Football Multiple Defence

In order to have an effective and efficient defence it must have the ability to change, bend or flex into a multiple look. That is your defence has to be able to adapt to whats presented to it. As a defensive co-ordinator its important that your defence has the abilty to counter the many different looks that an offence can present on a given series. Todays offence is very flexible and can shift from a run formation to a shotgun spread formation on the fly. Its important that your football defence is able to do that as well. A lot of teams have incorporated a multiple defence with the abilty to shift to different fronts and coverages without substitutions. Gone are the days where yoor football defence stays in the same front for the entire game. Its all about being able to adapt on the fly on a given series to what the offence is presenting otherwise your run stopping front may be great on first down but be very vulnerable when the offence switches to their shot-gun spread formation on the next play.

Cheers!

Football Practice Tips:You play like you Practice !

Its true, really, don't ever think otherwise. Your team will be as good as they practice.If they practice hard at a high tempo with a good practice plan in place with limited down time. They will be efficient on the field during the game. If they don't practice hard with a lot of down time and a limited practice structure the result on the field will be disheartening and frustrating. Challenge your players to practice hard at a high tempo. Encourage them not to walk but to jog betweeen practice elements. Insist that they always keep their helmets on except for designated water breaks. Stay on top of them relentlessly to work hard and be their best. Challenge them physically and mentally by working them in their assignments when they are fatigued. Follow your practice plan and work them hard! Make the practices harder then the games and you will see the results on the scoreboard.

Cheers!

Youth Football Playbook Tips

Football is just around the corner and its that time of year that a lot of coaches pour through endless playbooks and systems in order to find that perfect offence or defence. Endless hours on the internet has just made it more confusing. Well if you want a good tip, especially if you are just getting into this game perhaps coaching 8-9 year old players, the tip would be "Less is Better".

Yea thats right!

Less offence could be the key that launches your young team into that city championship or perhaps another tip would be "Keep it simple,do it well". Rather than have that multiple spread offence, keep the same look, run basic plays with simple blocking rules, place your best athletes at key positions and do it well!

Football can be such an easy game to play and coach if you let it!

Cheers!

Adjust your Football Practice plan

As a football position coach a carefully tuned football practice plan is important to have in place. An effective football practice plan keeps you organized, covers all of the elements of football fundamentals, skills and conditioning as well as motivates our football athletes to become better! A good practice plan keeps our football athletes focused by having good flow and purpose behind each drill, and as a coach it’s important that you stay on top of practice planning.

Let’s face it we are creatures of habit and it’s easy to fall back on the same practice plan day in and day out. You might be very happy with your drills but be cautious as your football athlete will eventually find your plan boring and mundane if you stick to it day in and day out. What’s important is that you change up and adjust your practice plan accordingly introducing new drills and different angles to cover skills so that your football athlete doesn’t become bored with it and unmotivated.

The challenge is to keep them motivated at all times!

During your off- season planning develop several different practice plans with different drill sets so that you don’t fall into a boring routine. You’ll find that your players will be more motivated to work harder by shifting and adjusting your practice plan.

Cheers!

Youth Football Dynamic Warm-up

Football is a game that is continuously evolving. New ideas, strategies, and systems continually evolve as our game improves each and every season. Practice time seems to be getting tighter and tighter and coaches are always tweaking their practice plan to make it more efficient.

One of the latest ideas that a lot of programs are doing now is to incorporate their dynamic warm-up as part of their individual position group. That is rather than have the whole team do their dynamic warm-up as one group, send them to their individual groups at the start of practice and let them warm up by doing their positional footwork and agility drills with their position coach.

When you think about it, especially at the younger levels, warm-up time can become fool around or social time pretty fast if you’re not on top of it. Breaking down the large team group and sending them to their positional groups for the dynamic warm –up will be more productive. In the end you accomplish the same thing and save yourself 15 minutes of practice time.

Cheers!

Chest Plate Tackling in Youth Football

Tackling in football is one of the main components of the game. Proper tackling or form tackling in youth football is a core fundamental that must be practiced each and every practice at the youth football level. A team with good football tackling fundamentals is a team with confidence!
As a youth football coach there is several key elements of form tackling that you must emphasize prior to contact drills. Body position is probably the most important element of tackling in youth football. They have to be taught how to set up their body in order to safely and effectively tackle with confidence. So let's begin.
First of all it's important that they have a good tackling stance. What I mean by tackling stance is that they have a good foot base with feet about shoulder width and slightly staggered. The knees are bent with the butt down with a straight back. The head is tilted back with the neck bulled and the arms cocked back and bent slightly at the elbows. Get them to set up their body position for tackling over and over again until they get it. Once they understand their football tackling body position, its important now that you explain to them the mechanics of tackling, that is, how their body moves and explodes on contact so that they are effective tacklers. Explain to them that with their bodies in tackling position that they are like a coiled spring and all of its energy ready to explode up and through the ball carrier.
At this point it's important as a youth football coach to explain to them their point of contact. That is, what part of their body will contact the ball carrier first when tackling. We teach them at the youth level to make contact with the chest plate of their shoulder pads with the head back and neck bulled. The head is never in the equation as far as contact is concerned and is always, always, tilted back! You cannot emphasize this enough! We also emphasize a "chest on chest" contact during football tackling, again, with the head back. We do not teach shoestring type tackling as we believe that it teaches the youth football player to drop his head and expose the football player to more chance of being concussed or neck injuries. We believe that with good form tackling practiced over the season that if they are fundamentally sound in the mechanics of form tackling that they will be effective tacklers regardless of size.
Now, with these elements in mind the mechanics of tackling would fall in this sequence:
Stance and body position followed by a simultaneous explosion of hip rotation and leg extension driving up and through as the chest makes contact with the chest of the ball carrier, the head is back, and neck is bulled. As contact with the chest plate is made, the arms drive up under the arm pits of the ball carrier, the tackler locks in maintains his base while chopping his feet, driving his legs, with the head back until the ball carrier is taken down.
Coaching in football requires that you communicate effectively with your players. It's important to take the time and explain each element of tackling and body position to your football players so that they understand why they are being instructed to do things a specific way. If they understand the reasons for it the probability of them doing it increases.

Cheers!

Football: Run To Daylight

One of the blocking strategies that came out of the late 60's and into the early 70's was to implement a man blocking scheme by your offensive line that would take advantage of the aggressiveness of the defensive line at the point of attack just by blocking and taking them where they want to go and let the running back read the block and run to the opening or in football terms " run to daylight". This proved to be an effective strategy versus gap attacking defenses of the time, and was the basis of the Green Bay Packer Sweep back in the day, but was more effectively used by the 1972 Miami Dolphins who took a power back in Larry Csonka to a perfect season and super bowl win.

When you think of it, it's also the basis of the zone blocking scheme of today, whereby the offensive line steps down to the play-side, looks for double teams, and washes down the defense while the running back steps to play-side, moves with the flow, all the while looking for a lane for cutback reading the blocks of the offensive line and looks for "daylight" backside.

When he sees it, he cuts back against the flow of the defense!

The strategy was very effective versus gap attacking defenses which led to a change of philosophy at the time and today as well, whereby the defensive strategy became a more gap management system compared to gap attacking. By managing your gap effectively, not penetrating, holding your ground and waiting for the running back to come to you, it became an effective tactic to stop the run to daylight and still is an effective tactic today!

Cheers!

Football System Terminology

Within a coaches football system you will find that there are many names and code words for specific plays, stunts and drills associated with their specific football system. A lot of times a coach's offence or defence can develop a whole new language of its own and to the newcomer coach or player that will work within this system the hardest part is just learning the lingo that is associated with each play. Coaches like to put their own personal stamp on their playbooks and one of the things they like to do is name or number their plays, stunts, and blitz's. One coach will refer to his middle linebacker blitz one way, while another coach will refer to it another way.

Basically, they're the same play but just called different names.

When consulting with other co-ordinators it can be confusing trying to figure out their lingo as they ramble on about their " Mad Dog Blitz" and a lot of times they will talk to you like you should understand what they are talking about, only in the end as they see the confusion on your face, that they need to explain their terminology. Once that's done, and you're on the same page, it becomes a lot easier to grasp.

Cheers!

Tight End Formation in Football

If you're an old school football coach chances are that you're sentimental about the Tight End formation. With a lot of youth football programs now implementing a spread formation as part of their passing attack the Tight End formation is not as popular as it used to be but still can be a very effective football offence especially against the popular 4-3 and 3-4 defenses.

One of the hardest things about the Tight End formation is finding the type of player that would be a good Tight End. Ideally, you would want a tall athletic player with decent speed but also tough and strong enough to play as part of the offensive line and block both linebackers and defensive ends and tackles. The biggest factor is that they have to be able to catch the football and most of the time it means catching the ball in close proximity of defensive backs and linebackers. Overall, these types of players are difficult to find at the youth and high school football levels.

One of the things a Tight End formation will do especially against a solid run stopping 4-3 defense is that it will effectively spread out the box a little bit more and create better blocking angles for your offensive linemen and with wider splits create good running lanes for your athletic tailback. The most potent thing about a Tight End is their stealth ability to hang in there with a block on short yardage and then pop out and catch a short quick pass for a first down. This is a very effective play at all levels of football, the defense becomes so wrapped up in stopping the run on short yardage or goal line situations that a lot of times they forget about the Tight End until he's celebrating in the end zone.

4-3 Defense vs. 3-4 Defense

Two of the most popular football defenses that are being implemented today in youth and high school football are the 4-3 defense and the 3-4 defense. Both defences have their advantages and disadvantages,but how do they compare, and which one is better for your program?

Like everything else in your football system your personnel will determine which the best defense for your school. The 4-3 has the extra defensive tackle in the box so ideally you would need 4 quality defensive linemen. This can be hard to do especially at the high school level. Compared to the 3-4 defenses, the 4-3 is more of a power defense that puts a lot of bodies in the box. It is a solid run stopping defense that is designed to allow your middle linebacker to flow to the football basically untouched as offensive linemen have a hard time getting to the second level of linebackers as a result of the extra linemen on the line of scrimmage. A key component of this defense is that the defensive ends on the edge have to be strong athletes as they should have good size to battle with the larger offensive tackles as well as good speed in order to maintain their contain responsibility. Again, finding two of these types of players at the high school level is tough.
In passing situations the 4-3 is vulnerable to the spread offence as one or two of the middle linebackers could be pulled out into coverage leaving one middle linebacker. Against a solid trapping team they could expose this one middle linebacker by getting their guard down on him while trapping the defensive end.
The 3-4 defense has only 3 defensive linemen in the box but has an extra linebacker. This linebacker can be used to go out into coverage or to blitz. The drawback of the 3-4 defense is that you have to have a solid nose tackle that is strong enough to withstand and hold a double team block. This is the key to this whole defense. If the nose tackle cannot handle the double team and play two gap responsibility, then this defense is done! The appealing part of this defense is its ability to be able to attack the offence multiple ways and directions. It is not a read and react defence compared to the 4-3 but an attack defense that is successful because of the pressure it brings along with having good downfield coverage. Most 3-4 schemes are gap attackers so can be hard to run on as well. Another drawback is that with this pressure,its easy to become too predictable and give a good offensive co-coordinator a chance to exploit your blitz.

When choosing which defense to run my advice would be to evaluate your team personnel and determine what type of players you have and then go from there. I find if you have an athletic bunch but lack size and strength, the gap attacking 3-4 defense may be the best fit. As well, if you find your group has good size and strength but lack an abundance of athletic players, perhaps you're more suited to play the 4-3 defense.

Cheers!

Decrease your 40 yard Dash Time: Developing Killer Speed

Speed is the difference between an average athlete and a great athlete. Decreasing your 40 yard dash time in football and becoming faster makes an average football player good and a good football player great. That's why speed, for any football player, or any athlete for the most part is a good investment. There is a common misconception that people are born with speed. But speed can be developed and enhanced through proper training and conditioning!

Football players are competitive by nature and cannot stand being outrun by a faster athlete. It's frustrating when it happens but that can all change! There's an amazing new book called Developing Killer Speed. This e-book is designed for athletes from the high school level to the professional level and can decrease your forty yard dash time by .2 seconds in 8 weeks.

How did they do it?

By following a simple formula that anyone can easily use to increase their speed and decrease their times. This instant download e-book Developing Killer Speed reveals it all and for only $39.95 gives you a risk free guarantee.

Develope Killer Speed

Football Keys: Open Field Tackling and Special Teams

When looking for special team players one of the main skills you are looking for from your players is their ability to make open field tackles. One thing that I have learned over the years as a specialty teams coach is that you cannot hide players on these teams that do not have the ability to make open field tackles otherwise you are setting yourself and the player up for failure.

Usually failure on a special team results in giving up a touchdown.

When you consider that the opposing punt/kick-off returner is probably their best and fastest athlete you need to counter on your special team with your very best athletes and tacklers. Not only are they solid tacklers but they are also smart football players that know how to contain and tackle the opposing returners. One of the things that good special team players do when pursuing the returner in the open field is to take away one of his running options. They will do this by breaking down on the returners inside shoulder as they meet in open field and only giving the returner one option and that is to go outside.

A lot of times you'll hear the term in special teams to" use the sideline as your friend". In other words you take away the inside cutback of the returner by shading inside and push the returner hard to the sideline where you either run him out of bounds or force him to turn North /South as he approaches the sideline, right back towards your player where he has the advantage of making the tackle. Simply by being smart and using the sideline boundary to his advantage the player is able to effectively tackle a more agile athlete by taking away the inside cutback and forcing him to the sideline where he has to turn up field and either runs out of room or is tackled.

Cheers!

Linebacker Keys: Footwork Drills

Effective linebacker play means that you have to be athletic, agile, and quick in order to tackle the opposition's best athletes. One of the main linebacker keys is to practice footwork drills daily as part of your football practice plan.

Linebackers not only have to be athletic aggressive tacklers they have to be able to move quickly to the football. An effective practice plan for linebackers should include agility and movement drills that emphasize quick explosion and movement out of stance as well as drills that emphasize change of direction on the fly. These types of footwork drills should be done daily for 10 -15 minutes. A linebacker that cannot move will be exposed against an athletic running back as well as a solid offensive line.

Effective linebacker footwork drills will enhance your linebacker's ability to get to the ball, avoid blocks by being quick and agile, get to the ball and be able to tackle the ball carrier. Effective linebacker footwork drills done daily will make your athletic linebacker even more agile and quick. It's a good investment of practice time!

YOUTH FOOTBALL CAMP DRILL PLANS

There's a lot to consider when planning football drills for a youth football camp. As a position coach my drill plans not only have to be effective but have to consider the age of each group that rotates through as well. Consider that with all the various age groups from Mosquito football players to High School, my practice plan for each specific football groups will have adapt in order to reflect the age and maturity level of each group that rotates through my station.

There are drills that I have planned for High School players that I know are not suitable for Mosquito or Atom level players so my practice plan will have to reflect this and adjust to each level that rotates through my station. My main goal for this regardless of what drill I am running and what age group is running through is that they have good form and technique. In other words, they must do each drill with a purpose and not just for the sake of filling in time getting them to do something.

I will emphasize form and technique even in the simplest drills.

So my practice plan will involve all drills starting in their position stance followed by a lot of movement and change of direction drills all the while emphasizing good form, technique and body position. I plan on having an assistant coach run the drills while I observe each player. This will allow me to talk to players individually without stopping the drill and coach up and correct their form if necessary!

Cheers!

FOOTBALL TIPS : DEFENSIVE BLITZ

A carefully planned defensive blitz attack by an aggressive group of football athletes can throw a wrench into the offence and make the playing field a little more even against teams that are superior in talent and strength. One of the thrills of being a football defensive co-ordinator is the excitement of blitzing your opponent, pressuring the quarterback, and forcing a well oiled offensive machine into turn-over's and mistakes.

But it can certainly be your downfall as well!

Blitzing is like rolling the dice play after play, it's a gamble that you take, it can be a lot of fun when you get on a roll, sack the quarterback and create a turn-over. But, from time to time, like any gamble, you're going to roll "snake eyes" and pay the price It won't take too long for a well coached team to take advantage of your blitz attack, expose its vulnerabilities, and move the football. The better teams know that by being patient when under attack and figuring out where and what players are blitzing that they can expose these players and take advantage of the space they vacate in order to blitz. How many times have you watched NFL teams blitz and sack the quarterback in the first quarter and then get ripped apart in the second quarter?

There are some keys to consider!

Be patient in your blitz. Don't fire the guns play after play and become predictable. Be aggressive, and then back off. Blitz different personnel. Show blitz, get them to audible to another play, then drop into coverage. Keep the offence guessing. As the game moves along, perhaps you'll expose some weakness or flaw in their schemes. Take advantage of it but be patient with it as well. If you find they are having a hard time with it turn up the heat slowly and be cautious of not being placed in a position where you can be exposed and give up a big play.

There will be times that team's will not be able to stop your blitz pressure. But at the same time the better teams will be able to expose this pressure so it's best to be patient with your blitz and be smart with it as well!

Cheers!

Football Defensive Linemen Keys and Tips

Defensive linemen are often the forgotten group in youth football. For the most they are usually the left over offensive linemen that are too slow to play offensive line and so are thrown out there with the "just hit somebody" philosophy. There are however simple keys and tips that you can give your defensive linemen that will make them effective run stoppers.

The most important key is that they need to know what their role is as a defensive lineman. Depending on your philosophy one of the roles you could implement for then is that above all and everything else they must be effective run stoppers first and foremost and they must take pride in this role and do it well.
The second key is alignment. They must know where to line up either right on the offensive linemen or on his outside or inside shoulder or even just right in the gap. Whatever it is they must know what they are to do, based on their alignment. Do they control an offensive linemen by aligning right over them and therefore have a two gap responsibility on either side of the offensive linemen, or do they control the offensive linemen's outside or inside shoulder and by doing so control that gap? Again, it depends on the defensive system you are running but they need to know what their assignment is on all alignments.
The third key is their eyes. After their alignment they need to know where to look and place their eyes. On a zero technique or straight on alignment, their eyes should be right on the linemen across from them. On the snap they should jam the offensive linemen with a two point punch technique in the arm pit area with thumbs up, lock out the arms to gain separation and then look for the ball. On an outside or inside shade alignment their eyes should be on their shoulder assignment of the offensive linemen and on the snap of the ball they attack the shoulder, with one hand shooting into the mid breast plate and the other hand on the bicep of their shade assignment. Again, they lock out the arms and only them do they lift their eyes up to look for the ball.

By simply giving them their assignment, whatever it may be, it makes it easier for your defensive linemen. By understanding what their role is each and every play it gives them confidence and makes them a more effective football player!

Football Coaching Tips: Roles and Responsibilities

Starting out as a new youth football coach you'll soon realize that there are many responsibilities and roles that you'll need to fulfill while organizing the infrastructure of your football team. Here are a few tips:

Get yourself organized as try-outs will be soon and you want to have all in order prior to your training camp. Surround yourself with good and knowledgeable people. Select yourself a good team manager that is organized and reliable and most of all will have your back. Select somebody that is a good communicator as a lot of their work will be communicating practice times, game dates, tournaments, schedule changes, co-ordinating parent volunteers, etc. Understand that your manager will be as busy as you are coaching so it's important that they are as motivated as you are. A good manager will complete the package as far as what it takes to run a good and successful program and take on a lot of duties that are necessary to run a program. This will free you up to do what you love to do and that's coach football.
Secondly, surround yourself with a dedicated and knowledgeable coaching staff. Explain to them your philosophy and give them their coaching assignments. Allow them to have input within your philosophy and system. No input and they will lose interest! It's important that they offer you another point of view especially when game adjustments are a factor.
My experience with assistant coaches was to let them do what they do best and that was to coach. Challenge them to be better but never in front of the team. Face all challenges as a team, trouble-shoot together, debate scenarios, and support each other. Ultimately, there will be times that you will be challenged as the Head Coach to make the final decisions. But if your coaching staff has input it can be a lot easier.

Cheers

Football Team Player Evaluations: Key Elements

Try-outs or Training camp can be a complicated process. Football team player evaluations can be tough at times and stressful for both the parents and players involved. But it is part of the process needed in order to choose and shape your team and your practice plan should reflect this as well as cover key elements during the player evaluation process. Meet with your coaching staff and manager prior to the first practice. Assign one or more the job of running the practice sessions. Plan to either sit up in the stands or on the bleachers with your pen and clip-board.

Pay attention closely to the each player's skill level by evaluating them when they do drills emphasizing fundamentals. Evaluate how hard they work in drills. Pick out the ones that seem to struggle in the different individual skill drills that you have scheduled and make a note of them, as well as the ones that do the drills with ease. Watch them closely during team drills when they have to work in tandem with other players. How do they respond? Does it appear that they could play within a system or do they struggle? As well, note their effort in drills where they are pressured and have to battle, do they battle hard, or do they shy away?

This will measure their character.

Finally, after practice, meet with your staff once again and discuss each player individually. Some will stand out immediately while others will have you wondering what they can do. Talk about their strengths and their weaknesses and what they would bring to the team. In the following practices pick the tempo up and evaluate them once again. You should soon start to see the separation begin and you will start to get a pretty good idea of how the team will shape up. Keep a log of your players during this process. This will help you in the end with your selections. Also, if you are challenged by a player or parent on your selections you can refer to your log on the player in question. Usually, o a challenge once you dig out your log this puts an end to any sceptics.

Cheers

Receiver Route Adjustments versus Zone or Man Defence

One of the rules that I have adopted and it's easy to remember is: "Run away" from man and "Sit down" versus zone coverage. In other words, when adjusting football passing patterns versus a man coverage system, call crossing patterns or passing routes whereby your wide receiver is running away from the defensive back. Look for the mismatches where your wide receiver is basically a better athlete than the defender and is out running them. A lot of teams when up against a man coverage football system will isolate their best athlete versus a weaker defender and let his athletic ability get him open.
Versus zone coverage, the adjustment to make would be to get your players to "sit down" or stop and set up in the seams between the zones. Basically your wide receiver would run his route and look for the opening between zones, stop, set-up, while the quarterback would scan and find him open in the seams.

The key to all your football systems depend a large amount on your personnel that you have to run them. Based on that, you design or adopt a particular football system that your players have the means to thrive in. In other words you don't run a system that your players don't have the tools to operate.
Once you establish that system and your players thrive within it you will be able to make game adjustments within that football system that will be easy for players to adopt. One of the things that you will probably do at some point is to adjust your passing patterns based on what kind of football pass defence that you are up against whether it be man or zone defence.

Rule of thumb: Run away from man and sit down versus zone!

Cheers!

Keys to Football Play Selection

Reading the Defence a Key Element

Did you ever notice while watching a professional football game, particularly when one of the teams has an aggressive defence that likes to blitz allot and pressure the quarterback, that eventually the quarterback while under pressure takes a three step drop and fires a bomb deep that goes about ten feet over the wide receiver's head. We cringe and complain as obviously the receiver had the defensive back beat and a well placed passed would have resulted in a touchdown, however, if you read into it more you'll realize that the play was much more than just an overthrown pass, it was a set -up play.
It was never the quarterbacks intention to complete that pass, it was his intention that after getting blitzed and pressured on every play to get the cornerbacks to back off a bit or pay the price of getting burned deep!

The play created the mindset with the defensive backs to loosen up or be beat!

Now the focus will turn to the stacking and blitzing middle linebackers and the inside pressure that probably has resulted in a sack or several hurried throws by the quarterback. Next, you'll notice that there will be a short series of quick passes placed just behind the stacking or blitzing middle linebackers. After a few of these completions you'll notice that the linebackers are backing off now and dropping into their zones.

The set-up continues. Now with linebackers dropping you'll see the play selection include several runs up the middle for reasonable yardage followed by a couple of quick passes to the wide receivers who run a quick slant pattern versus the defensive backs that have been playing loose, followed by another run play up the middle. With the quick slants the corners have tightened up to defend it, with the quick passes behind the linebackers they have loosened up, and with the inside run plays called they are playing safe, dropping cautiously and then coming up for run support!

The defence is now vulnerable!

The offence by selecting the right plays for the situation have forced the defence to back-off and made them vulnerable, they went from an aggressive attacking and sacking defence to one that is now concerned with being more defensive.
Bring in the play-action. Now with the defence on its heels which results in more time and space for the quarterback, chances are you'll see him now run a play-action pass for the kill. The offence will give them a run look, fake the hand-off to the running back as if the play is going up the middle, the defence bites on the run, and the quarterback will drop back and this time throw a strike right on the money to the wide receiver who clearly has beaten the defensive back.

A far cry from that overthrown pass earlier in the game!

Cheers!

Football Offensive Line Tips: Strong Side

Implement a strong side Offensive Line

Coaching in youth football you are sometimes faced with the challenge of not having enough quality offensive linemen in order to have the five interior offensive line positions filled. Sometimes as football coaches, especially in small football programs, you just don't have enough linemen.

With the season upcoming there are options.

One of the things you can consider is to implement when coaching in football is a strong side offensive line. What this consists of is taking your two best offensive linemen and let them play beside each other such as in a Guard/ Tackle Combo and run the majority of your running plays behind this combination of offensive linemen. As well, if you're short at the Center position one of the things you can do is take one of your linebackers and make them into a Center. Now, you have an athletic Center that can move, and likes to be physical. On your backside or your weak side of the offensive line, take a couple of your slower defensive linemen and place them as the weak side Guard/ Tackle combo.

Whereas the majority of the running plays will be called to your strong side, coach these two weak side players to have tight splits and not allow any backside penetration that potentially will kill your strong side run. As well, teach them one inside run play to their side such as a counter play. This will be a play you can use when the defense has adjusted to your strong side. Another play you can teach them is a backside lead just off the outside hip of the tackle. Compliment your inside five offensive linemen with an athletic slot back that can possibly play tight end as well. Take your other inside linebacker and let him play some fullback so you now have another block at the point of attack. No doubt the defense will cheat on your strong side but keep them guessing and moving by flipping your strong side offensive line from left to right.

Cheers!

Spring Football Agilty Drills

Power, Agility, And Speed Training For Football

With spring finally warming up it gets the football juices flowing and thoughts of football should be running through your head. Spring is a great time to evaluate your football systems and practice plans as well as equipment. Spring is also a great time to put the notice out to your football players that you will begin to run twice week agility drills in the local gym. The main thing regarding football agility drills is that all players and groups can do them together. You don't have to lump them together in groups.

One of the biggest elements of being an effective football player is that you have to be able to move your feet. For the smaller athletic guys it's quite natural for them to be able to do this, however the common problem in the bigger stronger guys, like your linemen, is that they can't move their feet. Yea, they're big and strong but can't move. Imagine if you spend some time with these guys on footwork agility drills and get them to be able to move their feet and become a little faster and confident because of it. Agility drills don't have to be a complicated process and all you really need to have as far as practice equipment is concerned is some flat rectangular bags, some cones, or a rope ladder.

Drills should consist of elements that require them to pick up their feet such as side stepping over the flat bags to change of direction drills such as back peddle and forward weave to rapid foot movement through a rope ladder.

Cheers!

Youth Football Coach: Choosing a Defence

As a youth football coach for many seasons you develop a certain way of doing things and adjusting your systems in order to make them simple but effective as well as to adapt to your player personnel and take advantage of their strengths to put them in the best possible position to be effective football players. Through many seasons of trial and error you develop a sense of what will and what won't work in your football program based on your own experiences coaching in youth football.
As all old football coaches know, your systems and philosophies can be both praised and criticized by parents, players, and fans. It's part of the game. Over time, you develop a sense of pride in your football systems and football philosophies and you have a certain way of teaching that to your youth football team. Like all, coaches I have my playbooks and way of doing things that I have developed over many seasons of coaching. Recently, I was asked by the local minor program if I would provide them with a copy of my defensive playbook and terminology so that they could see exactly what I am coaching and possibly implement my systems as part of their own program. I must admit, I am somewhat nervous in providing this to them as I feel that they might not get it, or understand it, or perhaps because of both try to implement a football system not suited to their player personnel and put them in a position where they are going to fail. I think that prior to giving them this information I make this point to them. I will provide them with two different defenses, the 3-4 defense, which I believe is more suited to an athletic group of football players as well as the 6-2 defense which I believe is more suited to a bigger, slower, and stronger type of football group that has a few athletes and is tough and determined. The character of your players can be another factor to consider in determining your youth football defense. As a football coach it's important that you evaluate your football group properly.

Cheers!

Football Tips: Selecting an Offence

Let's face it, if you're looking for the perfect offence that you can implement for your youth football team, there are points you need to consider. I'm not saying that there aren't any good youth football offence's out there that aren't successful. What I'm saying, and have been saying, is that football player personnel and the coaches' knowledge and ability to teach the offence is the key to any youth football offence. Whether you want to run out of an I-formation, single wing, or double wing offence you need to consider what type of players that you have on your roster and go from there.
As a coach there are a lot of youth football offence systems that you can select from and there is good information available for you to obtain, but in the end, your player personnel will determine what kind of youth football offence you will be able to run successfully.
Things to consider would be your player's athletic ability and the number of athletes you have on your roster, the type of offensive linemen you have, your quarterback's ability, your experience, your size, etc.

These are static factors you cannot change and need to consider in implementing your youth football offence. The main point is don't expect them to flourish in an offence that they don't have the tools to thrive in. Build an offence that takes advantage of their strengths!

Cheers!

Football Tackling Mechanics

Tackling in youth football is one of the key fundamentals that must be practiced and mastered by youth football players in order for them to safely play with confidence, avoid injury, and be effective football players. Teaching tackling mechanics in practice is a key component towards developing football tackling skills. Probably, the biggest key to tackling is teaching proper body position or body mechanics to the youth football player prior to any contact. It's extremely important that the player know and practice these body mechanics at the youth football age level so as to develop solid tackling fundamentals as their bodies grow and they progress to each football level.

1. Stance: prior to contact, the feet should be about shoulder width apart and slightly staggered with one foot slightly ahead of the other. For reference purposes, the toe of the trailing foot should line up with the front arch of the leading foot. Again, feet are shoulder width apart.
2. Knees and Butt: prior to contact the knees should be slightly bent and the butt down. This sets up the body in a coiled fashion ready to explode up and through the ball carrier on impact
3. Back: should be vertical with a slight lean forward with chest out. Again, this puts the body in a position to explode up and through the ball carrier on impact.
4. Neck and Head: should be cocked back with the neck bulled ready for contact. In fact, the most important element of tackling to avoid injury is making sure the players head and neck are always back. Do not let a player have full speed contact if they drop their heads on contact! Practice this element of football tackling until head position is in the right place. The head is never a factor in tackling!
5. Arms; the arms should be cocked back and bent slightly forward at the elbows with hands out and ready to grab the cloth of the ball carrier on impact.

The body now is set into what is referred to as the "breakdown position". The tackler is taught to set up his body into the breakdown position just prior to contact. This puts the body in the right position to safely and effectively tackle. With this in mind it's time to teach the tackler the mechanics of tackling. The tackler is now taught that as he pursues to the ball carrier, that just before impact he is to set in the breakdown position and explode up and through the ball carrier by extending his knees and rotating his hips forward with the point of contact being the chest plate of his shoulder pads just under and up though the chest plate of the ball carrier while the arms explode up and around the torso of the ball carrier and grabbing the jersey. The tackler is taught to keep his feet moving on impact with the head back and the neck bulled until the ball carrier is taken to the ground. Again, the head is never part of the equation when it comes to tackling.

These elements of tackling must be practiced each week and are one of the key fundamentals of playing football. Good tackling fundamentals will give your player confidence and will enhance other areas as well of your football team.

Football Coaching Tips: Offence and Defence

The game is changing! Football players are bigger, faster and stronger now and are more committed to their sport than ever before. The equipment, the facilities, the weight-rooms and gymnasiums are much better facilities than they were twenty years ago. As well, information regarding proper nutrition, diet, and training plans are much more readily available today than they were in the past. The athlete now trains year round and there is an endless amount of football resources around complimented by spring and summer football leagues and good football systems.

Better athletes with better coaching, and more opportunities to play football, equals a higher brand of football played today than in the past.

With that in mind the challenge for a football coach today is immense. You need to be on top of your game, you need to be organized in both your practice plans and systems and know them inside and out. As a football coach you need to make a commitment to the game, like your football athlete does in the weight room and gym, to be the absolute best that you can be otherwise the game and its evolution will pass you by very quickly.

The players will expect that from you as well as their parents who will be quick to criticize a disorganized practice or poor football systems. It's absolutely necessary for you as a football coach to have everything in place and your football house in order; it will save you a lot of grief! So organize yourself, be better, and attend a local coaching clinic. One of the things you'll notice is that even the most successful coaches still attend coaching clinics; it's just another way despite their on field success for them to stay on top of their game

Cheers!

Linebacker Keys: Effective Block Shedding Technique

To be an effective inside linebacker it's important to get to the ball on every play from the line of scrimmage. For the most part there will be blockers along that path to the ball and it's important that the linebacker has a good block shedding technique in order to take on blockers, shed them, and get to the ball. As important as tackling is in football, it's also very important for linebackers to learn effective block shedding techniques.

One of the most effective block shedding techniques is called the two point punch.

In the two point punch the linebacker when engaging a blocker would strike the blocker with his two hands on the blockers shoulders and fully extend his arms in what we refer to as "locking out". The strike to the shoulder area should be quick and with authority causing the blocker to lose momentum. The extension and locking out of the blocker is another effective technique to keep the blocker off the linebacker and gain separation.

Finally, to complete the block shedding process the linebacker would use a "rip technique" whereby he would disengage his backside arm, push on the play-side shoulder and rip across the front of the blocker with his backside arm and leg to completely shed the blocker and get to the football. The two point punch block shedding technique would be practiced in your group work segment of your practice plan within your linebacker group.

Cheers!

Football Blocking Tips:Man Blocking

Man blocking in football has been around since the early days of football itself and for many years was the main system in football blocking. Man blocking in football today is still being implemented, and with the debate ongoing between man blocking and zone blocking is still an effective blocking system. For those not yet familiar with man blocking the basis of it is that your offensive linemen have a set of blocking rules they follow for their plays and depending where the ball is being run will implement their blocking rules to determine who or what player the block. An example of a set of blocking rules would be: Gap-On-Over. Basically, in these blocking rules the offensive linemen prior to the snap would check first their "Inside Gap", followed by "On" or whether or not there is a down linemen lined up right on them ,and finally " Over" to determine if there is a player over them like a middle linebacker. On each check if there is a player in that area it's their man to block

Another element of man blocking is the trap play. Basically, the trap play is designed to allow a defensive linemen to proceed across the line of scrimmage at the snap of the ball untouched only to be blocked out or "trapped" by an offensive linemen that is pulling down the line of scrimmage from the backside. Usually on the play-side there is a double team, taking place as well as one of the linemen down blocking on a middle linebacker. With the backside Offensive Guard pulling to the play side and trapping you are basically out manning the defensive front at the point of attack. This is the basis of a lot of the Double and Single Wing blocking schemes.

Another option in your man blocking scheme would be to have a fullback in your backfield that always attacks into the second level of linebackers. By implementing a fullback in the backfield you can create more double teams on the line of scrimmage without giving up a block into the second level linebackers. As well, a fullback can create a lot of misdirection in the backfield which can compliment your trap blocking scheme.

Cheers!

Football : Zone Blocking versus Man Blocking

There has been a lot of discussion of late on football coaching forums in regards to the running debate of what is the best blocking scheme that is being taught today at the youth football level. The two main blocking schemes of discussion are zone blocking and man blocking.
Zone blocking has taken off the last few seasons and is popular among the newer coaches as it is probably the main blocking scheme that is used at the High School and University levels. Man blocking is the more traditional way of blocking and many old school coaches that are still around prefer man blocking as opposed to zone blocking. Both are effective blocking schemes!

So what's the real difference?

The basis of zone blocking is that on the snap the entire offensive line will step down to play-side, find a double team on a down lineman, and as the linemen is engaged and being what we refer to as " washed down", one of the offensive linemen involved in the double team will " chip off" and go down and get the middle linebacker. The running back will take the hand off to the play side and go with the blocking all the while checking backside for the opportunity for a cutback. When zone blocking is working at its best the running back usually hurts you the most on these cutbacks. The basis of man blocking is that the offensive linemen are given a set of blocking rules that they apply for each play depending on where the defensive front is lined up, and apply these rules to determine who they block. When man blocking is working at its best the running back is running more north/south with offensive linemen getting down into the second level untouched.
Again, both are good blocking schemes. Now the argument from the zone blockers is that it is easier to teach, and less confusing as you always step to the play side compared to man blocking where it can be confusing especially against defenses that like to move around, in applying your blocking rules which can create missed assignments. Now the man blockers will argue that an effective gap attacking defense that uses four man fronts will eliminate the double team and allow the middle linebackers to scrape and flow to the football. As well, they will argue that the slower offensive linemen will struggle in this scheme to "chip off" and get a block on the middle linebacker. Usually, you know that a zone blocking scheme is failing when there is no cut back and that the running back is always trying to take the ball out and around the line of scrimmage and in man blocking, you know the scheme is failing when you are getting stuffed on the line of scrimmage.

So they both have their advantages and disadvantages. I think that when determining your blocking schemes that it depends on your personnel. After considering both arguments, I believe that a zone blocking scheme is more suited to a smaller, more agile and quicker offensive line. The double teams and stepping down play side give the smaller linemen better angles and the double teams create more push with the ability to chip off and get a middle linebackers more suited to a swifter, smaller lineman. Compare this to a man blocking scheme that is better suited for a bigger, stronger, but less mobile offensive line whereby there blocking rules keep them in close proximity to their blocking assignment and they are big enough to move a body by themselves and when they need to block a middle linebacker the linebacker is usually right over them with the ball carrier coming right behind them which puts the middle linebacker in a position that he has no choice but to engage the bigger, stronger, offensive linemen. I think that at times and with the youth football players we coach because of their age that there is going to be confusion. Regardless of the scheme, evaluate your personnel and put them in the best position to be effective blockers.

Tips on Youth Football Injury Prevention

Conditioning, Football Fundamentals and Body Control are the Keys

Coaching in youth football requires that the coach put his best effort in minimizing football injuries and putting the players in a position whereby the risk of a football injury is minimal. Injuries are a factor in all contact sports at all levels. Even in youth football its part of the game and a football season can be lost with significant injuries to key personnel.
Like a doctor that practices preventative medicine a youth football coach can kind of do the same thing. It all begins in football practice! An effective and proper warm-up, that will stretch out and warm-up the muscles. A solid conditioning routine that places the football athlete in the best possible shape, so that they can play at a high level. Practising fundamentals faithfully so that the youth football player has good technique, and by doing so minimizes the chance of injury.
Another good key is emphasizing body control at all times to the football players. That is on every play, every chance of contact, that the player is in control of his body with good technique and puts his body in a good position on every play to not only be effective fundamentally but also effective in avoiding injuries and at the same time effective in making a good football play! Some of the younger youth football players think they are indestructible and will launch their bodies in a reckless fashion into a ball carrier or on a block. This type of play needs to be addressed immediately by the football coach. Yea, it might be effective at the younger levels but if the habit continues they are setting themselves up for serious injury later on. They must be in control of their bodies at all times and the coach must be on top of it at all times! Effective management by the youth football coach in these areas will minimize injuries!

Cheers!

Youth Football Tackling: High or Low Technique

With bigger kids and better athletes now playing football the game is evolving so that new approaches and ideas are being implemented to deal with the change of body size and ability in our younger youth football players. It's not hard to realize that the average size of a 12 year old is bigger today than it was compared to twenty years ago. But then again there are still smaller athletes playing the game as well.

Form tackling is one area that a lot of youth football coaches discuss on a regular basis.

The traditional way of tackling was to teach our youth football players to tackle below the ball carriers waist with the head back and to contact the ball carrier with their shoulder at the thigh level wrapping the arms around the legs while driving their legs and taking the ball carrier to the ground. The idea being that as a smaller player you attack the lower part of a ball carrier, rather than tackling above the waist and being "run over" by a more bigger and physical athlete. A good philosophy at the time but over the years there were some significant problems with this technique. The biggest problem is that in tackling low the defender more than not would drop their head and leave their feet thus losing control over their bodies and putting themselves in a vulnerable position for a head or neck injury as well as a lot of missed tackles.

I have seen it many times.

The new idea of form tackling that is being implemented is to teach the youth football player to tackle above the waist with the head always back and up, with the point of contact being the chest plate of the tacklers shoulder pads contacting just below the chest plate of the ball carrier driving the arms up under or around the arms of the ball carrier while at the same time driving the legs until the ball carrier is taken to the ground. Again, the head is always back with the neck bulled at the time of contact. The player now never drops his head or loses control of his body by lunging at the thighs and leaving their feet. The players are taught to set up the bodies in a low stance with the knees slightly bent, with the head and arms back prior to impact and on impact like a coiled spring they are trained to drive up and through the ball carrier. The tackler now has more control of his body and the head is never part of the equation.

Now, the argument can be made once again with the smaller football player being run over but I have found that this is not true for the most part. I have noticed that the smaller athlete that once confident in this technique because of his lower stature is more explosive at the time of contact compared to the traditional way of tackling below the waist. A lot of times the smaller tackler will come in with good technique and " stand up" the ball carrier for a couple of strides until help arrives and the ball carrier is taken to the ground. I'd much rather see this take place then watch the tackler drop his head and leave his feet!

Cheers!

Beginner Youth Football Coach

Coaching youth football can be a challenging endeavour even for the most experienced football coach. There are always challenges and hurdles and issues along the way to solve even before you manage to play your first game. Understand that just because of their younger age it is still not an easy assignment. There's a lot of work involved!

The most important thing is that you have to be organized, have a structured practice plan in place that includes emphasis on fundamentals such as blocking and tackling daily! Running plays in practice is the least important when you consider all of what has to be done in order for youth football program to take-off! Your football systems need to be simple but effective and for the most part, the high school offence that you played and thrived in years ago is not suitable for your youth football team. But that doesn't mean you cannot adapt to a simpler more effective offence that your youth players will thrive in! There's certainly a lot of good information on the internet today by credible and experienced coaches and most of its free! The problem with the free information is that you have to spend countless hours poring through information and sorting out the good from the bad for your youth football team.

One of the products that I endorse on this website for the beginner youth football coach is Dave Cisars Winning Youth Football: A step by step plan. Coach Cisar promotes a simple but effective plan through a series of DVD's, CD-Rom, or paperback that can be purchased at a very reasonable cost that will help you effectively manage your youth football program. Coach Cisar has many years of coaching experience at the youth football level and his step by step plan is based on solid football fundamentals complimented with a simple but effective plan!

Cheers!

Youth Football Linebackers: Read the Offensive Guards

Did you ever consider training your inside linebackers to read the offensive guard that they play over? In fact, by learning how to read the guard your linebacker will make quicker decisions, and react better to the ball. Linebackers can lose sight of the football and mis-direction can play havoc with your linebacker. As a youth football coach you need to train them to be readers and not guessers!

The key?

Train your linebackers on how to read the guard and take the guessing out of their game all together! Teach them how to read whether or not it's pass or run by the way the guard moves on the snap of the ball. Most of the time, the guard is in a three point stance. On a run play he will cross the line of scrimmage and block and on pass he will not cross the line of scrimmage and pass block. On a pitch he will usually pull to the play side and on a trap play he will pull to play side. When he down blocks expect a run to that side as well as another linemen down blocking on the middle linebacker from the outside.

By training your linebackers to read the guards it just gives them another tool in the chest towards effective linebacker play.


Cheers!

Free Youth Football Plays

Consider your Personell when Reviewing Free Football Plays

As a youth football coach that has been coaching in football for many seasons one of the things that I like to do is to get on the internet and review free playbooks. The reason being is that I like to kind critique them to see if the average youth football coach would easily be able to interpret these football plays and be able to implement them as part of their own football systems. I think that for the most part the average youth football coach will be able to understand the concepts but for the new youth football coach that is just taking over a program for the first time some of these playbooks can be confusing. As well, they can be too technical at times and really, be too much for your youth football team to really grasp. Basically, the rule of thumb when reviewing free football playbooks is that if you as a football coach don't get it, then you can guarantee that your youth football players won't get it as well.

Personally, I think that less is better!

If you are looking at these free playbooks on line, they have to be suitable to the type of personnel that you have on your youth football team. You cannot ask your players to perform in a system that they don't have the tools to operate in. What you really want is a simple but effective system, something that is easy to teach, and something that your youth football players will thrive in.

Cheers!

Football Drills for Linebackers

Proper Drill Selection will enhance Linebacker Play:

Linebackers are the key tacklers in any youth football defence. They usually are the strongest football players fundamentally in your youth football defence. They are aggressive, read well, athletic, and have a knack for getting to the football, fighting through blocks to get to the ball carrier. When it comes to linebacker drills its important as a youth football coach to select proper drills that will enhance your linebacker's skills as well as eliminate weaknesses.

When you think of the linebacker position you think of stance, step, movement, block-shedding, tackling, pass rush, and pass defence. As well, you think of a football player that is tough enough to withstand a block and still get to the football.

An effective linebacker drill routine would cover all of these aspects. When selecting your linebacker drills, make sure that the drills you choose will cover all of the aspects of linebacker play. Movement drills and change of direction drills are very important towards effective linebacker play. As well, block shedding drills, and tackling drills need to be practiced regularly. As the linebacker position is a multi-task assignment it's important that you cover pass defence drills as well as pass rush type linebacker drills as part of your daily practice plan.



Cheers!

Key Mechanics of Tackling in Football

  Tackling in football is one of the main components of the game. Proper tackling or form tackling in youth football is a core fundamental that must be practiced each and every practice at the youth football level. A team with good football tackling fundamentals is a team with confidence!
As a youth football coach there is several key elements of form tackling that you must emphasize prior to contact drills. Body position is probably the most important element of tackling in youth football. They have to be taught how to set up their body in order to safely and effectively tackle with confidence. So let's begin.

First of all it's important that they have a good tackling stance. What I mean by tackling stance is that they have a good foot base with feet about shoulder width and slightly staggered. The knees are bent with the butt down with a straight back. The head is tilted back with the neck bulled and the arms cocked back and bent slightly at the elbows. Get them to set up their body position for tackling over and over again until they get it. Once they understand their football tackling body position, its important now that you explain to them the mechanics of tackling, that is, how their body moves and explodes on contact so that they are effective tacklers. Explain to them that with their bodies in tackling position that they are like a coiled spring and all of its energy ready to explode up and through the ball carrier.
At this point it's important as a youth football coach to explain to them their point of contact. That is, what part of their body will contact the ball carrier first when tackling. We teach them at the youth level to make contact with the chest plate of their shoulder pads with the head back and neck bulled. The head is never in the equation as far as contact is concerned and is always, always, tilted back! You cannot emphasize this enough! We also emphasize a "chest on chest" contact during football tackling, again, with the head back. We do not teach shoestring type tackling as we believe that it teaches the youth football player to drop his head and expose the football player to more chance of being concussed or neck injuries. We believe that with good form tackling practiced over the season that if they are fundamentally sound in the mechanics of form tackling that they will be effective tacklers regardless of size.

Now, with these elements in mind the mechanics of tackling would fall in this sequence:

Stance and body position followed by a simultaneous explosion of hip rotation and leg extension driving up and through as the chest makes contact with the chest of the ball carrier, the head is back, and neck is bulled. As contact with the chest plate is made, the arms drive up under the arm pits of the ball carrier, the tackler locks in maintains his base while chopping his feet, driving his legs, with the head back until the ball carrier is taken down.
Coaching in football requires that you communicate effectively with your players. It's important to take the time and explain each element of tackling and body position to your football players so that they understand why they are being instructed to do things a specific way. If they understand the reasons for it the probability of them doing it increases.

Cheers!

Football Blocking Footwork: Stance and Step

Offensive line footwork is the key to good blocking. An offensive lineman has to be able to move his feet in order to be an effective blocker regardless of the type of blocking scheme that you implement. If they cannot move their feet, they cannot block!

The problem in youth football is that we neglect basic fundamentals that are necessary for our players to be effective blockers. Then we try and implement a blocking scheme and they struggle with it because they cannot move effectively. A lot of times, at the youth football level, the coach will take the biggest and slowest kids and throw then on the line of scrimmage and expect them to be able to block because they are big kids. In some cases this works but overall, without good footwork, they are exposed by a swifter smaller defensive linemen or linebacker, become frustrated, and lose their confidence.

It all begins with a good stance. As a youth football coach you must make sure that your linemen have a good stance. Practice it patiently step by step. Have them set their feet, and then get in their stances; feet should be about shoulder width apart and slightly staggered. Check their head position, make sure its back. Now check their back, it should be nice and flat and their butts should be down with their front hand just slightly touching the ground for balance. A lot of times the youth football player will put too much weight on their fingers. As a result they are slow getting out of their stance. Make sure to coach them up to absorb their weight in their legs, like a coiled spring, and then on the snap of the football to use this coiled energy to explode out and into the defender. Once they have their stance down pat. Teach them first step out of the stance. The first step should be a short six inch "power step" followed by a second "engagement of defender" step. Make sure they don't stand straight up as they engage the defender and make sure they always move their feet. Repeat as many times as necessary until they get Stance and Step down pat.

Offensive linemen have to be able to move in order to be effective blockers. Footwork drills are just as important as blocking drills and must be done every practice. These footwork drills are usually done in the individual group work session of your practice plan and should be a series of agility footwork and change of direction type drills. Begin all footwork drills out of a stance so as to make the drill as effective as possible. Good footwork will compliment your blocking scheme, give the big kid confidence now that he can move and not be beat by the smaller guy and as a result effectively use his size to drive out the defender.


Cheers!

Youth Football Blocking Tips

Adjust your splits for Run Blocking:
Once you have established your blocking scheme for your youth football team and your offensive linemen are confident in their assignments perhaps it time that you tweak your run splits a little bit to try and gain some slight advantages. One thing that you can do as a youth football coach initially is get your offensive linemen to slightly increase their running splits on the hole that you plan on running the football through. You'd be surprised what an extra couple of inches does in regards to a run split, it opens up that running lane just a little bit more for your running back to run through.

But be careful as there are some pretty sharp middle linebackers around that will pick up on your run splits and know right away where the football is being run. Just be crafty in your approach and like anything else don't go to the well with it all the time, otherwise those middle linebackers will blitz the hole and kill your play. Probably at the younger youth football levels they won't pick up on a slight increase in your split on a running play. If they don't adjust, then run it that way until they catch on, then back-off a few series and try it again. Coaching in football sometimes requires that you become a little crafty at times, this football tip is just one example.

Cheers!

Youth Football Blocking Rules

Once you have established your basic football blocking rules as you introduce your football system you can tweak and adjust the rules for certain plays and formations. For example, with a fullback orientated offence you may want to double team the defensive linemen at the point of attack and have your fullback go down to the second level and get the middle linebacker. Sometimes this adjustment in football blocking rules would be necessary in order to block a solid defensive lineman that has created havoc inside the box and cannot be blocked using your basic football blocking rules with one offensive lineman. Adjustments are a big part of football especially on the offensive line where changing fronts and stunts can create a lot of problems for your running game.

Between series you would discuss with your offensive linemen the defensive front and who is able to handle their block by themselves so that you can double team that pesky defensive linemen and have the fullback go down on the middle linebacker.

Another strategy in youth football is if you do not have a fullback in the backfield would be adjust to what we refer to as a "double team and chip" block. That is to have two of your offensive linemen double team a defensive linemen at the point of attack, and once you get this guy moving downhill that one of the offensive linemen would "chip off" the block and go down to the second level and get the middle linebacker. This is commonly done in the zone blocking scheme. The double team would get that linemen moving out of the box and then once momentum is established by the double team, one slips off to get a block on the linebacker.

The most important thing for you to do as a youth football coach of these offensive line adjustments is that you would have already practiced these aspects as part of your football practice plan. The message would be to your offensive linemen that if the basic football blocking rules are not working that these are the type of adjustments could be made. Again, it's important that you already would have practiced these adjustments in practice.

Cheers!

Football Blocking Rules

Football blocking rules vary from coach to coach. Basically, the type of offence you run and the football players you have on your roster will usually determine the blocking rules that you use. My experience with youth football blocking rules is to keep it simple as the sky is the limit as far as blocking rules in football are concerned.
At the younger youth football levels I like to  coach up what I call " Straight up Blocking". In the straight up blocking system your players will be taught a shoulder drive blocking technique. Basically, they learn to step towards the defender with their near foot, keep their head on the playside of the defender,and drive the defender away from the running hole, using their shoulder as point of contact to drive their man out of the running lane. Now some coaches at the youth football level don't like the shoulder drive block for whatever reasons but I have found that it is simple and an effective technique to teach our youth football players. Once they learn how to drive block in practice the next step would be to coach them up in how to double team using the same shoulder block technique.
Once they are fundamentally sound on the shoulder drive block technique we teach them their basic football blocking rules. Now the blocking rules are fairly simple to follow and lets remember now that at the youth football level the simpler, the better! Our blocking rules are three words: Inside Gap,On, Over or to make it simple we call it "Goo" blocking. Now in Goo blocking its important first of all that your offensive linemen know where the ball is going. In other words what hole you are running the ball through. Once thats established the offensive linemen will apply his blocking rules knowing first of all where the ball is going and then secondly checking the alignement of the defensive front and applying the football blocking rules in relation to where the defence is lining up. The offensive linemen is coached up in the "goo" blocking scheme to make sure that his head is always in the hole. So once the play is called in the huddle, the offensive linemen lines up on the line of scrimmage and begins to apply is basic blocking rules. First of all, he checks to see if a defender is aligned on his "inside gap". If there is a defender in this gap then that is his man to block. If there is no defender in that gap,then, he checks off the second part of the football blocking rules which is "On". Now if there is a defender aligned right on him, down in a stance on the line of scrimmage then he knows that this is his man to block, again keeping in mind to keep his head on the playside of the defender. If there is no defender "on" him then he refers to his final rule and that is " Over". Now in " over"  the defender would probably be the linebacker. This would be his man to block!


Again, football blocking rules are like any football system. That is, they are the personal philosophy of the coach that is implementing them. We all have our own preferences of what  football blocking rules should be and this is just one example.

Cheers!

High School Football Coach: Football Team Depth Chart

Manage your Football Depth Chart Effectively


As a football coach I am consistently evaluating and tinkering with my depth chart. A lot of times I'll shuffle through it, add names, change names, and drop names. Move names from a defensive football position to an offensive one and visa-versa.
I find that consistently managing your depth chart keeps you organized an up to date in your player development.
Like all good football systems that you implement, your depth chart reflects your player's strengths and where exactly they fit in the scheme of things. A football coach by maintaining a depth chart will be on top of his player's progress and keep the best possible line up on the field. It's a good way to track player progress over the course of the season and identifies players that have improved or have gotten better than one that's in a starting position.

So how does it work?

Well, at the start of a season during training camp I'll set up my first depth chart. I'll list on it all football positions that are on the football team including specialty positions, and for each position I'll assign a name or names to that football position of the player who at that time I feel is the best player for that spot. After each practice, I'll spend 15 minutes evaluating my depth chart, and move the players up and down the depth chart based on their performance and improvement. I refer to it regularly and have it with me all the time.

I find it is valuable when injuries occur in the game and you need a player substitution right away, pull out the depth chart and scan down and find the player who's the next to go in at that position. It saves time.
I also enjoy discussing the depth chart with the assistant football coaches on a player's progress and development.

A football depth chart analysis will reward a player's hard work and progress while at the same time challenge your youth football players to work hard to keep their positions and not fall down the depth chart.


Cheers!

Football Blocking: Tackling in Football

Schedule Blocking and Tackling Drills in Practice


Football blocking and tackling are the cornerstone fundamentals of playing youth football. To play the game successfully and with confidence all youth football coaches across the country need to focus on these specific football fundamentals. To neglect these would be an absolute complete failure on your part as a football coach.

As part of your football practice plan you need to incorporate specific tackling and blocking drills into each and every football practice. Not only do you need to practice blocking and tackling in football, you need to talk about the importance of solid blocking and tackling fundamentals with your youth football players. They need to hear how important these elements are to their game and how their game will improve once they are solid in both blocking and tackling.

It's all about confidence!

In the long run you will be much better, your players will be much more confident in their assignments and it all starts in practice. You have the control! You can have great athletes on your football team but if they cannot block or tackle then you're in for a long season. You'd be amazed what a minimum of 15 minutes of blocking drills and another 15 minutes of tackling drills will do for your youth football team. No doubt, you will be an improved football team.

Cheers!

Coaching in Football: Youth Football Coaching

There are many things to consider when coaching in football. First of all, the most important thing is that you have to be passionate about coaching in football. Do it because you love it, not because you feel obligated to become involved for whatever reason, but for your true love of the game of football.

Always be enthusiastic and positive when coaching in football and you'll find it becomes contagious with the people and players that are around you. Understand that there is as much work outside of the game of football as there is in it. Administrative paperwork, registrations, equipment, team and football league meetings are time consuming for a volunteer and can be costly at times.

You almost have to look at your youth coaching assignment as being a hobby. Like all hobbies that we enjoy, they do in the end cost money, but all in all the enjoyment that we get out of it coaching in football is worth the cost associated with it.

In some youth football coaching assignments, one can be reimbursed for their costs, however, for the most part; a volunteer youth coach receives little or no compensation. Understand that you will be dealing with a lot more than your players. There will be issues at times, questions to answer, happy and unhappy parents, fans, grandparents, etc. Accept the fact that the role of the football coach and coaching in football will have its ups and downs and you will never make everybody happy.

For the most part if you can keep the majority happy most of the time you're doing a good job!


Cheers

Football Pre-Game Preparation

Football Player Pre-Game Routine


Every football player should have a pre-game routine. When a player consistently gets nervous in front of a crowd or gets psyched out after making a mistake, a solid pre-game routine might be the start of getting their head space right prior to the game.

Pre-game preparation should be a routine that the player chooses that helps them focus and calm themselves before a game. For some players, this could be listening to music or meditating. For some, it involves warm-up drills or mental visualization. For some just chilling out or just plain quiet time. Whatever it is, encourage your players to get into a pre-game routine that gets them prepared, focused, and confident and most importantly relaxed.

Mistakes are going to happen during any football game. The players that have a plan for getting back on track are more likely to bounce back and succeed. The players that don't will dwell on their mistake lose confidence and play poorly. It's important that as a football coach preparing your football team to compete that they know that mistakes will happen through-out the football game, that it just the nature of any sport. The point you want to make as a youth football coach is to limit their mistakes as much as possible. You want them to play aggressive, not passive, as if they are afraid to make a mistake. You want them to compete hard at a high level at all times and sometimes during the heat of battle, a mistake will be made. So be it! Personally, I'd want my team competing hard making a few mistakes than not competing and making no mistakes!

Finally, help players avoid the stress of competition by taking steps to eliminate the unknown. Explain what players should expect during every game. Talk about it leading into the game and how they should handle it. Nerves are a natural part of competition, but those players who learn to control those butterflies in the stomach are the ones who come out as winners. When players tell you that they are nervous, turn it around and tell them they're not nervous they're just excited about playing the game of football!

Cheers!

Coaching Youth Football: Player Selections and Football Systems

Well its time. The try-outs and training camp are over and you've selected your football team. Now, as a youth football coach the work comes to shape and mould the team in your image. Remember you picked the team and it will be a reflection of you and ultimately you will be the face of the team, accepting all the good praise as well as criticism that comes with the job of being coach.

As football coaches, we all have our favourite systems and philosophies in how we want our team to play. However, all things aside your player selections will dictate what kind of football team you will have. The worst thing you can do at this point is to implement a football system that your team doesn't have the tools to execute. You need to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your team and develop a system based on these traits. For instance, maybe you have good size and good football fundamentals but lack team speed, or maybe your undersized but have good speed and football skill. Ideally, you would like to have a combination of both types of football players; however, the reality is that this is not always going to be the case.

The other point to consider is that you might be strong defensively, but lack the scoring in the offensive zone or vice versa. The whole point of this is to evaluate your football team and come up with the system that reflects their abilities and strengths. Maybe your football team will be one that plays ball control and grinds it out or perhaps you will be very skilled and explosive. The point being select a system that reflects your team's strengths. One of the biggest problems in youth football is that we select a system that our players are not capable of performing. This creates problems as far as player frustration as well as chews up football practice time. Bottom line, don't ask then to do something they are not capable of doing and for the most part keep it simple, and do it well!

Cheers

Football Coach: High School Football Training Camp

A football training camp can be a complicated process. Football player evaluations can be tough at times and stressful for both the parents, players, and football coaches involved. But, it is part of the process needed in order to choose and shape your team. As a youth football coach you have to be prepared and organized.
Meet with your football coaching staff and manager prior to the first practice. Assign one or more the job of running the practice sessions. During the football training camp, plan to either sit up in the stands or on the bleachers with your pen and clip-board. Pay attention closely to the each football player's skill level by evaluating them when they do drills emphasizing fundamentals.

Evaluate how hard they work in drills. Pick out the ones that seem to struggle in the different individual skill drills that you have scheduled and make a note of them, as well as the ones that do the drills with ease. Watch them closely during team drills when they have to work in tandem with other players. How do they respond? Does it appear that they could play within a system or do they struggle? As well, note their effort in drills where they are pressured and have to battle, do they battle hard, or do they shy away, this will measure their character.

 Do they take plays off?

Finally, after practice, meet with your football coaching staff once again and discuss each player individually. Some will stand out immediately while others will have you wondering what they can do. Talk about their strengths and their weaknesses and what they would bring to the football team. In the following practices pick the tempo up and evaluate them once again. You should soon start to see the separation begin and you will start to get a pretty good idea of how the team will shape up.

Keep a log of your players during this process. This will help you in the end with your selections. Also, if you are challenged by a player or parent on your selections you can refer to your log on the player in question.

Cheers!

Football Practice: Eliminate Interceptions and Fumbles

Football statistics are a big part of the game. First downs, penalties, time of possession, yards rushing, yards, receiving, tackles, all are a big factors in the football game and poor statsistics usually results in a loss or a poor performance.

But at the same time great football statistics don't always mean that you will get the win and be successfull on the football field either. The biggest killer in a football game is turnovers, that is, when a football team turns the ball over to the opposing team via a fumble or interception and as a result gives up a quick score. These quick scores can be game breakers no matter how good statistically you are on the football field during that game.

Your team can be playing great, rushing the football, passing the football, and even stopping them with your defence and then "boom" a turn-over happens and worst of all a touchdown results. Not only does it deflate your team but it gives the opposing teams the momentum and confidence and turn around what was a great game statistically into a disaster. So it really is possible to outplay a football team statistically, lead all the categories and despite this lose the game as a result of turn-overs.

For the most part the rule of thumb is that if you turn the ball over a minimum of three times per game your chances of winning that game are diminished severely.So as a coach how do you eliminate turn-overs in a football game? The fairest answer to that question is that you probably will not eliminate turn-overs completely from your game, but if you practice football fundamentals effectively in practice, then you can manage the turn-overs and reduce them significantly. Most turn-overs are mental errors caused by poor fundamentals or poor judgement. For example, your star running back does not hold the ball properly as he runs through the line of scrimmage. An opposing defensive linemen slaps at the ball as he runs by and causes the ball to pop out and create a turn-over.
To sum it up if the running back had good ball carring fundamentals and protected the football then it would have limited the chances of being stripped out by the slap of the defensive linemen. This mistake could have been prevented in practice.
Secondly, your quarterback trys to jam a pass in to your reciever downfield who is running a poor pass pattern. The quarterback  makes a poor throw resulting in an interception. Now, we have two mistakes that occurred which resulted in a turn-over. First of all, a poor route by the reciever as well as a poor decision by the quarterback to throw the football resulted in the interception. Both mistakes are mental errors that can be easily fixed in your football practice. All in all turn-overs can be a big factor in any football game. One of your goals through the football season is to efffectively minimize your turn-overs. This can be done mainly by practicing good football fundamentals as well as working with individual players and groups during your football systems time on either offence or defence and coaching them up to be solid fundamentally as well as to make good football decisions on the field.

High School Football Success with Good Angles

Does this title make any sense? Do good angles bring success on the football field? Absolutely and here's why! When you think of a good downblock or open field block the best ones usually come from the blocker engaging the defender from an angle. Most times the defender is so pre-occupied with the ball carrier that he is less aware of the blocker coming from the angle and so is vulnerable. That why we as coaches always teach our defenders to keep their head on a swivel or in other words be aware of who is in your area as you pursue to the ball so that you do not put yourselve in a vulnerable position and can engage each block as you work towards the football.

Secondly, a lot of teams with an undersized O-line will develope a blocking scheme that has good angles so that the undersized man who is quick and agile can effectively block a much bigger opponent by attacking him from a good angle.

On the defensive side of the ball, teaching your players good angles of attack such as in contain responsibilty where the player with the contain assignment becomes an outside hip player so attacks the ball from the outside in, and forces the ball back inside where theres help. The same can be said for an inside linebacker who attacks the outside hip of the quarterback if he breaks contain to pressure the play as well as force the quarterback back inside. As well, a backside defensive back is taugh their angles of pursuit for each play that is run away from them so that they have a chance to make a game saving tackle should the opposition break for a long gain.

All in all, a team coached up with angles in mind on both sides of the ball are tough to compete against!

High School Football Coach- Football Game Preparation

A High School Football coach for the most part is like a salesman. They have to sell their football systems and motivate their team to perform and make them feel that they are getting the best deal in town. A football coach likes to be in control of the game and if you're in control you usually are having a good day on the grid-iron.

But, what about the uncontrollable? For instance, how talented, big, and good is your next opponent?

How do you prepare your team?

Well, you have to emphasize to your football players the controllable. Like, be disciplined, play the system, limit your mistakes. Don't take bad penalties to give them any extra advantage and most importantly choose to outwork and play hard at all times.

Talented football teams play the game with ease and if you let them have time and space they'll hurt you. But when you force them to work for that time and space it can close the talent gap and keep things close and give your team a chance.
Finally, emphasize to your team, that you cannot control how good the opponent is, or their size, or their team record. You can only control how hard you work, whether or not you choose to execute your assignment, and the fact that hopefully, their talent will challenge your football athletes and will bring the best out of your players.

Cheers