Playing with Large Physical teams

Coach - I know your pain! I had the good fortune this year of coaching at a school that has lived with this situation for years and always been very successful. Our philosophy: run them off their feet (ala no-huddle). We had 1 maybe 2 kids in the 250 lb range. Everyone else was 160 to 180lb type kid you mentioned. I would venture to say not a kid on our team had over 5% body (lineman included) fat and we were easily, the best conditioned kids on the field. Many of our kids played both ways and we ran 80 plays a game on O. On D, we attacked constantly. Regarding the "spread them out theory", my feeling is that that is all well and good if you have peremiter people with speed and an arm to get it out there BUT if you don't, you are playing into the defenses hands by spreading them out. Why?, because you are putting defenders in the space you would like to get to. If you want to play this way, you have got to kids your kids aerobically trained starting now. It's too late if you wait until August to begin doing so.

Coach K-D The answer is an emphatic yes. We are primarily a zone blocking team. Another great example of how lighter kids can get after it is in DeLasalle. I recall seeing them play a much larger team which their Ol ate alive. The nice thing about having kids in the lower weight ranges is that you can get them to move their feet a little easier than a 280lb behemoth. Not that I wouldn't mind having that 280lber but if can't get him to move out of his own way, what good is it? I certainly believe with proper training, you can make lighter kids do very well. One other thing, who do you think will run out of gas quicker?

Matt, thanks for the reply. I can see how the smaller kids could run them around and wear them out as the game goes on... especially within the context of a Gun Option scheme where the d-line has to "think" every play.

Good point about De Lasalle, I watched two of their games with Poly a few years ago and they basically just out executed them even though they were smaller than Poly.

How difficult is it for your kids to learn the zone blocking rules? I will be coaching in an area where, shall I say, academics are not a priority at home, and I think it could be a challenge to teach the zone scheme.

kd

Coach - I don't think the zone schemes are all that difficult to learn. I think Coach Campbell's material does a good job of helping coaches teach it. You will have to find what works best in terms of teaching for your coaches and most importantly, your kids. My background was mainly wing t and if that's what you want to do, you can do it with the no huddle I mentioned as easily as zone blocking schemes. I think it's more a matter of HOW you do it, than WHAT you do. If you are going to try and "run them off their feet" as I like to say, you have got to start with the aerobic conditioning now. Here's something to consider - a dedicated lifting regime from January through August will obviously result in significant strength gains for your team. That will carry over (hopefully) to the season by enabling your kids to push and hit a little more than your opponents. But think about what affect a lighter more well conditioned team would have against a bigger, stronger team. The lighter, better conditioned (notice I am not saying "faster") team will need to win the war of attrition and be on the attack most of the time for the simple reason that if they stay in one place, odds are that they will overpowered. You can look at today's army as an example - aircraft carriers and large tanks can be - in many scenarios - sitting ducks for lighter and more versatile weaponry. During the major fighting in Iraq, our tanks were having some problems (thankfully not more often) with insurgents driving pickup trucks and firing RPG's! Yeah we blew them away but it galled me that thay could take even one or two of our tanks out with that setup! As I stated in my earlier post, I wouldn't mind having a few tanks but if I had my druthers, I'd like to have my tanks be a little more quicker and able to maintain their firepower longer. We as coaches love to talk X's and O's and that is important but I feel too many coaches (particularly at the high school level) are pre-occupied with Xing and Oing (and mimicking what the colleges do with their "behemoths") at the expense of other aspects of the game such as (aerobic) conditioning.

In my opinion a good coach is one that can take a scheme (X or 0's) and get their players to execute the desired outcome, thats teaching the technique of the game and also being able to fix the scheme if it breaks down during a game (adjustments). The physcology of the game is just as important as X's and O's, getting players to perform when the odds are against them. A good coach will take his off-season and develop the mental and physical traits that are needed to win, which in turn will will help executing whatever scheme we as coaches wish to run. Coaches must know that their kids will perform under pressure. Coach CAmpbell