Double Wing Football

The reason that I'm here is that after 20 years, I found myself coaching again, even if at first I was a little apprehensive. I was worried that I would favor my son, or worse, be too hard on him. Now, after a season and a half, I feel we've worked it out. I constantly praise all the kids not just my son. I really try to help them all become better players. I want them to love the game as much as they have reminded my of my love for the great game of football.

With my renewed love of the game, I found the Double Wing and I want to help the other converts scream it's benefits from the roof tops!

I wasn't asked to coach until after the first week of practice. At that time, we found out that we actually had enough kids to break into 2 teams and I would be the assistant coach for the B team. The head coach and I wanted to implement the easiest offense that we could, so we naturally started with the basic I formation that we both learned as kids. Now, I must tell you that we were coaching 6 and 7 year old kids, all playing for the first time. We knew that the most important part of coaching this age group would be teaching them how to hit each other. We constantly worked on blocking and tackling drills that would give our kids the confidence that if they did it correctly with their pads, it would not hurt. Boy, did this work! By the end of the year almost all of our kids were not afraid to hit anyone.

We spent the 2 weeks before the season implementing the I formation. Obviously, the kids had the usual problems learning their responsibilities. We did expect this because none of the kids had ever played tackle football before and their only exposure to it was Madden 2007. Now, I don't know how you were as a kid but I started playing organized ball in the second grade. We watched football every weekend and played 2 on 2 in the backyard everyday, but that didn't mean a thing in organized football even though I had a basic knowledge of the game thanks to the older kids I played with. We found that we had to teach all aspects of the game to the kids. As I stated before I had never coached kids this young, so this was all new to me. Teaching the kids what a touchdown was probably took an entire year for our entire team to really understand it. We had one kid ask after every game "who won?" I know that they had fun.

After several days of the I formation, we knew we had to do something. After weeks of searching the internet, we found the perfect solution...The Double Wing. While not the most glamorous offense, it did something that we couldn't do before. It provided enough misdirection to fool the linebackers that had previously been creating havoc. The power of the toss and wedge force the defense to sell out to stop them. Once that's done, watch out, here comes the counter for a big gain. This switch in offensive philosophy along with a strong defense allowed us to compete with the bigger teams with more experience.

While I wish I could say that we never lost after the change, I can say the kids all had fun competing. They learned that winning wasn't everything, but you could lose with dignity and be proud of what they had accomplished.

As we entered last season, we had our offense and defense set. All we had to do was teach the kids what we had learned in the off season. This is always a challenge when most 7 year olds are still learning their right from their left. Now, imagine having to rely on not only your backs having to do that, but your pulling guard and tackle as well. That was a major undertaking on its own. The good news is that we did and again with a stout defense we had some success. We completed our second season 9-0 and completely dominated in time of possession. Unfortunately, we were upset in the semi-finals of the playoff by 3 off tackle plays of 4th and long. We were beaten 18-13 in a barn burner against our arch rivals.

Stay tuned....

I've started this lens to help all of the coaches that taught me the Double Wing spread their message. This offense is high powered, no matter what the haters say. I've converted several coaches already and want to do more. LET ME SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Also, learn how to play quarterback.