Youth Football Coaching Tips

A friend of mine was just "volunteered" to coach his son's youth football team - he came to me for advice. This was way cool for me - because I'm a GIRL! But wait - he's a smart man. He knows that I grew up around football my entire life. My dad coached middle school and high school football for 20+ years and my brother is a high school coach now and I would probably be coaching with him now if we still lived in the same town. So back to my friend, he got chosen to coach his son's 4th-5th grade team and he is totally clueless on how to coach and what to coach.

So I started to explain how to develop a youth football practice plan using the three P's of coaching youth football: practices, players and parents.

• Practices need to be efficient and fun for the kids - keep 'em moving.
• Players need to be motivated and engaged during practice and games.
• Parents need to be on board with your coaching philosophy and be respectful of your directions to the players and your time - you are volunteering after all.

I told him having a football practice plan, you will keep him sane will during the next 8-10 weeks of football season and lower player/parent headaches too. There are lots of resources available online - I directed him to FootballTools for more resources because of the great football coaching videos and football coaching software. I also told him that I would be glad to come and help him out on the field - I just hope I don't make all those boys cry!

Youth Football Speed Drills: Sprinting Exercises

Increase your teams overall quickness and dominate the competition for the first snap of the game. Using a few simple drills, you can achieve this at the beginning of the season. Players must want to work hard to improve their speed. Coaches must pair them up. Don't allow the kids to move around in line so they run against slower kids or their buddies. Pair them up at the beginning of practice and make sure that you rotate them around with equally skilled kids during the week.

Using these sprinting drills, there is no need to buy expensive equipment. Using a few things from home can save a ton of money and create some super fast players!

• Pack on the pounds: fill backpacks with small sand bags a third or half full and fill the rest of the empty space with a towel to keep it from bouncing around - don't weight them down too much, just a couple of extra pounds is all they need.
  
• Get an old tire, tie a rope around it about 7 feet long and fasten to your players with a belt and have them run with the tire behind them flat on the ground (longer grass works better).
  
• Pair up players of equal size and have them stand face-to-face. One player is running the other is pushing on their shoulders for resistance and moving backwards.

Please note: These simple drills are meant to be done in short running bursts of less than 30 yards at a time with a short rest period in between.