Anyone coach travel flag football?

[streetkings01]

Just curious if anyone coaches travel 5v5 flag football? I’ve coached travel flag for the past 3 years…..1 season of 10u and 2 seasons of 12u. This season I’ll be coaching 14u…….love to pick the brains of some experienced flag coaches.

[mead107]

Would love to hear more about it. 

[streetkings01]

30 minutes ago, mead107 said:

Would love to hear more about it. 

I coach for an organization out here in Orange County NY called Old Skewl Sports. We have a good number of teams that compete in tournaments up and down the east coast from Albany to Florida as well as tournaments in Vegas and California. We had teams that compete in the 6u/7u/8u/10u/12u/14u/17u divisions. A lot of the kids that play flag play tackle as well. I’m have 2 sons ages 13 and 10 that compete in travel flag and play tackle as well. Real competitive and fun for the kids to compete against other kids from all over the country.

 

Here’s a vid of our 17u team competing in a tournament……

 

 

[mead107]

Awesome 

[EmotionallyUnstable]

Is this backyard football rules?

 

like gotta call 3 mississippissisis before ya blitz?

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

With all the concussion stuff, this has to be the wave of the future, over playing peewee and even HS football.

 

I remember talking to a former NFL player and he basically said he wouldn’t bother having his kids play tackle football until maybe they were juniors or seniors in HS. No need to take those hits, and not a huge advantage when you have excellent athletic genes. 

[Buffalo716]

On 12/13/2022 at 2:13 PM, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

With all the concussion stuff, this has to be the wave of the future, over playing peewee and even HS football.

 

I remember talking to a former NFL player and he basically said he wouldn’t bother having his kids play tackle football until maybe they were juniors or seniors in HS. No need to take those hits, and not a huge advantage when you have excellent athletic genes. 

There is no substitute for playing tackle football 

 

Of course for the one percent of physical freaks it doesn’t matter

 

But repetition and experience is the best thing you can get in football.. For blocking and tackle techniques

 

Tons of division one lineman or NFL lineman are raised to be lineman from the time they are nine or 10… It takes a lot and a lot of development to acquire the skill to be a NFL lineman 

 

 

 

[Augie]

On 12/13/2022 at 2:13 PM, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

With all the concussion stuff, this has to be the wave of the future, over playing peewee and even HS football.

 

I remember talking to a former NFL player and he basically said he wouldn’t bother having his kids play tackle football until maybe they were juniors or seniors in HS. No need to take those hits, and not a huge advantage when you have excellent athletic genes. 

 

Our kids didn’t play football until high school. They played EVERYTHING else. Soccer and basketball are great for the feet, weightlifting to make them stronger for every sport, baseball to teach them that even a “sport” can be boring (sorry, that was for @Gugny!), golf and tennis teach mental aspects, etc.

 

Good athletes benefit from a variety of sports, IMO. The baseball guys wanted 12 months of baseball in FL. They said he’d fall behind, but we played other sports and they were begging for him the next season. 

 

They were just fine without playing at a young age. The youngest as a senior was POY in his conference, recruited by small schools and was 1st Team All Area despite Manatee High up the road being the #1 HS team in the country that year. No need to play too soon in my opinion. 

 

 

.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Augie

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

49 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

Our kids didn’t play football until high school. They played EVERYTHING else. Soccer and basketball are great for the feet, weightlifting to make them stronger for every sport, baseball to teach them that even a “sport” can be boring (sorry, that was for @Gugny!), golf and tennis teach mental aspects, etc.

 

Good athletes benefit from a variety of sports, IMO. The baseball guys wanted 12 months of baseball in FL. They said he’d fall behind, but we played other sports and they were begging for him the next season. 

 

They were just fine without playing at a young age. The youngest as a senior was POY in his conference and was 1st Team All Area despite Manatee High up the road being the #1 HS team in the country that year. No need to play too soon in my opinion. 

I totally agree re playing a variety of sports. But that is definitely not the state of youth sports anymore. Kids declare a speciality very early, and play it year round. I have a friend whose son (9 years old) plays baseball year round. He will do a few other minor things on the side (6 week flag football), but he is all in on baseball. 

I think the view now is that your kid has to specialize very early to be able to make the team and compete when they get to HS. 

[streetkings01]

On 12/12/2022 at 10:11 PM, EmotionallyUnstable said:

Is this backyard football rules?

 

like gotta call 3 mississippissisis before ya blitz?

No…NFL Flag football rules.

 

Rusher can rush from 7 yards out…..QB has 7 seconds to get rid of the ball. Field is divided into 70 yards……4 downs to get a 1st down(20 yards)…….3 downs to score(20 yards).

https://nflflag.com/coaches/default/flag-football-rules

Edited December 15, 2022 by streetkings01

[Augie]

1 minute ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

I totally agree re playing a variety of sports. But that is definitely not the state of youth sports anymore. Kids declare a speciality very early, and play it year round. I have a friend whose son (9 years old) plays baseball year round. He will do a few other minor things on the side (6 week flag football), but he is all in on baseball. 

I think the view now is that your kid has to specialize very early to be able to make the team and compete when they get to HS. 

 

If you have to worry about that, you are not “all that”. I swear I don’t mean that in a bad way, but some fringe kids need the extra work and allegiance from the coach for their dedication.  [Hyperbole Warning] If you are Lebron James you just show up and you can play wherever you want. Tight end? Sure! Run yourself out there! 

 

Only 1% gets near the top, and far fewer get TO the top. Have a plan. If you need a free ride to college, you do what you can. But have no dreams of grandeur. I had a dad I knew (and generally liked) tell me “these people are here to see him, like Lebron”. He was good, but not all that. Nice career at Wake Forest. 

 

It will go away eventually. Do the right thing for the long term. 

[streetkings01]

12 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

I totally agree re playing a variety of sports. But that is definitely not the state of youth sports anymore. Kids declare a speciality very early, and play it year round. I have a friend whose son (9 years old) plays baseball year round. He will do a few other minor things on the side (6 week flag football), but he is all in on baseball. 

I think the view now is that your kid has to specialize very early to be able to make the team and compete when they get to HS. 

My kids are the same…….tackle football in the fall, track in the spring and flag football and agility training year round. I had them in karate for years……my oldest is a black belt, but they weren’t interested anymore……all they want to do is football……they literally talk about helmets and cleats alllll day long.

[US Egg]

Tying the flags around the belt, swung to the ground tackle, gym class, circa ‘73.

 

The quick kids were the best. A fun game to play back then.
 

So was two hand touch(shove) in the street, thus risking asphalt scraped palms.

Edited December 15, 2022 by I am the egg man

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

3 hours ago, streetkings01 said:

My kids are the same…….tackle football in the fall, track in the spring and flag football and agility training year round. I had them in karate for years……my oldest is a black belt, but they weren’t interested anymore……all they want to do is football……they literally talk about helmets and cleats alllll day long.

 

3 hours ago, Augie said:

 

If you have to worry about that, you are not “all that”. I swear I don’t mean that in a bad way, but some fringe kids need the extra work and allegiance from the coach for their dedication.  [Hyperbole Warning] If you are Lebron James you just show up and you can play wherever you want. Tight end? Sure! Run yourself out there! 

 

Only 1% gets near the top, and far fewer get TO the top. Have a plan. If you need a free ride to college, you do what you can. But have no dreams of grandeur. I had a dad I knew (and generally liked) tell me “these people are here to see him, like Lebron”. He was good, but not all that. Nice career at Wake Forest. 

 

It will go away eventually. Do the right thing for the long term. 

i will also say this. Everything about youth sports these days strikes me as too structured. Teams, travel leagues, private coaching, $$, etc.

 

When I was a kid (elementary and middle school mostly), the most fun was playing backyard baseball, tennis with buddies in the park, and pickup bball. Would do some organized sports here and there, but that was a fraction of what I did just informally. 
 

I don’t think kids do the informal sports stuff anymore. Either no time with all the organized sports, helicoptering parents, or lack of socialization skills to organically play like that. 

[streetkings01]

9 hours ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

 

i will also say this. Everything about youth sports these days strikes me as too structured. Teams, travel leagues, private coaching, $$, etc.

 

When I was a kid (elementary and middle school mostly), the most fun was playing backyard baseball, tennis with buddies in the park, and pickup bball. Would do some organized sports here and there, but that was a fraction of what I did just informally. 
 

I don’t think kids do the informal sports stuff anymore. Either no time with all the organized sports, helicoptering parents, or lack of socialization skills to organically play like that. 

I agree…..it’s totally different now and everything is run like an organization. My sons D2(9 yr old - 11 yr old) has off-season conditioning from June thru July, training camp all August 6 days a week and a long 8 game season plus playoffs running from September thru early November……it’s crazy.

[Augie]

11 hours ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

 

i will also say this. Everything about youth sports these days strikes me as too structured. Teams, travel leagues, private coaching, $$, etc.

 

When I was a kid (elementary and middle school mostly), the most fun was playing backyard baseball, tennis with buddies in the park, and pickup bball. Would do some organized sports here and there, but that was a fraction of what I did just informally. 
 

I don’t think kids do the informal sports stuff anymore. Either no time with all the organized sports, helicoptering parents, or lack of socialization skills to organically play like that. 

 

I played sports all my life, but much of it was casual pick-up stuff. Kids don’t do that now. By the time they were 10 they played in more games with uniforms and refs than I did my entire life, including my college rugby career. It’s just not the same.