What to Do in Your Second Youth Football Practice of the Season

Second Practice Report

Our 2nd football game pattern consisted of us again using our clip to measure players, learn a few basic skills, while also trying to do certain we had some merriment where it made sense. We are still without pads of paper and the pattern clip is 2 hours. It was in the low 90s with about 80% humidity, so it is pretty hot.

Second Practice Report

We were able to cut our Moral Force Warmups and Angle Form Tackling down to about 12 minutes, we will acquire it down to about 10 proceedings by adjacent hebdomads end. The short coaching job clinic for our managers really helped, as most of them have got a pretty good feel for the electric drills we are using. Still having a job keeping the gait up fast enough. At the gait I manager at, I can make 2-3 modern times the figure of reps that the other managers are getting in during a drill. We have got to better that, but it looks to go on every year, and acquires ironed out in hebdomads 2 and 3.

The managers also necessitate to make a better occupation of holding the children answerable to flawlessness on the coaching job points the children can control. I'm calm rotating from station to station to run each for a few proceedings so the managers understand the right gait and flawlessness we need. Like many coaches, some have got come up from a "practice do perfect" mentality, when it's really "Perfect Practice Makes Perfect" that develops good young person football game teams.

After our kinetics and angle word form tackling, we put up the followers stations:

Spatter Blocking (to landing mat): To learn proper blocking technique, acceleration through contact as well as to assist us measure aggressiveness.

Catch Progression Drill- We didn't acquire as far on that as we wanted in Practice 1, so we worked on the handoff part and "squeeze run" on this repetition.

First Two Steps Blocking Drill- Primarily an Offense Line Drill, this helped melody our children into how our alkali blocking stairway work. Also used as an rating tool to find hearing accomplishments and adeptness for the offense linemen.

Three Slot Challenge Fit and Freeze Tackling Drill- Just like our regular 3 slot challenge tackling electric drill but the smuggler and tackler tantrum at the contact point. Used to measure lateral pass adeptness and aggressiveness as well as instruction the tacklers to assail to the Line of Scrimmage when tackling.

Rabbit Pursuit Races- To conceal some conditioning, have got some merriment and assist us find the relative velocity of our participants for place placement.

We then ran everyone through the Gauntlet Drill to assist us understand the bosom and stamina of those we are looking at for the assorted running play back positions. Of course of study we desire our pulling linemen to execute well in this electric drill as well. I was disappointed that respective participants I was looking at for the fullback and blocking back places did not run with much authorization in the little squad group. We don't have got got a single descent campaigner for the blocking back place and with very low Numbers on this squad ( 17) not much to take from with just 3 that have played football game before..

The 1 participant that looked like a good campaigner for blocking back will not speed up through contact even after tons of landing mat electric drills and encouragement. The old "looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane" nickname may use to this player, something we often see in young person football. This expressions like a very hard challenge for the little grouping this year, very thin on numbers, bosom and experience.

The aged squad is the opposite, but with low Numbers and by far the least squad in the conference and just 19 children presents challenges as well. We usually transport 24 players, unfortunately with our success here over the last 3 old age and only losing one game in that clip period, many must experience they have got to be a descent participant to play for us and don't trouble oneself to subscribe up. That certainly isn't the case, if anyone would come up see us play they would see plentifulness of weaker children on the squad and getting playing time. While for our little team, not certain why the less numbers, this is the first clip 3rd -4th graders are separate and we have got tons of very little and weak participants on this squad. The association football game ma Nazis are having some of the children playing flag football at the little ages. We even had a 130 lb child in the 5th class that signed up that we were informed will be playing flag football game this fall, what a waste.

After the metal glove drill, we reviewed the offense, alkali formation, splits, alliance and the flawlessness that we necessitate on alliance and stances. We set an discourtesy on the field sitting down in their positions. We reviewed and taught the numbering system per the book to the full group. This included tons of testing for each section with the participants affecting the caput of the ball bearer designated for the each play, then touching the land of where the ball bearer would run the ball. As with everything we do, we taught and tested for it in a progression. Our veterinarians were perfect with it and about 80% of the new children grasped onto it pretty well.

They little children got to see our veterinarians quickly run through the Sainted Six football game plays of our offense. We were not expecting the new participants to cognize what they were to make just yet, as we have got yet to find positions. I just wanted to give them a 5 minute glance of what the discourtesy and Base Series would look like in 2 hebdomads with some focused football game practices.

We wrapped things up with the Slam Dunk game as elaborate in the book. We did it with manus shields rather than tackling and set our better participants on the shields as "defenders". This game assists to learn leverage, staying low and changeless ft movement. It also assists us managers measure lateral pass quickness, heart, desire and find which participants have got antipathy to or a love for contact. We had respective pleasant surprises on this electric drill and a large letdown or two as well. One of our very little 2nd twelvemonth participants on the aged squad that have first-class speed, looks to be maturing and have gotten more than aggressive. You often see that with 2nd twelvemonth kids, they look to do the greatest additions from twelvemonth 1 to twelvemonth 2. That's why squads chocked full of first twelvemonth participants like our little team, often fight quite a bit.

We have got a pretty good feel for where all the pieces suit together, with a short ton of holes on the little team. My District of Columbia for the aged squad e-mailed Maine this morning time with his depth chart of who would play where and the children are right where I would have got set them with the exclusion of one backup. He have been studying the book and I was existent happy we independently came to nearly the exact same decisions on participant placement. Of course of study the games and evals we do make it very clear who should play what based on the elaborate place demands written in the book.

We handed out equipment at the end of football game game pattern and we will travel 3 years per hebdomad for 2 hours each adjacent hebdomad in full pads.

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Allocating Playing Time in Youth Football

Allocating Playing Time in Young Person Football, The Young Person Football Coaching Nightmare:

This is often a topic many young person football game managers battle with. The caput manager is either a win-at-all-costs manager who cares small about getting all the children in the game or he's a cat that allows the association football ma Nazi parents pressure level him into playing all the children the same amount.

I don't believe either attack is right. This is young person football, if a participant come ups to practice, pays attending and do his best, he should acquire some playing clip in every game regardless of what the mark is. However playing all the children the same amount, makes no sense to me either. If Tommy come ups to all the practices, pays attending to the managers and seeks his best, and Joey loses practice, is inattentive and rarely seeks very hard, the two should not play the same amount of time. What message make you direct to Tommy?: That excelling is not rewarded. What message makes Joey get?: That slacking off have zero consequences. In this example, neither participant is beingness done any favors, they are both being put up to neglect in life, thanks to the association football game ma Nazis.

I've coached in young person football conferences that had minimal drama regulations and those that didn't. The lower limit drama regulation is set to necessitate managers to play children a certain amount in every game. As a young person football game manager I have got always had a lower limit drama standard, whether there was a regulation or not. I'm a house truster in getting children into the game regardless of their ability. Now we are going to drama to win, as I have got both an discourtesy and defence that tin suit the lower limit play participant and not significantly impact the strategy in a negative way. But the weaker children are going to acquire in and I strategically sub from the gap gun.

The manner we turn to this with the parents and participants is through a compulsory parents meeting the first twenty-four hours of practice. We allow the parents cognize that each participant will play Ten plays per hebdomad if they go to practice, listen to the managers and bunco in football game practice. But we also emphasize that just like in life, we will honor those that are paying better attention, playing harder and excelling, by playing them more than than those that make not. We also emphasize former old age statistics that show we play our children more than any other young person football game squad in our conference and that we distribute the scoring around quite a spot as well. We also emphasize the playing clip will change based on the game, and the participants attempt for the hebdomad and some hebdomads they will play more than than others. But everyone cognizes they will always acquire the lower limit criterion we set, regardless of the mark and that our best participants will start.

I allow the parents cognize this policy is not negotiable and if they experience uncomfortable with it that there is nil incorrect with that, but maybe we aren't the right "fit" for their child. I always have got pieces of paper in my pocket with the name calling and telephone Numbers of competing young person football game programmes in my pocket. I allow the parents cognize if they are looking for better "fit" options, to come up and acquire the telephone Numbers of other programmes from me before football game game pattern starts.

Coaching young person football well intends setting proper outlooks with your coaches, parents and players. Don't be ambiguous, don't surprise anyone hebdomad three of your season with your playing clip policy. Let the parents cognize how it will be twenty-four hours one. That manner the parents have got no legs to stand up on if they make up one's mind to stay. It will do your life sol much EASIER getting it out of the manner right in this manner right off the bat. It's kind of like taking that band-aid off in one speedy swipe. It's always much less painful doing it that way.

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Evaluating Speed In Youth Football

Youth football game managers necessitate to understand the relative velocity their participants have got in relation to one another to assist find positions. The ability for a participant to command their body, alteration direction, strength and desire are also just as of import factors in determining appropriate positions. Linear velocity is not as of import as most managers think, but is still something that makes drama a portion in determining positions.

Most young person football game managers find velocity by timing participants in 40 pace dashes. That may not be the most accurate measuring of speed, as most football game game plays at the young person degree anyways rarely travel for 40 paces or more.

Most young person football participants tyre of standing in line for a 40 pace elan that may or may not be timed correctly. There are much better ways to find velocity than 40 pace dashes.

The manner I find velocity is through the Deer Hunter and Rabbit Pursuit games elaborate in my book in Chapter 4. They are much more than merriment than timed 40's and also measurement other accomplishment constituents other than additive speed. We also on a rare juncture will make some competitory races using grouping motions to not only see how our children charge per unit compared to one another, but to acquire some conditioning in.

When doing this drill, we only run 25 paces or so, as mentioned above 40 pace football game plays don't go on very often and for immature children the 40 may have got an endurance factor to it. We also like children to vie and tally against each other in a group. We happen many participants will run significantly faster when competing rather than just running against the clock. We also happen those timing 40 pace elans are not always very accurate in using the watch, not to advert having to enter a clump of modern times and having children wait in line to acquire timed.

To make our grouping motion races, we split the children into 4 groupings of similar velocity based on a best guess. Let's presume you have got 24 players, that would be 4 groupings of 6 players. Groups are 1,2,3,4 with the 4 beingness your fastest group. The participants race, the fastest 2 from each grouping travel to the adjacent peak figure grouping and the slowest 2 spell to the adjacent less figure group. The 2 in the center stay there. Once the center groupings thin to a smattering of participants just travel 1 participant up or down based on the top or underside finisher. In the end you will have got got your fastest children in grouping 4 and your slowest in grouping 1 and some in the middle.

Coaches just have to maintain and oculus on the 2 victors and 2 also-rans each clip to travel them to new groups. I like to cognize where the children suit in relation to each other as well as who my fastest and slowest participants are. This method have been very helpful in determining that without having to fall back to timed 40s.

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Practice Does Not Make Perfect in Youth Football, More Effective Practice Methods

While there are many great young person football game managers out there, I see some very mediocre 1s as well. The mediocre 1s make not throw the participants answerable to a perfect criterion in football game game pattern on something as basic as a football stance or formation alignment, yet they look to be frustrated and astonied when their children are in mediocre stances or alliances during games.

The old proverb "Practice Makes Perfect" is baloney; you can drill the incorrect technique or with no technique 6 years a hebdomad 3 hours a twenty-four hours and never acquire any better. The right proverb should be; "Perfect Practice Makes Perfect". This is one of the facts revealed in the 2 twelvemonth survey I did of young person football game programs, there WAS NO correlation TO amount OF practice time AND WINS. Some of the worst squads I studied practiced more than than the great squads I studied. Why? Practice Priorities, Technique and Retention the children responsible to a perfect standard.

Some things EVERY young person football game game participant should be held answerable to:

Listening with complete focusing when asked to do so

Attending pattern and games

Hustling when on the field at all times

Respect for themselves, the coaches, their squad mates, functionaries and opponents

Proper attention of football equipment issued

Good sportsmanship

Obedience to the managers on field requests

Perfective Stance

Perfective Pre-Snap Alignment

Correct designation of duties on all discourtesy and defensive snarls for their peculiar position

Correct first measure for their place on all offense and defensive snaps

Perfective Crab Block

Perfective tantrum on word form tackle

Perfective tantrum on alkali block

Ball Fakes must be carried out 20 paces downfield

Correct ball security (Fumbling is all right as long as they are holding the ball correctly)

Cognition of what particular teams, offense and defensive squads they are on

Knowing the drama naming conventions

It is extremely of import to make certain this answerability is communicated and enforced twenty-four hours 1. If you seek and implement a perfect criterion once a less criterion have got been allowed (which is an blurb of the less criterion in the children minds), the conflict will have already been lost. Young Person football game participants and people for that substance will only execute to the degree you anticipate or throw them answerable to. If you have got low or no standards, low public presentation is the consequence you will acquire every time.

An example: One of my pet peeves is the running play back stance in my offense, it is very specific and very easy for anyone to do. It is a cardinal ground why my discourtesy plant and is so delusory and there are just a smattering of coaching job points to it. Yet every twelvemonth I acquire movie of squads with children not getting down correctly into that stance.

In my ain practices, if we see our dorsums not in the right stance we just have got him travel to the end of the line, he makes not acquire the ball on that pattern rep. If we are running our football game plays out on air and I catch one of our dorsums not in the right stance, I name his name out, state "Bad stance" and cry the name of another dorsum to take his topographic point in the rep. We never snap the ball if any of the dorsums are in a bad stance. In games we may do mistakes, but we will always be in good stances and in perfect alignment. You can make the same if you throw your participants accountable.

Hold participants answerable to things they can take to make or take not to do. Then praise and wages positive picks and supply them inducements or deterrences to do the right choices. Perfection for many if not most coaching job points are picks that necessitate small to no strenuosity on the portion of your players. Success in young person football game game game is really a pick for most young person football participants and teams.

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The Jet-Fly-Speed Sweep in Youth Football

The velocity expanse football game game plays travel by many names; jet plane sweep, fly expanse and velocity expanse and can be effectual for certain young person football teams.

The velocity expanse affects a wing, slot or flankerback running at full velocity motion, taking a handoff from the signal caller and sweeping the antonym end from where he came in movement from. The drama is extremely effectual at getting that rapid running play back to the border quickly.

There is even an full discourtesy built around this concept, called the "Fly Offense" that is run by a smattering of High Schools. Many High School and even College Football squads integrate the jet plane expanse into their regular offense sets and series. Today many
Wing T, Double Wing, I Formation, One Put and even a few Single Wing squads have got Jet Series plays or add Jet Movement to some of their football game playbooks. Unfortunately most television announcers mistakenly name this drama a contrary or end around, I have got no hint how they acquire that term from a simple movement expanse action. Most Real Number football game game managers cognize this is a Jet, Fly or Speed expanse play.

Once the defence starts flying to the movement to the outside, there are a figure of complemental football plays that tin be very effective: fullback trap, fullback wedge, "G" drama with QB or Fullback, moonshine and shake pass. The cardinal is to have got very tight mesh shams to the fullback during the regular jet plane expanse plays. Some squads tally the fullback first before the movement back, most have got got the fullback run his bogus or take just behind the movement dorsums movement and of course of study have the QB moonshine away from the play. The tighter the mesh between fullback and movement back the more than effectual these football game plays will be. The squads that do this well make this a roar roar play, all three dorsums going in different ways after a split 2nd flimsy of manus mesh. Now making it work like that is another story.

This football game drama can be blocked in a assortment of ways, with most squads going to a "reach" technique with the playside linemen and path blocking on the backside. Many young person football game squads even draw the playside guard and tackle. With the velocity the movement adult male is coming at, they experience they can go forth the playside defensive attitude undertake unblocked and he still can not acquire to the drama if the movement adult male additions a spot of depth at the handoff. Some squads take the movement adult male with a running play back, others countervail a blocking back to that side. Still others at the young person degree may even pin down the end adult male on the line of scrimmage in with a wing or slot and down barricade it with a God rule, Inside Gap, On, Down. However you run it, the drama will not work unless the movement back is running at FULL SPEED. Your movement adult male have to be trained to swear the QB and his landmarks and tally all out.

My only personal experience running the Jet Sweep was with an age 13-14 team, running the Double Wing Offense. This was a "B" degree squad that was very short on talent, size and participants that I got just one hebdomad before their first game (fired full coaching job job staff 1 hebdomad before their first game)and in improver to head coaching an age 8-10 team. We were able to add a rapid participant to our squad in hebdomad 3 of the season, owed to very low Numbers (17). We were looking for a manner to set this speedster in space without throwing the ball, as our QB was very inaccurate. We were able to acquire the handoff to the movement adult male down well with a twenty-four hours or two of pattern by making certain we had our timing and landmarks down, but it took quite a spot of tweaking and reps to acquire down, it is a drama series that necessitates a enormous amount of preciseness and time. Our QB would open up up to the movement side, then black away from the motion.

The difficult portion for us was getting good tight speedy shams to the fullback after the handofff or bogus to the velocity movement back and making a tight mesh. Making that work to a sensible degree and getting the timing down so we could run our fullback traps, Gram plays, fullback wedges, moonshines and wags out of it took at least 2 weeks. Our wedge shape shape never seemed to work very well off this action because it took too long for the fullbacks to acquire into the wedge after the movement back fake. We were able to acquire our velocity back to the outside with this play. Run the jet plane expanse on short yardage states of affairs was where we had the most success.

Since the border is so tight on the Double Wing Discourtesy and the Wing is motioning at full speed, the movement would begin just an blink of an eye before the snap. To do certain we were not called for "offsides for simulating the snap" we had our motioning wing take a very slow intentional driblet measure as the start of his motion. Many uniformed refs believe you have got to be in movement for one 2nd before the snap, that is wrong and probably is confused with the regulation that every participant must be put for one 2nd before the squad can travel in motion. Doing the slow intentional driblet measure seemed to work out all those issues. Since we had only one participant with speed, it limited the amount we could tally this play, as the defence could just put up broad antonym the wing the velocity participant was put to and counter the drama call.

In 2000 Iodine saw an age 8-10 young person football game squad in Council Bluffs, Ioway run the Fly Discourtesy as their alkali with very tight jet plane motion. They were a very well coached young person football game squad with velocity to burn. They were quite good, but the same manager in 2002 was running a different offense, so it may be endowment dependent, like many discourtesies out there.

If you have got the clip and the speed, adding some jet plane movement plays to your discourtesy may be helpful. When I intend velocity I intend you have got two dependable running play dorsums that are both in the 95th percentile for the full league. This is a preciseness based series, not a Ag bullet, so if the executing of your alkali offense football game plays is not very good, this could be a large waste material of time. Coaching Young Person Football well intends you have got got to make up one's mind if you have the endowment and if you desire to take valuable pattern clip to add something like this to your attack. For me it made sense just the 1 season, but I have got not closed the door on doing some more than of it in the future, especially if I had two dependable participants with very good speed.

Playing Up To Improve Your Youth Football Team

Playing "Up" to Improve Your Youth Football Team:

Do you have a "bully" team in your youth football league or a year end playoff?

Playing "Up" an age level or classification in a controlled scrimmage may be what your youth football team needs to gain an edge in these games.In 2002 I had an age 8-10 "B" team that was running the Single Wing Offense for the first time. We had the youngest and smallest team in our division, but slowly and surely we developed into a very dominant team. By mid season surprisingly, we were naming the score in about every game. Our kids got pretty confident as did our parents and coaches. Unfortunately the schedule for our youth football league had us playing the two weakest teams in our last 2 games. In the last game to wrap up a League Title and undefeated season, we had a 5 TD lead at the half.

During the 2 weeks leading up to our last games our football team made little progress. It was evident that based on comparative scores it was going to take a miracle for us not to win the league title. In the football practices leading up to this game, our players were not running out our football plays well, our fakes weren't going 20 yards downfield, our wedge plays weren't as tight as usual, even our warmups and breaks weren't as crisp as normal. The only thing the kids seemed to be fired up about was trophies, the pizza party immediately following our last game and the new trick football plays we put in.

At seasons end, we were able to locate another team of similar abilities to play in an extra "Bowl" game. This other team had played a few of the same teams we had played in the regular season and our comparative scores were about the same. Our kids came into the game very confident and were a bit surprised when our first drive got stopped on the opponent's 6 yard line, as we had scored on every opening drive that season. To make a long story short, we lost 46-6. Our kids never gave up, they played hard, but not crisp or well. In our teams defense, as coaches we had yet to devise the various adjustments we use that are detailed in chapter 13 of the book. But what our youth football team suffered from had little to do with adjustments to a few youth football plays.

Our team needed a challenge, a goal, a close game and adversity. Coaching youth football well means you have to supply some of these on your own, if these things are not being readily supplied by your schedule and the opposition.

In 2003 I coached a different team, a "Select" team that was very talented. Much different than the 2002 team, this group of 9-10 year olds ( 90% 10s) saw us with 5 players over 180 pounds and all but one could move very well. I got to choose from about 150 kids to put together this team. We had it all, size, speed and a good pass/catch combination. This was my most difficult coaching job ever, as many of the kids could get by on natural ability rather than using proper technique. It was a real chore holding them accountable to perfect technique when their own way often yielded positive results. As the season unfolded we were naming the score in every game and just dominating the games. We could have won every league game by 50 points and our first team defense had just 1 TDs scored on it all season. I was not going to let what happened in 2002 happen to this team.

To make sure the problem from 2002 didn't rear its ugly head on this team, I scheduled several controlled scrimmages against age 11-12 youth football teams in mid season to keep our kids focused. Our football team learned that they had to be perfect with their technique and with our schemes in order to compete with these older teams. We even went so far as to schedule extra games verses age 11-12 teams that had byes in an Iowa league across the river from us. At the end of our regular season, we played the league champion of this league under the lights at a big college stadium, the big time. They lead early on us, but we fought back and ended up dominating the game, but won by just 2 touchdowns.

The net result is we continued to improve all season because we knew we had very tough scrimmages and exrtra games schedueld along the way. We knew we had a real tough game at seasons end to look forward to. Rather than just blowing out every similar aged team in our league, the challenge of playing older teams made this team much better. Our kids were on a mission to do what no one but them and us coaches thought they could do. It made them better players and gave them a great sense of accomplishment. As to our regular league rivals, the games against them were a cake walk compared to the games and scrimmages against the 11-12 year old teams we played. We won our league championship game 46-12 after leading 46-0 in the third quarter. We all agreed it was better to play an older tough team and lose than have an undefeated season with few challenges. We really are believers in, even with my rural team of playing anyone, anytime, any place (within reasonable traveling distance).

I would suggest you temper it a bit depending on the makeup of your team. If you decide to scrimmage older teams there may be smaller and weaker kids from your team that might just work on their own during the scrimmage, getting some much needed remedial coaching. If you are a "B" or rookie team, scrimmage up a classification. Another way to get some of this accomplished is to just borrow a dominant player or two from an older team for a portion of your practice. If you have an older "sister" team, borrow a stud player or two and put them on a scout team defensive line, This will give your offensive linemen a test that even if they have modest success, will show them they can compete against much better competition than they will ever face. Be reasonable and sound in determining the level of play your kids can handle and march the kids right up to the edge of that. If you do this and play that "Beast" team, you will have prepared your kids to meet the challenge and that's being a good youth football coach.

In 2005 my rural age 8-10 kids (24 kids, no cuts or selects) played an extra game the second week of the season against a huge and fast inner city "Select" team from Omaha that chose from over 120 kids and had won 3 consecutive league titles in their "Select" league. They had 5 kids over 150 pounds while we had just 1 and from there we may have had maybe one more kid over 100 lbs.

We surprised everyone by winning big, with a 4 touchdown lead at the half. The rest of the season was really a breeze after playing up like that. Our kids had an incredible amount of confidence after that game, beating the "Monsters of the Midway." Even if we had lost that game and played well, I would have expected the same end result. I thought because of our system and tactics we had a chance to win, but competing would have served the same end purpose.

That surprising win really launched our rural program and got us some respect and much needed confidence. Now we have a new problem, we can't get anyone to play us in non-league games. Getting soundly trounced by a bunch of scrawny farm boys with a throwback offense I guess is too much for some guys to handle, go figure.

In 2006 my rural age 8-10 teams suffered the same fate as my 2002 Omaha squad. My 2006 team won big in our league games, scoring 3 touchdowns in the first quarter of 9 games. Unfortunately we had the two worst teams in the division as our last 2 opponents and they didn't give our team much of a game. I had set up a scrimmage against a very big and fast "Select" team from Lincoln in August that we did very well in. I guess we played too well, in fact (4 TDs to none) they ended up not following through with the promised real game we were supposed to have later in the year.

I guess those are problems most youth football teams would like to have, but it makes it difficult just the same. We lost in OT in the playoffs in 2006 to the eventual Super Bowl champs in a well played youth football game with excellent opposing coaches. Playing and scrimmaging better teams may have helped us avoid that loss and in the future we will have to figure out creative ways to artificially create situations were our kids have to compete. Hats off to our opponnent, they played great and deserved the win, but we will try not to make those same mistakes again.
That's what coaching youth football is all about.

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How Many Formations Do Successfull Youth Football Teams Really Have?

Going No-Huddle Like the Pros With Your Youth Football Team

The key is using "wrist coaches" for your players.

Wrist Coaches are must for any team that is running a no- huddle offense. It's too hard and takes too much time away from your football practice to try and memorize a sequence of football plays or hand signals.

The wrist coach is an elastic band that has a clear plastic window in it and a slit to insert a piece of paper. On the piece of paper arrange your football plays by name and number using an 8 font. Laminate the piece of paper because if you don't the ink runs and the paper breaks up, it's a real mess. Do not let the players take the wrist coaches home, they get lost that way, they stay in the equipment bag. Have a wrist band for every player and the coaching staff, they run about $8 each at most sporting goods stores.

We code our football plays from 0 to 9 in columns on the wrist band, One column is in red ink the other in black, so we have room for a total of 20 plays, some football plays can be on the card more than once. We use a voice method to signal the football plays in that correspond to a number and color in the grid. So if we call out "Red 3" it is play #3 in the red column. A simple code would be to give a three number sequence with one "live" number. If you called "red 139" and the second number was "live" the play would be "red 3" which for us would correspond to 16 Power written in the Red column under #3.

It sounds a lot harder than it is, it's actualy quite simple to pull off even for kids as young as 6-8. Every one of my last 6 teams went no-huddle using this method and we had no problems making it work. My youth football teams consistently average in the 40 point per game range.

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