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Youth Football Coaching Tips – The Basics

by coach Kevin on July 6th, 2010

Coaching football in the NFL isn’t the same as coaching football to young kids.  It is like coaching a different sport, because children are much more different than professional athletes.  That’s why youth football coaches need to use different methods in order to coach successfully.  Children will react much differently as well, and knowing how they act differently will help any coach have more success coaching a youth football team.  This article will provide three helpful youth football coaching tips to those youth football coaches in need of a few pointers.

There are many great youth football coaching tips that can help any youth football coach, but one of the most important tips is to not criticize the young athletes.  Children aren’t as physically developed as adults, and sometimes adult coaches can forget about this.  Coaches will wonder why kids can’t do certain things, and the answer is usually because the child has not developed.  To correct what a child is doing wrong a youth football coach needs to coach with discipline, but a youth football coach should never criticize the young players.  This could cause a child to have low self-esteem, and it could also make a child not want to play football anymore!

Another one of the best youth football coaching tips that any coach should take to heart is to not overdo the conditioning part of practice.  Conditioning is a part of football, but young players will not want to keep running laps to condition.  Instead, fun drills should be added in place of conditioning that will still condition the young players without them even realizing it.  This will make the children like practice more, and they will want to keep on playing.

One of the biggest mistakes that youth football coaches make is they don’t make sure that the young players on the team understand all the rules.  Any football coach has probably been around the game for awhile, and they don’t realize that these young kids haven’t.  This means that the young players probably don’t know all of the rules, and that could lead to a big mess during a game.  So, the young players need to know all the rules, and it’s the responsibility of the coach to make sure that they know those rules.

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Youth football drills while waiting for your turn

by coach Kevin on August 11th, 2010

Do your kids stand around when everyone else is participating in different things around practice? to get the most out of the kids time and to be the most efficient team, I have instilled that our subs for various special teams be doing something with a coaches view. Particularly, I like to see that kids who are not in the drills practice solely on stands and starts of their individual position, whether it be a four point stand, three point or even two point.

Steve from http://lakemaryfootball.com/football-videos/youth-football-practice-stance-and-starts shows a great video on warming up and being very efficient.

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How does 7 on 7 effect youth football plays?

by coach Kevin on August 3rd, 2010

During the summer, you know that football is around the corner when schools start playing in  7 on 7 drills against other teams. THis is truly the start to getting A feel and understanding where your teams skill positions are and where they are headed. It has become customary that if you are going to compete you must be practicing as hard on all of your plays even without your coveted linemen. Even though teams are competing they are still trying to get better at the most important aspects of  what makes up a team. 

Michael Cooper writes http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/springfield-oh-sports/high-school-sports/springfield-kenton-ridge/inside-the-huddle-the-wait-is-almost-over-for-kr-football-839160.html of a school who is trying to compete but with limited 7 on 7 scrimmage and in the mean time run the towns youth football camp after practice.

7 on7 may not be at the youth level yet, but with the proper coaching and timing of these scrimmages, teams can greatly improve

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Weight issues causing a stir…

by coach Kevin on July 30th, 2010

As any coach of youth football knows, There are some serious concerns every year about the proper class a certain athelete should play in. Should they play up or should they cut weight. Other concerns also come from parents about adjusting the weight either up or down. I have to tell you that I coach in a league where we have stripers that are larger than 100lbs and the peewee level and 140lbs at the varsity level. Stripers can not carry the ball or even stand up for that matter, but does the safety come into play with size of some of these atheletes at these age group.

A recent article at http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/index.php/2008/12/12/debate-on-weight-limits-in-youth-tackle-football// stated “My main point was that the existing scientific evidence in a Mayo Clinic study indicates that age groupings and NOT weight groupings are the primary indicator of injury levels. Furthermore, “weighted” classes may actually result in increased risk levels for younger / heavier players moving up and for players trying to cut weight.”

At any level safety is a HUGE issue. PLease make sure you take that into effect when you ask a kid to play up or cut his weight.ootball knows, There are some serious concerns every year about the proper class a certain athelete should play in. Should they play up or should they cut weight. Other concerns also come from parents about adjusting the weight either up or down. I have to tell you that I coach in a league where we have stripers that are larger than 100lbs and the peewee level and 140lbs at the varsity level. Stripers can not carry the ball or even stand up for that matter, but does the safety come into play with size of some of these atheletes at these age group.

A recent article at http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/index.php/2008/12/12/debate-on-weight-limits-in-youth-tackle-football// stated “My main point was that the existing scientific evidence in a Mayo Clinic study indicates that age groupings and NOT weight groupings are the primary indicator of injury levels. Furthermore, “weighted” classes may actually result in increased risk levels for younger / heavier players moving up and for players trying to cut weight.”

At any level safety is a HUGE issue. PLease make sure you take that into effect when you ask a kid to play up or cut his weight.

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Are you a fan of Wall blocking

by coach Kevin on July 23rd, 2010

In certain occassions when playing a game in youth football you come across a team that is substantially better or bigger. How you handle these are always a sign of what kind of coach you are and in what direction you are taking your team. In one instance I coached a team that was much better prepared , completely more athletic, and a far superior team and when the other came out to  play they went to a Wall Block Technique with extremely tight splits to compensate for the speed and quickness and strength of our ball club. Initially, this plan worked and they kept us off the field and we had a hard time defending this.

I recently read an article @ http://flagfootballplayers.com/flag-football-drills/what-is-wall-blocking-in-youth-football/ “This blocking has been the one staple in my over twenty years of coaching pee wee football.”

Even though this may be an effective way to block on a flag football field I do believe if properly coached and disciplined teams will eventually break through the wall? What do you think?

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Youth football plays should coordinate with age.

by coach Kevin on July 14th, 2010

IS your playbook from a varsity program? Is it from the latest Nintendo game? I have seen far too often that once a coach gets a chance to call a trick play he usually uses from an imaginary playbook that the kids have not even practiced enough. Trick plays are a great way of catching other teams off guards but how often will they work. Just because another team at another level may use them it doesn’t mean that it will work consistency.

Trevor Sumner http://sportsshout.com/coaching-youth-football/hit it on the head when he wrote ” There are no shortcuts when coaching youth football. Hard work, discipline, determination, in addition to coaching football fundamentals is what produces winning football teams and successful youth football players.”

NO matter what youth football plays you call there is no question that your kids need to be prepared, work hard and continue to push themselves to get better.

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Consistency is the key to youth football plays

by coach Kevin on July 12th, 2010

How do you go from an average team to a team that is leading the conference? Everyone who has ever coached anything knows that consistency in energy and effort will automatically give you an edge on your competition, Then add in the actuall play that you are running and put max concentration on the littlest things and you will slowly dominate the youth football game. ONe reminder is that the single most important factor in youth football plays is that you consider safety.

Steve Silverman of http://www.livestrong.com/article/170859-typical-pee-wee-football-practice/ agrees “The single-most important factor in pee wee or youth football is the safety of the players.”

You as a coach are the primary caretaker of all these kids and you know as well as I there are many diffferent levels of kids talents when it comes to youth football players.

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What is your go to Youth football plays?

by coach Kevin on July 9th, 2010

Every coach has been put in a situation where they have to call a play that is going to get them 3 or4 yards to keep that drive going or that will give your team more opportunities to be successful. What is your play? I’ll tell you that mine has always been a lead or inside trap . Some terminology may call this a blast or a counter, but whatever you call it you know that the percentage of success is there from your previous calls.

Here are a few of John T. Reeds. ” Blast/iso, Pitch Sweep, Fill Sweep, Halfback Pack, Slant Pass, Counter/Misdirection and fake reverse.”

As you can see that they are limited and your most successful plays?

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Special teams

by coach Kevin on July 7th, 2010

Do you believe that special teams is an important part of youth football? It is common practice that some teams don’t even practice them because of the posiibilities that something might go wrong. I thought we were in this business to teach the good and the bad of any youth football play. However, Coach parker concluded

“Based on our Punt stats from our last season, not punting might be a good option for us.  We only netted about 10 yards from our punt team.  Our net yards per play were 5+ for the regular season.  I sent the Punting article to my other coaches, and they agree.  Not punting is a legitimate strategy for our team. “

I guess if you are a consistant powerhouse this may be a good idea, otherwise teaching your kids the process to punt may help them in the long run.

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Youth football plays started with the Innovative Don Coryell

by coach Kevin on July 2nd, 2010

As a coach you design plays that will give your players the best chance to compete. When Don Coryell came along, he believed the best way to do that was to open the field and throw the ball. His passing attacks gave defenses hell. Here is a great article:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-obit-coryell

San Diego Chargers announced the passing of Coach Coryell.

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