It is important to get individual coaching and instructions to your players pertinent to the positions they are playing. It is a waste of time to have your offensive lineman run pass patterns, or having your defensive lineman run through defensive back drills. During stations you can focus on specific drills and develop the skills they need to succeed at their position.
I believe in every sport, at every level you need to break part of each practice into stations. Stations are broken down into specific positions so that drills and skills appropriate for the group are used. This also gives your assisstant coaches a chance to work with the players on a more personal level.
In youth football practice, I break down into two or three stations on offense and three stations on defense. On offense we break into
- Linemen
- Backfield
- Receivers (only if I have the coaches for this)
If I do not have enough coaches, I will bring the receivers with the backfield group. If there are no specific plays, for the receivers, I will alternate them into the line group. It is better to have the receivers working in their own groups to not only get better at running patterns but also so they can improve their down field blocking.
On defense, I like to use three groups that are
- Defensive Line
- Linebackers
- Secondary
Once again, if I am short on coaches I will combine the defensive line and linebackers.
I want to let my coaches coach the kids. This is also a great help on game day as each coach is watching his position, and the players know whom to see with questions
