Coaching Youth Football

Rating:
Summary: Straight forward, informative, excellant for Youth Coaches.
Review: Covers all aspects of youth football and explains the differences between youth football and higher levels of football. A must read if you wish to become a competant youth coach or if you wish to improve your coaching skills. Pick it up!!

Rating:
Summary: Great book! Would even be better if I could buy it new.
Review: I am a new minor football coach (call me an advanced fan) who was searching for a book to help me along. After reading the reviews of this book, and reading some of the free articles on Coach Reed's site, I really wanted to get a copy. I finally did (see below) but I have no doubt that is would be half as long if he removed all the comments he makes about how great a coach he is. Perhaps he cannot help himself becuase of his West Point and Harvard educations. Anyway, once you past all that, the ideas he has are superb, and I plan to use his methods as a coach, albeit adjusted for the much more exciting Canadian game. I just hope my head doesn't get as big as his. I cannot afford to replace my hats becuase I had to pay too much for his used book.

Talk about hassles! I send two requests to Coach Reed's e-mail with no reply. It is probably because I live in Canada (generally outside the realm of Americans) that I could not place an order. I then discovered that Coach Reed is the publisher and he refuses to sell his book thru normal channels. I was able to find an older 2nd Edition on e-Bay, and paid thru the nose for a copy that is 5 years old and well used.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best to get
Review: I can't say enough good things about this book, that haven't already been mentioned. Having coached for two years already, I wish I would have read this book before starting. I probably made 30 of the mistakes that John points out that rookie coaches make. I know that after reading this book, I'll be better prepared for the coming season

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for the rookie weekend dad coach
Review: I have bought three of Mr. Reed's books. all of them are perfect for the first time or experianced coach. He tells it like it is and pulls no punches. If you want to fit in with the other coaches in your league and don't want to cause waves don't buy these books. If, on the other hand you want to win football games and give the kids you coach the best chance to win, remember winning is more fun than losing, then buy these books and read them over and over. Use them as a coaching guide all season long. ..

Rating:
Summary: Great Advice for Coaching Youth
Review: I was looking for a book for my husband, and found Reed's website. I was impressed with the articles I found there. I bought two of his books for my husband. Thing is, I can't put them down! I've read them both cover-to-cover. I like Reed's style of writing. I like his attitude toward youth sports. He is practical and realistic. It isn't all about winning, but about bringing out the best in the kids. (That may, in fact, result in a winning team!) I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Even for a mom who isn't much interested in sports! This book will make you interested in youth football if you weren't before. And make you wish every youth coach were a John Reed.

Rating:
Summary: Highly overrated... in my opinion
Review: In five years of coaching youth football, and having read close to one hundred books on the subject, I can safely say that this is the single worst book I've ever encountered.

Talk about self-centered. Coach Reed spends page after page describing his brilliance as a coach. Ha! I bought this book (along with his defense book) to help another coach troubleshoot his program, which was running Coach Reed's plan to a 2-6 record. After reading both these books, I fixed his problems by changing both his offense and defense to much sounder, well-proven schemes. The Gap-Air-Man defense he suggests places too much emphasis on individual talent -- great if you've got stud teams, but hell if you don't. He was clearly blessed with talent on his squads (at least based on his references to his player's successes in High School and College).

More than that, though, is his arrogant approach; it is off-putting in the extreme. At one point in the book, he refers to his players as "dumb." Absolutely APPALLING, coming from a youth coach! I'm not known for my compassion on the field, but I've never called my players dumb. They certainly don't know as much as I do, but, as Bear Bryant says, "you don't win football games with what you know, it's what your players know." If you've got dumb players, then the coach must be even dumber.

Save your money and buy books that actually TEACH something. Maybe Tom Bass' "Play Football the NFL Way" or any of the excellent books in "The Art and Science of Coaching" series. Yes, they are more technical in their approach, but they provide much better information and do so without pandering to their own egos or bad-mouthing the players.

Rating:
Summary: Buy this for your kid's football coach!
Review: Just ordered my second copy of this book.

John T. Reed covers the basics of coaching youth football from A to Z, in an easy to read format.

I read the first copy and passed it on to my son's coach last year. Reed doesn't pull any punches when he points out the mistakes that many youth football coaches make.

Any "How To" book is good when you find 3 or 4 gold nuggets you can use. This book is great. It's an absolute gold mine of information for the youth football coach!

It goes beyond X's and O's. Should a youth football program serve as a feeder program for the high school team? Are high school offenses and defenses appropriate for youth teams? How many of the kids on the youth team will actually play football at a higher level? These questions and many more are answered.

The book itself isn't made of the highest quality materials, but the solid content more than makes up for this shortcoming.

Buy one for your coach. Buy one for yourself!

Rating:
Summary: Best Coaches guide for Coaching Youth Football
Review: This books covers everything you need to know about coaching youth football. I have read several books on the subject, and nothing compares. I continue to read more books, but still refer back to this one. BUY IT if you plan on coaching Youth Football.

Rating:
Summary: Rare data and brilliant ideas but some questionable argument
Review: This is one of the definitive youth football books; if you coach youth football you MUST get a copy and read it. However, you must also read other books to keep balance, because Coach Reed is a Single Wing offense and Gap-8 and Man-to-Man defense iconoclast.

I was completely enamored upon first reading of this book; now after extensive reading in other football books (over 50 and counting), a season of experience, and much reflection and study, I'm not so sure. The book is a worthy contribution to football literature. It is one of the few youth football books worth owning. So as a youth coach you MUST obtain and read this book, however if you use only it expect some trouble. Here are examples.

On p 83 in his Chapter on Defense, Coach Reed "proves" (*see footnote below) that the number of football rushers at various levels of football is fitted by the parabolic equation

[1] N = P^2,

where N is the number of rushers and P is the probability of a pass. Then he uses this equation to confidently state that 10 year old level football should use a 9 man rush, which is a ostensibly a lead-in to buy his other books on "Coaching Youth Football Defense" and "Gap Air Mirror" defense which recommend the Gap-8 or 10-1 or variations. Coach Reed arrives at Equation 1 using unsound argument. (Review "Fallacies" by CL Hamblin, "Logic" by Copi, etc.) Briefly summarized his derivation goes as follows. Youth football uses 5-3 defense, high school uses 4-4, college uses 4-3, and NFL uses 3-4, therefore if you correlate that to probability of pass rate at the stated levels, Equation 1 results. What is fallacious is that he then uses the probability at the precise age of 10 to predict (exactly?) 9 pass rushers. However, wasn't the 5-3 data point used as the "youth" defense to produce the original equation? The youth data point encompasses the age range from 8 to 13, but his equation is used to extrapolate to the very precise age bracket of 10 years old. Effectively what is done here (ANOVA - statistical analysis of variance, see for example "Statistics for Experimenters" by Box, Hunter, and Hunter) is to weight the number of pash rushers in the youth age bracket between age 8 and 13 with higher levels' number of pass rushers. However, thoughout Reed's book his main premise is that youth football is inherently different than older levels of football. Further, I've watched many football games at College and High School levels and they just as often use the 5-2 Oklahoma than the 4-3 because of the frequent presence of the option offense. And, many NFL teams use a 4-3. So, Coach Reed's data AND argument are suspect. (I've spent quite a bit of time on this since this equation is a big foundation for his argument to use a Gap Air Mirror defense -- with 8 or 10 on the line of scrimmage -- in youth football.) Finally, many of the championship teams use the 5-2. I'm sure Coach Reed would say that is because they have better talent, but that says the defense selected isn't as important as the talent obtained. Finally, it my personal observation that the Gap Air Mirror (Gap-8 and 10-1) is less effective against outside runs, which Coach Reed repeatedly says is the most threatening play in youth football.

Another example is on p 102 where he says the Single Wing is the best shut down by the Gap-8 (again a plug for his GAM defense book). But Homer Smith's book "Football Coach's Complete Offensive Playbook", which has one of the best reviews of the history of how offense and defense formations evolved to defeat each other during the first half of the 20 th century, says that a review of the American Football Coaches Assocation Meetings manuals reveal that coaches of that era "screwed a defense [a 6-2] down tight on the Single Wing ...". Who do we believe? AFCA and Homer or John?

Another example is that he says (including himself) not to try and create your own defense. "How can we expect to top people like Buddy Ryan and Vince Lombardi?" However throughout this book he extols his Gap Air Mirror, which he himself created. Is this a contradiction?

And another. Both Bud Wilkinson's "Offensive Football" and Homer Smith's op. cit., say the problem with the Single Wing -- why few use it today -- compared to indirect snap (i.e., QB under center) is that the ball is in the air during snap for a duration enough to give the defensive line time to control their blocker so by the time the ball is received by a back, the defense has the advantage. This won't show up against a poor quality team, but a talented, well coached team will use it. Also, keying on the WB vs that offense usually reaps rewards.

I could cite numerous others, but I'd rather let my competition flounder on ...

Reading the book feels like talking with an opinionated, crotchety, seasoned coach reminscing about the good ol' days as his son's youth football coach; a venue that has its good and bad points. The book could stand a good dose of Strunk & White's dictum "Omit needless words!" One great thing about this book is its extensive list of football references. On the other hand, about the only other youth football book worth obtaining and reading is Mike Aruanno's ISBN 1-58518-852-2.

Finally, my last point regards Coach Reed's comment on p 153, "... people who know a little about football assume that there is something wrong or obsolete about them [direct snap offenses]. Nope. They are just out of fashion. To me, that's a selling point." My observation (and this includes Coach Reed's teams) are that Single Wing teams come close to winning the conference championship, but never quite beat an equal or better talented team, competently coached, running a conventional offense. How many National Pop Warner Champions ran the Single Wing? I'm sure there are exceptions around the nation, but a team that knows how to defend a Single Wing can shut it down easier than more modern offenses. If that wasn't so, we'd see the Single Wing still in play at higher levels, which have "competent coaching" as Coach Reed repeatedly points out. After reading dozens of texts on offense, I've come away with the firm conviction that it isn't so much the backfield formation that is important as the ability of the offensive line to effectively block certain "play idioms" regardless of how the backs reach the hole. (An idiom in this case is a family of plays similarly related -- like Power Sweep, Triple Option, etc.)a

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* He even appends to the end of the argument the latin moniker QED -- it is proved -- as if this is a deductive derivation* like those in geometry, math, and logic texts! In fact, it is an inductive derivation governed by the laws of empirical science and statistics.


Rating:
Summary: Theory is good but putting it to use takes a few years .....
Review: Well, I have suffered through 3 miserable seasons of my son in the gap-air-whatever (10-1) defense and I will tell you, being someone that played youth football from age 4 and then moved onto high school football and on to college football and then to majoring in coaching in college......you have to have an abundance of talent and be a very thorough coach if you plan on having any success with this system. First of all, if you ever think your going to be successful with a read and react defense in youth football, I would beg to differ. Attack style defenses always work better in youth football where 95% of the plays are run oriented. This defense is basically a 10-1 or an 8-2 which takes away half of your team on any given play. Since everyone is on the line when the play goes to the left the players on the right are neutralized, etc. second, this defense has no layers ..... in other words , if the runningback breaks the line , there is noone there to reinforce you. ITs an all or nothing defense and I have watched my son go from an incredible blitzing linebacker in a 6-2 system to a mediocre player at this so called outside linebacker (its actually a double defensive end that mirrors the tight end HA HA !) I have watched a coach diligently attempt to make this system work and he is one of the most prepared coaches I have seen around yet, he cant get this system to work. I cant go in to too much detail but a layered 5-3 with a nice blitz package would do much better in youth football and is winning championships everyday with minimal talent. Mr. Reed is very arrogant about his philosphy which is nothing more than a philosphy. He is the minority in his thinking but he has made it work. With Talent, I could make a 2 man front work especially if I had been coaching the same thing for 20 years in youth football. Mr. Reed also does not believe in traditional conditioning, fundamental drills, etc.....well all I can say is good luck if you want to use this stuff. My sons team finally moved to a semi 5-4 this year with much more success but they still had problems outside because they put the linebackers up on the line and rarely blitz. Anyway, I have rambled enough but I am not saying not to buy this book , I think it is good to know all systems but putting it into practice is another story. Hope this helped.

Bill