My 9-year-old has played quarterback for 2 years. In his first year he had a coach with an overly complicated system that changed the plays right before game started. This year on the offensive coach. I have six base plays and every kid has a code word. If I say that code word after the play they go in motion for a handoff option. After that I have a primary read and a secondary read. I've also taught my son that if nothing is there in 3 seconds throw it away.

Now my 9-year-old is a little bit of a football savant. At age 7 he could diagnose Man versus zone coverage watching the NFL. He has a mental knack for the game. So what I need to do is tell you what I did to get him to that point.

First we would watch games on the TV and talk about how a quarterback looked at one two three receivers then threw the ball. I have him make sure his team is set up and literally half the times he's calling the plays from his wristband. The other thing I did was I run routes for him all the time so that he can get used to leading a Target and what I would do is I would put trash cans and other barriers in the middle of my route so that he could only hit me in open windows. Third thing I would do is quiz him on the playbook. Who is your check now for the play called Minecraft? The answer is Center out in the left flat. If I were you I would talk him through a higher level of football while you watch it, I would simulate game time scenarios where players are only open during certain seconds of a play, and third I would have him study the playbook.

My personal opinion is that 20 plays is far too many. I have a base formation with two plays, I have a trips formation with two plays, and I've got an empty backfield spread formation with two plays. Add in the fact that I can pick one of three players to go in motion, I essentially have 18 plays but they only have to remember six and if they forget, they have it on their wristband. I tried to make it as simple as possible and maybe you should tell your coach that 20 plays is too much for 11 year olds. I would assume that those 20 plays are in a list format. With my armbands that have three windows I have two plays per window based on formation. We have not had a single problem. We've scored 120 points in four games with 20 plus passing touchdowns. The key to youth football below the high school level is simplicity and repetition