What are the fundamentals to teach 8 and 9 year olds to cover WR's in flag football?

Question

I help as an assistant coach to a 8 man flag football team. We run a basic defense of 5 dlinemen and 3 defensive backs. I have the 3 defensive backs pick up any man who runs out for a pass whether it is a RB, Oline or someone lined up at WR. Most the time they don't line up at WR it is mostly RB's who get the passes. But as the DB takes the player going for the pass what are the fundamentals to teach them? How much cushion, when to look at the QB etc. Also how to teahc them to recognize the pass versus run?

Answer 1

Wow what a hard ? to answer.
The easiest way to determine pass vs. run is to watch how th lineman are blocking. Standing up(pass) vs. charging out (run).
How much cushion depends a lot on how fast the kids are. The faster they are the less cushion they need to give.
As far as fundamentals you should be teaching them a lot of backpeddling/change of direction drills. The M drill comes to mind running backward 10yds forward 10yds back 10yds and forward again to form an "M" on the field.
Also having them cover route runners one on one. I know this is simplified. I would go to a book store and pick a book of D-Back drills and run the through the ringer on those bad boys :)

Answer 2

Maybe you could set up a pretend carnival in the backyard. Set up a few games like a ring toss, knock em down, whatever you can think of, and have them grab onto each other and run around the yard to simulate a roller coaster, and bring some old toys you don't play with anymore and the snacks as prizes. For snacks, make sure to talk to the kids parents first and be aware of any allergies either has. Maybe you could arrange fruit in the shape of a flower or something else they'll like or have them make their own trail mix together.