Tackle football for 6 years olds

[NYCNole]

Good friend of mine is having trouble fielding a 6 year old tackle football team & keeps asking if my son wants to play. I believe tackle football at that age is moronic plus "fall practice" begins next week. I live in Charlotte, the long range forecast is 90+ thru August, what 6 yr old kid wants to wear full pads in 90+ degree heat three times a week.

I don't understand what some parents are trying to accomplish by pushing their kids into activities at such a young age.

What is appropriate tackle football age? I think 10-12 is fine.

 

[NDallasRuss]

I played tackle peewee at that age. In retrospect, I'd say that middle school is a good time to really get into tackle football.

 

[SoddyNole]

We played flag football around that age and tackle around 3 or 4th grade maybe? I can still remember the coach, loosely defined, showing us how to wrap the flag around our belts. Yes, he was teaching little kids how to cheat. Looking back it is hard for me to believe that actually happened lol.

 

[HulaNole]

I believe it was 5th Grade when my parents allowed me to start playing league tackle football so that would have been ~10 years old. Of course most of us played two-hand shove or arm tackled in the neighborhood games. Coached in a 11-13 yr old league when I was at Ft Gordon. I didn't know they had tackle leagues for six-year old aged kids.

 

[goldmom]

NO to tackle football at that age. Besides being unnecessarily dangerous, the kids aren't ready for memorizing plays, recognizing defenses, etc. It becomes just a big flesh pile. Save that for when they're older and it's at parties for heavens sakes!

 

[Lemon Thrower]

i have coached elementary and middle school flag. around middle school is when most move to tackle or a different sport.

flag is better in elementary school because kids will actually be able to develop some skills. teams are smaller, etc.

in tackle, the coach's kid is the QB, his friends are the WR and RB, and everyone else plays the line or defense. You play the same position all the time. its a little too early to specialize imo.

the other consideration is concussions.

 

[Nole Lou]

Was going to say the same thing as Lemon. EVERY single person who I've talked to who has put young kids in tackle football has the same story. The coach's kid is the quarterback, he hands off to the fastest kid, everyone else no matter their size is on the line. Most play one year and sour of it at a very young age.

 

[LikeaG5]

Good friend of mine is having trouble fielding a 6 year old tackle football team & keeps asking if my son wants to play. I believe tackle football at that age is moronic plus "fall practice" begins next week. I live in Charlotte, the long range forecast is 90+ thru August, what 6 yr old kid wants to wear full pads in 90+ degree heat three times a week.

I don't understand what some parents are trying to accomplish by pushing their kids into activities at such a young age.

What is appropriate tackle football age? I think 10-12 is fine.

Sounds like one of those tools who is going to vicariously live his golden age/life through his sons sports career and thinks he'll go D1 one day.

 

[FreeFlyNole]

I was on my first tackle football team in 1981. The East Cobb (Silver) Rams. I was 5. It was awesome, I still have distinct memories of the games. I was a fullback, I got the ball about 70% of the time. It was great.

I think when my son gets big enough, I will have him in flag football until middle school or so, if he likes it at all. I'd really prefer if he would swim.

 

[Noleguy06]

Shouldn't be playing tackle until High School.

 

[DanC78]

I played tiny mite, peewee, and midget football. Had a blast playing and still have some of my greatest childhood memories from playing.

Played for the Beach Dolphins. We were a bunch of poor white boys, a mix of rednecks and surfers. Our coach was mean as a snake, think Trickett. Parents didn't come to practice, coached cussed us, grabbed face mask, no water breaks, etc...it was brutal.

We won the county championship with the group of guys I played with from tiny nite on. And that was not the norm for this league. Typically kids from the beach finished last.

With that said, not sure if I'll let my youngest play when he gets old enough.

 

[321Nole]

Step 1: start your own team
Step 2: put your son at QB
Step 3: ALL of the glory

 

[Lemon Thrower]

i played tackle in 3rd grade in a league where 3rd/4th/5th played together. I didn't play much in the games but we scrimmaged 5 nights a week. It was a worthwhile experience but still flag might have been better.

don't discount the concussion issue. I was on the fence with my own son regarding concussions. was talking to a dad on his little league team. thought this guy was a stoner because of the lapses when talking to him. the subject of concussions came up. his son is also a good athlete so i was interested in his view. he shared that he got hit in the head a lot in high school and thought it screwed him up, so they weren't going to let their son play tackle. that's when it clicked with me - this guy wasn't a stoner, he just had one too many concussion in high school.

 

[HilltopperNole]

I'll say this as a high school football coach, NO. There are zero skills you can learn at that age that you couldn't learn playing flag football. Like someone already mentioned I would wait until middle school. Most Pop-Warner teams are terribly run and short on coaches. Also stated previously the coaching staff is more like a boys club.


All it will cause is your kid to be burned out at some point. Now you have 8 on 8 spring leagues which is causing more burnout by the 9th grade.

 

[wbnolefan]

I love the stories every year in our town, there's the "next" Barry sanders coming up (hey Musberger you can get to the corner every time when very small children play on a regulation size field)

 

[ohio#1nolefan]

Both my kids started in 2nd grAde. ..My oldest played until he graduated high school.My youngest has chosen not to play his final year. My oldest had a handful of d2 offers, he chose not to continue. Neither one of them were ever injured until they got to the high school level. My oldest had a concussion which caused him to miss 2 games his sr. yr., a torn labrum-which he missed no time, something else with his shoulder which req'd surgery along with the labrum. His jr. yr. he tore his meniscus, soph. yr. played thru a partially torn acl. My youngest has had 2 concussions, 1 each the last 2 yrs..
Point being, those that are worried about injuries for the pee wee level, injuries happen, it's a contact sport but in my case, all the injuries occurred when they were older.
The league they played in had weight restrictions for the qb,rb's, fb's and lb's. All the kids were weighed a week before the season and once more during the season. All the years watching pee wee up thru high school, I've seen many more injuries and more serious injuries at the high school level.
I don't have a big problem with kids playing at that age IF the league is a decently ran league.
BTW- My oldest still as problems with his shoulder 3 yrs. after last playing. My personal thoughts have greatly changed on whether it's really worth it in the long run...

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Probably having trouble fielding a team because, like you, most parents know better.

Youth soccer leagues are booming though!

 

[DFSNOLE]

My son started at 6 and loved it. He made friends and created a bond with that core group that has lasted into his adulthood.

 

[Lemon Thrower]

my son was a very good football and soccer player. he tried baseball for the first time at probably 7. he told he like it better. turns out what he really enjoyed was the downtime every inning and sitting on the bench cutting up with his teammates. point is what the kids want and what you think is important may be very different.

 

[NYCNole]

Signed my son up for flag football last night, he is excited. Older son is a hoops/baseball junkie so this is our first go around with football. Looking forward to it.

I'm running the Travis Minor-Peter Warrick-Ron Dugans end around in first game. Name the game & year this occurred?

 

[NYCNole]

Sounds like one of those tools who is going to vicariously live his golden age/life through his sons sports career and thinks he'll go D1 one day.

The dads really cracks me up b-c not one of them played Div 1 sport yet their son is going to be an AA!

Humblebrag, I played Div 1 lacrosse but didn't shove a stick in their hands at birth. My kids haven't started playing lax yet. A good athlete will figure out their best sport.

 

[Lemon Thrower]

I'm running the Travis Minor-Peter Warrick-Ron Dugans end around in first game. Name the game & year this occurred?

all i can think of is the PW opener v. La Tech - BB said jokingly, "that's how I drew it up."

as for flag football below 4th grade, misdirection is devastating. the key is to have the QB screen the handoff from the defense with his body. the second key is set up the misdirection with the previous play. The third key is to have them sell the fake. As a coach, i would have 2 backs in the backfield. on the first play, i give it to the fast kid and he runs it regular without misdirection. on the next play, i fake it to him. I tell him to run carrying "the invisible ball". If you run hunched over holding an imaginary ball with 2 hands, most of the defense will follow you. then you give the ball for real to the other back who runs the other direction. pretty much every year I have been able to get all of my kids on the scoreboard.

here is a clip from kingergarten ball. when the kids get older, its more effective to have the left RB run to the left, and vice versa, but coaching kingergarten ball is like herding cats.



fourth grade ball

 

[fsUTampa]

I'm running the Travis Minor-Peter Warrick-Ron Dugans end around in first game. Name the game & year this occurred?

'98 UF game (Rooster game). The play prior to that one Minor ran for a roughly 50yd TD, but Warrick was called for holding on the outside. He made up for it on the next play.

 

[NYCNole]

'98 UF game (Rooster game). The play prior to that one Minor ran for a roughly 50yd TD, but Warrick was called for holding on the outside. He made up for it on the next play.

Impressive! One of my all time favorite games at Doak. Stoops was stunned after the play.

 

[montconole]

We have tackle football for 5-6 year olds in my city and my son wants to play but we aren't allowing it. The teams are setup for "teaching" but he can wait.

 

[Nole Lou]

all i can think of is the PW opener v. La Tech - BB said jokingly, "that's how I drew it up."

as for flag football below 4th grade, misdirection is devastating. the key is to have the QB screen the handoff from the defense with his body. the second key is set up the misdirection with the previous play. The third key is to have them sell the fake. As a coach, i would have 2 backs in the backfield. on the first play, i give it to the fast kid and he runs it regular without misdirection. on the next play, i fake it to him. I tell him to run carrying "the invisible ball". If you run hunched over holding an imaginary ball with 2 hands, most of the defense will follow you. then you give the ball for real to the other back who runs the other direction. pretty much every year I have been able to get all of my kids on the scoreboard.

here is a clip from kingergarten ball. when the kids get older, its more effective to have the left RB run to the left, and vice versa, but coaching kingergarten ball is like herding cats.

View embedded media

fourth grade ball

View embedded media

Flag football is a blast as a parent compared to other sports.

I coached a couple times over the years, and to your point, I always told the kid who we were faking to that his job was to run so convincingly he got his flag pulled. Always made a big deal about it if he did, bigger than scoring a touchdown, because there's a real art to kids running like a ball carrier when they're not, and it's absolutely deadly.

I always had a hell of a time getting the QB to turn all the way around on the handoff to shield the hand off. I could just rarely get kids to get that, or why it was so important. Probably could have if I made my son the QB, but wanted to avoid that cliche.

Agree with you that it's diminishing returns as they get older. My son has played through 6th grade, and the misdirection hasn't been much of a factor in a few seasons. But with little kids it's fun as hell.

 

[DanC78]

all i can think of is the PW opener v. La Tech - BB said jokingly, "that's how I drew it up."

as for flag football below 4th grade, misdirection is devastating. the key is to have the QB screen the handoff from the defense with his body. the second key is set up the misdirection with the previous play. The third key is to have them sell the fake. As a coach, i would have 2 backs in the backfield. on the first play, i give it to the fast kid and he runs it regular without misdirection. on the next play, i fake it to him. I tell him to run carrying "the invisible ball". If you run hunched over holding an imaginary ball with 2 hands, most of the defense will follow you. then you give the ball for real to the other back who runs the other direction. pretty much every year I have been able to get all of my kids on the scoreboard.

here is a clip from kingergarten ball. when the kids get older, its more effective to have the left RB run to the left, and vice versa, but coaching kingergarten ball is like herding cats.

View embedded media

fourth grade ball

View embedded media

That's awesome, kid has some wheels on him!

 

[funksouljon]

As a father of only girls, I can offer my tears of jealously and say I regret the relief I have that mine may play flag, but I don't see tackle football in their future. Certainly other sports tho.

I would say seems young for tackle. Anyone see the show Friday Night tykes? woah, some of the adults are in lala land.

 

[DFSNOLE]

As a father of only girls, I can offer my tears of jealously and say I regret the relief I have that mine may play flag, but I don't see tackle football in their future. Certainly other sports tho.

I would say seems young for tackle. Anyone see the show Friday Night tykes? woah, some of the adults are in lala land.

TV shows the extreme for ratings. My son started playing at 6 and I coached until he started playing in middle school. None of us were anything like what is depicted on that show. I told my son about this thread. His exact quote was "Let the kid toughen up and let him play." .
Six year old tackle football is really not that much different than any other sport being played at that age. It's more crowd control than anything else. The leagues are age and weight limited. It's not like an 6 year old is going to lay someone out. Some of y'all are more afraid than your kids.

 

[LT4PLY]

I went through this debate myself. My first reaction was he is too young. But I asked around and was told by a doctor and others that it's really hard for them to get hurt at that age playing tackle and their son started young. Then I was given this... If you wait until he is older, say 10, instead of 5, to play tackle... how do you think he will do playing against the kids that actually started at 5 and already have 5 years of development? Once they are 10 they are big enough and strong enough to get hurt.

So... I did more research and ended up putting my son on the team at 5. The pads/helmet tend to be a great equalizer (adding 8-ish pounds to kids that are 40-50 pounds really slows things down). Pop warner around here (tallahassee) is teaching heads up football. They limit contact to 30 minutes per practice, 22 minutes per practice after labor day, plus a max per week. They teach them to get their head out of the game. The pendulum has swung so far the other direction that safety is number 1, 2, and 3. In Tallahassee Pop Warner the coaches are required to be trained by Pop Warner (day and a half), Heads up football (approx a half day), be CPR and First Aid certified (another half day). Practice plans are mandatory and must be filed in the team book. Breaks are mandatory, water is mandatory upon request. 10 hours of conditioning are required before pads are even put on. Another 10 hours of training with pads are required before any contact. It's just not like when we were kids.

Now that he is 7 and I can look back in hindsight I learned that tackle football is the safest sport he has played. He has played soccer, flag football, baseball, etc. and in each of those sports I have carried him off the field for various injuries. Nothing major, thank God, but the fact is having a helmet and pads on plus teaching proper tackling is a heck of a lot safer than two kids without gear on running into each other at full speed, getting beaned by a baseball, or getting kicked hard in some pretty bad spots. My Wife was a freaking basket case his first season. Now that he has played all these other sports she feels the same way I do.

To whoever said they can't learn plays that young... yes they can. I have seen it in both flag and tackle. They aren't learning an extensive playbook but 5 to 10 plays is reasonable.

Now with all of that said... other organizations may not be the same. Watch "Friday Night Tykes" if you would like to see full retard and the other end of what it could be. You also get the bad apple coach etc. in any sport, which I personally witnessed in our league with Peter Boulware coaching Tiny Mites so it can happen anywhere (although, the parents on that team still seemed happy for whatever reason)

 

[Trust Me]

I had several concussions in high school football so I was very hesitant about my son playing football. I started him in baseball which he still plays (11th grader this year) but he discovered football in the 7th grade and just loved it. He is a wide receiver and db (very small private school) and has earned all county the past two years as both. He has had one concussion though where he was held out of two games two years ago so every time he plays I am very worried.

 

[mutoey]

I played tackle from ages 5-18, started every year, played both offense and defense, and never had a concussion. There is really no risk of a real injury or concussion until high school ball. The kids are just too small and slow to hurt each other until they hit puberty. The hitting in high school is definitely when it gets real, but even then, when I played 1995-1998 we did live contact for 75% of our practices (which is not allowed now), and I only ever saw two players get concussions in practice (our high school team dressed 75 players each season so those are low numbers). In games, where the players are trying to inflict pain on the other team, I saw maybe 3-4 concussions in 4 seasons, and it was either a QB who was blindsided or a stupid LB who would tackle head down. Injuries in high school ball, not concussions, are another story. I remember a punt returner for an opposing team decided not to fair catch a punt, and one of our safeties tackled him clean but hard, and when the kid got up his forearm was sticking out of the skin in two places.

 

[rhurner]

I'm with jimmy. If you're worried about impactful injury let them play from toddler to HS. Then let them be too small,slow (like me) and swim and play water polo (like me). The discipline that it takes to grind out miles in the pool has served me throughout to step it up when I will and stay in some sort of shape. We played neighborhood pick up games and even 11 on 11 interneighborhood games and if it was on dirt or grass...... it was all tackle. We'd play touch on the street when we had to. Shoot.....we'd play "kill the man with the ball" if there were only four of us. In my mind....too cautious can be more mentally debilitating than what any injury at a young age could bring. In fact recovering from injury can teach that we heal and to go for it.

 

[given2fly]

I played tackle from ages 5-18, started every year, played both offense and defense, and never had a concussion. There is really no risk of a real injury or concussion until high school ball. The kids are just too small and slow to hurt each other until they hit puberty. The hitting in high school is definitely when it gets real, but even then, when I played 1995-1998 we did live contact for 75% of our practices (which is not allowed now), and I only ever saw two players get concussions in practice (our high school team dressed 75 players each season so those are low numbers). In games, where the players are trying to inflict pain on the other team, I saw maybe 3-4 concussions in 4 seasons, and it was either a QB who was blindsided or a stupid LB who would tackle head down. Injuries in high school ball, not concussions, are another story. I remember a punt returner for an opposing team decided not to fair catch a punt, and one of our safeties tackled him clean but hard, and when the kid got up his forearm was sticking out of the skin in two places.

How does one see a concussion?

 

[mutoey]

How does one see a concussion?

Player is slow to get up, has a dazed look in their eye, usually pukes, and has a major personality change (if they are normally outgoing they get quiet, if they are normally quiet they might suddenly become vocal).

 

[Lemon Thrower]

I always had a hell of a time getting the QB to turn all the way around on the handoff to shield the hand off. I could just rarely get kids to get that, or why it was so important.

i would have the kids sit in a line. then I would demonstrate it and ask the kids sitting if they knew who had the ball.

after they had fun with that, I'd let them take turns as the QB. when their teammates could see who was getting the ball, they learned quickly how to hide it better.

the other skill that works well is spinning. what happens is since its not tackle, a lot of kids will give up when the defense catches up to them, but if you spin you have a better than 50% chance of the defender missing you. We've won games where our ball carrier has split two defenders and they both missed the flag, so we actually practice that. Of course, its a lower percentage of success, but when the kids see their teammates succeed with the technique in practice then they practice it in the game. here is a clip of one of the kids I coached spinning. the 2nd white line is the goal line. He was a middle of the pack athlete, and 2 defenders got to him at the goal line. he spins as they reach for his flag and both miss.

 

[GwinnettNole]

i played tackle in 3rd grade in a league where 3rd/4th/5th played together. I didn't play much in the games but we scrimmaged 5 nights a week. It was a worthwhile experience but still flag might have been better.

don't discount the concussion issue. I was on the fence with my own son regarding concussions. was talking to a dad on his little league team. thought this guy was a stoner because of the lapses when talking to him. the subject of concussions came up. his son is also a good athlete so i was interested in his view. he shared that he got hit in the head a lot in high school and thought it screwed him up, so they weren't going to let their son play tackle. that's when it clicked with me - this guy wasn't a stoner, he just had one too many concussion in high school.

It's not just the concussions. By the very nature of how football is played there is constant beating of the brain against the skull.

 

[funksouljon]

The discipline that it takes to grind out miles in the pool has served me throughout to step it up when I will and stay in some sort of shape.

Agreed, tried to explain to my wife how boring a 3 hour swim practice can be as a long distance swimmer. Lots of time spent focused on breathing or in a dream state.

. Shoot.....we'd play "kill the man with the ball" if there were only four of us.

Is that what you called it as a kid? So very early age PC of you.

 

[DFSNOLE]

Is that what you called it as a kid? So very early age PC of you.

Not what we called it in the 60's.

 

[rhurner]

Agreed, tried to explain to my wife how boring a 3 hour swim practice can be as a long distance swimmer. Lots of time spent focused on breathing or in a dream state.



Is that what you called it as a kid? So very early age PC of you.

Ummm....nope. In fact every name that we called it was as unPC as it gets. In fact.....they'll get you for "kill the man".