What is 7v7 about?  Is it about individual skills, team skills, recruiting, footwork, ball skills, reading coverages, mastering pass concepts, tournaments, visiting colleges, experimenting with coverages, exposure, program promotion, player retention, fun, competition?  IT"S ABOUT ALL OF IT!  7v7 isn't just getting together on a couple Tuesday Nights in the Summer and throwing the ball around.  It's not just a way to practice year round either although that has some benefits.  No, no it is much more and if your not in the middle of it and keeping up with it, you may feel a little left behind.  There is not a part of the State of Florida that doesn't have some involvement in 7v7, and there is not a kid in the State that doesn't want to play it.  Kids travel hours on the weekend to go practice and play  with travel teams, pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get a spot  on one of these teams and travel around with that team for a few months every Spring.  7v7 is not a rich man's game, but they find a way to afford it.  And why?  Because they think it will get them better, they think it will get them recruited, and it's fun.  

Coaches, we say all the time the off season is a grind.  We say all the time we have to find a way to inject more fun into our off season so our kids stay interested.  We say all the time, we got to find ways to compete in the off season in order to keep our edge for the Fall.  What better way to do this than start a 7v7 team at your school in the off season?  Sure kids need to play other sports in the Spring like Track or Weightlifting, but they're still going to find time to play 7v7 whether you provide it at your school or not.  Why, because football is the greatest sport on this planet (yes I'm biased), and if they think playing on 7v7 will help them get noticed and get to the next level then you better believe they are going to find a way to get involved with it.  Look at basketball, kids play other sports during the year, but put a basketball and an open gym in front of your athletes and I'd guarantee at least 2/3 of them will play pick up basketball until you turn off the lights in the gym.  7v7 is no different. 

I sat in a 3D Coaching seminar a few years back and heard them talk about the forgotten word "Play".  The whole seminar was about we don't play enough any more.  When you were a kid, your parents couldn't keep you from picking up a ball and playing but now, sports are hard, sports are more like work, we talk about "the grind" but we don't talk about play.  I hate to say it football coaches but other sports have it figured out in the offseason.  Basketball in the summer, they don't practice a ton, but they go play, in every summer league game they can, and the kids love it and along the way they play together with their team mates and they get better.  Baseball, in the fall, they practice a little and then they play.  Why don't we do that with football?  It's something to certainly think about. 

If you want to learn more about how you can start an off season 7v7 team at your school, or how you can "play" in the off season, give us a call at 904-402-5428 or send us an email at info@fhs7v7a.com and #UpGradeYourOFFSEASON