Special thanks to Noel for sending this one in. If you’ve every struggled with [tag]youth football drills for practice[/tag], you MUST try this out!
From Noel”¦
As a youth [tag]football[/tag] [tag]coach[/tag] for the last 8 years I have coached ages as old as 14 and as young as 7. The very first thing I notice about a good team from a bad team is how quickly the [tag]linemen[/tag] get off. For the last couple of years I was trying to find a good progressive [tag]drill[/tag] to use that is competitive for the kids. I was shown the tennis ball drill, I’ve done that with a little bit of success, then the attack drill, similar to the tennis ball drill, but with tackling dummies to knock over. Then one day as I was cleaning out my garage I came across an old Baseball Tee. Instantly I thought about using it in the tennis ball drill.
I have the players line up 5 yards behind the Tee, but in front of a board. The coach will give them a signal to go on. (a whistle a football with snap count or on ball movement.) The players will fire out from their stance across the board and grab the one tennis ball off the Tee.
I use this drill in a four drill daily fundamental rotation. We use a scoring system to have things become competitive. If the ball is grabbed and secure the player receives 2 points, the player who grabs or touches the ball, but cannot secure it gets 1 point, and if a player who did not get the ball first knocks it out of the other player’s hand also receives 1 point as does the other player. Always award a point to the player who gets their first.
Once the players become very advanced now it the time to add some [tag]defenders[/tag] or blockers set them with Linebacker pads, tackling dummies, etc. in the middle of the board. Get a player with equal size and strength to hold the bag or dummy. Now the players follow the same scoring system, but now can learn how to apply it to an opponent. Follow the same steps as above.
I try not to go 100% live one on one hitting for confidence building for the weaker players.
At the end of [tag]practice[/tag] the top 3 players get a candy bar, soda, etc., and get a chance to pick the conditioning game for the practice. (I also have a [tag]conditioning[/tag] games rather than just boring sprints) If they can’t decide together than I pick.
I definitely saw some serious improvement and I got a lot of, “How in the h”¦ do you get your kids off the ball so darn fast?” The kids love it and can’t wait to get to that station. This can apply to both sides of the ball too!
