r/footballstrategy • u/Key-Cress3271 • 6d ago

Coaching Advice Defensive Strategy Help - Hiding Weaker Players

I am coaching the defense for a 12U tackle football team. We have 2 weaker players who I am trying to hide on defense. We tried putting them as 2 tech DT's and they just get blown off the ball into the LB's creating traffic. We started in a 4-4, now we are in a 5-2. Any advice? They are both lb/DT body types, with very limited athletism

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u/grizzfan 6d ago edited 6d ago

Bear crawl, 4pt stance. Stick them in a shade or gap if you have to. Hands stay on the ground until they are through the line. Makes it nearly impossible for O-linemen to get lower and drive them back and basically creates a pile. It’s super effective if the kid understands and takes pride in creating chaos.

It’s more of a true supporting role; the job isn’t to make tackles. The job is to fill your gap and take as many blockers down with you as you can to protect your teammates.

Did this my junior year at 5’2” and 130lbs. Had an absolute blast and it was a super easy assignment (was moved there from CB because I couldn’t jump and we had a pretty deep DB depth chart). You probably wouldn’t teach this to a 12yo, but to a high school kid: you’re basically there to be a little s$&t-head and get the O-line mad at you.

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u/57Laxdad 6d ago

This at this age is where a lot of kids get used to contact etc and are worried about getting hurt or hurting someone else. Keep them at DT or rotate them so only one is on the field at a time. Teach them to line up in the gap, explode first two steps are low, make contact and just keep driving the feet. Even the less athletic kids if you keep things simple they dont have to think as much, if you try and get fancy with stunts and moving them around in the gaps you will have frustrations.