subject: Is The I Formation Good For Youth Football? [print this page] A new inquiry from one of our current clients wrote in asking abouth the I formation and if it was a smart formation to use at the pee wee football level. We adore the Power I formation, in fact one of our coaching staffs went 11-0 last season using the complete offensive system shown in the Power I playbook on the footballplaybooks.info web site. I have copied the question as we received it and our reponse.
Is the I Formation Good for Youth Football?
I'm not sure what offense is best for our players, but the head coach has made his decisiion?
The first question that comes to our mind is regarding the head coach. How much experience and what are his qualifications for coaching youth football? How is his past record and how long has he been coaching? I know many "coaches" who have been at it for many years, yet they are horrible coaches with lousy records since they have no idea on how to coach. These type of people have no business being anywhere around kids, yet they continue to coach year after year. Some of these guy continue to coach for a variety of reasons, like being on the board of director, so first you need to look at the head coaches qualification.
If he has been around awhile, treats the kids right and has success I would be a little more trusting. I would question anyone who is making a decision on the offense they are going to run without knowing your talent yet, unless this is grade school ball and you know all of the returning players and their ability.
You can always coach in another program if you feel the head coach is not quailified. He will not listen to you and you'll probably butt heads all year, so save yourself the BS and move on. I have not had many parents help me with the direct coaching decisions due to this reason. I have enough to do all year and do not have the time to be arguing with someone who is on a different page than our staff.
The I formation is great and we used it to help our team to an 11-0 start last year. If you are teaching 8-9 year old players, keep it simple. A basic playbook is all that is needed for this age group.
In closing, I would recomend using the I formation at every level of football. I have had winning seasons in flag as well as tackle using the power I fromation.
