Football Practice Plan: Individual Group Work

One of the elements of your practice plan should include at least 30 minutes of individual group work .Depending on the availability of coaches, groups can be divided by position such as offensive linemen, linebackers, quarterbacks, recievers, defensive backs,defensive line,and running backs.

At a designated time during the practice, individual group work would be scheduled and each group would go to their designated area of the practice field and work specifically on position orientated fundamentals and skills. Assistant coaches would know that their allotted time frame for individaul group would be for 30 minutes and they would manage their time effectively covering footwork, skills,and fundamentals associatted with their specific position.

If lack of coaches is an issue, then you can group together your linebackers and defensive backs, offensive and defensive linemen, and lump together your quarterbacks, running-backs, and recievers.

Use this time wisely. In other words don't just use the time to throw the football with your wide-recievers, spend specific time on open field blocking for example. You'll be happy you did when your recievers block hard and well down-field and give your athletic running back more time and space to score.

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Youth Football: Conditioning

A proper conditioning routine during football practice is as important as any other elements that you have planned in your football practice. A football team that is well conditioned and well coached is a tough one to play against. Its important that as a youth football coach we balance conditioning as part of your practice routine.

Your practice plan should reflect conditioning drills as a team as well as incorporate conditioning right in your individual groups. A lot of teams now run team conditioning drills at the beginning of practice immediately after warm-up. The idea being that you tire your team out at the beginning of practice and then continue to work them through the practice at a fast pace similar to game conditions. That way they are used to playing hard and making good decisions even while fatigued. Practicing at a high pace similar to a game gives them mental toughness which is required in the latter part of close games and could spell the difference between a win or a loss.

Make sure that you do schedule your water and rest breaks efficiently during practice so that they do rest and hydrate properly but at the next element of your practice make sure they work hard at a high tempo without sacraficing proper form and technique. Probably at the beginning of the season your practice tempo won't be just there yet as players struggle somewhat fundamentally but as the practices pile up, emphasize to your coaches and players to practice hard and at a high tempo.

Introduction/Review of New Team Football Plays

When introducing new offensive or defensive plays, it is best to go over them at the beginning of practice before your team has tired mentally and physically. Explain to your team how long you need their focused attention to help reduce distractions. By providing a timeframe to the players of how long they need to focus on a task, they will generally be more committed. My experience is that a player who knows he needs to focus on a new play for 10 minutes will generally outperform a player who was not given a timeline.

When reviewing a new play or defence, focus first on specific assignments. Give a quick explanation followed by a run-through at half speed. If possible, try to only introduce one play at a time and no more than two plays. It is much better to have a team who can execute a smaller number of plays than a team who does a poor job executing a large number of plays.

If you do not have new team plays to review, this time is best spent on conditioning exercises. Completing conditioning exercises towards the start of practice will prepare your team for success in the second half of games. Players need to be able to play good football even when they are tired.

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Youth Football:Offensive Line Building

Whether or not you believe it, you soon will understand that you need to have your offensive line in order if you are going to be successfull in youth football or at any football level.

Without a doubt your offensive line is the single most important group of your football team. Without a decent offensive line it really doesnt matter who your quarterback and running back are, if they don't get the blocks then they will struggle.

Yea for sure I have seen, especially at the youth level, where a dominant athletic back can overcome poor blocking and use his size and athleticism to move the ball and score touchdowns. But I also have seen the same back struggle down the stretch against more formidable opponents.

Bottom line, get your offensive line house in order and with that athletic back dominate the opposition. Evaluate your personell and build that offensive line into a solid unit. Size helps but isn't the deciding factor. Perhaps the slowfooted middle linebacket that can hit like a mule would make a great center or pulling guard or that large slow moving kid, with some work on his footwork, can play tackle. Look for certain strengths in the kids that you have not placed in a position and mold them into offensive linemen.

Size can be overcome by designing a blocking scheme that has more downblocking, better angles, traps and double teams. Speed and quickness can be a factor as well and close the size gap, hit fast and hard, and get a jump on the defence.

Cheers!