Coaching 7 year olds (Short Punt & Lonesome Polecat formations)

FYI, I've since found two books on these formations, and will pass on what I learn from comparing them with the plays that I ran this season. (I just ordered Lou Howard's book, "The Modern Short Punt: A Winning Formation," and Tiger Ellison's, "Run and Shoot Football: The Offense of the Future," from Barnes & Noble's Out of Print service.)

Short Punt:

This is the standard Short Punt formation:

LE  LT LG C RG RT  RE
       FB   FB
            HB
         TB

LE  LT LG C RG RT  RE
       FB              <- - - - - FB
            HB
         TB

I searched the web pretty extensively, but the only Short Punt plays I found were a Wedge (the link escapes me now) and the Off Tackle from Joe Blount's book that Jack Reed shows in his book. From there, I just reformed a handful of basic plays.

NOTE: Most of the blocking schemes I've seen in playbooks are almost impossible for kids under 9 to remember and/or execute. Even if I set up cones and walked through assignments, unless they did the same thing every play, they'd forget it, or remember it at the wrong time, when running another play. Instead, I set up base blocks for all the linemen to run for a given set of plays (i.e. the Wedge, Trap, and Counter all have the same line blocking).

Here's a quick overview of the plays I ran from the Short Punt.

The Wedge goes through the C/RG gap with a lead/trap block from the left FB on the NG or LT, whichever we miss because of double-teams from the LG/C and RG/RT. The HB comes through next, typically hitting the MLB (on those rare occasions that my 132 lb 7 year-old didn't just keep on trucking down the field, laying waste to anybody in his path). With a good snap, we consistently got 3-4 yards on this play. It's a testimony to my lack of intelligence and desire for variety that I didn't just continue to patiently pound away on the interior, and only go outside when forced to. Oh well...

The Trap had basically the same line blocking and lead block from the FB, but looked like a sweep to the linebackers, since our TB would make an underneath handoff to the HB on his way right.

Near the end of the season, both of these plays benefitted from having the "motion FB" (who set up like a wide wing) fake a reverse on every down.

I devised a Counter, which used the same line blocking, same lead FB block, but had the HB and TB start to the right as if on a sweep, only to have the TB cut back into the line, following the FB block.

The Sweep Right initially used a crack-back block from the motion FB, but he so frequently forgot to make that block, that he'd often run into my RG, who was pulling, and on two occasions blocked him so well that he fell back into the LG, who was pulling right behind him! (Ah... the joys of coaching pee wee football...) My biggest problems with the Sweep Right were: Figuring out that my motion FB was more useful as a reverse decoy than blocker, and half speed from the lead blockers! From that point on, I put him in motion about 2 seconds after the linemen were down, and faked a reverse to him on every play except the sweep to the left.

As you may be able to tell, slow lead blocking was a sore spot with me. At practice, we'd run this over, and over, and over... and in the first half of the game, our guys would be mowing down contain men like they were summer grass. Second half, we'd start jogging through a sweep, only to lose 8-10 yards as the contain men ran past (or through) our lead blockers. No amount of pleading, begging, or yelling, seemed to change the speed of the lead blocks.

The Sweep Left was similarly effective, but for this play, the motion FB would start his fake reverse motion early, be past the TB at the snap, and would become a fifth lead blocker. Although we didn't consistently have the success we should have on this play (I'm convinced due to me not teaching lead blocking well enough), it looked outrageous to see our ball carrier going left with all these bodies in front of him.

Our Pass was to the motion FB, and we had the most success early in the season, when I started him in the backfield, and his motion went to the wing spot (where later in the season the motion FB would start from). At the snap, everyone would block "sweep left," except the TB, who would take one step to the left, stop, and then throw a blind spot pass as far downfield and to the right as possible. On two occasions, the receiver caught the ball over his shoulder, in textbook form, and went in untouched. I even received complimentary e-mail from an upcoming opponent who was scouting us.

Our Reverse was a bit like the Sybil, the girl with multiple personalities. Everyone on the right of the ball (except the motion TB) treated it like a sweep to the right, and everyone on the left (particularly the LG and FB, who were lead blockers for this play) treated it like a sweep to the left. During our last regular season game, both contain men on the left were so completely knocked out of the play, and the DBs had so thoroughly bought on the sweep to the right, that it was 20 yards downfield before anyone came close to the ball carrier, who scored easily from the LOS on their 40.

Lonesome Polecat:

I found some notes from Tiger Ellison's original book on this offense posted on a web page, and in reviewing the basic routes, taught them to my receivers in two nights. Had I taken more time with this formation, I could have probably run the whole game this way, and had even more success than I did in the two series that I ran it. The main routes are: Fly pattern from the wide-right HB, a Post pattern from the inside-right HB, an Out pattern from the eligible center, a fly from the LE, and a screen to the left HB (who lines up behind the down linemen to the left).

My LE was fast, but was generally unable to catch a thrown ball, so I tossed one his way early to scare the defense. The head coach called a time out when he saw how wide open the receiver was on that play.

My left HB caught 4 passes, but was unable to get away from the defense consistently, because I'd not taught the down linemen how to protect him and block for his route.

My C caught 2 passes, for 3-4 yards. This is a good utility play from this formation, and is hard to defend because of the crossing patterns from the HBs on the right, one of whom goes in front of the C, and the other behind.

My wide-right HB caught just one pass, but had neglected to run his route at full speed, so the QB had to make it a "dump." The HB was "dumped" at the LOS.

In the second series, the defense so completely got lost covering the three receivers on the right, that they let the QB run a naked (very naked) bootleg right for 13 yards.

Hope this wasn't more info than you wanted.

Coach Gooch