Jump to content
Head Coach Openings 2024 ×
  • Current Donation Goals

    • Raised $2,716 of $3,600 target

Junior League Football tournament


Recommended Posts

20 hours ago, foxbat said:

Over my 18 seasons of coaching youth ball, I had more kids sit out of football due to concussions from school recess, soccer, messing around with their siblings, etc. and more broken bones from skateboard, jumping off of bleachers at school, and all other assorted activities other than football. 

Had a kid one season that came in after the weekend with his forehead bandaged.  The other coaches and I looked at each other and were trying to figure out how that could have happened in the weekend's game, since we never saw him have any contact that was hard, much less on the head that would cut the forehead.  Turns out that he and his brother were playing paint can lid Frisbee after he got home from the game and he let one slip between his hands.  Took several stitches to close him up.  The most dangerous place for a youth football player seems to be away from the field. 🙂 

I just wonder why we have rules for High School, College, and Pro for contact in practice and number of games played but not for our youth?  With numbers down at a lot of places are we pushing this too far too early?  I wonder what the motivation is to do this to young kids while we are protecting the older athletes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Plymouthfan91 said:

I just wonder why we have rules for High School, College, and Pro for contact in practice and number of games played but not for our youth?  With numbers down at a lot of places are we pushing this too far too early?  I wonder what the motivation is to do this to young kids while we are protecting the older athletes.

What’s the top speed of a 12 year old? And the weight? Lol
 

the amount of force a 12 year old who weighs between 70-160 Lbs on average is significantly less than what older levels are at.  By high school at the varsity level you are dealing with kids 160-300+….they are also moving at over 15mph in some cases.

 

by the time you get to the nfl it’s 200 Lbs is small and 220-330 of pretty much pure muscle running up to 21mph is common. it takes nfl players an entire week of professional care to get rested.  It’s a slight step down from that in college…in high school it’s the 5 Qtr rule unless it’s 4 varsity.
 

there are stages to this.  Simply put….The amount of force that can be generated at the lower levels allows for kids to play more and they are not at more risk for doing so compared to the higher levels of the sport….and that’s why you see increasingly more limits at the HS, College, and NFL levels.

 

There have been so many studies and debates about this and it’s an ongoing concern no doubt…but the research guides the rules and the rules follow the research.
 

I think if the numbers showed kids shouldn’t play as many games as they are allowed, then we would have something more restrictive.  We see it with baseball at the youth levels with pitch counts and other restrictions

 

But as I said, it’s an ongoing concern and there should always be more research into this.  If the research starts to show they shouldn’t play as many games, then the rules will adjust.  These are peoples kids….it’s safe to assume there are plenty of people making sure they can have fun and be safe doing so. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, DumfriesYMCA said:

What’s the top speed of a 12 year old? And the weight? Lol
 

the amount of force a 12 year old who weighs between 70-160 Lbs on average is significantly less than what older levels are at.  By high school at the varsity level you are dealing with kids 160-300+….they are also moving at over 15mph in some cases.

 

by the time you get to the nfl it’s 200 Lbs is small and 220-330 of pretty much pure muscle running up to 21mph is common. it takes nfl players an entire week of professional care to get rested.  It’s a slight step down from that in college…in high school it’s the 5 Qtr rule unless it’s 4 varsity.
 

there are stages to this.  Simply put….The amount of force that can be generated at the lower levels allows for kids to play more and they are not at more risk for doing so compared to the higher levels of the sport….and that’s why you see increasingly more limits at the HS, College, and NFL levels.

 

There have been so many studies and debates about this and it’s an ongoing concern no doubt…but the research guides the rules and the rules follow the research.
 

I think if the numbers showed kids shouldn’t play as many games as they are allowed, then we would have something more restrictive.  We see it with baseball at the youth levels with pitch counts and other restrictions

 

But as I said, it’s an ongoing concern and there should always be more research into this.  If the research starts to show they shouldn’t play as many games, then the rules will adjust.  These are peoples kids….it’s safe to assume there are plenty of people making sure they can have fun and be safe doing so. 

But young kids are also less coordinated and have less strength to withstand an impact and more importantly, control their bodies (head) when they go to the ground. I'm not a big fan of these kinds of youth tournaments. Our feeder program is tied very closely to the feeder schools, so we are often limited because of when our designated season ends. We have on occasion had teams participate in these kinds of things. I know we had a 5th or 6th grade team play in an event a few weeks ago. My biggest concern is the inability of some adults to do what's in the kid's best interest because they are trying to relive their own glory days. I shudder when I see twitter videos of "baby" Derrick Henrys in youth leagues running over much smaller defensive players. Certainly do not know enough about any of these events to judge, just giving my personal thoughts.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, tango said:

But young kids are also less coordinated and have less strength to withstand an impact and more importantly, control their bodies (head) when they go to the ground. I'm not a big fan of these kinds of youth tournaments. Our feeder program is tied very closely to the feeder schools, so we are often limited because of when our designated season ends. We have on occasion had teams participate in these kinds of things. I know we had a 5th or 6th grade team play in an event a few weeks ago. My biggest concern is the inability of some adults to do what's in the kid's best interest because they are trying to relive their own glory days. I shudder when I see twitter videos of "baby" Derrick Henrys in youth leagues running over much smaller defensive players. Certainly do not know enough about any of these events to judge, just giving my personal thoughts.

I don’t have a problem saying that there are parents and coaches who push the kids too hard.  More that the game itself doesn’t present more risk at the lower levels. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, DumfriesYMCA said:

I don’t have a problem saying that there are parents and coaches who push the kids too hard.  More that the game itself doesn’t present more risk at the lower levels. 

But it doesn't present less.  So why are the rules different for the youth than the older kids?  I worry that we have too many Vince Lombardi's out there who put kids in unsafe situations.  These kids either get hurt or quit because of the stress on their bodies because they haven't fully developed yet.  We all love this game but I again wonder the motivation for these events when the stress on the athlete could cause undue harm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe you don’t see an immediate concussion but after a few years of youth football no one knows how that transfers to concussions in the future or the long term effects of having a young brain bounced around. Don’t play that’s a choice. Choose to play, don’t come back years later complaining. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...