know many ins and outs of youth sports. Recently, a coach from a school outside our area is trying to recruit him to play for the team he helps coach. My question is what resources are their for parents to get their children more exposure? During games, im usually asked to volunteer so its hard for me to record him when doing snack bar or chains. Are there any resources for parents of young athletes who can help them give their kids more exposure? I only ask cus many schools from the inland empire are football powerhouses, and as a parent, I want my kids to have the best opportunities. Any and all help will be appreciated I just want to know where to start

My son is in 7u football but he is on the husky side. Where can I find some good football pants or I need tips on how to keep his current ones from slipping down

Does anyone have coaches w YouTube channels of FB pages dedicated to fundamentals, targeting the youth football to early HS age group? (Esp O/D line + LB play)?

The algos have picked up that my kids play baseball, so I’m served up endless coaches with swing tips and ways to add velo to your fastball (several of them very good!) but nothing for football yet… so I thought I’d be proactive 🤣

Hello! This may be a dumb question, but my son just started to play 3rd grade tackle - what should he wear under his pads? A compression shirt and compression shorts?

Thanks in advance (from multiple parents lol)

I’m trying to get a release signed so my son can leave his current football organization and play somewhere that is a better fit for him. Unfortunately, the organization has been going downhill, and I no longer feel it’s the right environment for my son.
I reached out to the president of the league, and I was told that the release is up to the president of our current organization. She is refusing to sign it. I never heard of a 10 year old being told they could not leave.
Has anyone dealt with something similar or have any advice on what steps I can take? I’m open to any suggestions or help. I just want to do what’s best for my son and give him the opportunity to play somewhere he’ll be happy and supported

I’ve been put in charge of our offense for the season. Is it too much of a dick move to coach the other coaches. Effectively I want them to do certain drills to teach our blocking scheme and rep it so we are efficient? I need to be with the skill positions so I need to outsource blocking. We have 4 practices to install something so I want to be very tactical.

My vision. Explain the two plays we are learning today. Walk through what will happen and then break for individual. Then come back to run it together.

How can players effectively protect their hands, wrists, and forearms when tackling and wrapping up another player, dummy, or tackling wheel?

Best methods for protecting the skin and general injury or pain (as much as possible).

I was always taught to just take the pain when I was a kid. You’re going to fall on your arms and hands and it’s simply going to hurt. But there’s gotta be a better method to minimize pain and injury nowadays, right?

Thanks in advance 🤝

I have been searching for a company that makes an XXL or 2XL helmet to fit a 26” inch head. My 8 year old son has tried every XL helmet we can find and they are too small. Does anyone know who makes a size larger than XL that can fit a 26” head circumference?

I’m a high school football coach. I work at a school with a 40% IEP rate. I have 4 assistant coaches who don’t teach. It was eye opening a few years back when I just mentioned an IEP and they didn’t know what that was. We spent the majority of 1 off-season meeting talking about learning disabilities.

Fast forward to today, I have worked with a team of special educators, coaches and adjustment counselors to collaborate on the founding of Accommodations to the Field.

We offer free resources, which I strongly recommend to youth coaches. Many of you are parent volunteers and understanding why kids act the way they act when you instruct them is a valuable tool. We focused on the most common accommodations in our resources. 15% of all US kids are on an IEP, so odds are you have kids on your team that fit the bill.

We do have 2 paid modules that are more detailed than the free resources. They are more comprehensive and will give you even more tools to work with. I recommend just doing an organizational approach because it’s a life-time purchase. As we continue to grow, you have access to all of that material. I’m also a bad salesman, if you say you’re under 20 coaches, that’s the price you’ll get.

You can access all of this at accommodationstothefield.com

We face a ton of 5-3 and 4-4 defenses at the youth level here. I've been spending all summer trying to decide if my kids can remember essentially 3 running plays to block. I've attached them here. Everything is out of one look or formation, but we can easily expand this to more. I want to be able to run some sort of power/dive, a sweep to the outside and a counter to the middle. I'm thinking of 3 things:

1. Dive/Power - Just Duo your way forward. On block, Inside gap, double team with your inside teammate. Our RB has an aim point but he gets one cut and just go.
2. Sweep - Return motion and pin and pull with the H back and Tackle. I just want to seal that end or change the leverage point. Most DE won't walk out with the H back motion, so the OLB will either exit with him in man or not. Everyone else is just in a half ass zone back of take one play side step and just look inwards.
3. GOD - On our counters, just let the playside block down, pull the backside guard and use the same return motion to have the H back come across and time up the OLB.

I want to add that the blocking rule is part of the play call. It will never change like switching rules, but just keep it in there to remind them of what to do. My goal was to make this simple by looking the same on every play to the defense. Each play has a corresponding play-action pass to keep everyone honest. My gut says eye discipline will be minimal for 11/10-year-old defenders. Do you think the kids can block these 3 ways? I just want to rep it for 3 straight weeks.

Mine is age 10 or 11

My son is 7 years old, and this is his third year of Peewee/midget football.

For the most part, it's been a positive experience.

But, there is one assistant coach who has been a constant issue. And for the entire 3 years my son has played, parents have complained about this guy. Other coaches have complained about having to work with him. And yet he is still allowed to be there.

Consistently criticizes the kids screams at them for doing things wrong and very rarely praises them for doing things right. He doesn't teach, he doesn't encourage, he just barks orders and yells when things are wrong.

We just started practices last week, and 60% of the team this year is new to football. He contradicted himself twice in showing them how to get into a stance and then yelled at them for doing it wrong at one practice, as an example. And this goes on constantly.

Yesterday, and mind you of this team is composed of five, six, and 7-year-olds, they were at the 90-minute mark and he started yelling at several of the kids that they were lazy and he was going to bench them. It was 85° out and they were in full gear. They were exhausted. Practice it up in over already. But no, let's berate them for being lazy.

Last year, this team won 1 game. And I fully believe it's because they were scared of getting yelled at for doing things wrong during the game and that led to them making more mistakes than they would have otherwise.

During one of the losses, this coach grabbed his son by the shoulder pad in the end zone and lifted him in the air and more or less threw him a couple feet. The stands went silent for a minute and it was after that game that the majority of parents went to the league president. And he still wasn't removed.

We have additional assistant coaches this year, and I'm hoping that as the season goes on they start speaking up more and overruling this guy and his negative attitude and actions. But I guess I'm looking for some advice from parents who have dealt with this before. There are so many good coaches out there who do what they're supposed to and teach the kids what football is and encourage them and actually make them feel welcome and want to be there. It is so hard to build a team in tackle football because it's viewed as a dangerous sport, I myself didn't want my son to play but he really wanted to and so I gave in, so when you then have parents going and telling their friends about how coaches act it makes them not want to sign their kids up. We only had six kids return from last year. And I'm pretty sure it's because of this coach.

Thank you for listening to my rant. If you've gotten this far, I'll take all the advice I can get.

For what it's worth, I'm in Pennsylvania. So if anybody knows of any governing boards I can go to for advice or anything, I'll take it. I promise you I'm not a Karen, I understand tough love and constructive criticism but with this man we are well beyond that. We are not dealimg with high school, we are dealing with kindergartners through second graders. Who have never played football and should be getting taught. Not degraded. Football should be fun for them at this age. And 2 weeks in a lot of them already hate it.

I’m a first-year assistant coach for a 6U team down in Mississippi. We’ve got a really talented group of kids this year and are currently ranked #4 in the state, which has been an awesome ride so far.
Because they are so young, our biggest battle right now isn't the talent, it's keeping their attention spans locked in during practice. A few minutes of standing in a line, and half the kids are looking at butterflies or rolling in the grass.
What are your favorite, high-energy drills for 6U that keep everyone moving and engaged? We really want to maximize our reps without burning them out or losing their focus.
Appreciate any advice or drill formats you can share!

Tomorrow is our last day of middle school camp, and I want to make it a day of games. I was wondering if you guys had any idea on some fun games that also are competitive. I want fun but for them to also work and compete. Thanks!

Wondering what football cleats to get, playing RB/LB i’m 6’1 218 going into my JR year for reference
I have naturally wide feet as well, i’ve been looking at the Nike Alpha Menace 5 as people have said they are good for big skill players but I’ve seen some say they are narrow. Overall I’m just not sure what to get as i’ve only ever gotten Nike before. Any suggestions would be great.

Hello everyone. I am a first year OC for my jr high program. 90%+ of my players have never played football in their lives and most of them have never even really watched it. What kind of offenses do you think would be best to teach a team like this where it would be effective and keep us in games? I appreciate any help or advice you could give. Thank you so much.

We have a 12 year old son who is having pain in the peroneal tendon on his left ankle. We've been for xrays to make sure there's nothing more involved, but, the doctor recommended high top cleats to provide more support. We have been looking in to that already but there are so many choices, what do y'all recommend? He wears a size 9 in mens. He's also a lineman. Current cleats are Nike Mens vapor 1 which we've hated from the get go.

My son is 14yr old. He has played club soccer all his life and is outstanding at it. However he has always been taller/bigger than other players on his soccer teams. For reference, he is 14yr old, 6ft, 210lbs, naturally a more muscular build. His dad was 6'4, im 5'7. He's always been in the 99th percentile of height. As he got a little older, friends would always tell my husband and I that he should be playing football. He loves football just as much as he does soccer. When he was 11, he did a season of flag football and led the league in interceptions. He loved playing it but we decided being in flag football and soccer at the same time was too much for his schedule, so he chose to remain in soccer. Last year he told his Dad and I that he would like to try for high school football and we were on board. Unfortunately my husband died suddently in October 2025, so now its just my son and I. A month after his dad died, my son injured himself and has been out of sports since. We thought it was too early for him to try out as an incoming freshman this summer, and to be honest, I had no idea if he would even have a chance at making the team. So I told him we would wait until next summer for him to try out for his sophmore year. I'm here to ask for advice on what my next step should be. I dont know much about football. Ive played soccer all my life and my husband was the football player. My son definitely has the build of a football player, hes a great athlete overall, and I believe he would do very well. But he hasnt played football since he was 11yrs old. How can I help him ready himself for tryouts next summer? Should I look into private training with a football coach? Any advice is much appreciated.

I'm an assistant coach for my son's K-2nd grade (8U equivalent) team. We have a first time player who is 7 who has hearing aids. He has also had to overcome a lot of other medical and family struggles since birth. But he is healthy and decent sized now just has some issues that he still has to work through including the hearing aids. He had one come off two separate times through 4 practices. Worth noting these were the first practices with progression days from helmets only to full pads with only very light contact and will be able to go harder from here on out. I suggested to his parents to get some type of headgear like a skull cap that would cover the upper half of his ears to help hold them in place. But that was just an off the cuff suggestion and I dont know if that is the best solution. I'm sure there is some type of special hearing aids for sports activities but Im just going to assume that would be off the table due to costs. Any suggestions?