Bootleg11 said:

My oldest son is going to his first padded camp tomorrow @slattimer

He's going into the 7th grade and prides himself on being a lineman. Early in the spring I told him he could choose one camp to go to this summer. He chose the Eastern Oklahoma OL/DL camp at Bixby, OK. It's a 2 day camp. I have long had a standing that my kids won't play tackle football until 6th grade. So he got a small dose of it last year in 5 games but will get a pretty rude awakening going up against some kids that likely have played tackle for a few years.

Anyways, as a guy that grew up a coach's kid and have now coached for a long time, it's pretty exciting for me to see my oldest be pumped to go play football.

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Bootleg11 said:

I have long had a standing that my kids won't play tackle football until 6th grade.

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Alcaus said:

Why?

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slattimer said:

That’s awesome. My son is only 1.5. Have a long wait until that day. I’ll do the same with my son as you did.

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Alcaus said:

Why?

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Bootleg11 said:

As someone who's coached a long time, I see no value in playing tackle football until that point. I probably would have done 1 more year of flag football but it had gotten to the point to where our flag football games were not competitive at all...even playing up in age.

Honestly, I have no way of knowing if that's right or wrong. It's just that I think tackle football at a younger age is a lot of dad's playing one kid at QB or RB and ILB/DT that is bigger and faster than everybody and all they do is run sweep and blitz the A Gap every play. I also think kids get pigeonholed into a position at way too young of an age.

So I started my oldest kid's class in flag football when they were 5. We (me and one other guy) taught them all how to take hand offs, all how to get into proper stances, how to line up in different positions, how to catch a ball, how to track near hip etc etc. By the time we got to playing a very short tackle football schedule last year, we were able to run a no huddle offense and we beat 4 teams that had been playing tackle football for 3 or 4 years.

The only team that beat us had a 13 year old 6th grader and all they did was pitch it to him and put him in the A gap along 2 other kids and blitz every play. Which in my opinion teaches kids nothing about how winning games at the high school level.

Again, I have no idea if I'm right or wrong on this stance. There are tons of anecdotal evidence either way. It's just the stance I took. We'll find out in 4-5 years if it pays off for my oldest sons group.

The other thing, in my opinion, that flag football gave me a chance to do was garner and retain interest from more kids because all of them got a chance to touch the ball some at a young age.

I also did it with my 10 year old's class and my 7 year old's class. So if I'm wrong, schedule Garden Plain in 2027, 2029 and 2032 lol.

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slattimer said:

My reasoning, lack of body control. The majority of kids just don't have the motor skills IMO to do it properly and safely. You've seen a dramatic drop in kids' free play in schools, summers, etc for a wide variety of reasons. Learning how to jump, land, cut, etc, all of those body mechanics that kids used to learn early and often just playing sports, recess in general, rough housing, etc have declined. It's not true of all kids. I've been involved in youth camps every year I've coached, and you always have some kids that can learn and do it, but that's the minority.

Plus the developmental levels of kids at that age are just drastically different. I've seen first hand too many kids take a big hit and that's it. They're done, and most of it was because they got trucked by some mature kid. Then you see that kid develop in junior high/high school and would be a good student athlete that doesn't go out because of a bad youth experience.

You also have the coaching issue. There are some really good youth coaches out there. There are also some really bad ones running drills that have teach nothing but intimidate and demoralize kids.

Those are the main reasons why I probably won't let me kid play tackle until junior high. Would I reconsider, possibly.

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slattimer said:

My reasoning, lack of body control. The majority of kids just don't have the motor skills IMO to do it properly and safely. You've seen a dramatic drop in kids' free play in schools, summers, etc for a wide variety of reasons. Learning how to jump, land, cut, etc, all of those body mechanics that kids used to learn early and often just playing sports, recess in general, rough housing, etc have declined. It's not true of all kids. I've been involved in youth camps every year I've coached, and you always have some kids that can learn and do it, but that's the minority.

Plus the developmental levels of kids at that age are just drastically different. I've seen first hand too many kids take a big hit and that's it. They're done, and most of it was because they got trucked by some mature kid. Then you see that kid develop in junior high/high school and would be a good student athlete that doesn't go out because of a bad youth experience.

You also have the coaching issue. There are some really good youth coaches out there. There are also some really bad ones running drills that have teach nothing but intimidate and demoralize kids.

Those are the main reasons why I probably won't let me kid play tackle until junior high. Would I reconsider, possibly.

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scotchfrost9697 said:

i wanted to quit football in 5th grade because we were doing tackling drills going against 7th graders & its by far the hardest ive ever been hit in my life and it was all year long.

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scotchfrost9697 said:

i wanted to quit football in 5th grade because we were doing tackling drills going against 7th graders & its by far the hardest ive ever been hit in my life and it was all year long.

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