Football Equipment Inventory

With keeping the spring theme in mind as we evaluate our football systems, drills, and special teams, another project for the youth football coach would be to take equipment inventory. Take stock of all your gear and hardware carefully inspecting each item. Take each helmet and inspect them very closely. If they appear worn and used chances are that they are ready to be turfed. All football helmets should have the manufacturers production date stamped on the inside of the helmet by the ear hole. Check the date, and any helmets that are 5 years and over , get rid of them.

Football is a fun, physical game and its important that we protect our youth football players as much as we can. Don't take a chance with helmets that are 5 years and older, its just not worth it!

Now, check all of your shoulder pads for wear and tear as well. The tell tale sign of a lot of wear will be on the inside of the shoulder pad where it sits on the players shoulders. If they appear to be worn with not much padding left or displaced, turf them as well, they're no good! Certainly you don't want any of your players wearing them. Shoulder pads depending on who's wearing them usually last longer then helmets, they're pretty durable.

For the most part , and to keep your costs down, try and replace 8 helmets  and shoulder pads per season. That way after every 5 years you've completely replaced your inventory of helmets and shoulder pads. Most dealers have Buy two and get one free type deals so take advantage of them.

Cheers!

Football Playbooks and Spring Cleaning

Spring is almost here and like any good youth football coach its time to evaluate your football systems and do some spring cleaning and get rid of some clutter. Time to go through the playbook and evaluate plays that you ran the previous season.

For the most part your play evaluations should be based on the football players that you have returning and how they fared in your offensive system last season. Perhaps they struggled in a particular look or formation, or they just weren't ready to do what you asked them to do from within the football system.

On the other hand, they have a years experience under their belt , are probably a little bigger and stronger, and more mature than they were the previous year and maybe now this play that failed you so bad last season might be a "go to" play this season.

 It's up to you as the football coach to determine that as nobody knows your players better than you do.

As you do your football spring clean-up, you may as well evaluate your football drills, practice plan, special teams,and even your assistant coaches. As well, evaluate your own performance as we all can improve in football somewhere.

Cheers!

Football Sled Drills

Probably one of the best football coaching tools that I ever had to implement was the use of a seven man sled. Nothing can compare! The sled is a great tool to teach basic football fundamentals. There are many sled drills out there but my favourite one of all is called the "Hit n Drive". This drill forces the football player to execute all the core fundamentals needed in tackling and blocking.

Have your player's line -up and across from each sled bag with an equal amount of players in each bag line. Instruct them to stand at least two yards back from the sled-bag and in a two point football stance. On the whistle and in unison all players will step, drop their hips, and then explode up through and wrapping up the bag, with neck bulled and head back, with a chest to bag contact while pumping their legs and driving the sled for 5-7 yards or until the coach blows the whistle. The next line will align across from the bags and on the coaches whistle will perform the same drill again. This is a great team building drill as the players seem to feed off it and they love to smack the sled down the field. The coaching staff follow the sled and point out and coach up fundamentals to the players as they peel off the sled and get back into line. Then when it's their turn once again they hit n drive the sled having made their adjustments fundamentally as pointed out by the coaching staff. The drill has good flow and it can be done out of a three point stance as well.

Cheers!

Football Field Goals and Convert's

Probably one of the most un-practiced parts of the football game that we neglect as football coaches is the kicking game. As we prepare to play an opponent and prepare our football systems we tend to put the kicking game on the back burner until the last practice, line them up, kick a half a dozen or more field goals and point afters and then send the players home.

Then, with the game on the line and we need the extra point to tie or a field goal to win we send our kicking team out there, cross our fingers, and hope that they mange to convert a kick with little practice time.

Arghh!

In a lot of youth football leagues across the country they now reward 2 points for a convert and 4 points for a field goal in order to create more emphasis on the kicking game. With that many points now available to youth football coaches, your beginning to see more practice time resulting in more kick attempts during the game. Youth football players are being taught at an early age the importance of a field goal as well as a point after in a football game.

The end result is that we develop solid kicking fundamentals at the youth football level early and this carries on to the higher levels. We all know that in a close football game that a good kicker can decide the outcome. Just make sure that you practice it as part of your football systems and be confident to run it during the football game.

Perhaps investing this practice time into your kicking game will pay off and you will win that big game!

Cheers!