Today I am ordering two more copies of your Single Wing book for my other offensive coaches -- there is simply too much good, insightful information in there for them not to read it first hand . . . and I need them on the same page.

Again, thank you for the excellent publicatoins.  I have all the other football books now, some in multiple copies.

thomas.mccallister@comcast.net

Hi John.

Your Coaching Youth Football was an excellent read. The best $29 I have ever spent. Thanks to your books, we faced the single-wing offense last year twice out of eight games, I was the OC so I had no control over the 5-3 we were running to defend the SW. Needless to say, we were crushed on the D side of the ball both games.

By the way, we will be running the GAM in our Mitey Mite PW league. Thank you for writing these books. They have really helped me and to what I have seen on the field, they have helped a lot of other coaches too. 

Mark Langseth

I have your books on single wing offence, air-gap defence, youth football and contrarian football... excellent stuff!  In our spring league in Victoria, British Columbia Canada, we took a team that was 2-11 last year and finished 8-3, with pretty much the exact same players.

Keep up the good work!

Dave Wong

Hello John,
I just finished reading your Coaching youth football & coaching youth football defense. I loved both books. I have dozens of word documents with drills, notes & information. I would make it manditory reading for all coaches in my association if I could. I'd make it mandatory for ALL football coaches
except that then, there may no be a winner if everyone follows your suggestions.
Again, thank you so much.
Todd Wood
Elgin, Il
ELGIN BEARS

Hi Coach Reed-
I have enjoyed your books over the years and have used the no huddle (with your play calling board) for three years. I'll never go back, the improved conditioning and amount of plays we run are a big advantage. I will try it without a cadence this year at the varsity level.
Thanks and keep up the great work,
Dylan Shelley

[Your books] are awesome - best books on coaching I've ever read.
I plan on buying all your football books now!!!
I didn't realize what an "idiot coach" I was until now.
THANKS for slapping sense into me!!
I'm switching over from the veer & spread to the Reed Single Wing.
2 months ago (spring ball) I had a single wing (with fullback) run against my 5-3-3 and I didn't know what it was and my defense suffered a slow, grinding defeat. The coach running the SW was Coach Mohns of Saguaro High School, Scottsdale, AZ.
Matt Thornton
Chandler AZ

Used your defensive system last year, went 7-1 (from a previous 0-7 season).  Such common sense, it's remarkably refreshing and effective.  Thanks John.

Brian C. Costa

Coach Reed,
 
I was reading through all of my John Reed books tonight and was amazed.  I had forgotten how much I learned from you.  I guess this is a long overdue thank you. I purchased my first book in 1996 after a hard season.  I had made a decision to not coach again, because of some bad expereinces, even though our team had made the playoffs.  In the off season I found your book, Coaching Youth Football, and read it in one day.  I instantly knew it was different than the other coaching books I had read.  I changed my mind that day about coaching, because I now had a true guide on how to coach a team right.  I was resolved to implement the majority of your ideas.  I can never thank you enough.
 
Today, I am the head coach of our 8th grade team.  I am a coach in the Gwinnett Football League located in north Atlanta Georgia.  Our league has around 250 teams and 5,000 boys.  We have been very successful.  We will pass 200 wins this coming year with less than 20 losses.  Since I read your first book we have had 10 undefeated seasons and been to 10 county championships.  But best of all, coaching youth football is my passion and always will be.
 
Your books are by far the most relevant material on coaching youth football, and I believe in them.  I recommend them to every coach I talk to about coaching.  Thank you for educating me on your common sense approach to coaching football.  I would enjoy talking to you someday to compare notes.
 
Rod Dollar
rod@graphicdies.com

Mr. Reed,
                     Thank you for providing information and a forum for the youth coach.  I coach a 5th grade program in University Place Washington, outside of Tacoma.  UP Viking football is associated with the Curtis High School program and we enjoy use of a 4A stadium most of the time for home games.  The program is grades 4-7 and I ran offense my first 4 year run and am now head coach of the 6th grade after haveing the same kids in the 4th and 5th grades and going 17-1 with two championships.  I have talented kids and our program supports the coaches and lets the coaches coach.  I thank you for helping me be a better coach by helping me understand the few really important things that have to be done to be successful.  We practice a lot of tackling with in struction.  We run 10 running and 6 passing plays from 4 formations.  A few have motion.  Last year I got 11 of 25 kids in the endzone for touchdowns or extra points.  Most of the time we sub 11 kids on defense every 4 plays.  Simply because we practice the simple stuff over and over.  We put kids in spots they can do what they do best.  Last years championship game I did not pass once and we won 18-0.  When we do pass we complete 65 percent of our passes.  Yes we run the crunch series, thanks to you.  I helped our 4th grade offense which was 0-3 to run the crunch series and they went 5-3 and won the championship.  Simple stuff over and over.  We never go on two.  Next year we will run the fill sweep which will introduce pulling for our guards.  Also we will introduce a wildcat snap series.  The coaches I coach with read your books and your website and put what you offer to use.  The tough thing for me is I have the talent to run the spread shotgun option,  but if I could I would run the double wing.  That is what is great about football.  Thank you again and I hope you have great success in all you do.   

Sincerely, Pat Tobin

I've read and used your football techniques for the past 2 seasons and haven't lost a game (first time in program history). You wouldn't believe the hell I got for running the GAM defense the first year. Even 3/4 of the way through the season when we were allowing the opposing offense about 20 yards per game, I was still hearing about it. I even had coaches from higher levels trying to run their offense against it during practice (as if they could teach the offense a "better" play in one practice to outmaneuver GAM). Their frustration was palpable. The next year I ran into two of our biggest rivals who were running a version of it. I imagine that since they've all taped our single-wing offense this past year, I'll probably see it in our opponents.

Walter Sheehy

Dear Mr. Reed,
Thank you.  I'm just coming home from a victory party for our 10/11 year old youth football team.  We won the league title today with a team mixed with kids who on two levels last year were a combined  0-8, 4-4.  This is my third year coaching, and having read and studied your books on offense, defense, youth football and clock management, you are a huge part of this championship too.  It was a battle at times with other coaches who fought me on many aspects of the game (I believe and follow your theories on the game because they are logical and they work) regarding offensive philosphy and time management, but it paid off.  
  Just one example: today we beat a team 6-0 who was 9-1, had scored 200 points in ten games, but by controlling the ball on our offense we kept their offense off the field.  We knew how to shut them down while on defense, and on offense had two long drives of almost an entire quarter each, both starting on our own twenty, that ended in one touchdown and the second leaving them on their own 7 with 9:00 left in the game.  
  They had an explosive offense with the two fastest backs in the league.  At one time in the third quarter, on 4th and two in our own end with my head coach screaming at me to punt, I lied and told the refs we were going for it.  In our league punts are dead ball plays, no time runs during them beacuse they are not live.  We went to the line after an injury timeout, ran twelve seconds off the clock trying to draw them offsides, and with one second on the play clock called timeout and then punted.  At the end of the game those twelve seconds came in handy as we were able to run the clock off with three kneel down plays at the end of the game, the last snapped at 24 seconds on the clock on third down (we run on 25 seconds a play) to end the game without them getting a chance to touch the ball again.  The other coach was furious the whole drive because we ran every play at 24/25 seconds, and ran off the last 4 minutes of the game.  
  If I had the time to, I could cite many other examples of how your books helped us to win all season long and today.  We had a team that was the third seed in the playoffs (I gave you our last year's records) and knocked off the one and two seeds to win the title.  Thank you, thank you, thank you again!
Bill Robbins
BANC Raiders Junior Division

My name is Jeff Bateman, I coach little league football in Lynchburg Va. This year I put in the  singlewing and the GAM defense.I coach with my uncle who has been coaching for over 20 years.I ran the offense and he ran the defense. I change some things to make the offense my own but I left the key points in place. We scored 283 points in 10 games, the defense only allowed 25 points in those games. My 1st string tailback rushed for over 1100 yards and scored 21 touchdowns, this kid was only 8yrs.old. Thanks to you parents and even other coaches are asking what I’m running. I can’t wait until next year when I put the spin series in. Thanks again and you made a believer out of me!!!!!!!!!

Dear John,

I wanted to send this email to personally thank you. Because of your publications I went from rookie coach to county champion and undefeated in 3 years.
 
Three years ago I was approached by a close friend of mine to take over as offensive coordinator for his son's 5th & 6th grade team.  I accepted without a second thought, until a few days later when I realized I didn't know as much about coaching youth football as I thought I did. I immediately started internet searching mainly looking at the Wishbone and "T" formations when I stumbled across an article in which you were commenting of the effectiveness of certain plays.  The more I read the more interested I became. I purchased your single wing book and talked to the head coach about his thoughts. He said to run with it. I had a parent approach me early in the year to question using the single wing saying it hasn't worked since the thirties. His son scored 33 touchdowns from the tailback position that year, I never heard anything else from this father.
 
The first season was not bad we were 8 - 5 and were competitive in every game. The biggest compliment we received was from a head coach that said they knew exactly what we were going to do but just couldn't stop it.
 
In year two we had to start over with new guys and we had growing pains at first, but when we got everyone to believe in the system everything came together, we finished the year 11 - 2, our single wing averaged 27 points a game.
 
Year three we finally had 12 returning players in our system and it was off to the races. We had a tailback with 3.4sec speed in the 20-yard dash and 2 blocking backs that loved contact. This was the first year of a combined county league. We saw every type of defense you could imagine and were able to exploit it using only 5 plays all year long. Most teams stacked up to stop the outside rush so we just ran the wedge and off tackle until they pulled it in, once they did that, it was over.  Our team was the smallest team in the league, sometimes being outweighed by over 1,000 pounds, we averaged 22.5ppg on offense, and our defense yielded 5.5ppg. We went 11 - 0 and won the first Caldwell County Youth Football League Championship.
 
My point is this: I have most of your books, we have incorporated your system 100%, we focus more on conditioning than hitting, and teaching the basics. I cannot think of ANY better investment for the youth football coach. Several of the smaller teams are copying our style.  The high school coaches have praised us and the refs have admired the effectiveness of the no huddle, silent offense saying very few teams can accomplish this without numerous penalties.  
 
Again I want to thank you for helping us achieve this goal.
 
Steve Phillips, Granite Falls, NC
 
You do have permission to reprint this email.
 
Steve Phillips

Coach,

You gave me some great tips last year and I have enjoyed your books. They've been one of my primary sources on coaching over the last two years. I wanted to send you a quick story related to your Crunch Series article.

This is my second year coaching youth football. We ran a variation of your GAM defense and a Split Back Veer offense. Both systems very simple and effective. We finished the regular season at 8-1 in a 3-way tie for first place. We had to go to a Kansas City Tie Breaker (ball on the 10, double elimination) last night to decide the conference champion. In order to have a twist for two teams we had already played (one which had beaten us) we installed the crunch formation and three plays out of it (crunch right, crunch left and crunch counter) about an hour before the scrimmage. We practiced lining up and running the play a couple times on the soccer field next to the football field and ran it live for the first time in the scrimmage. We took to the line of scrimmage in our normal Split-Back formation, then shifted quickly on the QB's first sound, got set, then direct-snapped the ball to our best athlete who rumbled for about 7 yards. We called the same play again... the opposing coach burned his ONLY TIME OUT (you only get one per round in the tie-breakers). He coached his team to shift and line-up balanced over us when we shifted. The next play we ran the counter, which worked like a charm vs. their shift. We scored on that play. We ended up winning the tie-breaker and clinching the division title. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP ONCE MORE!

Scott P. Armatti

John,

Just an update, The mimosa mustangs are 6-0 thanks in large part to your philosophy on coaching youth football. We have won all of our games by a combined score of 139 to 25. We run your version of the 8-2-1 defense and have shut out 3 opponents this year and have only allowed four touchdowns all season in 24 quarters of play, and have held 3 of our 6 opponents to 0 or negative yardage for the game. The most yards we have given up in one game is 98 yards. We also run your warp speed no huddle. With that we have achieved a dominant 4 to 1 play differential, average 40 plays a game compared to our oppoents running 15 offensive plays a game. They can't score if they don't have the ball. Our football team has had drives of 15, 8 and 10 plays several times this season. I have never seen a youth team sustain a 15 play drive ever, until this year, thanks to the warp speed no huddle. Also, we run the single wing offense, and have owned not only time of possesion but yardage wise we avearage 250 to 300 rushing a game. Now, we do have some pretty good talent, but if we were running the I formation or the wishbone or any other conventional offense, I doubt we would put up those kinds of numbers. We have had 8 different players score touchdowns this season. Furthomore, what has contributed to our time of possesion dominance and our offensive play dominance is the fact that we kick on sides every time, and for the season we have recovered 62% of our on sides kicks. We recovered 6 out of 6 on sides kicks in one game this season and recover at least two a game. The funny thing is, we don't even get cute with it. We don't care if the opponent knows where we are kicking it, we pretty much tell them where we are kicking it, and they still can't stop it! The ball bounces really funny when it isn't perfectly round, and this approach is just devestating to the opposition. We have seen as much as 10 guys on the front line of the return team and still recovered the kick. More defensive notes, we have had 32 pass attempts against us this season, they have completed two, and we have intercepted 9. The rest have fallen to the turf for an incompletion, due to the 8-2-1 man to man pass coverage. Just wanted to thank you for your books! I see that you have a book on coaching youth baseball, I can't wait to buy that in the coming months, maybe santa will bring it to me for christmas! Thanks again Jack, you’re a youth football genius!

Kristian Garic

Coach Reed

I purchased your books on the single wing offense, youth defense and GAM 3 seasons ago. I would like to provide this third installment to my yearly updates. We just finished our 2007 season with a 7-1 record. Although we did not pile up the points like we did last year, we were still effective. I must add that we did move up a division this year and faced much better competition. I coached 8-9 yr olds the first two years and this year we had the 10-11 yr olds. We averaged over 20pts per game with a season high of 48, and did so using only 4-5 plays from a playbook of 12 in each contest. The wedge was a consistent gainer but it did not go for big yardage but 2-3 times. The off tackle was our bread and butter and most of our points came from it. The wing reverse was only effective when defenses shifted somewhat to our unbalanced line. At times we shifted to a balanced line and ran the off tackle to either side. The first time we did this, the play went for 40 yards or so and a TD. We were also able to pass a little more using the sprint pass and a flanker streak. However; I switched the run sprint pass receiver most of the time. The long end and WB would run this route or the flanker would run a Q route. The main reason for this was the BB's inability to get out in the flats fast enough. We threw for touchdowns and extra points and a few 3rd down conversions. I did tweak your version of the single wing occasionally to spread the defense and then ran the wedge and a TB dive with consistent success against defenses that stacked the line of scrimmage to stop our power running plays. One of the greatest aspects of the single wing is BALL CONTROL. The other team cannot score without the ball. Most of our scoring drives were at least 5-6 plays and several were more than 11 plays. I plan on passing a little more next year and maybe doing some more tweaking, but the information in your books have been outstanding and everything that we have done has been a direct result of the principles and tactics that you have taught me through them.

Defensively we were OUTSTANDING with the GAM. Of our seven wins, 5 of them were shut outs and most of the teams we played ended up with negative yardage. The only difficulty we had was with a team that ran a spread offense. They were not able to effectively throw against us but we did give up chunks of yardage when we really needed a defensive stop. I must admit that part of the problem with this particular game was too much coaching the week prior - that will never happen again. Teach them their responsibilities, line em up and let em play. All but one of the teams that we played did not even come close to being able to handle the pressure that our boys applied play after play. Disciplined Defensive ends, aggressive linebackers, athletic corners and MLB/safety and tenacious lineman are too much for almost any offense to overcome.

Over the past 3 seasons, I have built our teams around our defense and relied on the tried and proven single wing to propel us to victory. These systems are easy to teach, troubleshoot and the kids love it. Our teams have a 21-3 record which includes 1 undefeated championship season and two second place finishes.

Thanks for your contribution to our football success!

Coach Al Johnson

Jack,

Some positive feedback for your tackling drill.  A friend of mine is using your book in coaching his son's 5th grade team.  He said he's never had a tackling drill that worked so well as yours.  The boys actually stayed within the four cones,  maintained half speed until impact, kept their head in the right place and followed through. He was just giddy telling me about it this morning. My buddy (coworker) is a former Mankato State football player--one of the MN state colleges.  He's a teddy bear of a guy.  Loves coaching Youth Football.

I checked out your website this morning after a long hiatus.  Your book on Freshman and JV football looks intriguing. 

If this is at all like your Youth Book, it should be mandatory reading for Freshman and JV coaches. 

Keep up the good work Jack. 

Rick Groomes, Mpls. MN

Coach Reed,


I just wanted to thank you for your influence on my success as a youth football coach. I coach the 9-10 team in a rural community in South Carolina. Before we took over, this team was the perennial doormat of the league, and the designated "W" on everyone's schedule. Now, thanks to Coaching Youth Football, three seasons later, we are one of the most feared teams in the league. Last season we finished 10-1 and lost in the league semifinals game in double overtime. This season, we're off to another great start (6-0). We run the tight, 0 line splits double wing and the single wing. Defensively, we run your GAP-Air-Mirror defense. We have four shutouts thus far.

Last week we played a very talented team that had our double and single wing scouted and defended well. We were down 6-0 in the 4th quarter, then we unleashed the "Crunch" package with a direct snap. We marched right down the field and scored easily! We secured the extra point, and won 7-6. It amazed me how the other team NEVER adjusted to our unbalanced line, with all of our backs lined up behind them. We had a 7-3 advantage at the point of attack!

I am amused at how the coaches scramble to stop the on sides kick. Many burn timeouts or spend the entire half-time period trying to stop it. LOL! Once again thank you, for all you've done for youth football coaching. Your book has been a godsend for me, and most importantly has given some pride and self-esteem back to a small community that WAS conditioned to being the laughing stock to the other teams we play with a much larger population.

Sincerely,
Sanford Williams, Honea Path, SC

Jack, we talked about 10 years ago, My dad and I were coaching a youth football team in Radcliff Kentucky. We have read all of your books, and currently implement your 8-2-1 defense. We are currently coaching together in New Orleans La, and are 3-0, and are allowing on average 4 points a game through three games on defense, and curently we average right around 30 points a game on offense, with the single wing. I just wanted to catch up with you, and let you know you have had a huge impact on my coaching philosophy, we basically have copied everything that you do, with good success! By the Way we have recovered 5 out out 9 onside kicks!! Everyone around the league asks me "Why do you kick onsides so much?"...I feel like saying, are you watching? If you watch our game you will see why!! 5 out of 9!

Kristian Garic

John,

We had our opening game this past weekend with 7 – 9 year old Mighty Might team. We have implemented your GAM defense which produced a shutout. Our defense only allowed 1 first down in which a 2nd team DE and CB lost contain. It resulted in a 15-yard sweep. They had a little success up the middle due to the fact that I found out at half time that we are not allowed to have a Nose Guard or anyone in the A gaps. This week I will work with my linemen to Pinch into the gap and stop them. Or MLB did a great job only allowing 1 to 3 yard gains even with little support from the guards.

[Our double wing offense] scored 25 points with 196 yards in 25 plays.

This is my first year at coaching a tackle team. The past 3 years I spent coaching flag which was only a baby step to added complexities of tackle. I only received your books GAM and Coaching Youth Football a couple of days before the season so I had to read fast and work on implementing you system quickly and so far working great. I have already found more that I need to improve on as a coach and being efficient during practices. But the parts that I have been able to implement have put us ahead of other teams this year.

Thanks

Bo Gibson
Head Coach East Fairmont Rockets – Mighty-Might Division
Bgibson@valleyhealthcare.org

John:

I purchased your football books a couple of years ago, and just purchased your clock management book today. I have been an assistant coach for the last four years, and this year the head coach left and I took over the head coach position. I have implemented your system (single-wing and gap-air-mirror) and your approach fits my style. We are 2-0 and have outscored our opponents 89 to 7. The 6 was scored on us on offense on the sprint-out run pass (the ball hit our receiver in the face mask and bounced up and the defender ran it back for 6). So I wanted to give you some good feedback, great advice, and wanted to ask you a question. Your books are the best. I think I have all of your sports related books and you have done a great job. FYI – the last two teams I coached after reading your books on Football and Baseball won their league championships.

David M. Guida

Larry A. Pankey
Atlanta, GA

Hi John:

I want to thank you for your web-page. I am a second year defensive coach and have been given the task of looking after the DB's for our team. I must let you know that I am e-mailing you from Canada and judging by your experience as a coach you must have some knowledge of the Canadian game. If not then here are a couple of things you should know:

- there are 12 men per side on the field.
- our field is much wider (~ 15-20 yrds I do believe) than yours.
- we are allowed to have more than one man in motion at the line.
- we only have 3 downs therefore we throw much more.

These few factors alone make it much more tougher for a defence to cover the field. I just wish to say that I love your philosophy with regards to zone defence and the futility of teaching it to youth. I am coaching minor-bantam players (13-year olds) and I was originally doing what you stated not to. I tried teaching them all sorts of backpedaling drills and the like as well as zone pass coverageand got away from the meat and potatoes of good fundamental football, like proper tackling form. We have now switched back to straight man and concentrate our practice time on learning our basic assignments and stickingto them. Again thanks for simplifying my approach and putting me on the right track. Although your rules are different in the U.S., youth football players are the same all over with regards to learning.

Cheers

John Quagleini
North Winnipeg Nomads Football Club
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada

I am in the middle of re-reading each of your football books (for the third time by the way) this off season. I wanted to say “thank you” one more time. You absolutely saved me as a clueless rookie coach and last year, my 2nd season as a coach; our 3rd and 4th grade team went 12-0 (10-0 officially since a couple were pre-season scrimmages we set up as coaches) easily winning the championship. The team we beat in the championship had not lost in the previous 3 seasons and had averaged over 35 points a game all year. We shut their offense out and scored 4 touchdowns of our own. In a very competitive league, 7 of our 10 games the “mercy rule” went into effect. My minimum play players (we had a very large roster, so I have a bunch of them) were able to see as much or more game time than my starters because of that. That made us heroes to the parents of the younger kids. Needless to say, we had a blast and we can’t wait for the 2007 season to begin.

Thanks again,

Coach Thayne Harrison

Coach Reed

I just wanted to give you an update on our latest Single Wing Success. Last year I put the Single Wing offense and 8-2-1 defense to work as a rookie youth football coach. We went 6-2, finishing 3rd in the division. We averaged 30+ points per game while only allowing 6.

This year my policy was: "If it aint broke don't fix it." The only thing I had to change was emphasizing the snapper position more. Last year we had many problems with the direct snap, but not this year. I was able to add a few wrinkles to the offense to exploit what defenses were trying to do to stop us, but the formation worked like a charm. It was POWER running all season and a stingy defense that led us to an 8-0 record and the league championship. We scored on every running play in the playbook and even had some success passing the ball. Our boys had a blast this year and our coaching staff is thrilled. There is one high school in our area that runs the single wing, but other than that, we are the only ones. I love it when teams line up against us in a T formation or I formation. Our defense just pins their ears back and ATTACK with a vengeance. If anyone thinks that the 8-2-1 defense is weak against the pass - FORGET IT!! We had a few completions against us for small gains, but we intercepted several and even ran some of the picks back for touchdowns. [Reed note: I now recommend my GAM defense over my 8-2-1 which was my first 1992 defense. The GAM is my new much improved version.]

I really appreciate your coaching books. I recommend them to any coach that wants to keep it simple and WIN. Of course that doesn't go for anyone that may play us...

Coach Al Johnson
Virginia

Mr. Reed,
Just finished a 9-0 regular season and am headed into the playoffs using your modified single wing offense and gap air mirror defense. Last year I went 8-1 using the same systems, but they get better as I get to know them more and learn to innovate. People think I'm a football genius.
I know I'm just smart enough to know I need help and to find where to get it. Great work on your books!

[subsequent email] It got better. We won the league championship with a record of 12-0. The single wing offense averaged 34 points per game, even given a rule that we switch out the starting backfield when ahead by 24. The gap air mirror defense held our opponents to an average of 7 points per game. In the championship game, our blocking back (my son) broke his arm and couldn't throw. However, we had scouted the opponent's 4-4 defense and every player knew who to block for the off tackle, so we easily ground out an 18-8 victory on the ground. The kids are close knit and confident, and all of them are going on to try to play the best sport in the world in high school. I'm particularly gratified because last year, when our team went 8-1, I tried telling the other coaches that my offense didn't have a quarterback, and they laughed at me. Now they're asking me for advice.

Thanks for your help.

John Phelan

Mr Reed,

I had the pleasure of coaching a 5-7 year old (90 pounds max) tackle football team this year. This is the first year we have offered tackle football for kids this age, so I was starting from scratch. This also was my fist go a coaching tackle football. You can tell by the uniforms that I am a huge Penn State fan!

I read your book at least 3 times and ran the Single Wing offense. I had 27 kids on the team (more than any other team) and each kid had to play 7 plays. We were also the only team with 5 year olds (8). Here is our team and record: http://www.wkya.org/Football/Football%202006/Football%202006%20Tackle/Football_2006_Tiny_Mite_Tackle.htm

I spent the first 3 weeks of practice conditioning, teaching stances then teaching proper blocking and tackling technique. I used a mattress as you suggested in your book to break them in. It worked great. I also used what was called “FIT” drills. We taught them how to wrap up on a stationary team mate. We did this for every kid numerous times. That really paid off; for the most part we tackled very well. The defense was limited by league rules. You could not line up on the snapper. You had to have 6 on the line and you could not blitz the linebackers inside those six.

The last week before our first scrimmage (Jamboree) I put in the offense and defense. I only had 3 plays in before our first scrimmage(s).

Wedge
Off Tackle
Wing reverse.

In our league, the defense was not allowed to line up on the snapper, so I didn’t run the wedge very often. I was too easy to gain 5 yards, I felt like I was cheating. We executed the Off Tackle and the Wing reverse incredibly well. All the practice we put in teaching them how to block really paid off. Once they got over “those guys on the other side really want to tackle us,” no one could stop us, we seemed to score at will. I think our team was more prepared than most, so we had the edge early. Running the same formation for all the plays really enabled us to get a lot of plays in as well. It killed me sometimes that it would take opposing coaches 2 minutes to get a play in. At this level each team was allowed to have 2 coaches on the field. I could get off a play in 20 seconds with no problem at all. One formation at this age was definitely a plus.

We had one more week before our first regulation game and I added the Sweep and a little twist to the off tackle play. I called it “One Left.” “One” was the Off Tackle play. All I did was take advantage of the defenses overloading the right side of the formation and had the BB block to the left (hit the first guy you get to) and the tailback run straight up off his block just to the left of the SE. It was a quick hitter and we always got at least 5 yards and we also score a couple touchdowns with that little twist.
I also practice passing to the flanker (Hitch Pass) if he wasn’t covered. I only allowed that when I had my stud out there, the minimum play kids could not catch.

I used the flanker as the “minimum play” position as you recommended so the Sweep was not very effective. It was very effective when I put a stud out at flanker. Many times 20+ yards. I also played small guys (50 lbs) at the Short Guard, Long Guard and Inside Tackle positions to help the defense out. Only a couple times during the season did the LG and IT get over powered, they were good enough to hold their blocks long enough for the play to get past them.

As the season progressed, I added a couple more plays.

Sprint-out run-pass
All Hook pass
Buck Lateral run pass.

We did not execute the sprint-out run-pass very well. I’ll take the hit on that one. I had a left handed TB and we ran the offense from the right formation all year. It was hard for him to get set and make a good throw. We tried it a couple times though, just to keep the defense “honest”. I had to change out the SE and LE to run the All Hook pass. My two primaries could not catch. I did have kids that I could have put there from the start, but that would have left the defense too weak, so knowing that we would not pass much I opted to “even it out”. Having a left handed TB was a huge advantage running the wing reverse though. When the WB executed correctly we never once fumbled the ball. The Buck Lateral was probable the most fun play to watch evolve. I called it in short yardage situations. My TB sold the play great and the whole defense thought we were running a dive. My BB was off to the races. I also would have him run out to the left if the defense was overloading the right side.

We were the only team in this age group to use the shot-gun snap. [Reed note: The single wing offense uses a long snap not a shot gun snap. In the long snap, the snapper looks through his legs during the snap. In the shotgun, the center looks at the defense during the snap.] None of the other teams even tried it. My primary snapper was a 7-year-old girl. She had great hands and on average we only botched 2 snaps a game. That was quite impressive I think. [Reed note: if the long snappres get 1,200 long snops befor ethe first game, you generally only have a couple of bad saps in the first game or two then no more the rest of the season.] I found and worked with 3 snappers during our conditioning. That really paid off. She was sick and missed 2 games and my back-up(s) did great. The only time she had trouble was in our second game of the year. We “traveled” to another field and they used the wrong size ball. My fault, I should have insisted on using the K2. They didn’t stop us, we stopped ourselves in that game. At this age I lined up the TB about 3 ∏ yard back instead of 4 1/2 to 5 like you recommended. They were more comfortable there.

I chose not to participate in the post season tournament because I knew the other coaches would not follow minimum play or not have those kids show up. I could not do that to my kids. We always followed minimum play and I never asked a kid to not show up if we were playing a better team. Another thing I was very proud of was that fact that we started with 28 and ended with 27. That was one of my goals; I didn’t want to “drive” kids away from tackle football.

I practiced shifting the formation to the left at the end of the season, but I didn’t do it in the game. That was the biggest learning point for me, especially when we played teams for the 2nd and third time. That would have really helped keep the defense honest. Chalk that up to being a new coach.

We wouldn’t have had the success we did without your books. I emailed you once before and thanked you for putting football in “layman’s” terms for me. Your books are great. I’ll be “moving” up to the 8&9 year old division next year and plan on adding the “Spinning fullback,” if they can do it. We will also run the Gap-Air-Mirror defense. I watched that division some this year and I think we will dominate with it.

Thanks

Dale Sexton
Virginia Beach, Virginia

Mr. Reed, my name is Bob Morin and roughly six weeks ago I sent an e-mail to you about my 5th and 6th grade team from Poland, Maine winning its first two games of its innaugural season 22-0 and 30-0. Well, the season is now over and we are the only undefeatead team in the league. we finished with a record of 6-0-1. We averaged 25.4 points /game while the starting defense gave up only 2.85 points per game. Overall, the defense gave up on average 6.5 points per game. Great Stuff!

The starting TB averaged three thouchdowns(would have been more but we have a twenty point rule) per game while the starting BB averaged 4yds per carry.

I can not say enough about your books and the GAP Air Mirror Defense. Again, GREAT STUFF!!! I plan to use both again next year when I move up to coach this group in the 7th grade. Thanks again for all you do.

Bob Morin

Mr. Reed,

I have used your books & articles with much success in the past few years in youth football. [We went] undefeated last year…

Paul M. Bonaccini
Traverse City, MI

Mr. Reed,

I purchased your "Coaching Youth Football" and "Single-Wing Offense for Youth Football" books back in 2003. Much success followed (we were 27-5 between '03-'05 (lost championship in '03 at 9-2, won championship in '04 at 11-0)).

Ashley R. Bolton
Huntsville, Alabama

Incidentally, I've always been a big fan of the Gap-Air-Mirror and have always had it in my defensive repertoire.

Hi Coach,

I got "roped" into being head coach for my son's Pop Warner team here in Pittsford, MI. I had never coached period and only played a couple of years of high school ball. Needless to say, I went searching for some guidance on the web and came across your site. I purchased "Coaching Youth Football", "Single Wing Offense for Youth Football" and "Gap Air Mirror Defense for Youth Football". I have done a lot of reading since early August!

Pittsford is a small rural community, so I have a total of 17 players on the team. We have been practicing since August 3rd, but had never had a live scrimmage untilthe first game of the season this morning. We have 10 plays total. Really 5 plus the mirror image the opposite way. We have only run the plays against air. The G.A.M. defense the same way. The kids had never gone up against a live offense. We had only stressed assignments.
[Reed note: this team should do half-line scrimmages, that is, the right side of the offense goes against the left side of the defense running only plays that go to the right side, then repeat with the left side of the offense going against the right side of theh defense. They can and should also do 7-on-7 to practice passing and pass defense and 9 vs 8 to practice only the run game.]
As our first opponent we had the team that won the league last year.

At halftime we were up 32-0 and the referee came over and explained to us the Pop Warner mercy rules. My assistant coach said he had never been on this side of the mercy rule before while coaching Pittsford football. Pittsford has been kind of the laughing stock of football around here!

So, we stop them on defense again (they never got a first down). We take over on our 40 (Mercy rule). Under the mercy rule we could no longer pass, or run outside the tackles. So, we run the wedge! My son goes 60 yards for a touchdown! The final was 44-0.

Most of the time my 4 down lineman had a hold of the quarterback or running back during the handoff. The [opponent] had no clue what we were doing on offense. They were yelling at the[ir]kids to "play harder," "hit somebody," etc. It reminded me a lot of what you wrote in your book.

Thank you,

Jeff Wendt

Our team participated in a big season opening jamboree at Boise State this past weekend. Our scheduled opponent beat us last year in a regular season game 36-0. We had numerous injuries and a near riot between the coaching staffs. They are considered one of the 3 best teams out of 38 going into this season and they were undefeated last year. We were nervous to say the least because of last year and because we were running a new offense. Everyone (except our wives) have said we’re nuts for running the single wing. Most of the comments centered on the direct snap, which they said will never work and the lack of a quarterback. To make matters worse, the head coach’s son, our snapper, broke his arm in a scrimmage two days earlier (he had over 1200 snaps) and was out. Our back up snapper was less than stellar and had maybe 300 snaps.

In the eight days of practice preceding the jamboree, I taught the boys 6 plays from the right formation: sweep, off-tackle, wedge, wing reverse, sprint out pass and post pass. For the jamboree, I scripted 6 plays for each of our 2 tailbacks. The format of the jamboree was each team gets 6 minutes of offense with no clock stoppage. Offense starts from the forty yard line. If you score or don’t gain 10 yards in 4 plays, you go back to the forty and start again. The offense scored on the 4th play with the first tailback and I switched tailbacks. The offense then scored on the 3rd play. We ran two more plays and were ready to score again before time ran out. On the defensive side, the head coach has implemented a modified gap-air-mirror defense. In 6 minutes, our opponents gained less than 5 net yards with no first downs. Our opponents were shell shocked. Our boys were ecstatic!!

So far so good, first game in two weeks. Thanks coach!!

Roland

PS The back up snapper was perfect.

Hi Coach Reed -
I have purchased your instructional books on coaching youth football and won our city championship using your philosophies - thank you!
Thanks for your dedication directed at coaching youth football. The guys I beat weekly think I'm a genius thanks to you.
Tim Russell

John T. Reeds Coaching Youth Football 4th edition decribes in clear step by step approach how any coach can lead his team to wins by applying his successful and proven football coaching concepts.

CoachMRamirez@aol.com

Coach Reed,
I have several of your books including Coaching Youth Football 3rd edition. By the way, I used the gap 8 defense last year and had 6 shutouts in 8 games! One game we gave up a kick return for the only score and the other was a sweep for a TD by the fastest kid on the field. I love your books!
Thank You,
Craig Smith

Great overall experience. Coach Reed’s book is a must for anyone thinking of coaching youth football. After reading approximately 1/4 the book, I feel like I could coach and win a game against any youth team in Texas.
Mark Langseth

John,

I just wanted to give you a testimonial on this defense. I was the defensive coach for a Pop Warner football team in Fairport NY. The level was mighty Mite –ages 7, 8 9. We were the new team in the league , the league had expanded from 2 team from Fairport to 3 teams. 99% of our kids had never played tackle football and the 1% who had, were castoffs that the other two teams did not want back. I installed your Gap -8 defense for a number of reasons but mostly for its simplicity. Needless to say we won every game and really shut down most team’s offensive playmakers. Coaches would repeatedly try to run up the middle and could not believe that we could stop them. Up until the last game we only surrendered 2 touchdowns in 6 games. Our last game was against a very fast and very talented team that if we went player for player we should have never had a chance. In this game the gap 8 had 4 goaline stances and stuffed them each time. The game ended in a tie 7-7. I believe very strongly in this defense and I would recommend it to every youth coach. Thanks for making our season a very memorable one.

Daniel D. Wetzel
Indirect Sales Manager
Upstate Markets
PCS- 585-230-0065
Email- mailto:Daniel.D.Wetzel@sprint.com

Mr. Reed,

Thanks for writing Coaching Youth Football. Without your book, I would have been in a world of hurt for the past 180 days. As a "rookie" coach, I took on a first year (in other words, in years past our city never had a tiny might team so NONE of my kids had ever played organized football before) tiny might Pop Warner team who competes in a very competitive league here in Florida where 90% of the other teams had second- and third-year players. When I accepted the job I was told that we were unlikely to win a single game. After the first practice and after seeing the kids on our team, I believed what I was told. As coaches, we "dug in" for a very long, painful season. Long story short, using your strategies, we went 8-2 (unofficially...technically they don't keep score for the tinies, but all the kids, coaches, and parents keep score) and the two we lost were games that we barely lost and had a very good shot at winning. One loss was early in the season and had we played that same team again later in the year, we would have shut them out and won by three touchdowns. Our kids executed at an amazing level. The kids had a blast and I didn't embarrass myself as the head coach.

I move up with my son to Mighty Mites next year so the score and our record will be official. Now the bar has been set at an undefeated season rather than the initial, "don't beat yourself up too much if you never win a game"...

Thanks again,

Coach Thayne Harrison

Mr. Reed,

I have been coaching single wing for the past two years in the 7-9 and 8-10 age group. I grew up in the 70's playing single wing football and our teams always had success. In the past two years our team is 20 - 2.
Thank you for this book. It truly inspired me and the boys that I have been coaching. Some other coaches thought that I was old fashioned, but I knew that it would work. I proved it this year by going to the Championship game at the M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and winning against an undefeated team to take the Central Maryland Football Title.
Thanks again
Tom Shewell

Coach,
I just came across this email exchange we had back in September. I have to tell you of the success we had as a result of your input. I wrote to you after we had lost our first 3 games. After getting your reply and doing as you said – getting the linebackers to not back up and to attack the LOS, and making the wedge play more of a key in our offense, things really came together. We only lost one of our subsequent 6 games (and that one we should have won, but for a couple of let-downs when we had minimum play kids in). We had two shut-outs and outscored our opponents 123 – 46 over the span. The line started playing more assertively with the wedge blocking mentality, and the wing reverse started clicking as the off tackle and sweep worked better. It went for 4 TDs over the six games (and the fake reverse went for two.) The season became a success.

Anyway, I just wanted to close that circle with you and say thanks so much for responding to me. I believe your response factored greatly into salvaging our season.

Happy holidays,

Mark McDermott

McDermott & Associates
9607 N. Copper Ridge Trail
Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
(480)205-6451
(480)837-7476 fax
markmcd@cox.net

John,
I would like to add to your collection of success stories. Last year (2004) I took over a pee-wee youth football team, ages 7 to 10 years old. Although I purchased your book “Coaching Youth Football”, I did not fully implement it. I opted to stay with more conventional formations I had coached before. Needless to say, my roster was all first year players, and we went 2-8.

This year, I additionally bought your book “Single Wing Offense for Youth Football”. I decided this offense complemented the talent I had returning, and against my assistant coach’s advice, we went with the Single Wing Offense this season. All I can say is WOW, what a change. We not only went undefeated (11-0) and won the championship; we lead the league in scoring, by putting up 320 points for the year. We only had five plays, and our top three running backs averaged 14, 12 and 11 yards per carry. The plays were simple for the kids to learn, and by the end of the year they were running them to near perfection. After a few games, opposing teams knew what we were running, but still couldn’t stop us. I found at this age group, the defenses had a hard time adjusting to the strong side, and as you know that spells disaster for them.

Defensively, I also went with the GAM. I modified it some, and usually went with three down lineman and two middle LB’s, but this was due to the fact I had more speed than size. The defense worked well, and we led the league on this side of the ball too. We only gave up 44 points all year, and didn’t even get scored upon until the sixth game of the season.

Granted, I think we would have been successful this year running a number of different schemes, but I also believe your systems were a huge contributing factor in us finishing undefeated. I highly recommend your books to any coach (new or old), that is taking on the challenge of coaching youth football.

Jason Hunt (Hanford, CA)
Head Coach
Hanford Pee Wee Steelers
2005 All Valley League Champions
http://eteamz.active.com/avyfl/index.cfm?

I am writing to give support for your GAP-AIR-MIRROR defense. I was thrust into a head coaching postion for 10-12 year olds due to the existing coach not being able to fulfull the committment. I researched on line and came across your book and ordered it. I had helped out last year with running the defense which was a mandatory 5-3 per league rules. It looked like something I could implement based on my limited experience and never having played football.

What a success! My team went 9-1 and won the Rocky Bowl Championship. We allowed a league low 51 points. The concepts were excellent and your book was easy to follow. Thanks, lookign forward to next year.
Mike Kouwenhoven, Billings, Montana.

John,

I've just completed my first year of coaching football (12-13 yr old) as an assistant, and while being incredibly enjoyable I am saddened to report how little I actually know about football. This is coming from a man that played youth, high school, and college football.

As the season progressed and I realized just how little I knew, I began to search out information that would help me with coaching. Your book was the one source of information that made sense. Even though I didn't receive your book till part way through the season, I was able to use your approach toward special teams to our advantage.

Brian Rigot brigot@ess4apc.com

John,
I wanted to thank you for putting together excellent coaching books. I just finished my third year as the defensive coach for my son's youth football teams. I bought Coaching Youth Football before his first season of tackle football. I wanted an aggressive, but disciplined defense and the GAM seemed to be a good fit for what I wanted to do. I have made some slight adjustments at various times to fit our personnel, but overall we have followed the setup you describe. I bought the Gap-Air-Mirror Defense for Youth Football book before the 2005 season. We moved up to a higher age group and I wanted the additional detail this book provided. It was very useful.

Here's few statistics to show the success that our team has achieved. A large part of it was due to the defense.
2003: County Championship, 8-1 record, 152 points scored, 40 points allowed, 1,713 yards gained, 615 yards allowed.
2004: County Championship, 9-0 record, 181 points scored, 6 points allowed, 2,201 yards gained, 491 yards allowed.
2005: County Championship, 10-0 record, 178 points scored, 18 points allowed (only 12 by the defense), 2,354 yards gained, 614 yards allowed

Thanks again for the books. Studying the defense, reviewing tape, and working with the boys on tackling and individual responsibility in a team construct really helped them to be successful.
Scott Shelton

Coach John,

Just a short note to say thank you for your writings that I've discovered over the last year. Because we have adhered to many of your strategies, our team has just finished their regular season, undefeated .... 6-0.
This is a Pop Warner Pee-Wee team, in Traverse City, Michigan that I have been fortunate enough to coach for three years now
We are on our way to the Championship game this weekend...... I'll keep you posted.

Paul M. Bonaccini
Vice President, Investments
Raymond James & Associates
522 E. Front Street
Traverse City, MI 49686
800-946-3650
paul.bonaccini@raymondjames.com

Coach,

quote me one more time, The Ponca City Cardinals are now "STATE CHAMPIONS", and will play for the Super Series National Championship in their Age and Division, due to implementing your strategies.

Dave Tarver
PC Cardinals

Coach Reed,
I have bought and read four of your books now on coaching youth sports. Since i have started using your knowledge as a basis for my coaching philosophy i have had great success coaching football and baseball. We won the conference championship in football using the single wing. Coaches laughed at us , literally until we beat the socks off their team and then they tried to emulate us the next week.

You mentioned that you would like to quote me about our success. Please do, I'm known as a John T Reed disciple around here, I get laughed at about that also. But if you want some good information about our success let me fill ya in.

My first year coaching youth football (10-12 year olds) we went a miserable 0-6.

I vowed that it would never happen again, so I began to read everything i could about youth football. I bought three of your books for football and used them. The next season the other coaches in the league said we "went from the outhouse to the penthouse!" We were Conference Champs. Undefeated in Conference play. Breezed through the playoffs until we got to the superbowl. We ended up losing to a great team, that we had beat earlier in the season. We beat them 20-18, then they ended up beating us 20-19. No shame in that loss.

Here is what i learned from you that made all the diference in the world.

1. We learned how to stop a sweep
2. We had no losses of the ball on snaps,, the entire season
3. We had no losses of the ball on exchanges,, the entire season
4. We threw no interceptions , the entire season
5. We were the best team in the league by far at running between the tackles.

By the way, your GAM is illegal in our league. I have a great modification for it in leagues that outlaw it.

Give me a call when you get a chance,, i'm sure your a busy man, but i know that you would love to hear a few of the specifics that happened when other coaches saw our offense.

I'd love to tell you about them—and that is just our football team. Our baseball team had a great season also.

Thanks Coach
LT Mann

Mr. Reed,

Before my 1st year coaching at the youth level, I read your book "Coaching Youth Football". My players have won 2 league championships at the 13-14 year old level, and my players have never had a losing season. I have put to use many of the concepts you advocate in your book, and I would like to expand on two of them.

In your book you suggest that if a coach does not scout his opponents then he should be "fired for coaching malpractice". I couldn't agree more!. After our final regular season game ended, I quickly left the field so I could go scout our opponent, the Red Bombers, who we were to play for the championship in two days. I made it to the field for the start of the game. The Red Bombers were a very good team, and were winning easily. Then, three minutes before half-time, the Red Bombers lined up in a goofy formation: WR lined up far left, the G-C-G aligned as normal, both tackles and TE lined up far right near the sidelines with the FB and wing aligned as backs behind them. The QB was in shotgun with his HB lined up next to him. The opposing defense was confused as they were scrambling to try to line up correctly. They did not (their coach didn't read your book). The first play was a pass to the wing who followed his blockers for a 30 yard gain. The second play was a quick slant to the WR who took it the distance for a touchdown!

In the championship game against the Red Bombers, we were clinging to a 1 point lead with about 3 minutes left to go in the game with the ball at mid field. They break the huddle and line up in their "goofy" formation. Our kids responded quickly and lined up pefectly against this formation. Now the other team looked confused! On the first play, the QB looked for the wing, but couldn't throw because our LB was in position to intercept the throw and take it the other way. Their QB panicked, and we sacked him for a loss. Fourth down, same formation. We doubled their WR on the slant and the ball fell incomplete. Our kids won!

Here's the point. We didn't win the game because we were great coaches or because we had the most talent. We won because our coaches hustled as much as our players. Do not underestimate the value of scouting becaues it can win games against superior opponents!

The other concept I took from your book has to do with coaching the offensive lineman. Many coaches will work out their plays with regard to the backs, and tell the lineman to just "base block". Like you said in your book, it takes a superior athlete to successfully drive block his opponent, and that opponent must be a weak player. Based on your advise, I devised all of my running plays with blocking schemes for every lineman against every possible defense. I say schemes because we never drive block opponents head up. Our lineman mostly down block, kick out, and trap block with regard to our running plays.

We were playing a very tough opponent in the last game of the season before the play-offs. We ran our off tackle play literally 40-50% of the time, and they could not stop it! I remember a coach telling me during the game that, "you can't stop that play unless you scouted it". He was right because, to his credit, he scouted us earlier in the season and gave us our only loss!

In summary, the ideas and concepts presented in "Coaching Youth Football" are proven strategies that lead to success. Read the book, implement the ideas, work hard as a coaching staff, and enjoy your championship season!

jerry schaper
Osseo, MN

After our 7 & 8 year old team went 0-8 in 2003, I went to the internet searching for help. I purchased your book Coaching Youth Football prior to the 2004 season. I was the defensive coach…we went 5-3 in 2004, and stopped some teams that had scored 30 and 40 points on us the prior year. Thanks for the help and making your book available. I will read the GAM defense for youth football this year….

Kirby Simmons
The Gerald A. Teel Co.
974 Campbell Road, Ste. 204
Houston, TX 77024
Ksimmons@gateel.com

Dear coach reed, About three years ago while watching my son practice I realized the coaches were horrible and I needed to do something, so I sign up to be a coach the next year. Well, during the offseason ( coaches have none) I decided to find some reading material to help get a refreshness so went down to the local library and found your book coaching youth football 1st edition within the first page I fell in love with it . It was some of the same thought I had ( where to use certain kids, the defense for 8-9 year olds, way too many plays and formations, and always using sons and not the right boys for running back and lead blockers or linemen). …last year was my first year as head coach, I ran the single wing, out of the shotgun, and unbalanced line. On defense I was able to convince my defensive coordinator of the promise the 10-1 defense had and he agreed. By the 3rd week he was in love 2- shutouts 7 tds all year were given up. Our offense avg. 25 pts a game. We won the league championship and lost in the regional championship, are record was 8-3—not a bad first year.
THANKS FOR EVERYTHING YOU’RE MY UNSEEN MENTOR
A.J. COONS

Dear John,

I just wanted to say thanks. Your very descriptive yet concise writing style allowed me to incorporate the single wing and beat the snot out of our competition. I am the offensive coordinator for a youth tackle team in South Florida. I coach 13-14 yr olds 135lb max. Most of our players come from a very affluent area, and therefore are not "natural" athletes.They suffer from TMTV, (too much tv). I implemented the single wing last season, we played a jamboree in August in the heart of Miami, and marched down the field on every team we faced. Opposing coaches were stymied. We went 9-3 and to the playoffs (lost in round one) even after losing our stud TB in week 5. We begin practice on July 11th , I just ordered another copy of your book, I gave our Peewee coach my original.

Sincerely,

Joe Adams
Weston Warriors Football

John,

Thanks for being my 'silent partner' in developing an outstanding football team last fall. My 5th grade team played in a league where we don't know who is on our roster until 3 weeks before the first game of the season. Also, league rules require that skilled players (in our case, TB, BB & WB) can only play 2 quarters in any one position, so my backs really need to understand exactly what all of the backfield is doing, alll of the time.

My offensive coordinator and I followed the Single Wing playbook to the letter and the results were fantastic! In a league of 6 teams we went 7-2 (we lost one league game 14-12 and another 8-6) and won the championship game 18-6, outgaining the runner-up 201 to 63 yards in the championship game. Oh, the defense only allowed 35 points all season and 3 of the 5 teams in the league did not score against us (we use a slightly modified GAM).

My main thought is that I can't emphasize enough how important it is in a offensive scheme to keep it simple and run the play over and over again until the kids can do it in their sleep, as you have emphasized. We started the season with 5 plays and finished with 9. Every man needs to know exactly what they are doing on each play. I also appreciated the simplicity of the blocking schemes as well and the necessity of the line to understand that they have to work together. Rarely did we have penetration problems.

Thanks for your time and effort to write some fantastic coaching books. My fellow coaches, parents and players all salute you!

Thanks again,

Richard Beasley
5th Grade Buccaneers Head Coach
McKinney, Texas

By the way, your books are great!!! You have been an inspiration to the Northeast Rhode Island Pop Warner Football League. Robert Souza

Found your book on gap,air,mirror defense last year about this time and realized it was the defense we were trying to teach our players the previous season. The head coach (defensive cordinator) read it after I did and it became our defensive playbook. We had 3 shutouts to start the season and allowed less then 6 pts per game in midget division-175 lbs, and up to 14 yrs. old. Some of these kids can really play and we've had fun watching them excell in high schools around orange county the past 3 years. We adopted your single wing offense and found that the clarity of each play was much easier to coach. The experienced kids picked up the advantages right away, the first year kids caught on much quicker then past years teaching a multitude of sets and plays. For the most part we let the tailbacks call the plays by just defense recognition. We lost 1 game during the season to very talented Inglewood team by the score of 7 to 3. The game film identifies the lack of scoring was our inability to sustain blocks with our highest rated players. Still we were inside the 20 four times, 1 made, 1 miss on field goals, 1 interception, and a turnover on downs. Anyway thanks for info and insight, we believe we can be competitive with any group of kids with these schemes. There is 1 extra play,(blast), we found extremely effective when the lb's are playing off 3 or more yds off. We doubled both interior tackles and sent the bb right thru the open gap at the lb with tailback 1 step behind. We were most effective in gap between snap and LG or LG and IT. If you want to any other feedback to your single wing we used give me a ring.

I was lucky enough to be an Offensive Tackle on the ’73 Notre Dame national champion team and a starter on ’75 team. Rudy was our most famous senior teammate and some soph named Montana was a backup at the start of season. Thanks again. Pat J Pohlen 800-779-8273

I am sorry that it has taken me this long to getting around to writing you. Our season ended in late November and time has flown by since then. I have coached this group of kids for 6 years. Last year, you may remember, we began to run your single wing offense and had our best season ever, finishing 9-1 as league runner-up. The 2004 season was a storybook year. Continuing with the single wing we outscored our opponents 231-43, finished 12-0, and won the Metro Youth Football Championship in the 11 and 12 year old division. I must say that, when executed properly, your version of the single wing is nearly unstoppable. Most teams failed to adjust to our unbalanced line and those who did usually over adjusted allowing us to exploit their back side. Our bread and butter play was the off tackle. When our blocking backs did their job the play always worked. One great play that we used catch a team off guard was a modification of the wedge. We snapped the ball to the blocking back and the tail back faked like there was a low snap and he ran to the strong side. The blocking back stepped forward, towards the line, hesitated for a count, and then passed to the short end. After a long series of running plays this play was always open. Our only disappointment was the wing reverse. We just couldn't get it to work this year. The back side end would get us every time. In summary I am truly grateful to you for sharing your knowledge of the game with coaches like myself. The youth game is about much more than winning, but if the kids can get all of the good lessons and win then the experience is just that much better.
You can "quote me" and use me as reference whenever you need. As for the reverse...I will take a look at some tape to see exactly what we were doing and maybe get back to you. One thing that I forgot to mention that I owe you credit for is the idea to limit the number of plays in the "playbook". In past years (before I found your system) we had dozens of plays and would add new ones each week. This year we ran only 10 plays, but we could execute all 10 in our sleep. Most of our opponents ran a greater variety of offensive plays, but you could clearly see that some of the players did not know what to do...they were overwhelmed by the amount of plays that they had to learn. Your idea is so obvious, but 90% of youth coaches never realize how they handicap their teams with too many plays. Thanks again for all of your help. Without you and your book(s) our team's success would not have been possible. Deane Cheatham Richmond, VA

John

I own all your football books and they have helped me tremendously.
I coach 7 and 8 year olds and every book has provided me information that contributed to our teams success.

I can not begin to Thank You enough!!!

Bob

John,

Sent you an email earlier in the year and thought I would give you a follow up.

Finished our regular season 8-0 with a combined score of 219 to 18. See attached scores. The Single Wing and the 10-1 have obviously worked well.

Your instruction on game preparation has also been extremely important to our success. After scouting one of our opponents this year, I knew that if they lined up in the same defense against us and we correctly executed the off-tackle that we would score on the first play. Guess what? They did and we scored on the first play, Right Formation - Off Tackle.

Pat Thomasson

Mr. Reed:
First year head coach here for a 13-14 year old age group team. Implemented offense from your book, 'Single Wing Offense' with guidance from the 'Coaching Youth Football, 3rd Ed' book as well.
A 7 - 4 season with a playoff berth. Outscored opponents 231-110. 1255 rushing yards. 434 receiving yards. 257 yards kick return yards. Started with a 4-4 stack which evolved into the Gap 8. One game away from championship but inexperience as a post-season coach revealed itself.
Great book! Great season! Thanks, Jack!
-Brian Victor

John,

Our 5/6 team just won our championship game and finished 10 - 0. I was the defensive coordinator and followed the advice in your book Coaching Youth Football. We only had 5 touchdowns scored against our starting defensive all season.

Thanks for your book.

Regards,

Kevin Hurst

This was my second year as head coach of an 8 & under football team. Last year I went 3-4. I bought two of your books, Coaching Youth Football and the Gap-Air-Mirror Defense. We lost one game in the regular season to a team with a 39 game winning streak. I didn’t show them a lot because I knew we would meet again in the playoffs. Sure enough we met in the championship game. By this time they had a 43 game winning streak. We were down 7-0 at halftime but came back to tie by running the crunch series. In overtime we start from the ten with four plays to score. They had us third and twelve and I ran the lonesome polecat. They sent a few guys over to cover but left five players to rush the quarterback. Boom!!! We scored and with the momentum on our side, we went for the two point conversion. I used a halfback pass and it was successful. They scored but missed the two point conversion. Winning streak over. The common mistakes part of youth caoches fit me to a tee, and without your books we never would have won it all.

Thank You,
Keith McGrew
Jasper, TN

Other team keep the ball whole 1st quarter, in and out of long huddles, etc, they finally scored, we went to no huddle. no snap signal, scored on 1st play, sweep. Held them, scored on wing reverse, held them, scored on another wing reverse, held them scored on wedge.. Game over . The other coach came over and said I do not understand who was your quarterback? He never did figure what was going on. Going to put in speed option and buck lateral run this week. Thanks...Joe Davidson Amarillo, Texas......

We scored so many TDs I never knew the score, It was a lot to 0. Ran the wing reverse, it went 60 yards for TD, It was called back,so we ran it again, it went 70 yards, another game tomorrow. Joe Davidson, Amarillo, Texas..............

Yes, you can add the emails if you want, 4th game, won again scored 1st four times we had the ball, then went to everyone go out for a pass, with a different tailback every play, so the whole team got to handle the ball.. On our first series, the other coach said " Hey ref. I didn"t hear any huts on that first play... we are already lined up again, and he yells out, " they did not get in a huddle. " We run a second play, for 30 yards and he calls time out and ask the ref., " are they going to huddle and call snap signals?" Ref . looks at him and says "I guess not." Thanks for your help...Joe Davidson Amarillo, Texas

I strongly recommend any youth, or for that matter anyone interested in football, read Mr. Reed's "Coaching Youth Football" book. Mr. Reed's words remind me of those spoken by an Old Testament prophet. At first they may fall on deaf ears, but once the eyes are opened to the truth of those words, it's easy to become a believer. Besides that he writes in a very easy to read and entertaining fashion. His passion for coaching oozes with each sentence. He challenges the status quo without mercy. Even though his words sometimes sting, they often bring a smile.

I was an assistant youth coach for three years and a former Jr. High Coach and former Jr. and Sr. High player. I realized after coaching and especially after reading Mr. Reed's book, I knew very little about the game. I still have a long way to go, but I find now that my understanding of the game and hunger for knowledge grows daily as opposed to being stuck in neutral, i.e, 30 years ago! Thanks to Mr. Reed for sharing his passion and ingniting that in me.

Sincerely,

Rick Groomes, Mpls. MN

> Hi, just wanted to give you some feedback from our purchase of your books. I
> am a first time youth football coach, asked to coach my son's Pee Wee B team.
> Pee Wees are 10 yr olds in our league. The B team is made up of kids who are
> not good enough to make the A team.
>
> I played football as a kid and remember running the single wing with great
> success in the 70s, so I got online and did some research and found your
> books. Despite our inexperience, I was able to implement your ideas for
> offense and defense in the first two weeks of practices. In our first two
> games, we won 14-6 and 33-6. It was really more lopsided than that. We had a
> touchdown scored on a takeaway by the defense called back because of an
> "inadvertent whistle" by the ref in the first game, and in the second game,
> the only play in which our opponent, the Cottonwood Colts, gained any yards at
> all was a tight end pass that went sixty yards for a touchdown. The biggest
> surprise for me has been the defense. Using the GAM we have effectively shut
> down our opponents' offense using kids who mostly have never played before.
> The linemen love shooting the gaps and my middle linebacker turned into an
> absolute monster when I told him, as you suggested, to line up anywhere he
> wants and do whatever he wants. His nickname on the team is "Pitbull" because
> once he gets ahold of a ballcarrier, he never lets go.
>
> The parents and other observers of our team have been calling me and my
> assistants "coaching geniuses" because of our success with these kids. Little
> do they know who the true genius is. Thanks for making us look so good. You
> have really taken the guesswork out of youth football coaching.
>
> Mark Quinn
> Head Coach
> Olympus Titans Pee Wee B
> 801-530-7478
> mquinn@cnmlaw.com

Excellent book for a beginning through high school level coaches.

Hane Cole III, Chocowinity, NC

This is the best book (most practical) I have ever seen for middle school football. It should be mandatory reading, especially if you have never coached before. It allows you to manage your limited practice time by eliminating what doesn’t work and accelerating what does.

I didn’t get your book until after the 3rd game of an 8-game schedule. I wish I would have had it before the season started.

In one game, we played a bigger, more experienced team and we were getting run over something fierce. We implemented your GAP-8 defense (which we worked on a few minutes in one practice) and completely stuffed them for about 2 quarters until we lost our discipline and didn’t stay down on the interior line and then let the tight end slip off the line for a touchdown.

…I thought I knew a little about football. Your book was so full of information and entertaining that I couldn’t put it down.

Thanks for a marvelous job on this book!!!
Ray Webber, Oregon, WI

I just wanted to drop you a note and tell you that my team finally won a game. My 11 year olds were 0-8 last year. I put in your GAM defense this year. The first game we lost by 7 points. They scored on a "fluke" hail Mary play....my kids ran in to each other and fell down. Otherwise the defense worked great. Saturday, our first victory!!
Defensive results.
Zero first downs
Minus 30 yards rushing
Minus 10 yards passing
2 interceptions
2 more dropped interceptions
The other team ran a Power I formation, and they never got outside on the sweep. We stopped all plays up the middle and off tackle. I made one change on the GAM. The ends keyed the tailback, if he came towards them like the sweep, they went to the sweep point, if he went away, they went to the QB bootleg point which was only one yard deep. We stopped the bootleg in its tracks.
Just wanted to thank you for your books and your support via emails and faxes. A victory was earned by the kids, but your defense let them play.
Thanks,
Andy Lowe

Long letter from Coach Steve Conrad, Rome, GA

Mr. Reed, Thank you.
I had my first head coaching assignment last year in a new youth football league in Indiana. I wanted to make it a rewarding experience for all involved so I purchased your "Coaching Youth Football" book. I found it to be a valuable tool from draft day through our victorious championship game.
The two most important themes that I took from your book was to: 1) Don't be afraid to put quality athletes in blocking positions and 2) Keep your play book lean but thorough
We ran a wishbone formation and primarily ran power sweeps, blasts, and misdirection to mix things up. Every practice I ran though the limited plays we had and made sure everyone knew their blocking assignment by heart. My assistant coach thought I wasn't creative enough (no passing) but his negativity waned as the season matured. By season end, I was able to instill the importance of blocking and have them take great pride in it. We didn't have a flashy offense but we protected the ball and gained positive yardage almost every play.
I would recommend to any coach that if a player carries out an awesome block in practice... Commend them enthusiastically in front of his peers. Even more so than the lucky kid that got to carry the ball in the end zone. Also, command respect from your players but make sure you make the experience as fun as possible for them.
Thanks again for the guidance!
Kelly Foster, Shoe Carnival, Inc, Database Administrator (812) 867-8321

“Hi, John. Finding your web site was like finding a lighthouse on a foggy night! It appears that you and I have much in common. First off is our love of football and baseball. I was All-State QB and All-North Georgia pitcher in high school. I was recruited pretty heavily in both sports and was offered several scholarships. I accepted an appointment to the US Air Force Academy and attended part of my "plebe" year.
Unfortunately, my eyes were not good enough to fly and I was not dedicated enough at 18 years old to stay for anything else, so I came back home and played at Georgia. I was a QB on the football team and a pitcher on the baseball team ('90 National Champs) until injuries ended both my football and baseball careers.

Recently I began coaching youth football and baseball. My son is 7 and is in his third year of football and just finished his fourth year of baseball (we start 'em young here in the South). When I started coaching him a few years ago, I realized that I still know a good bit about football and baseball, but much of that knowledge simply did not apply at the youth level. I had to re-learn many of the fundamentals to be able to coach the kids. Also, I found myself falling into the habit of coaching the kids the way I was coached, without really thinking about WHY things were always done this way, that's just the way it WAS. I think you have done a tremendous job of researching coaching tactics and techniques at the youth level and have a much SMARTER and EFFECTIVE system of coaching.

As you stated numerous times on your web site, youth football is VERY different from high school, college, and pro. You do not have world-class athletes, attention spans, etc. Therefore, you need an offense and defense that kids can run and understand. The defense must be oriented to stop the run, not the pass. The offense must take advantage of the defense's weaknesses while minimizing the potential to lose yardage and other mistakes like turnovers, penalties, and incomplete passes. Special teams play is critical, even more so perhaps than at the higher levels, because of the abundant occurrences of turnovers in the youth game. You can also never spend too much time on the fundamentals - blocking, tackling, assignments and responsibilities. Team management, parent management, clock management, etc., etc., etc. Mickey Haynes

“Thanks for your help over the past 2 years.”
Coach Rob Roark
North Henry Youth Football Super Bowl Champs 2000 for ages 6 and under!!!

“Coach Reed:
I LOVE your books. I've been coaching Pop Warner for 11 years. Last year was my 4th season as a head coach. We went 7-1. That's more wins than I had in the prior 3 seasons COMBINED. I started reading your books 2 seasons ago. This last season I fully bought into the things you were saying. The end result was a trip to the playoffs. I'm now a disciple of the single wing and a huge fan of the 10-1. Every time I speak to a 1st year head coach in our association, I sing the
praises of your books. "Buy them!!" I say. I hope they do for their sake. Because if they don't, The AVENGERS will make their lives a living hell should we meet on the playing field.
Thanks in advance for all the continued success I fully expect to enjoy the rest of my coaching career.” Keith James

“Thanks again for your knowledge. Your book has made my coaching life easy and fun. This year I coached the 11-12 yr olds and we went 9-1. Our league has a 120 lb restriction. (Any kid over 120 could not run the ball and had to play on the line between the tackles.) My team had one kid over 120 and every team we played had at least 6 kids over 120. The only team to which we lost 6-14, had 10 kids over 120. I had 3 kids quit my team after the first 2-weeks of practice because their father, uncle or brother told them we would not win a game because of the offense/defense we ran and our size. Two of the kids asked to rejoin the team after our first 3 games. I said no.

Running your kick return blocking scheme we ran back four kick-offs for touchdowns. Our most successful play again this year was the fake reverse. We scored 4 out of 11 times. We also scored 4 out of 11 times on a spinning fullback play that I found on-line. It's a variation of the fullback lead play except on the snap of the ball the fullback turns around and takes a blind handoff from the running back. The fullback then runs off-tackle, while the defense is tackling the running back who ran between the guard and tackle. It was a good short yardage or goal line play.” Thanks, Vince Icenogle

“I have used your football books for the last 3-4 seasons. Last year, I helped the St. Cecelia 7-8 grade FB team. A lot of your common sense approach helped us win a championship. Frank Raffaldi, Houston, TX

“John, Thought I would let you know how our season ended. I am the gentleman that has a new association and consequently a new team. I think that I already told you that we went undefeated in the regular season. We scored 40 points a game and gave up 10 per game. For the playoffs I preached Defense. In the playoffs we won the 1st round game 48-0. The other team quit in the 2nd quarter. The second round game we won 35-0, it also ended early. The championship game we won 39-14. It was 33-0 going into the 4th quarter. We gave them a couple at the end, because our kids had lost all composure. They were so excited about winning the Championship and going 13-0. We scored 40 points a game in the playoffs, but only gave up 5 per game.

As a side note I want to say that we have a player that gained well over 2500 yards and scored 66 TD in 13 games. If he had been in a conventional Offense he would have been lost. He is a fast kid with no experience, but he obviously understood taking the direct snap and sweeping or going off tackle pretty well.

I want to thank you again for writing your books. I think we would have been good without your books, but we were great, the best, without a doubt because of the books. You have to see the faces of the players to understand what it does for a child to feel as though they are on top of the world. You are the man John. Thanks. I attached pictures of the team holding the trophys up, for you to see[www.scorpionfootball.com].

We use the GAM Defense and the single wing offense w/only 4-6 basic plays for each game. (This is for you readers). It works. Buy the books.” Scorpion President and Coach, Lee Perry

[John T. Reed received an order from Bill Flutie, a youth coach in Masasachusetts. Bill is the brother of Doug Flutie, the Heisman Trophy winner and current Charrgers quarterback. Reed asked Bill Flutie what offense and defense Doug recommended for youth football. Here is Bill’s answer.]

“Doug agrees that stopping the run is the most critical all the way up to college level and the best way to do that is by stacking the line and playing man to man. On offense Doug likes the single wing for the kids with the direct snap.” Bill Flutie

“Also I wanted to thank you for getting me your single wing offensive book as fast as you did. My team was struggling all year. None of my players had played before and talent was limited. I had one exceptional player and the rest were hit and miss. I went through three QBs in my first three games first one went down because of an injury. So my backup played the second game and in actuality he was my third best QB but I wanted my second best QB to play another position to try and get a more talented kid on the field.

Anyway the kid I put in as my backup continually would not keep his hands open on the snap and would fumble often between the center QB exchange. I was not running the single wing at this time. I was using an I formation offense. I had used it for 4 years and I have had success with it. So anyway after the second game which my backup fumbled too much I had finally had enough time to get my third QB (more talented QB but needed at another position) enough reps at QB to take over. He did so and we played a better game but continued to have trouble scoring. I had read your first book "Coaching Youth Football" and by the third game I would use two single wing plays to confuse opposing teams. The two plays were the seam buck and the reverse. I noticed how easily my kids picked the plays up and I was snapping the ball directly to my running back eliminating the QB. We rarely had a penalty when we would run it and I never had to worry about a fumble or my split ends lining up off the line. So for our forth game I decided I would use it more often and ordered your single wing book. Needless to say I ran Seam buck and reverse for the entire first quarter and half of the second until they stopped it. Also I was just yelling the plays from the sideline in a numbered form (we had not worked out the play call for no huddle because I had not planned on using it over and over again but I was taking what they were giving me and they kept lining up wrong so I kept telling my kids to "run it again"). In that amount of time we were ahead 21 to nothing. Then I switched back to my I formation offense and tacked on another 3 Touchdowns. The next week I had your book in hand and we were off and running winning our next two games with a combined score of 77 to 13. I might add the first three games which we lost with a combined score of 14 to 98 (we did play the eventual league champ who only allowed 12 points all year and the runner up in the first three weeks of the season) But in the last three weeks we won with a combined score of 120-13 using the no huddle and the single wing. It was a great turn around and I sure will use this offense next year and as soon as the holidays are over I am buying myself a gift called the "Gap-Air-Mirror Defense for Youth Football".” Jonathan R. Vrabec

“John, I have written you several times this season to give you updates of how your book has done in Texas on the field. I started the season off with 20 players, 19 of which had never played football. I knew that it might be a long season. It was a long season. Every week wondering if the next game would be our first.

First loss that is. We went 10-0. 2 games better than the next best team in the league. We followed most of your book right down to making scouting a priority. We ran the Single wing and averaged 40 points per game. My tail back alone had 45 TD in 10 games. The Gap-Air-Mirror held opponents to 11 points per game. In the last game of the regular season, scored every way possible; a safety, interception for a TD, and a fumble recovery that we scooped up and ran in for a TD.

By about the mid season point, folks tried scouting us. I noticed at the beginning of ea. game how they would stack their defense to the strong side. Of course, we ran the reverse or the blast play to avoid that mess. They tried every thing to stop us. They couldn't. 5 of our 10 games ended in the 3rd quarter because we had 35 points or more on them. One team
even quit at half time. That game I started my #3 Tailback. After every offensive play we have, the opposing coaches come running out onto the field to pick up their players who stayed down. They simply get tired and just can't get up again. The no huddle-silent snap count just takes the wind out of the other teams.

NOTE to readers: Make sure you tell The referees that you run a silent snap count. We raise our leg to signal to the Center that the tailback is ready. The reason we tell the ref's is because the other team will start jumping offsides on the leg raise. We play NCAA rules so that means encroachment on the defense.

Since the season has started I purchased your Single wing book and will begin instituting it as soon as the 2002 season starts up. My single wing is a little different than yours. We play by NCAA rules so I do not use a possum I use the split end as a "NASTY". If the D-end lines up inside of the nasty split then we run the sweep if he lines up on the outside we run the off-tackle. Anyway we crack back on the D-end on the sweep if he lines up inside. He usually does not line up there again. Nor does he come across the line very fast any more.

John thank you. Your book has given me the confidence to be firm with what I am doing as a head coach. In turn it has given my players the confidence to go out onto the field and do their jobs. It makes it more FUN for the players.

I attached a team photo for you. (www.scorpionfootball.homestead.com) Off to the playoffs we go,” Lee Perry

“Well, chalk up another championship for your philosophy, as we won our 7th/8th grade city championships yesterday, shutting out our opponent, mostly using GAM. The opponent, known as a speed team, did not get outside once, and I can't recall their speed back making any significant run. Their only two (!) major gainers were a quick hitter by a FB, and a QB scramble (he was scrambling because all five of his receivers were blanketed by our man coverage!). As I mentioned to you before, we put GAM in after our season started, but it quickly became our primary defense, running it almost exclusively. Next year, we intend to follow you recipe more closely in the practice season so we have a better handle on the various positions, but most importantly grill the down linemen into staying low....thanks for your advice during the year, and we can now bask in the glory of an undersized team out scoring their opponents 147-32 over a nine game schedule, finishing by shutting out a previously undefeated high scoring team. Bill, Geauga Lions 7th/8th grade football team (consisting of players from St. Mary's, St. Helens, Notre Dame and St Anselms).” William Salus

“Just finished our youth (10-11 year olds) football season. Our record was 5-2. I ran the veer option offense and the GAM defense. We won our first game, lost our second two, then won the last four. The league I coach in is an “educational” league. We have only 3 weeks (10 practices) before our first game. Of those 10 practices only 4 are in pads, so I am in a big rush to evaluate kids and install an offense and a defense. The GAM defense was simple to teach and unbelievably effective. Our GAM defense gave up only 2 touchdowns the entire season. This was accomplished even though I had only 17 players and I let everybody play at least an entire half on defense every game. To do this I had two complete defensive units, one played the first half and the other played the second half. I kept the CBs, OLBs, and MLB the same on both units, and swapped out the front 6. To find places for everybody on the front line I had to go against your player size advice at the guard positions. I was forced to put light players there, but made them stay low to clog the hole. Heavier kids were put at the tackle positions to help with the off tackle play. I put a stud at MLB to clean up after the lightweight guards and tried not to over coach him. I made corrections through him and made sure he checked the alignments of the CBs and OLBs. Because I was vulnerable up the middle, one other change I made from your recommendations was when the offense was in a trips formation with nobody in the backfield other than the QB, I always had the MLB cover the inside trips receiver, and had him go halfway out rather than lining heads up. This allowed him to get back to help in case the QB tried to run up the middle over my lightweight guards.

The most difficult part of running this defense proved to be getting my CBs to get up on the line and hit the receiver, rather than play off the line as is the norm. I had to constantly work on keeping them up there, even when they could see the benefit when we reviewed their game films. This defense works. Two touchdowns in seven games attests to that. By the middle of the season I knew if we just scored one touchdown we would win the game, our defense was that tough. I have purchased three of your football coaching books including this one, and plan on purchasing your new single-wing one for Christmas. I ran that offense the past two years. I think if I could run my option offense the first half of the game, then come out running the single-wing the second half (after the opposition spent halftime making adjustments for the option), we would be unstoppable! I thoroughly enjoy all of your books and would not have had the success I had this year without your help. I look forward to reading your new single-wing book.” Sincerely yours, Rick Wilburn, Rockford, Michigan

“I want to thank you for a wonderful year. I have always been a successful coach (30-8-2 in 5 years), but have never had the fun coaching that I did this year. We ran the triple option against a league that was super competitive. We have 17 teams in our league and played a tough 9 game schedule. We played 4 undefeated teams this year and broke even at 2-2. Of course, both games we should have won. We lost by a total 10 points and gave up some easy scores.

I went to the triple option with a no-huddle offense and you should have heard my assistant coaches scream bloody murder. They were hopeing that I had a second offensive scheme, but I told them no. You and I proved them wrong and I want to thank you. It also didn't hurt, politically, that I was the only youth coach brave enough to run the same offense as the High School thanks to you. The High School only ran the Triple and thought the No-Huddle was too risky. Oh, well.

WE AVERAGED OVER 400 YARDS OF OFFENSE PER GAME AND THREW THE BALL ONLY 12 TIMES, ONE FOR A HALFBACK PASS TOUCHDOWN.

I have 6 assistant coaches who have been with me for 3 years. We went from Freshman(9-10) for two years and JV(11-12) this year. The problem this year was that I seemed to be spread so thin and devoted very little time to the defense. I tried to teach my coaches the GAP, but I spent more time on the Triple Option than the GAP and it showed. I thought the GAP would be easy for them to pick up. We finally got the defense going, but it took almost the whole year.

My assistants are a great bunch of ex-football playing Dads, but are very opinionated, aggressive and competitive. I am moving up to Varsity next year and am losing 3/4ths of my coaches and 1/2 my team. I thought that I was well prepared coming into the season, but was surprised how much coaching to the assistants that I had to do.

Your best 2 tips that I picked up are as follows:

Use Contrarian Tactics
Triple Option
No-Huddle
Spread Formation
Special Teams Emphasis
Block Assignments on Kick Return (6 for TDs)
None the first 3 games until I made the carrier start by going up the middle before he broke it off. This helped the blocking scheme.
Kicked Extra Points(2 points each)

If you ever want someone to talk to me, feel free to have them contact me. I will be buying your other books in the offseason and am a big fan of yours. I thought I could do this all myself because I played college football. Your book made the difference in fun and execution. THANK YOU!” Donald P. Cantwell

“Please let me start by saying thank you.
I am Josh Navis a 30 year old football coach. I have coached the 7th grade Waupun Warrior Football team for 5 years now. After 5 years I am just understanding the time and effort it takes to do it right. I have one book that I hold on too and read all year long and that is your book "Coaching Youth Football 2nd Edition". I got this book as a gift after my first year of coaching from a friend. It has turned out too be one of the best gifts I have ever received. Sometime after the new year I started reading it at work. I never put it down until I read it 4 times. Things I believed would work and wanted to try were spelled out there in black and white. The season could not come fast enough.

Since I did not play college football or was not the super star of my high school team I am blown off by the other coaches in the program as someone who does not know anything. Despite the fact that over the past 5 years the teams I have coached are 15 and 8. This includes my 1st year when I went 1 and 3 and hand no clue. In response too this I get too hear from the other coaches "well it's only 7th grade". I try to tell them that they have to learn how too teach the game to the kids not just instruct them on what they want them too do. But I am continually scoffed at.

When I played High school football we played an 40 stack defense. 4 linemen 4 line backers stacked over their respective linemen 2 corners and one safety. We all had a gap. Every year we had a good defense. It was the offense that struggled. Not knowing or explained to us that we were running a gap 8.

So In my 1st year coaching I had the kids play what the existing coach did for the previous 5 years. A 50 with 3 line backers. It failed terribly. Finally the week before our last game I put in the 40 stack defense with the line backer getting to pick his gap to cover on each play by tapping his lineman on the side he wanted him to go. They crashed their gaps and because of that defense we won the final game of the year.

It was that Christmas that I got your book and really started to believe that the gap 8 is the ONLY defense to have but I had to give the kids less to understand. Simple is better. It then lets them forget about the "play or job" and play more instinctively. So we really sharpened up the defense by defining each players roll, setting the right kids in the right positions, getting kids in shades on the line and getting them to penetration their gap before flowing to the ball could happened. 90% of our plays are a run read first for obvious reasons but we can and do place our backers in pass reads 1st in obvious passing downs.
Now 4 years into really knowing and understanding this defense I am proud to say that this year we are undefeated in 4 games and have out scored our opponents 110 to 8.

This was only accomplished by implementing the gap 8 defense and then reading on how to make it work. The tackling drills you suggested and other blocking suggestions you made in the book have made our program one that kids want too play. I thank you for giving me the backing and the belief that what I was doing was the right thing and how to make it even better. Every year I learn something new.

My problem is that the Varsity coaches do not believe the same thing I do, the simpler the better. They have almost 70 different offensive plays and the defense is a 40 but it does not give a gap responsibility to the line backers. The kids get defensive plays that seem to make them forget they have to make plays. This is so frustrating to watch these kids that I know are winners and have won at every level until there varsity days and no changes or suggestion seem to change the ways of the coaches.

I write this to you because I wanted you to know your words have reached more then you would know. And the positive things that have happened to me and the program is night and day to what was happening. Gap 8 not only works but dominates games if run right. That is the team huddle cheer we end every time out and quarter with "1-2-3 DOMINATE!"

I will continue to use an 8 man gap defense no matter what level I coach. I know it works and at least with your book I have some backing to help me prove my point if they don't want to believe my stats. Thank you for your time.” Sincerely,
Josh Navis, 7th Grade Warrior Football Coach

“Hey Coach, Wanted to drop you a note of thanks. I got your book on G-A-M Defense and used it as a base to run my 10-1. I also run Coach Wyatt's double wing. After 7 games (8 & 9yr olds) we have allowed net (-10yds) and have gained over 2000 yards rushing. I visited your site before the season and took some of the good advise you have to offer. Our practices consist of blocking 10 minutes of blocking drills and 10 minutes of tackling drills, the rest of the time is spent getting as many reps in on our plays as possible. Following your advise, no stupid drills like last year. It shows with our execution on both sides of the ball. The 10-1 is great for this age kids. I am lucky to have 22 great kids. I have 11 kids on 1st O and 11 different kids on 1st D. Through my first 6 games, at the half, 1st O becomes second D and plays the rest of the game on D and visa versa. Also on your advise, got all my opponents on tape at the jamboree. Just wanted to say thanks.” Stuart Whitener, Huntsville Alabama

“We gave up 6 points all season and no completions. We were undefeated, even though we were the B team in a town that stacked the A team with the best talent. We beat everybody including the A team. We used your 10-1 defense and the single wing with the spinning fullback. Every one of my players scored a toucdown during the season.” David Jacobs, Austin area

“we went on to crush our (8th grade) weekend opponent 22-0 (with two TDs called back for penalties, one pick called back for an outlandish roughing call, and another pick going for an apparent TD stopped on a quick whistle). We even had a safety, and one goal line stand (inside the three! and the only reason they got to there was due to blown coverage by a sub CB). Their D, which I mentioned last week seemed to play a variation of GAM, was tough, shutting down many of our patented sweeps and counters, and adding blitzers to their gap men, almost ruining any chance we had to pass. Yet, our D demoralized them, and our O gave enough to run away with the game despite the call backs.

You might also be interested that I ran one single-wing variation, snapping the ball directly to our fullback for a PAT that had their entire D scratching their heads, and the adult fans smiling and reminiscing about leather helmets.” William Salus

“FYI - We won this weekend 20-0 against an undefeated team. We use your GAM defense and run a simplified double wing. They never crossed their 45 yard line.” Rick Hawkins

“John, 2nd time writing to you. I have been reading your books for about 4-5 years. Let me start by quoting an opposing coach, that we just played. "Your offense looks like sandlot football." He had to say something, I guess, I know I wouldn't say anything, if that "sandlot football" had beaten me 46-6. "We run the singlewing". John through week 4 my scores have been. We have won all 4.

Week 1 - 39-26
Week 2 - 33-6
Week 3 - 39-0 Only 3 quarters. Game stopped after 35 point lead.
Week 4 - 46-6 That was the "sandlot game". This game ended 2 minutes into the 4th. 35 point rule again.

I want to say that it is all scheme, but I can't. I have 20 players on my team. 6 of those would play Tailback on other teams. My #1 tailback has 47 carries, 769 yards and 19 TD's, in 4 games. I do however believe that the total domination of other teams comes from the schemes. I see other very good players on the other teams and I am very glad they do not run our offense. They are over coached trying to run the "I" or whatever. The other 14 players on my team are also very good. I have no minimum play players. In fact to keep everyone happy, we start different players every week.

I do attribute the other part of our success to your books. Not all things do I use from your books, but most I do and I thank you for that. I wish you hadn't written a Singlewing book, because now I will have to defend it. I will be purchasing that book soon. Thanks again for what you have done for me and my new Association. Note: I have a 2 other teams in my association 1 older and 1 team younger. They now mimic me on offense and defense. Imagine that! Lee Perry

“John
Quick update on our team. We are still running the gam defense we have only givin up 24 points in 5 games.
Our single wing offense has scored 123 points. Please feel free to use the story, If it wasn't for your book we would still be struggling like last year. Thanks for your help!” Kendall Smith, Jordan Gremlins Coach, Sandy Ut.

Dear John: I am a "Daddy" assistant coach that has coached the 8 & 9 year olds up to 95lbs division of the Suncoast Youth Football Conference for 4 year