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Advice?
Aug 18, 2015 17:10:22 GMT -6
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jen08 likes this
Post by jen08 on Aug 18, 2015 17:10:22 GMT -6
I have a 7 year old son whom has played tackle football since he was 5. We recently moved to a different state that starts tackle at the age of 8 so our little 7 year old is having to play up. His experience puts him above everyone else but the size difference is very intimidating for him. Our problem is when I take him to practice he never complains/cries and try's his best. Today, his dad got off of work and was able to take him and he has told him repeatedly that he is nervous, isn't hitting like normal and is crying. Is this normal? Why the sudden change? Help!!
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Aug 19, 2015 10:44:12 GMT -6
Post by bobgoodman on Aug 19, 2015 10:44:12 GMT -6
I have a 7 year old son whom has played tackle football since he was 5. We recently moved to a different state that starts tackle at the age of 8 so our little 7 year old is having to play up. His experience puts him above everyone else but the size difference is very intimidating for him. Our problem is when I take him to practice he never complains/cries and try's his best. Today, his dad got off of work and was able to take him and he has told him repeatedly that he is nervous, isn't hitting like normal and is crying. Is this normal? Why the sudden change? Help!! I'm confused as to who's who here. "I have a 7 year old son...." "Today his dad got off work...." Is the player your stepson? "He has told him repeatedly that he....?" Who's telling whom? "Why the sudden change" in the player, the father, the stepfather...? Why not give everybody involved a name & start over; don't have to be their real names.
Also, there are various tackle football organiz'ns, so you can't say the state starts tackle at a certain age. There may not be an organiz'n conveniently close to this player that has 7U teams, but there may well be some in that state.
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Aug 19, 2015 11:07:41 GMT -6
Post by blb on Aug 19, 2015 11:07:41 GMT -6
I have a 7 year old son whom has played tackle football since he was 5. We recently moved to a different state that starts tackle at the age of 8 so our little 7 year old is having to play up. His experience puts him above everyone else but the size difference is very intimidating for him. Our problem is when I take him to practice he never complains/cries and try's his best. Today, his dad got off of work and was able to take him and he has told him repeatedly that he is nervous, isn't hitting like normal and is crying. Is this normal? Why the sudden change? Help!! I'm confused as to who's who here. "I have a 7 year old son...." "Today his dad got off work...." Is the player your stepson?...Why not give everybody involved a name & start over
OP (jen08) is a FEMALE, bob.
Now YOU start over (by rereading post).
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Post by 19delta on Aug 19, 2015 12:18:49 GMT -6
I can't even comprehend coaching a 7 year old in football. That is insane. Way too young to be playing.
I mean...holy sh1t...how young do kids start? I coach 5th and 6th graders and it is like herding cats.
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Post by jrk5150 on Aug 19, 2015 14:26:01 GMT -6
I can't even comprehend coaching a 7 year old in football. That is insane. Way too young to be playing. I mean...holy sh1t...how young do kids start? I coach 5th and 6th graders and it is like herding cats. 5 around here. I hate it, and I'm on the board. It's not dangerous, as they barely even collide. It's just stupid. I coached 7-8's for 3 years and won't do it again - too young. When to start them is a pretty arbitrary thing. Plenty of good 7-8 coaches will say that's fine. Some say freshman in HS. Some say never. I have no idea, but FOR ME, I think 10 is about right. Of course, I coached 9-11 for 7 years, so there's that...
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Post by 33coach on Aug 19, 2015 14:44:00 GMT -6
I have a 7 year old son whom has played tackle football since he was 5. We recently moved to a different state that starts tackle at the age of 8 so our little 7 year old is having to play up. His experience puts him above everyone else but the size difference is very intimidating for him. Our problem is when I take him to practice he never complains/cries and try's his best. Today, his dad got off of work and was able to take him and he has told him repeatedly that he is nervous, isn't hitting like normal and is crying. Is this normal? Why the sudden change? Help!! jen08 Kids at that age can be all over the place. The best thing you can do is talk to the coach. Say hey "Johnny isn't right today, a little timid, maybe alittle nervous, just watch for it" And if the coach is worth a damn he will work with the kid - instead of throwing him in drills full speed. The only thing you need to be wary of is a coach at that level who wants to hit all the time...it happens, you get guys who come in going "this is how it was when I played..." not actually working on the kids, just hitting.
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Post by fantom on Aug 19, 2015 19:38:10 GMT -6
I'm confused as to who's who here. "I have a 7 year old son...." "Today his dad got off work...." Is the player your stepson?...Why not give everybody involved a name & start over
OP (jen08) is a FEMALE, bob.
Now YOU start over (by rereading post).
Jen's a woman's name? Hmm, when did that start? Jen, in the interest of full disclosure I have to say that I'm a HS coach and not a fan of kids playing organized football that young. It's not that I think that it's overly dangerous. It's that I think that kids that age shouldn't have adults organizing everything for them. IMO, it helps kids to develop if they learn to figure things out on their own (Calvinball, if you're old enough to remember that, is a good thing). The other reason is that kids are, well, kids. Talking to 5,6,7 years olds about commitment doesn't make much sense to me.
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Aug 20, 2015 8:54:19 GMT -6
Post by coachgtiller on Aug 20, 2015 8:54:19 GMT -6
There's a reason Archie Manning didn't let his kids start playing football til they were in Jr. High. I'm not totally against youth football, but too many times it turns into daddy ball. (Not bashing what you youth coaches do for the kids!!) I've just seen it too many times in our youth program.
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Post by 33coach on Aug 20, 2015 9:37:17 GMT -6
There's a reason Archie Manning didn't let his kids start playing football til they were in Jr. High. I'm not totally against youth football, but too many times it turns into daddy ball. (Not bashing what you youth coaches do for the kids!!) I've just seen it too many times in our youth program. Our youth program is the exact opposite, and I love it I wish all of the others were like this. 1) we have a rule: to be a head coach you must have 4 seasons as an assistant 2) we discourage head coaches from coaching their kids team 3) we follow the High school guidelines on contact, hydration, etc. We go from 7 years old, to middle school (california doesn't have middle school football leagues)
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Aug 22, 2015 14:59:43 GMT -6
Post by bobgoodman on Aug 22, 2015 14:59:43 GMT -6
I'm confused as to who's who here. "I have a 7 year old son...." "Today his dad got off work...." Is the player your stepson?...Why not give everybody involved a name & start over
OP (jen08) is a FEMALE, bob.
Now YOU start over (by rereading post).
OK, that part is straightened out, but I still don't know who's telling whom that he's nervous, not hitting like normal, & crying. Is it the father complaining about the son, or the son complaining to the father?
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Aug 22, 2015 15:02:21 GMT -6
Post by bobgoodman on Aug 22, 2015 15:02:21 GMT -6
I can't even comprehend coaching a 7 year old in football. That is insane. Way too young to be playing. I mean...holy sh1t...how young do kids start? I coach 5th and 6th graders and it is like herding cats. Hence my interest in trading players to get rid of 7 YOs as discussed here.
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Aug 23, 2015 10:53:45 GMT -6
Post by NC1974 on Aug 23, 2015 10:53:45 GMT -6
Bob,
I just read the post that you linked to and I have some thoughts. A disclaimer here, I have never coached youth football, and I don't personally believe kids should be playing tackle until probably 12 or 13 yrs old, but at any rate here are my thoughts:
-Trading 7 yr olds due to their lack of coachability, and being in a league that allows this, seems to be ridiculous. This is just my opinion, but actions like this make me think that the priorities of your league are WAY out whack. Is winning that important at this age level? And how much satisfaction would you really get beating teams because you have less 7 yr olds than they do? And how to 7 yr old's parents react when the realize teams are trying to get rid of their kids because they are younger. This is an example to me of what is wrong with youth sports.
And to the original poster: I would ask myself "is my son having a positive experience? Is he having fun? If a 7 yr old is not having fun, I would question the value of the experience.
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Aug 23, 2015 12:13:16 GMT -6
Post by bobgoodman on Aug 23, 2015 12:13:16 GMT -6
Bob, I just read the post that you linked to and I have some thoughts. A disclaimer here, I have never coached youth football, and I don't personally believe kids should be playing tackle until probably 12 or 13 yrs old, but at any rate here are my thoughts: -Trading 7 yr olds due to their lack of coachability, and being in a league that allows this, seems to be ridiculous. This is just my opinion, but actions like this make me think that the priorities of your league are WAY out whack. Is winning that important at this age level? And how much satisfaction would you really get beating teams because you have less 7 yr olds than they do? And how to 7 yr old's parents react when the realize teams are trying to get rid of their kids because they are younger. This is an example to me of what is wrong with youth sports. And to the original poster: I would ask myself "is my son having a positive experience? Is he having fun? If a 7 yr old is not having fun, I would question the value of the experience. The club's official p.r. is always an emphasis on the fun over competitiveness. However, the coaches, most of the players, and a few, though not many, of the parents are very competitive. My new HC (we were ACs on another team last season) said 1st thing that he wanted to focus on making it fun, and then after a few statements made it sound like competition would overshadow the fun aspect. Amazing how quickly he turned around like that! He & I also have something to prove to our previous HC, who we thought was just awful at all the desiderata: fun, competition, and development.
We're not allowed to reveal to players or family the order they go in the draft, and I don't think we'd be allowed to reveal to them we traded to get or get rid of them. All the players know is what team they're assigned to. It is unlikely that players who were traded would even suspect that they were. Everyone's going to wind up on some team, and get to play at least half of each game on offense or defense.
During evaluations, I told the 7 & 8 YO players that when I was asking & writing their names, it mostly concerned their propensity to pay att'n & follow instructions. Partly that was just to get their safe compliance with drills we evaluated them on; of course they may well think, "That coach is going to demand we pay att'n, so I don't want to be on his team anyway." Seriously, though, just 7 practice sessions from 6 PM to dark before game 1, and that's counting a little time at the beginning of each session where they make all the teams warm up together.
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Aug 25, 2015 15:48:45 GMT -6
Post by coachjtm on Aug 25, 2015 15:48:45 GMT -6
I've run into this before. Your son is too young to worry about this. This will wear off as he grows into the division/league. He's younger/smaller than a number of these kids and he will know it. His overall experience level and skill level may be higher, but a kid's inherent "want to" can change from level to level. If he's playing up he may not have the same desire to go hit those kids bigger than him right now. It happens. He's young.
Most likely if he loves this game he will grow out of that problem. I literally have seen this same thing happen 3 years in a row dealing with this age group. Kids who killed it at flag or in a different league came in, had to deal with bigger size, faster speed playing up and just for whatever reason didn't execute. That doesn't mean he won't in the near future. Stick with your kid, support him, encourage him and help him develop the right techniques and everything else will come. He will get frustrated, but that will help him be a better player if you channel it into doing the right things (work outs, eating right, hydrating, repping skills).
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Aug 26, 2015 14:48:52 GMT -6
Post by bobgoodman on Aug 26, 2015 14:48:52 GMT -6
I've run into this before. Your son is too young to worry about this. But is it the son or the father who's worried? Neither one should worry, but it wasn't clear which one jen08 was referring to.
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Aug 26, 2015 15:31:05 GMT -6
Post by coachjtm on Aug 26, 2015 15:31:05 GMT -6
I've run into this before. Your son is too young to worry about this. But is it the son or the father who's worried? Neither one should worry, but it wasn't clear which one jen08 was referring to. I took it to mean that the son was worried and inferred worry on behalf of both parents in this. It could be confusing.
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Aug 27, 2015 11:10:55 GMT -6
Post by bobgoodman on Aug 27, 2015 11:10:55 GMT -6
So the question is whose attitude needs working on: father's or son's? As to "why the sudden change", if that's referring to the father, I saw that in my own father. His stated attitude about me in school, as long as I was doing excellently anyway, was to just be a good kid & not worry about the academics; but as soon as I got into a more competitive situation, then he said that was just a convenient lie they'd told me. Parents can be two-faced; or they can be sincere, thinking conditions will never change, and then find themselves with a different attitude once they do. In other words, parents fool themselves.
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