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John T. Reed’s football coaching blog

Should your youth-football team use the same offense and defense as your local high school?

Posted by John Reed on

Copyright 2000 John T. Reed Hell, no! 73% of youth athletes are out of all youth sports by age 13. The other 27% tend to specialize in one sport for high school, and they don't all choose football. The typical youth team only has about six kids (20%) who are going to wind up ever playing high-school varsity football. See my Where are they now article. So to run your local high-school's schemes on the theory that your players are all going to play high school football in the future is the six-man tail wagging the 29-man remainder-of-the-team dog. Run...

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Reader success stories about Single-Wing Offense for Youth Football

Posted by John T. Reed on

Reed Single Wing reader wins CA state high school championship and ranks 6th in U.S. Dear John,   I don’t know if you remember me but I first purchased your Single Wing book back in 2002. I am the Offensive Coordinator for Santa Clarita Christian High School in So Cal. We are an 8-Man team. Back then I converted your “Single Wing Offense for Youth Football” book for the 8-Man game and we, in fact, communicated a bit by phone and email at that time. You were a great help. We just won the CIF-SS 2008 8 Man DIV 1...

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Always go for the win with a 2-point conversion when possible at the end of regulation

Posted by John Reed on

The Green Bay Packers did not play for the NFC championship in 2016. Why not? Maybe because they chose the standard decision rather than the smart one at the end of regulation in their game against the Cardinals—the avoid-getting-criticized-for-the-decision decision. I have written 8 football coaching books that point out the correct ways to make such decisions. One, Football Clock Management, has a chapter on the P.A.T. at the NFL, NCAA, and HS levels. I was actually out to dinner at a nice restaurant with my wife and another couple—one of my college classmates. As we were leaving, I asked my...

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Did the Packers almost throw the 12/20/15 Oakland game away by violating my clock management rules?

Posted by John Reed on

Here is a Facebook exchange I had with a reader about the Packers gme with the Raiders on 12/20/15. Reader: Jack, if you want to see a recent example of the absolute worst time management (again) wrought with at least half a dozen examples of "trying to blow a game that is already won 101", checkout the last 5 minutes of the Packers win in Oakland...I was never so frustrated by a Packer win. JTR: I found a game that GB won 30-20 but I did not see anything noteworthy in the last 5 minutes other than a blocked FG. What specifically...

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New Niners coach Chip Kelly may be contrarian and warp speed but there’s more to coaching a team

Posted by John Reed on

Yesterday, the Niners hired Chip Kelly as head coach. As the author of the book The Contrarian Edge for Football Offense and the biggest booster I know of of the warp-speed no-huddle offensive tempo, you would think I would love the hire. But there is something about Kelly that I do not like. I can’t put my finger on it.Also, I wrote seven other books on football coaching, not just Contrarian Edge. As with all my how-to books on real estate investment, baseball coaching, self-publishing, succeeding, and protecting yourself from hyperinflation and depression, I say you have to get the...

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