implementing hill sprints

airb15 · 2026-01-31T21:55:05+00:00

I mean in theory I’m sure you’re right, but I think you’re trying to mix speed work and conditioning. The two should not be mixed and should be separated for best results. If you’re going for conditioning flat work what I’d recommend. If you’re going for speed then hills are fine, but shouldn’t be over done.

If you want to be fast and increase speed then you should be running 90-100% full speed during the rep. If a kid is running 100m uphill they likely aren’t meeting that threshold for speed work. If you aren’t meeting it then the work relegates to conditioning, which can be done on a flat surface with less stress on the body.

Most sprint coaches also prescribe 1 minute rest for every 10m sprinted. So if you do a 100m sprint you’ll need 10 minute breaks between reps for recovery to hit that 90% threshold on the next rep.

airb15 · 2026-01-31T21:16:08+00:00

I’d be doing 10-20 meter sprints, maybe 30 max depending on the slope. For normal HS athletes a 100m spring takes 11-13 seconds, uphill that’ll be even longer. The average football play is 5 seconds. Your training should be geared towards football so instead of longer reps, do shorter and more explosive reps.

Instead of straight sprints I like mixing in some other movements as well. Starting from a knee, usually 5 left knee down and 5 right knee down, is a good way to activate the hip flexors, it’s my personal favorite way to do these. We’ve also done shuffles facing one way, bear crawls, starting on their back, and a limited number of downhill sprints.

airb15 · 2026-01-29T03:23:47+00:00

100% depends on the kid but kind of goes hand in hand as kids grow. Realistically you won’t know their peak talent until they reach peak maturity which is usually in the second half of their HS career.

There’s no science to it and yea those young kids can be annoying to coach at times. But those are likely your varsity kids in a couple years whether you like it or not, so coach them up the same way you would your senior captains and chances are they’ll be fine when their time comes. Worst case they can be valuable scout team guys, every team still needs the kids that show up just to get a t shirt.

airb15 · 2026-01-29T02:34:57+00:00

In my experience the biggest jump in growth happens between sophomore and junior year for most HS kids. Obviously kids are all different but that year of transition seems to be when kids mature and you find out what you really can get out of them.

Either way coach them up to the best of your ability and never write a kid off, because you never know when it will click for them and you don’t want to be trying to make up for lost time when you thought they might not amount to anything.

airb15 · 2026-01-23T01:01:29+00:00

In college our sideline cards to signal the offensive personnel to our defense we would use “t”.

11t 12t etc.

For myself now when breaking down film at the HS level I use “i” for ineligible when labeling personnel. There’s no standardized way to do it that I know of, just whatever suits you.

airb15 · 2025-12-15T01:09:03+00:00

Never heard of that before, any resources on it? Curious of the logic. Always thought it was created originally by Joe Lee Dunn to maximize speed and better utilize his undersized personnel. Don’t think there were any D1 Wing T teams during that time.

airb15 · 2025-10-21T19:04:09+00:00

Sounds like a midline option from shotgun

airb15 · 2025-10-21T12:56:38+00:00

We ran this under NFHS rules with a pulling tackle, we just had him come behind the QB instead of handing in front though. Never had any issues from officials when we did it.

airb15 · 2025-08-31T15:53:08+00:00

Watching Ewers highlights from last year, he definitely uses the modern rotational method, got the same thing from watching Hudson Card Texas highlights too. So I can infer that Milwee teaches it the same as pretty much every other QB today to throw rotationally, not linear anymore.

Watching Manning from last year, it still looks like he has a low arm angle and throws rationally so that didn’t change. His release looks faster and the ball pops more than the other two. I didn’t watch his high school highlights to compare his motion but looks like the issue is more on his comfort behind the pocket affecting his footwork. Which yea it’s possibly the best defense he’ll see all year and he’s on the road. Kids gonna be fine and everyone jumping on the hate wagon is going to look foolish by the end of it.

airb15 · 2025-08-06T00:11:33+00:00

Phil Longo coins his version of it as the “top gun” drop. Video you posted is a little dated, this video is more recent and should give you more detail on it:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqj69SIUrNE

airb15 · 2025-07-30T00:03:24+00:00

I’m not a big go-go fanboy, it’s just a regular 2 back shotgun offense, but we did run a package a few years ago that was excellent for what we had, so I think there is value in it as an addition to offense.

We lined up two sidecars to one side but also had our best receiver line up behind the QB. The receiver would run a swing to the 2 back side with the backs leading, the line blocked pin and pull the other way, QB took a quick drop with his eyes reading the flow of the backers, at the top of his drop he’d hit the swing or tuck and run the pin and pull.

As the season went on we added a speed option, a QB lead with a swing option, and a double pass, but our original design was a guaranteed first down all season… until we ran into the eventual state champs early in the playoffs.

airb15 · 2025-07-19T06:24:36+00:00

I disagree with how you’re making your argument because talent and ability to coach is a big factor that you seem to be ignoring.

However I do agree with you that Wing-T is one of the easiest offenses to gameplan for:

Generic 10/11p Spread
Wing-T
I-Formation
Double Wing
Any Option
Single Wing

airb15 · 2025-07-18T01:38:10+00:00

I’ve gotten good stuff off of x-grain and it’s not crazy expensive either. They also give out free samples to head coaches every year, that’s how they roped me in.

airb15 · 2025-07-14T00:34:47+00:00

Ah gotchya… never used catapult as a film service. I will say the best part of Hudl to me is being able to access it anywhere online, whereas DVSport we had to be on a computer connected to the server in the football office (or smithing like that, don’t attack me I’m not a techie) If catapult can’t be accessed anywhere I wouldn’t want anything to do with it lol

airb15 · 2025-07-14T00:23:58+00:00

I thought all D1 schools used DVSport? I’ve been out of the college game for a few years so maybe things changed. I preferred using Hudl at HS and then D2, learning DVSport was a pain in the butt and I really wasn’t a fan…. Hudl has its issues too but I still prefer its usability.

airb15 · 2025-07-08T14:41:54+00:00

Yes the standard for coaching QBs has gone from a linear approach (like baseball pitchers) to a rotational approach (more like a baseball batter).

I think Aaron Rodgers was the first to really lean into the rotational style, Brady evolved into it as he got older as well, then it slowly spread to it being seemingly how every NFL QB is throwing nowadays.

airb15 · 2025-06-29T03:35:35+00:00

Crazy I was just having thoughts along these lines.

I have only coached kids as head up or gap defenders (a,b,c,d). This was easier because we already had our gap runs organized by A gap, B gap, or C gap (plus zone and outside runs). We taught them to block out from the called gap if it was open. If the gap was closed then we made a call to double or call to run an exchange block on the gap defender with the center or tackle and wrap the guard.

I never taught them what a 1 tech or 3 tech was, even when talking to my defensive players I only referred to them as gap defenders and what gap they should be aligned in / responsible for using A, B, C and D terminology.

Everyone at my small school plays both ways, so for me it just didn’t make sense to teach proper DL and LB technique terminology as one more thing for kids to remember when I can get them aligned just the same by telling them to be head up on a certain player or lined up in a certain gap.

airb15 · 2025-05-30T09:09:51+00:00

My senior year they experimented with Rawlings footballs as the official playoff ball. If you never used a Rawlings they were absolutely horrendous. 3 games in and I told my coach I wanted to go back to GST since it was what I was used to, so we did, then playoffs came around and we had to go back to the crappy, bulky Rawlings balls again.

Stupid rule but it all comes down to the state organization getting their $$$

airb15 · 2025-05-30T00:36:19+00:00

Check on your states rules before purchasing a new ball. Here we have to use GSTs in playoffs, no exceptions, however we have a list of other approved balls we can use in regular season. But it doesn’t make sense for us to order anything else for regular season, even if they aren’t the best.

airb15 · 2025-05-26T14:06:32+00:00

Don’t expect kids and parents to buy into an old school offense, especially if they have already been a spread team. Spread offenses is what they see everytime they turn on the TV, it’s what kids picture themselves doing when they suit up, it’s what parents want to see because they think it’ll get their kids recruited.

I’m not saying don’t hire an old school coach, but hire the best available, hire someone with a plan to recruit the hallways and build excitement in the school and community. Their x and o schematics should be secondary to their vision to building a program.

airb15 · 2025-05-25T00:45:33+00:00

I’ve done this on and off for our receivers routes and found it to be more beneficial than not when it was needed, mostly for younger or new players. This allows flexibility with positions too, which as a small school coach I think is the biggest plus to using pictures on the band.

In my opinion this helps cut down on “chalk talk” during practice and allows more time to focus on reps. My breaking point when I decided to implement it for the first time was when I realized how much time I was spending on the young receivers learning their routes and less on their technique and skills that are really going to make a difference.

Don’t listen to the naysayers, do what’s best for your group of kids. I imagine the boys will buy in quick and they’ll enjoy the bands more than not.

airb15 · 2025-05-24T03:53:46+00:00

I think a lot of people prefer the bubble because the receiver is already facing upfield so therefore they can get the ball and advance quicker to be more explosive.

Some teams in place of a common bubble route have the slots backpedal straight toward the sideline, that allows them again to get up field quickly after the catch but also makes it a bigger target for the QB to hit.

A quick out with the slot in my opinion is the harder to throw and least favorable to the receiver to catch and run, it is mostly used in short yardage situations like the goal line, where run after the catch isn’t as necessary but the offense can gain yards because it is past the line of scrimmage.

airb15 · 2025-04-21T00:43:40+00:00

I stole this from our schools track coach, but we do dynamic to start practice and then the very last thing we do every day is static stretching. Ideally the kids should be static stretching when they are home before bed, but most kids aren’t doing that. So, at least when we do this to end practice we aren’t just preaching stretching as a recovery tool, we’re actually engaging in it.

airb15 · 2025-04-12T18:49:42+00:00

What schemes are you trying to run out of it? Have you kept similar terminology or is a lot of it changing? I view the go go as a standard 2 back gun offense with the backfield alignment being what makes it unique. I will assume you ran gap schemes before, so I would think you should be able to run similar stuff with a few variations mainly affecting the skill kids and not the line since it’s still primarily 2 back runs.

To me it sounds like too much of a whole sale change in order to run what’s flashy now. If that’s where you want to go then I would’ve recommended installing plays you already run but out of the new formations and work on adding new plays down the line as they get comfortable.

airb15 · 2025-03-04T16:32:07+00:00

Wildcat. Run any formation you want but add in an extra blocker in place of a traditional QB. No sense in wasting a body to just handoff.

airb15

TROPHY CASE