Here at footballplaybooks.info we receive quite a few email questions regarding youth-football-to-win/”title=”Coaching” >coaching youth football. We are going to start posting the questions here and our responses for all of our readers to enjoy and learn form. Below is the question we received.
We are toying with the idea of zone blocking, and I know enough to be dangerous. My job is coaching the line.
I like the idea of double-teaming on the playside. How do we teach the kids to know who slides off to get the backer? What happens on the back side of the play? Is the center left to fend for himself in the case of a 5-3 and a nose man?
Should I bag this and go back to a man blocking scheme?
Our answer is 100% to implement zone blocking. Man blocking is important and needs to be taught properly to the kids, but zone blocking gives you better angles and sets up double team blocks automatically. The other advantage to zone blocking is you can teach your lineman to start with a double team block and have one of the lineman peel off to get a closing defender, usually a linebacker.
If you decide to use zone blocking make sure you have the offensive coordinator and running backs coach on board. The running backs coach will need to teach the backs how to run when the offensive line is zone blocking. There will be many more opportunities for cut back runs so if you teach the backs the proper running style, you can expect some large runs.
This is a common question frequently asked when a group of coaches get together for a social gathering. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about experienced coaches or rookies, everyone wants to know what every one’s favorite play is in youth football.
My answer is always the same, and it is not one particular play, but a type of play. My favorite type of play is a counter. It doesn’t matter if you have 5 year-old or 14 year-olds it is extremely hard to get young players to “stay home” and play responsible team defense. Everyone wants to pursue the ball carrier and swarm to the ball. When I am scouting an opponent’s defense and I see linebacker that does not respect counters, I know my team will have a big afternoon.
Speaking of scouting, one of the basic questions you need to answer regarding your opponent is what their favorite play is. If you log in each play during the game, you can enter it into your computer and find out what plays your opponent runs the most. It is also smart to see how effective his plays are. Many youth coaches fall in love with their playbook and try to run every play they have.
I have coached in games where my opponent is getting 7-8 yards per carry running off tackle against us and then this mental midget starts throwing the ball. Many times this happens when the opposing coaches kid is the quarterback or receiver. Make sure you check the roster of your opponent and see where dad’s kid is playing.
Running a pitch drill for youth football can be time consuming. Teaching youth football players at any level how to properly pitch the ball takes many repetitions and must be mastered in practice if you want to run any pitch plays in a game. My general philosophy stays pretty much the same, the younger the players, the less risk I want to take. I do not feel comfortable running any pitch plays with first year tackle players as they will fumble allot.
Always make sure you get plenty of repetitions for any player that will be pitching the ball as well as for the players who will be catching the pitch. The player catching the pitch has the most important job, especially if it is a bad pitch.
Blocking, Drills, Youth Football | admin March 31, 2010 | 
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