Legislations to outlaw tackle football before 14

[sporthog9er]

In the process of attempting this in CA- just FYI, pay attention....

California proposal to ban youth tackle football clears first legislative hurdle

Similar bills previously failed to pass in California, New York and Illinois.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[ClownBaby]

Wait until they dig deeper into injury rates between youth flag football and tackle football they will be in for a real surprise.

 

[greatgig13]

Well, it’s California. Nuff said.

 

[sac'em]

This is one of the best decisions that anyone involved in football can make. Youth football is such a disgrace (in the area I live and work, and all the competitors we've seen). Youth football probably drives more kids away from the sport than any benefit it brings. I'm all for letting high school coaches teach the kids how to play tackle football.

 

[stl705]

I’ve had discussions with coaches out of state who believe kids are at a disadvantage by not being in tackle football soon enough (ie, starting before 7th grade for example).

I’m just kinda curious what thoughts are on this subject. Personally I don’t feel a kid needs to play tackle football as a youth to have a successful HS career, but I’m not involved like that so not sure.

 

[rocketnation]

A few thoughts:
This decision should remain a parental choice and does not warrant legislative action.

The concussion issue did seem to impact lower grade level JFL participation in my area. Not sure how much Kindergartners were getting out of playing tackle football anyway. However, this was driven by parental choice, not legislation.

My son played JFL from the 5th-8th grade before playing in High School. Had he not played JFL, he would have been hopelessly behind kids with that experience when starting high school. Basics from simply putting on the pads to blocking and tackling fundamentals were learned, slowly at times, in JFL.

Delaying tackle football until 14 would IMO likely result in more injuries than occur now as you'd have larger but inexperienced kids hitting each other for the first time.

 

[GoBlers]

Only in California….

 

[GhostOfTheGhhost]

No youth football to any real magnitude in Chicago is one of the main reasons CPL programs are at such a huge disadvantage compared to the rest of the state. The overwhelming majority of CPL players have never put on equipment before 9th grade. Compare that to other districts where kids are playing scholastically in middle school, and have well organized youth programs feeding those middle schools. Realistically, no football before 14 this would really help in leveling the playing field for CPL teams in relation to the rest of the state, but overall would make football worse, no?

 

[mc140]

5th grade is fine.
Kindergarten-2nd grade tackle football is dumb.
3rd-4th I am kinda in between but lean flag.

 

[guerinfbfan]

I've coached and played, so I can see both sides of this argument.

I started playing as a sophomore, had no experience and was extremely behind fundamentally. Never really caught up.

I had teammates that had started playing in 4th/5th grade whether it be at a park district or their grade school.

As a coach, I am sure it helps having kids play early, but frosh/soph coaches jobs are to teach and prepare.

Personally, I have two very young sons and selfishly I want them to play if they want to, but I wouldn't let them play until at least 7th/8th grade. Flag football is fine for them.

 

[johnndoe]

I coached HS football for 25 years and held my own son out until 7th grade. No regrets whatsoever in his case. Hit the sports of baseball (pre-travel era, thankfully), basketball and floor hockey hard to build competition experience along with introduction to weights the year before entering football. He became real hungry to play by the time his turn came. Age 14 seems too late, though.

 

[Kevin JCHS 81]

I coached HS football for 25 years and held my own son out until 7th grade. No regrets whatsoever in his case. Hit the sports of baseball (pre-travel era, thankfully), basketball and floor hockey hard to build competition experience along with introduction to weights the year before entering football. He became real hungry to play by the time his turn came. Age 14 seems too late, though.

It really depends on whether or not you can play competitive flag football and have decent coach(es) in grade school, but I am not in favor of a law to tell you what you can or cannot do.

In my case, I graduated from St. Pat's Joliet. of the 26-27 boys in my class, 8 went on to be starters at Joliet Catholic and 1 (maybe our best athlete) became a starter at Minooka, and maybe like 4-5 more made the team at JC but saw limited playing time. Not one of those guys played anything besides Flag Football before entering High School. Needless to say, we won the Flag Football championship 6th, 7th & 8th.

We had very little to catch up on after putting on the pads at JC.

OBTW competitive Flag Football can be vicious, at least back in the mid 70's. I felt much safer having pads on.

 

[atrain97]

I coached youth for over 12 years, but it needs to be coached and taught at an appropriate skill level for the age group, and individually based on size and maturity.

Not sure that I would put a kid in pads and helmets before 7th and the earliest 6th grade. If you do have them in pads before that, no three point stances for the younger age groups. they cannot keep their heads up, so all you are doing is teaching them habits that you have to break later.

I had 3 daughters, but if I had a son, I would have started him in soccer to teach agility and footwork, maybe 4-5th grade flag, and then tackle in 6th or 7th.

 

[IceConGuy]

It all comes down to who is in charge and how the JFL is being ran. The main question: Is it about development or winning/stats? I see the biggest issues with how teams run their offense. Too many times you see teams just give the ball to the fast kid and hope everyone else can get in someones way not actually blocking. Sometimes it's certain kids play every down of a game while others get 5-10 plays only. These kids show up, work, and aren't rewarded with playing time because getting a win is more important than their development. Striper rules are some of the worst things to happen to bigger kids and have probably driven more quality lineman away. Add to this some dads treat football like the 1980's and do way too much conditioning and full live tackling drills. It is a recipe to drive kids away.

Then you see teams where playing time and experience is important. They also get coached up. They run the HS system or have enough knowledgable coaches to teach proper, age appropriate techniques. The HS that get these kids are at such an advantage over their peers.

 

[LTHSALUM76]

Yeah sure. In California they want to outlaw tackle football when you are 13. But you CAN have a sex change operation at that age. And some wonder why people are leaving the state. Bunch of dangerous people running that state.

 

[SiuCubFan8]

Didn’t pass, moving on.

 

[sac'em]

It all comes down to who is in charge and how the JFL is being ran. The main question: Is it about development or winning/stats? I see the biggest issues with how teams run their offense. Too many times you see teams just give the ball to the fast kid and hope everyone else can get in someones way not actually blocking. Sometimes it's certain kids play every down of a game while others get 5-10 plays only. These kids show up, work, and aren't rewarded with playing time because getting a win is more important than their development. Striper rules are some of the worst things to happen to bigger kids and have probably driven more quality lineman away. Add to this some dads treat football like the 1980's and do way too much conditioning and full live tackling drills. It is a recipe to drive kids away.

Then you see teams where playing time and experience is important. They also get coached up. They run the HS system or have enough knowledgable coaches to teach proper, age appropriate techniques. The HS that get these kids are at such an advantage over their peers.

People who make decisions in youth football will always say its about player development. But, when the other team shows up, its all about winning.

 

[ClownBaby]

People who make decisions in youth football will always say its about player development. But, when the other team shows up, its all about winning.

It really depends how you set up your program player development and winning typically go together. The easiest way to win to at the youth football level (and high school) is to build up numbers by retaining the kids you have and adding new kids. The goal should be to get the kids in about 50% of the plays in a game.

 

[RD_Watcher]

Youth tackle football ban dead after Newsom vows veto

The measure would have banned tackle football for kids under 12.

www.politico.com

Proposal is dead. This doesn’t mean youth football doesn’t need some changes, however.

 

[ClownBaby]

Youth tackle football ban dead after Newsom vows veto

The measure would have banned tackle football for kids under 12.

www.politico.com

Proposal is dead. This doesn’t mean youth football doesn’t need some changes, however.

In order to do football right you need qualified coaches and there is serious lack of volunteers at the youth level so sometimes you just get bad coaches because there are no other options.

 

[RD_Watcher]

In order to do football right you need qualified coaches and there is serious lack of volunteers at the youth level so sometimes you just get bad coaches because there are no other options.

100% correct. I’ve also seen guys who have turned into great coaches not be so good at youth. It’s hard to convince people they don’t know what they think they know

 

[LTHSALUM76]

People who make decisions in youth football will always say its about player development. But, when the other team shows up, its all about winning.

That is not true. Not in all cases anyway. Anyone who is thinking about winning first in youth sports shouldn't be coaching.

 

[sac'em]

That is not true. Not in all cases anyway. Anyone who is thinking about winning first in youth sports shouldn't be coaching.

So it is true. And you've eliminated probably close to 90%of youth coaches/parents