Girl Dad Flag
Flag football podcast hosted by a girl dad and his nine-year-old daughter who is already better at this than him. Weekly drills, news, real talk, and a segment called The Draft Board that you have to hear to believe. For every family growing the game together. No pads. Just flags. New episodes weekly. girldadflag.com
Girl Dad Flag
Flag Pulls, Tic-Tac-Toe & The Veggie Bowl
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Eric and Finley are back for Episode 2 with flag pulling technique, a brand-new drill called Tic-Tac-Toe, the latest on flag football's explosive national growth, and the Veggie Bowl. Will Team Owl get revenge on Team Axolotl? Jalapeno brings the heat, an Onion sheds its skin and makes everyone cry, and Finley's Broccoli quarterback turns out to have a very big brain. Tune in to hear who wins.
And hello everyone. We're back with the Girl Dad Flag Podcast. As always, I'm Coach Eric here with Finley. Say hi, Finn.
SPEAKER_00Hi, everyone.
SPEAKER_02Alright, folks, is our standard format here. We're gonna jump right into the huddle and what that is, is Finley's gonna explain uh what she learned at practice week. So, Finn, go ahead and take it away. Um, what did you learn at one of your many practices this week?
SPEAKER_00So, one of my practices I learned the proper way how to like pull the flag. And you wanna take your right hand and reach it to the left, like the left side and pull it. Yeah, left hip.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00And then take your left hand, pull it to the right hip. But it's better to go with both hands just in case you miss with the first one. Yeah. You always have the bottom one. And on the top of the belt, there's this like a white little buckle part, and you want to grab the clip. Yeah, the clip. So you want to grab that so it pops, and if you miss, you still have like a whole flag to grab.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's perfect explanation, Finn. I mean, we teach the girls to break down, get wide, and almost like a ground ball fielding stance, right? You take your left hip, kind of go a little bit aggressively towards the clip, pull down with both hands, and like you said, two hands is perfect. So um honestly, that's the perfect explanation of it. I don't think much more is needed. If you go to our um socials or our website, we'll have a video breaking that down. But that's perfect technique, Finn. Great job. So coming up is the playbook. Stay tuned.
SPEAKER_00Playbook.
SPEAKER_02All right, and we're back. We're gonna jump right into the playbook. That is where Finley breaks down um a drill or a play that we learned. In this case, we did a new drill this week. I I'm constantly searching social media, seeing what PE teachers and stuff are doing. I just try and find a drill that is fun for the girls and kind of incorporates a flag football or two techniques. So, Finn, why don't you go ahead and explain the um drill that we did this week that you enjoyed the most?
SPEAKER_00So, one of the drills I enjoyed the most today was called tic-tac-toe.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00And you set up cones, one like the people are gonna stand behind the one cone, then you're gonna put the two like the cones in a zigzag shorter.
SPEAKER_02And then you're gonna set up We're gonna put two cones next to each other, kind of creating a path for somebody to run to, right? And then they're kind of zigzagging. We're practicing jump cutting to the left, jump cutting to the right, and running through the cones. We set up about four or five cones to get the girls, you know, practicing their cutting speed, and then we have a tic-tac-toe board set up. So, Finn, what's um once you run through the cones, what do you do?
SPEAKER_00So after you run through the cones, you're gonna go through this tic-tac-toe board. So it's a tic-tac-toe in real life. So you're gonna run to a spot and the coach is gonna throw you the ball, you're gonna try and catch the ball, and if you catch it, your next partner can run up and do it. If you drop it, you're just gonna keep uh catching and catching until you got it.
SPEAKER_02Perfect. So, really, Finn nailed it again. It's a obstacle course or a zigzag course, as you will. You run through working on technique, you get to the one of the nine X's or O spots on a tic-tac-toe board. Coach fires you the ball. As soon as you catch it, your next teammate can go. It's perfect for you know, nine-ten girls. Um, really works on teamwork, uh catching the ball, zigzagging, cutting through a drill. The girls get really into it. I mean, they they strategize before. It teaches them to huddle up. You know, we assign one person to talk in the air quote huddle. The girls come up with a strategy and it gets pretty wild at the end. We do best of nine, so they kind of run through, and it's a great warm-up drill. Um, I really look forward to it. And um, it's something that the girls really like, Finn. Wouldn't you agree?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I really like that one.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Stay tuned. We're gonna get into some news, and then we've got the uh our favorite part coming up after that, the uh dad-daughter draft. All righty, and we're gonna jump into the news here. Um, what the news is is just how much this sport is expanding. I believe the last numbers that I saw were 17 states, had it as a fully uh recognized varsity sport with state championships and another 18 to 22 run either pilot or independent programs. So that brings the total up somewhere between 30 and 40 states, depending on the data. I've seen anything from 60 to 70 percent growth in this sport, it's really growing. So, Finn, what do you think about that? Pretty exciting, huh?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's very exciting.
SPEAKER_02It's really exciting by the time, you know, Finley's nine years old, she's in third grade. By the time she gets to high school, I can't imagine where this sport's gonna be. So we're trying to be a resource for people to come and join and help you out. So coming up next is gonna be the dad-daughter draft. It's a new one that we're really excited about.
SPEAKER_00And uh my favorite part.
SPEAKER_02Stay tuned. Alright, and now we get into our favorite part, the dad-daughter draft. As always, Finlay and I are gonna draft a team of five characters, items, whatever it is, and this week we've decided to go with vegetables. So you gotta use your imagination a little bit here, like Finley and I did. This is uh a produce aisle battle, right? Aisle one at the grocery store. So, Finn, why don't you go ahead and start us off with your quarterback and just give us a quick little brief synopsis of why you thought what you chose would be good.
SPEAKER_00So, my quarterback is broccoli.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I feel like broccoli c has a big brain and it can like quickly throw the ball and it has like a good under pressure like uh technique.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, you gotta steam it. It's hard, you know, it takes a lot to cook, so it might be good under pressure, kind of cooked under pressure. I like it. I went with spinach, Popeye level strength, you know, compact, burst through traffic, and power forward, like even when your flags are tugged. That's why I went with spinach. So why don't you tell us who your uh running back would be?
SPEAKER_00My running back is an onion because I have a power move for it. Okay. So imagine a fruit or a vegetable is what I meant.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_00Running towards it, and all of a sudden the onion sheds his skin and makes the other defenders start like crying. That's brilliant.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00And it's super sticky, so it would make them stop and he could just sprint all the way down the field.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's amazing, actually. That's gonna be a problem. I went with a jalapeno pepper, you know, spicy and fiery hot, has like a sudden burst of speed off the line and can burn its defenders, so I thought that was kind of cool. You figure a little jalapeno pepper scooting around the field. So why don't you go ahead and give into your uh wide receiver one?
SPEAKER_00My wide receiver one is a cucumber.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00These cucumbers, I feel like, are those very tall vegetables and they I feel like that could be like a quick one to just turn around, catch the ball, and I feel like they would be a fast- Yeah, and they always kind of keep their cool, right?
SPEAKER_02Cool as a cucumber, that's a good one. You don't want a diva wide receiver out there freaking out the cucumbers, just chilling and cool and having a good time. That's a great one. I went with a potato, you know. I just figured solid, sturdy potatoes, eyes on the prize, anchors the line, creates lane, and you know, rarely gets pulled out of position. You ever try and pull up a potato, it's it's difficult, and I feel like pulling a flag of a potato would be tough too.
SPEAKER_00So it's like soap.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right, sometimes. So that's why I thought of that. Yeah, perfect. So, all right, let's go wide receiver two. What do you have?
SPEAKER_00My wide receiver two is a carrot.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Because I feel like with their leafy green stem, it'd be very hard to miss it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's like a quarterback looks for the orange and green contrast.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I feel like it would be a good go route, deep route, like very.
SPEAKER_02Sure, they're they're skinny and fast, usually follows along with skinny, right? Yeah, and they could just catch and kind of throw it into the green tops and the ball gets caught in there and they fall in. I love it. That's great, babe. I went with a celery, same thing. Tall, crisp stalks, great stride length, explosive first step for me. I don't know, you know. Sometimes you just kind of think something, and you know, I figured it's celery stick. Maybe I put some peanut butter in there and the ball sticks to it like peanut butters and raisins or something. Who knows? Yeah, right. You need a new ball after it's it's brown already, right? So the ball would just stay brown. Alright, so why don't you go ahead and tell us uh what your center is?
SPEAKER_00My center I have as cabbage because like cabbage patch and all that. And I feel like another one is like they have like all that leafy kind of stuff on their head.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_00So it'd be hard like not to miss it, and the defense would be wondering how to cover it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I get it. Kind of like the cabbage patch keeps the the crew together tight, you know, like a cabbage is wound pretty tight. Uh another great one, babe. I went with corn, tall stalks of corn, kernels are packed tight, wind jump balls, block effectively. I I don't know. Again, you know, we're just having silly fun here. And yeah, right, you commit to something and who knows. So, all right. Well, we're gonna head down to Girl Dad Arena here and um see how this plays out. So stay tuned. We're really excited to bring you the matchup. Thanks. And welcome everybody to week two here at Girl Dad Arena. This week we have the Veggie Bowl. It's a five-on-five hypothetical game here between vegetables. It's Team Al, helmed by Coach Eric, whose head is still spinning from last week's tough loss versus Team Axolotta, who's still smiling as always from last week's big victory. Spinach leads the charge for Team Al while Broccoli tries to stalk the victory for Team Axolado. Five players each, flags flying, produce colliding like a spillin' aisle one at your grocery store. Let's get this thing crispin. Captains meet at midfield. Team Axolada calls tails as always, and turns out Tails does fail sometimes. What? Axolado automizes its tail, shrugs her shoulder, and retreats to the sideline with her patented grin spinning ear to ear says, We're still okay. First half, Team Al starts with the ball. Korn, those tall stalks, and Pat Colonel snaps it cleanly to Spinach. Spinach takes the snap, fakes to Jalapeno, and zips a short pass to potato on a slant. That sturdy spud lowers his shoulder, anchors the middle like an unbreakable root, drags cucumber and carrot an extra seven yards before they yank his flag for a gain of 24. First down at midfield. Next play, Jalapeno Pepper gets the handoff on a sweep. He's hot. He's fiery. Sudden burst of speed off the line leaves Onion grasping at air. Jalapeno bursts past Broccoli on the edge for a 15-yard scamper. First down behind him, and now it's second and 10 at the 20. Come on, defense. Next play, Jalapeno Pepper gets the handoff on the sweep. He's fiery. He's hot. Sudden burst of speed off the line leaves Onion grasping it air. Jalapeno burns past Broccoli on the edge and powers forward. Even as Carrot tugs his flag from behind. It's a 15-yard scamper. First down. Owls at the 20. Spinach drops back. Celery explodes off the line with those crisp gazelle-like strides. Spinach launches a high arching bomb. Celery stretches those long stalks. Hauls it into the five and dies for the pylon. Touchdown. Mighty owls. The owls go for one. Spinach rolls to his right and hits Potato on a quick out. 7-0. Owls. Team Oxalotl's first possession with Broccoli under center. Cabbage snaps it. It's a screen pass to Carrot. Carrot stretches those long orange legs, but Potato is a brick wall. The solid spud sheds Cabbage's block and yanks Carrot's flag for a four-yard loss. It's second and long now. Broccoli drops back, hits cucumber on a hitch route for 11 yards. Cucumber's cool and slick. Moves keep him slippery as she makes the catch. It's third down now. Onion takes a pitch and tries to juke it to Jalapeno. Onion layers on the tiers and moves, but Jalapeno comes up spicy, strips the flag clean, loss of six. Team Oxalado decides the punt.
SPEAKER_00My tongue.
SPEAKER_02The score after each possession. 7-0. Ow. It's the Owl's second drive, and Spinach is looking particularly Popeye strong today. He powers through a blitz from Cabbage, spins like a whirlwind, and finds celery on a crossing route for 18 yards. It's second and short. Jalapeno takes a handoff, bursts through traffic, leaves Axolotl's defenders burning behind him for another first down. Jalapeno is literally almost on fire. Steps up, fires the potato on a drag route. Potato bulldozes through three defenders. Eyes locked on the prize and powers into the end zone. Dragging Onion with him. Touchdown owls. They go for one and they succeed. 14-0. Mighty owls with four minutes left in the first half. Team Axolotl takes possession for the second time. And Broccoli shows its big brain in vision. Scrambling away from Spinach's pressure. She lost a deep ball to Carrot on a go-root. Carrot stride. Length eats up grass. 38-yard gain. Axolottles are in business. On the next play, Cucumber runs a perfect post. Broccoli delivers a strike right on the numbers. Touchdown. Axolottos. The Axolottles decide to go for one. Broccoli throws it to Cabbage on a quick scene. Cabbage wins the jump ball with height. 14-7 as the clock expires. We go into halftime. We begin the second half with team Axolato taking the ball. Broccoli fakes the onion and hits Cucumber on a slant for 22 yards. Cucumber nods over to Coach Axolato on the sideline, exuding its coolness under pressure. It's second and short. Onion gets the rock on a counter. She sheds a block from corn and jukes jalapeno not once but twice, scorching the earth where jalapeno was. But here comes Potato, anchoring the gap like a rock in the soil and pulls the flag at the line. No gain. Third and long. Broccoli scrambles. Sees Carrot open deep. Carrot hauls in a 29-yard bomb and gets dragged down by Celery. First and goal for T Maxolato. Broccoli steps back, looks, throws at the cucumber in the corner. Corn leaps up with those high corn stalks, bats it down. Incomplete. After the second down incompletion, Broccoli takes a slant. Drops back. Broccoli looks, but Jalapeno bursts in like a chili pepper on fire and sacks him for a seven-yard loss. Turnover on down. Als ball. Team Al takes over, looking to close it out. Spinach does just that. He marches them down the field. Celery runs a perfect out and up. Explosive first step. Leaves Carrot in the dust and Spinach hits him with a 47-yard dot. Next play, just short of the goal line. Jalapeno goes in motion. Brushes past Korn, igniting his unpopped kernels to plate, causing a massive distraction in a scene similar to your local movie theater. Korn powers forward as team. Axolotl is completely distracted. The wise old Al pulls one off. We throw a touchdown. Touchdown, Al's extra point is good. On Spinach tosses a potato in the back corner of the end zone. 21-7 owl. Axolato's team looks on in desperation. Broccoli goes no huddle. She connects with Cucumber for three straight completions of 9, 12, and 15 yards, moving the chains with precision. It's a handoff to Onion. She sheds her skin, leaving everyone in tears after an eight-yard run. But Potato steps up and pulls the flag like he's done all game. Next play, Broccoli drops back, fires it to Carrot on a deep out, but Celery closes like a cheetah and nearly picks it. Third down and goal. Broccoli launches one to Cabbage, just short of the end zone. Cabbage wins the jump ball, but Spinach flies in and defends the pass like Pluto was trying to talk to Olive Oil. He uses his strength and yanks the flag just as the ball is secured. Turnover Al's take over on the one-yard line. Coach Al wisely asks the ref for time left and tells Spinach be smart with the ball here. Spinach abides. Spinach hands it to Jalapeno for a spicy 12-yard burst to run the clock. One final play. Spinach rolls out. Spotched Potato wide open on a wheel route. That's sturdy potato catches it, lowers the shoulder, and powers through Broccoli and Onion for the game ceiling. Touchdown. 28-7 Mighty Als as the clock expires. Final score, team Al 28, Team Axelato. They even up the series at 1-1. Both teams meet at midfield and shake hands. We go down to the field for a post-game wrap-up, and what a leafy battle that was. Spinach was pure sailor power all game, compact, unbreakable in clutch. Jalapeno brought the heat with those fiery bursts and left defenders burning. Potato was the ultimate anchor, creating lanes, refusing to budge. Get it? Bud like potato bud. Lame dad joke. Celery's gazelle speed was unguardable on the deep balls, and Corn dominated the middle with heightened blocks. For the Axolotl's crew, Broccoli had moments of brilliance and vision. Carrot stretched the field with big plays. Cucumber stayed cool and slippery, and onion brought the toughness and the crowd, the tears as well as the players. Cabbage owned the line of scrimmage, but the mighty owls were just too fresh and powerful today. We go down to the field for an interview with the MVP. Do you have any thoughts, MVP?
SPEAKER_00I am what I am, and today I am a champion.
SPEAKER_02And that's it from Girl Dad Flag Arena. Stay tuned next week for week three's rematch is the one in one Coach Al and Coach Axelato Square off again. Thanks for everyone listening today and see you next time at Girl Dad Flag Arena.