Why Did the Single Wing Offense Die Out?

At one time the Single Wing Offense was like the Spread Offense of today. Invented by Pop Warner in 1907, it was the most common offense in its heyday. At one time there were more teams running the Single Wing than not, at every level of football. In the 30's and 40's over 80% of College and Pro teams were running the Single Wing Offense.

Why do we see so few teams running the Single Wing Offense today?

Why Did It Die?

There are many theories here are just a few of the more popular and logical ones:

With so many teams running the Single Wing, the "familiarity factor" led to it being easier to defend. Just like today, the first time you see something like a 5 wide Offense it takes you by surprise but after you've played 5 wide teams 4-5 times it becomes much easier to defend. Imagine defending the same offense 8 of 10 games for 20 years in a row and practicing against it every day (assuming your team ran the Single Wing on Offense). The familiarity factor would be quite high.

The Platooning Theory

The move to two platooning football gave rise to specialization which in turn allowed for "finesse" players to play the game at Quarterback and Wide Receiver. Back in the 50s and before, most players played both ways. Even the great quarterback YA Title played both ways, leading the NFL in interceptions playing at safety. Title also excelled as a punter, playing special teams as most starters did back in those days. Players in that day had to be tough, physical, durable football players that had to excel in many facets of the game. Todays College and NFL players play one way and are very specialized. Today even many High School teams platoon. This specialization allows more practice time to be devoted to intricate offenses and the development of less physically dominant players.

The Sinking of the Titanic

The 1940 NFL Title Game factor. With the largest ever nationwide audience tuned in, the Chicago Bears using it's new fangled Straight T offense, beat the Washington Redskins and the Single Wing 73-0. This sound thrashing on the national stage led many to think the Single Wing was as good as a slingshot in a gunfight, it was thought to be antiquated and "old fashioned". Horse and buggy stuff in the days of air travel and indoor plumbing. This may have been the nail in the coffin for the Single Wing, as many teams started abandoning the Single Wing for the next greatest thing, the T Formation. Just like today, coaches are bandwagoners, they jump on board with the next greatest thing that has caught their eye and the fickle hearts of their fans.

The Keepers of the Faith

Fortunately the Single Wing never really died. There were college teams running the Single Wing right into the 1960s. A number of very successful High Schools never stopped running the offense including Menominee Michigan's Ken Hofer. The Maroons have been running the Single Wing for the last 40 years and have gone to the playoffs in each of the last 13 seasons and won 3 State Titles with it in just the last 9 years. Giles in Virginia is another one who has stuck with the Wing for the last 20 years plus and has won 2 State Titles in just the last 6 years. There are a handful of High Schools like these that kept the offense alive along with some forward/backward thinking youth coaches where the offense has really started to catch fire in the last decade. Add in what Urban Meyer has done with the Single Wing and you have a stampede of coaches jumping back on the Single Wing bandwagon. There were 25 or more Division I College teams running at least one Series of Single Wing plays in their offenses this season. Heck even the Miami Dolphins got in on the act with the Single Wing in their amazing turnaround this season.

Modern Day Single Wing

While the Single Wing of today still contains many of the core principals of the 1940s Single Wing; Overwhelming at the point of attack, using angles and leverage, deception and great ball fakes, motion and great play action passing. The Single Wing many of us run today also includes some new bolted on features like: Jet or Fly Sweep Series, Trap and screen games, Mesh or Air Raid passing concepts and much more.

Youth Single Wing Football

How wide spread is the Single Wing at the youth level? Is the familiarity factor going to kill my chances of being successful with it?

Our latest research from marketing executives of several very large companies and polls of over 1,000 youth coaches tells us:

There are about 2,500,000 kids playing youth football today.
There are about 120,000 youth football teams in existence today.
About 2,400 of those youth teams are running the Single Wing Offense.

So us Single Wingers are still in the minority and the familiarity factor is still low as about 2% of youth football teams are running the Single Wing. But those adopting the offense is growing and will continue to grow in the advent of seeing it on TV on both Saturdays and Sundays. Same goes for the success a number of our teams have had at the National Pop Warner National Championships and other big Tournaments. With so many teams having so much success with it at the youth levels, interest is bound to spike up. But don't fret about that, my teams have been doing consistently well with it over the long haul. We have been running it for 11 seasons against a lot of the same teams and a lot of my competition has bought my book, has my DVDs and comes to this very web site daily. We have a tracking thing on the web site that shows me which towns hit the web site every day.

Coaching Youth Football

The moral of the story is to expect to see more Single Wing Football wherever you are. But don't worry, we are still a minority, they still have to stop it and if you bought the book you have the countermeasures at your fingertips for the most commonly used techniques and schemes used to stop this offense.

One last thought: Do you platoon? Do your best players play both ways? Are you able to devote 5 days a week practice time to just offense, no defense or special teams? Boy the youth game and dynamic seems to fit more of the mold of the constraints the teams of the 40s and 50s had, doesn't it?

Dave Cisar-

To Sign up for his free tips newsletter or to see his 400 free tips go to: Football Plays

A Video Taste of Dave's teams:

Youth Football Defense

Lee Evans - Big - At The o2 Arena [Footballers and Children]

Lee Evans Big Tour 08. Recorded at the o2 Arena in London. This is a small clip of Lee's record breaking tour where he talks about Footballers and Children



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjBLCAArGcE&hl=en

Ohio State 2009 Season Highlight Video

Highlight video of Ohio State's 2009 football season. I do not own the clips or songs! Songs = Fabolous - My Time Drake - Forever Clips = from ABC/ESPN/BTN



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0RnK7YarZs&hl=en

Kickoff Coverage Techniques For Youth Football

The Indianapolis Glazier Clinic was a medium sized clinic with a small but enthusiastic contingent of youth football coaches. It was great to see guys from all the way from Cincinnatti there that ran my system last year for the first time.

I got to the clinic just in time to see some excellent speakers including a Special Teams guru that had sent a number of kickers to Division I and NFL teams. I got the chance to listen to an Illinois Hall of Fame High School coach, Mike Rude talk about the nuances of his famous Shotgun 'T' Series as well as hear a former 11 year NFL vet speak about connecting to players. I had breakfast one on one with a High School head coach from El Paso whose team set numerous Texas Passing Records. I had the pleasure of sharing a ride with fellow speaker David Tennison, the Defensive Coordinator from Jenks High School in Oklahoma and got a chance to talk with him on the 40 minute trip to the airport as well as when we waited for our flights. Jenks as many of you know is a perennial USA Today Top 10 Program. It was non stop football for 3 days and 2 nights and as usual I came away the better for the experience. We don't go to these things with the idea we are looking for new football plays or new schemes, just better ways to accomplish our goals and to see how other successful coaches and programs do things.

Kickoff Coverage

One area I thought we needed improvement on was our kickoff coverage. We onside kick with a mob or pooch kick until we are leading by 3 touchdowns, then we kick deep. Our onside and pooch kick coverage has been very good. In the last 8 seasons, we have yet to have a return for a touchdown and our recovery rates have ranged from about 5 %-30 %. Our theory is, why put the ball in the hands of the other teams best player "in space", when no one is holding a gun to your head to do so? They want the ball in that guys hands, so why do I want to give the other team exactly what they want?

Deep Kicks

What hasn't looked so good for us has been our deep kickoff coverage. We just haven't bothered to put a descent coverage scheme in place or even practice covering deep kicks. Part of my lack of coaching effort in this area comes from priorities and part comes from the fact that when we are up by 3 or more scores and kick deep we really don't care if there is a descent return or not. But if part of our charge as youth football coaches is to pursue excellence in every aspect of the game, our deep kick coverage was in need of a lot of work.

High School Legend and His Kick Coverage Concepts

Phil Acton is a High School coach with a tremendous track record of success, especially in the special teams arena. His kick off coverage team had not had a kickoff return for a touchdown in over 20 years and last season had just 2 returns go past the 30 yard line. Phil is firmly convinced the "lane theory" that most kick-off coverage teams use doesn't make much sense. He drew up a number of returns that showed the sheer silliness of this concept. If the opposing team were to receive the kick on the right hash and the returner ran the ball straight up the right hash, the kicking teams players on the left hash and to the left of the left hash would be wasted players if they stayed in their lanes. These left hash defenders could even be left unblocked, allowing the return team to use double teams and numbers to overwhelm the coverage team where the return team wanted to focus its return.

Phil had a very simple concept imparted to all his kick coverage players: keep the returner in front of and inside of you. So if you are on the left side of the returner, you would adjust your pursuit path to insure the ball carrier was in front of but also inside your right shoulder. The defenders would continue to adjust their pursuit paths to insure they were not being outflanked. Now the ball carrier instead of just having to beat 2-3 players that are in or nearby the 'lane' he chose to run in, he has to beat 8-10 defenders. Phil also suggested directional kicking so his teams had to only defend a portion of rather than the entire field. He always wanted to kick away from the most dangerous return man and make that returner run to field the football.

Kick Coverage for Youth Football

When coaching youth football it is important that you understand the importance of special teams. Your kick coverage team is not the one you load up all your non-starters on, that is a recipe for disaster. Open space tackling is something most of your non-starters don't do very well in most cases. In my book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" we give you much safer and player development friendly methods of getting those kids playing time, but it surely isn't on the kickoff team.

Youth Football Coaching Adjustment

In youth football it may make sense to add a small adjustment to this strategy. A simple way to force the ball carrier to the inside would be to position your boxing ends in positions that would force the ballcarrier to the middle of the field or better yet to one side of the field, so you have less field to defend. You could also assign your best open field tacklers to the side you are forcing to. As most of you know, I don't like to recommend anything we have not heavily field tested with a variety of teams, ages, skill sets and competition, so I'm not advocating this method just yet. But this is an area we will be looking at very closely for next season. I've never been a fan of lanes and the simple "in front of inside" method, seems to make sense and worth a hard look for next fall.

For 200 free youth football coaching tips or to sign up for Dave's free Youth Football Tips newsletter please go to:

Youth Football Coaching Copyright 2007 Cisar Management. Republishing this article is allowed if this paragraph and links are included.

Dave Cisar-

Dave has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized. He is a Nike "Coach of the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington.

With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues. His web site is: Football Plays

The Free Blocking Zone In Youth Football

Most Youth Football Teams play in leagues that are governed by the prevailing HIGH SCHOOL rules of the state with a few nuances like weight limits and for some; minimum play rules. Some leagues will also have special rules pertaining to unique scoring for extra point plays or exception rules on special teams plays like automatic or "no rush" punts.

What I have yet to see is any youth football league that had any special rules when it comes to the "free blocking zone". Unfortunately many youth coaches are unfamiliar with what the "free blocking zone" is and the rules that pertain to it.

What doesn't vary in youth football is the application of High School rules for everything but the exception rules that the league designates for itself. There are two sets of High School Rules, Federation Rules, which covers all states with the exception of Massachusetts and Texas, which are governed by NCAA Rules.

Unfortunately many youth football coaches get High School, College and NFL rules confused with one another and often look foolish to the referees doing their games. In our league we use local High School referees who have to endure some of these uninformed youth coaches who give many of us a bad name. Our home league referees check their egos at the door, try to be patient and try to keep the eye rolling to a minimum, which may be hard for them to do in many cases. I've also coached in leagues that didn't use High School refs, where the quality varied quite a bit.

A few years back we played a game where an opposing team was called for a blatant pass interference. The ball had been thrown well over our receivers head, but the defender came up and crushed our receiver well before the ball arrived. The opposing coach went ballistic, screamed yelled and even called time-out, yelling that the ball was "uncatchable." The prevailing High School refs doing this game endured the rant and calmly explained in low tones the ruling. Well according to High School Rules, it does not matter if the ball is "catchable" or not. This coach wasted a timeout, caused his team unwanted grief, made himself out to look foolish and burned any credibility he had with the referee crew because he didn't know the rules. Not all referees are great, but most of the High School guys are ok and they try to do a good job and earn a few extra dollars for their families. I've spoken to a number of these guys, they have great stories to tell. Some of the things they hear or have to put up with are down right embarrassing.

One of the things youth coaches often misunderstand is what the "free blocking zone" is. According to Federation High School Rules it is: According to Rule 2, Section 17 Article 1: The free blocking zone extends from 4 yards to the right and left of the ball.

It is perfectly legal in that zone for your LINEMEN to block below the waist via what most people call crab blocks, scramble blocks, shoeshine blocks and cut blocks against defenders that line up on the line of scrimmage. NCAA rules also allow for these types of blocks in this zone as well. These are all legit blocking techniques that most youth players will use if they go on to play High School football and are great equalizers when playing much bigger and more athletic teams.

Get to know High School rules and the exception rules used in your league and if you are unsure, ask, don't yell. Save yourself headache and embarrassment as well as set the right example for the kids and parents.

Dave Cisar-

Dave has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized. He is a Nike "Coach of the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book “Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan” was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington.

With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues. His web site is: Football Plays For 150 free youth football practice tips: Youth Football Plays

Copyright 2007 Cisar Management and http://winningyouthfootball.com republishing this article are parts of it without including this paragraph and the links is copyright infringement. Please republish, just include the links.

England - FATV Exclusive - Capello ready for the fight 29/08/10

FATV - Speaking exclusively to FATV, Fabio Capello says he has the stomach for the fight and is ready for the Euro 2012 campaign to start. Fabio Capello also suggested that the England door is still open to David Beckham "The door is open always for all the players but now I think about the young players. They need to play more games. More experience. We know the value of the old players. The Italian's charges face Bulgaria at Wembley followed by Switzerland in Basel in their first two games in Group G, with Wales and Montenegro making up the rest of the five-country pool.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPgJ3p0EWH8&hl=en

College Football Helmet Decals - Show Your Loyalty This Season With Large Helmet Stickers

College football helmet decals can create a great ambiance of the game even while you are watching it at home. Not only do the pictures of football helmets on the wall give a great appearance to your room, you can even flaunt your loyalty towards any team you love. A true football enthusiast would love to have it all over his room.

College football is one of the most courageous games or sports to play. It is precisely why football players wear so much gear and you can hardly notice the players beneath them. A large NCAA helmet decal will remind you about how tough the game is and it also gives you a feeling of being the football star yourself.

The helmet is one of the most important accessories in the great game of football. Lot of research and testing are been conducted while designing the helmets. You might want to check their features thoroughly before buying them. Don't forget to try them on and see if it feels comfortable on you. The wide range of football helmet stickers available can give you a good idea on the available models.

College football helmet decals are extremely large and precision cut from vinyl. Most children love sports and creating a football theme bedroom with removable stickers will make them really happy. They can also be a great design for a baby room as well. Your kids can show the loyalty towards their favorite football team by selecting the exclusive team stickers.

You could also design the windows using the football helmet and jersey. Or why not also display your favorite football hero on the wall with a life size cut out. You can decorate everything inside the room with football team colors and theme logos. The sporty look of the bedroom can make your kid feel enthusiastic all the time.

The college football helmet stickers are available for every team in the competition including many other big teams like Florida Gators, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State Cowboys, USC Trojans and all the rest. These decors in your room will always remind you of your favorite team players. You can pump more support to your favorite football players even from your home. Your kid will be always beaming with great sportsmanship spirit.

This football season, you can decorate your dormitory walls with large removable, vinyl graphics and stickers of your favorite football team. Decorate and brighten your room instantly with removable wall helmet stickers. Since the graphics are removable, if you change your favorite team through out the year no worries, or if you move dorm rooms or move house, no worries, they can come along with you, without leaving any stains.

College football helmet decals will make any room a talking point. You can stick huge posters in your bedroom and give it a college playground like appearance with two opposite goal posts. These removable helmet stickers will give you the experience of the great game from your home setup itself.

Looking for an inexpensive way to show your loyalty this football season? Then look no further than wallstickers-decals.com for Sports Wall Decals. Larger than life, precision cut, removable vinyl College Football Helmet Decals, will ensure everyone knows who you support.