I really don’t like the phrase “bend but don’t break” defense. But there’s a time and a place for it!
If your defense really isn’t expected to be very good, but your offense can win you some games… this might be a good idea. And the best coverage for it, is Cover 3.
That’s a very, VERY generalized answer to this week’s answer. For the full answer, listen to this episode of The JDFB Quick Clinic!
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Really a great question we’re answering on this week’s Quick Clinic. It’s from a young coach who’s questioning the best way to reach the kids who don’t like to be coached hard.
There’s always the players who take the harsh criticism. They get motivated and turn out a great performance. But there’s another group of kids who will completely shut down. Let’s take a look at how you know which is which.
This was a response to a listener question sent on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
This week’s question comes from Germany on how to develop the strength and fitness of your young players, without access to a weight room. Or time to run a lifting program.
There’s a ton you can do for your players when they don’t have access to a weight room. Football workouts do not require a multi-million dollar facility like the big colleges have. Learn how to get a complete workout without having a single bumper plate… or even a weight bar.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Great question this week on blitzing the formation. Hybrid tight ends and h-backs have made it difficult to make your decisions based on personnel packages.
We’ll look at automatic blitzes and how to prepare your blitz scheme based on the opponent’s plans. Should you blitz a formation? Can you still do it with the hurry up style so many teams use?
This was a response to a listener question sent on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
You’ve got a plan for handling 4 Verts in your Cover 3 coverage. At least, if you’re committed to running Cover 3 you’ll have one. But what’s the plan for handling other concepts and tags that get 4 deep routes against your 3 deep coverage?
Verts Switch is one way to make that happen. The basic concept is that the #2 receiver rubs off underneath the #1 receiver on both sides. They exchange who runs the hash and the numbers.
So how do you handle that in your Cover 3 coverage? That’s the focus on this week’s JDFB Quick Clinic!
This was a response to a listener question sent on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Can your base defense the Wishbone Option? Maybe you’ve got a team who runs this offense on your schedule. Or someone who might show up in just about any offense.
Even if neither of those are true… your base defense better to be able to defend every style of option there is. And luckily, it can. As long as you’re running a sound defense.
In this episode we’ll break down how to defend the Wishbone Option with your 4-2-5 Defense. We look at the umbrella principle and how it applies here. To learn more check out http://425defense.com/podcast.
This was a response to a listener question sent on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
You’ve got your base defense all planned out. And it’s perfect for defending those formations you see all the time. Spread formations. Wing-T Offense. Those downhill Pro-I teams.
Then the week comes where you’ve got to adjust to defend 22 personnel. A heavy running attack. Does your defensive front have the principles in place to easily adjust without confusing your players? This week’s JDFB Quick Clinic gives you the details you need to be ready.
This was a response to a listener question sent on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
There’s been a significant increase in interest in the odd front defenses of late. And one of the keys to running an odd front is your defensive line slants.
We’re looking at how to coach up an aggressive slant technique that your defensive linemen can use to spill the football in your umbrella defense. This question was sent by a 3-4 Defense coach, but the same defensive line slant technique applies across the board in any defense where you’re using slants.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
The Quick Clinic isn’t the place for a whole lot of football coaching news. But this was newsworthy! Thanks to Scott for sending in a great topic that was out of my normal scope. I enjoyed looking at it.
The new Pop Warner 2-Point Stance rule doesn’t allow linemen to get into a 3-point stance, and it’s met with a lot of backlash. I’ll talk about why I think this is a bad rule - and also, one that really won’t affect the future of the sport (at least, in a vacuum).
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
When you’re putting your playbook together, it’s important to consider how you’re going to structure your passing concepts. How many? What types?
Every team is going to be different. And every season will be different. It’s much more important to consider how many passing concepts do you need in your SYSTEM.
Today’s JDFB Quick Clinic answers a question on putting together your playbook and how many passing concepts you’ll need to have an effective passing threat.
This was a response to a listener question sent on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Scheme vs. Position. Where is your focus when you want to be a football coach?
Become an expert on one position? Become the master of one scheme? Neither of those is going to prepare you for your first coaching job. In fact, it’s pretty hard to prepare for your first coaching job until you’ve actually been hired.
We’ll look at the best way a new football coach can prepare for that first job to set yourself on the road to success.
This was a response to a listener question sent on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Every coach needs to have a philosophy. But it needs to be one worth having. And it may seem like more and more coaches don’t have one at all - they’re just flying by the seat of their pants.
My coaching philosophy was the focus of a recent episode of The Football Coaching Podcast, and how you can create one for yourself. But today’s listener question asks: do high school football coaches even have a philosophy anymore? Or does it just start at the college level?
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
There’s different challenges when you’re working with a small roster. You’ve got to keep it simple because many of your players will need to know the offense, and the defense.
In that situation, you need to choose your 4-2-5 Defense coverage package wisely. Many coaches over-complicate the playbook, and it’s not necessary. Today’s question is about choosing the right 4-2-5 defense coverages at a small school.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
I’m surprised how much I get certain questions. This one falls in that category. How do you tell the Quarterback and Center what alignment they should be in - under center, pistol or shotgun?
The question reminds me of when I first started trying to learn offensive football. As a lifelong defensive player, I had no understanding of the mechanics of one of the most basic elements of football - the handoff. Yet, no one ever wrote about it or talked about it in videos.
Well there’s no need for you to be in the dark on this quarterback alignment issue. In this episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic, I’ll talk about how you can communicate (or not communicate) the desired quarterback alignment to your guys from the sideline.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Unfortunately, for a head football coach the possibility of losing that position is a reality. There’s lots of reasons it may happen, but even some of the best coaches of all time have been fired at one point or another.
What should you do when confronted with that reality? In this episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic, we take a look at just what your plan of action should be when you lose your position as a head football coach. (Good news, it’s not the end of the world!)
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Most position coaches dream of moving up one day. Calling the shots. Whether as a coordinator, or as the Head Football Coach.
For position coaches to move up, and be ready to make that move, your knowledge needs to extend past just one position. Or even one side of the ball.
During the off-season, there are plenty of opportunities for a position coach to expand the horizons. Here’s how you can learn new position groups, or new schemes, in the fastest time possible.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
We always come back to the question about defending unbalanced formations. There’s no single answers because there can’t be just one answer!
To defend unbalanced formations, you need multiple answers. Any team running unbalanced formations will have a plan to counter your defensive adjustments. You have to keep them guessing.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
No matter what defense you’re running, your Defensive Linemen must read keys to be successful. If they don’t, you’ll just be running up the field and getting kicked out at will.
Today’s question is specifically about coaching Defensive Line hat reads. But it’s a good time to point out that ‘Key Reads’, while thrown around a lot, really is exactly what defensive linemen do all the time.
I’ve got a video series here you can check out for more on key reads: https://joedanielfootball.com/keydrill/
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
When you’ve got a smaller Defensive Line, it’s tempting to do a lot of stunts and twists to try to make your guys ‘hard to find’. And it is a great way to use their quickness!
There is such a thing as ‘too much of a good thing’, though. And there’s also a wrong way to go about it. Check out this episode of JDFB Quick Clinic to find out how much stunting and twisting, and how to do it the right way on your defensive line.
This was a response to a listener question from Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Several great questions on the 4-2-5 Defense System today in the JDFB Quick Clinic:
I’ll go in detail on each question in today’s episode! You can get all these answers and much more when you join JDFB Insiders, with instant access to the 4-2-5 System.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
As a head coach, you need to be involved in all aspects of your program. At a small school, it’s even tougher because you probably don’t have a lot of coaches!
In this episode, we’ll look at organizing practices for a small school in order to create the best possible scout team look. Plus, how the head coach can get to see all he needs to see during that practice.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
More defensive line talk coming out of today’s mailbag, and this time it’s all about technique. Coaching rip technique, more specifically.
We work a lot on strike point and how to attack the Offensive Linemen to control your position. But Defensive Linemen are there to make tackles too. How do you get off the block? We’ll dive into the rip technique here.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Today’s episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic is back to the mailbag for some Defensive Line talk. Specifically, how do you get an aggressive pass rush without letting the QB slip away?
It’s all about pass rush lanes and lane integrity here. Sounds complicated, but it’s not. This is Defensive Line 101 stuff that your guys must know in order to have an effective pass rush!
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
In general, I’m a pretty conservative coach. We don’t call a lot of blitzes on defense. Run a balanced offense. Nothing too exciting.
But after 3 weeks of miserable kick coverage, a change had to be made. Enter the onside kick. Not just once, either. Onside kick every time.
We studied Kevin Kelley’s DVD from CoachTube: Gaining Possessions Using the Onside Kick and then made the change after Week 3 (when we gave up one return for a TD, and nearly gave up another that might have cost us the game). This episode tells you all you need to know about making that change.
This show was an exception. Usually, JDFB Quick Clinic features listener questions. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
The Power run play, as it’s taught in the Pistol Power Offense System, uses a basic and universal set of rules that works against any defense. Odd Fronts are no different.
In today’s episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic, I’ll run through the rules and talk about how we handle blocking an Odd Front defense when using a tight end. You can also get more details by checking out my free 3 video series here.
This question was sent from Steve by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.