Coaching youth football is all about preparation and organization. I think it is very important to have a consistent schedule for the practice. The days and time should remain the same. The parents can then plan around your schedule. Make sure you know the administration’s rules as far as how many hours and days per…
Tag Archive: Practice
Should I Use Group or Individual Punishments?
There is a player who is distracting and distributing your entire squad. You need to take action, but your question is should you punish this player individually or the team as a whole.
This is one of the biggest areas of debate and disagreement among coaches. The question is whom to punish when one player acts…
Should I Do Any Conditioning at the End of Practice?
I believe in having the team do some kind of end of the practice conditioning, but not for the reason you may think. I do not believe in getting the players “into shape”. These are young kids and they are either in shape, or not in shape. There is not enough time during a three-month…
What is my Daily Routine for Special Teams Practice?
I am a believer that if you ignore special teams they will bite you in the “you know what”. In over 20 years of coaching, my teams have NEVER returned a kickoff for a touchdown, until this year. I have also never had one returned against any of my teams.
I will examine the special teams…
How Do I Organize my Special Teams in my Youth Football Practice?
Every practice I run stations, which help with the individual specific drills needed by positions. I also make sure that I run a lot of full teamwork during each youth football practice. Once the season starts I have a regular routine to make sure all of my special teams get the appropriate amount of repetitions…
What Special Work Can I do in my Stations During Youth football Practice?
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…
Should I Run Team Drills During my Youth Football Practice?
Especially early in the year we run a lot of the West Point Drill. This drill is also known as Oklahoma, but I am old school and prefer West Point. Please review the section on the web site and the book that gives the complete details on how to run this drill. I believe it…
Should I Run Agility Drills During my Youth Football Practice?
This is a very important part of my daily practice schedule. It is amazing to see the progress made throughout the year.
I will not repeat the drill, so please read the section from the Evaluating players section on the website titled Agility Drills for Youth Football Using the Hands Pad.
I run this drill daily for…
Should I Run Stations Breakdowns During Practice?
Stations are a part of the practice where we break up the team into groups where we can fine tune their skills and work on fundamentals specific to their positions. The minimum amount of stations I use are two, backs and linemen for offense. If I have extra coaches I will put the receivers into…
How much of my youth football practice time should I spend on Special Teams?
Special teams make up at least a third of the game and at the youth level many games are won and lost on special teams. Huge plays and big turn overs plague kick off and kick return, while extra points can make or break a team and punting will determine field position. I have far…
