How to Plan and Run an Effective Youth Football Practice

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Practice Schedule

Step 1

BYF 8U running some plays in practice

Coaching youth football and preparing your team for the season requires a great deal of preparation. Some of the areas you will need to work on include:
Conditioning of your team
Teaching safe and proper techniques on both offense and defense
Coaching the assignments for the game
Teaching the rules of the game
Thinking safety and replacing fluids all during practice
Knowing what players do not know about the game
Making each practice enjoyable so every player looks forward to coming down.

Proper preparation begins with creating an effective practice schedule. You will need to establish your team's goals and objectives by asking yourself the following questions:
What do you plan on covering in that days practice?
How much time are you allotting to each practice segment?
What method is the coaching staff going to use in your teaching?

To accomplish your practice goals and objectives you can break your practice down into time blocks. Here is an example of how the practice can be broken down into time blocks.
Block 1: Team warm up and stretching
Block 2: Introduction of new offensive and/or defensive plays
Block 3: Individual Position Technique Work
Block 4: Special Teams Work
Block 5: Group Team Work
Block 6: Full Team Work
Block 7: Conditioning and cool down
Step 2

Some more plays...

Block 1: Warm ups and stretching
This period should last approximately 10-12 minutes. My team starts this period off by doing a light jog around the field. We then have the captains "circle-up" the players for the team stretches. After stretches we form lines to run thru basic skills off the ball, like firing out off the line from the 3 point stance 10 yard sprint, Line Backer Drills, Corner Drills, Bear Crawls , etc. Every team has their own routine. Find what works best for you.

Block 2: Introduction of new offensive or defensive plays
The time allotted for this segment should be limited to around 10 minutes.
After you are done with your stretches and warm ups I have always felt this is the optimal time to introduce new offensive or defensive plays to your team. The team is fresh and ready to work. It is important to make a quick and clear explanation of the play. You will want to focus on all of the assignments. Once everyone has been given their assignments the team should run the play at half speed.
Remember to only introduce one or two plays per practice. One play will yield the optimal result. Make the introduction of the play as quickly and clearly as possible and get the team working on it on the field. If some players play on both sides of the ball you will want to alternate this time period to introduce an offensive play and then a defensive play the next day. As the season progresses you will most likely cut down on this segment of the practice as you will most likely have little if no new material to introduce.
Step 3

Block 3: Individual Techniques:
This portion of the practice should run around 20 minutes.
In this portion you will want to divide the team up by positions into as many groups as possible. Each coach should take his designated group to a designated area of the football field. To keep this practice flowing you will want to keep the location on the field the same each time you practice.

During this period it is important to feature drills that focus on teaching one technique at a time. You will want to move from one drill to another rather quickly. You will also want to limit talking and keep the players moving. Give the players as many reps as possible on their techniques. Try establishing a routine the players will know each practice and can execute with limited coaching.

Each drill should only be a few minutes to go thru. You and your coaching staff will want to keep it fresh and moving. Have some drills that incorporate the entire group as well as those that require one or two players at a time. Try and keep as many players active at one time as possible. Start by teaching the basics and review the techniques at the start of each new practice session. Introduce new techniques later in the period and focus on teaching techniques that will help your team and work within your offensive and defensive schemes.
Step 4

Working on new plays for the season

Block 4: Special Teams:
Special Teams should account for approximately 15 minutes of the total practice time.
Depending on the age group you will want to practice special teams each and every practice. Having a strong specials teams unit can give your team a big advantage when it comes to field positioning off a punt or kick off. You should plan to cover two aspects of the kicking game during each practice session. We break it down as follows;
Practice day #1: Punt and Punt Return
Practice day #2: Kickoff and Kickoff return
Practice day #3: Field Goal and Field Goal Block

You will want to utilize your coaching staff to its fullest to make sure that each segment of the special team is being covered. For example if you are working on punting and if you have 6 coaches you can have each aspect coached. You can have a coach on the snapper, one coach for the punter, one for the outside cover man, one on the right side blockers and one for left side blockers. And the last coaches to make sure the punt return team is setup properly.

You can set also set aside additional time before you start the entire team practice. My coaching staff like to work with the following players just prior to the warm ups and stretches, the snappers, holders, kickers and return players. If you have less then that on your coaching staff you can break it down to one coach to the snapper and punter, another coach with the gunner and one side of the line (rotating sides) and the last focusing on the return team.
Step 5

Block 5: Group Team Work:
This portion of the practice should be approximately 20 minutes.
In this period you will want to work with small segments of your offense versus segments of your defense in small groups. For example in one practice you can work with your QB's, Wide Receivers, Tight Ends and Running backs going against your LB's and DB's.
In another area you can have your OL and DL working against each other on pass and run blocking.

On another practice day you can have QB's, WR's and TE's running 1 on 1 route's versus DB's. In another area a QB can work with RB's and OL practicing running plays with DL and LB's.

On a third practice day you can divide the offense and defense in half working in one group working right side offense versus left side defense and in the other group left side offense versus right side defense.

In these sessions there should be no tackling and the speed should be at a quick tempo. Try to get as many repetitions in as possible during this segment of the practice. Both the offense and defense, with the assistance of the appropriate coach, will work on their technique and plays for their side of the ball during this segment of practice.
Step 6

Working hard...

Block 6: Full team work:
This period of the practice should last approximately 25-30 minutes.
This is the period of the practice when your entire team, both offense and defense, will work against each other. If you are missing players line up key positions against each other. You can work half of this period on offense and the other half on defense. Another alternative is to have one practice day working on offense plays only and another with the defense plays only. I prefer to split the session in two.
To get optimal use of this period you should:
One area that I look for is to make sure the offense and defense timing and positioning is proper for each play or scheme. Make certain that each player knows his assignments and make sure each player is demonstrating the proper technique in their position to make sure they properly handle their assignment. You will also be running the plays at full speed to make sure the team is ready for game speed. At the end of each play, keep the flow going by having a coach immediately spot the ball to be ready to run another play.
In addition during this period you can work on all down and distance and field positioning situations. You can prepare ahead of time by writing a script for the plays and defenses you want to cover. You will also work on any plays that need fine tuning and extra work. If one of your coaches needs to make a correction to one of the player's technique the optimal way to make corrections is when the player is not in the drill. By taking a player aside and let the other players work on the play you can optimize your practice time.
Early in the practice season you can scrimmage amongst your offense and defense and this is when full tackling can be incorporated.

Period 7: Conditioning and Cool Down:
This portion of practice should last approximately 10 minutes.
At the end of practice I like to run some conditioning drills. I like to incorporate football skills into my running program at the end of practice. For example you can line up 2 lines facing each other and run hand off drills. You can even have lines race each other. This adds a football element to the running drill. This also is a fun way for the team to compete against each other in a conditioning drill. We also like to run offensive plays versus no one and run defensive pursuit drills.
Step 7

At the end of practice I like to have my team circle-up and stretch their large muscle groups as the coaching staff addresses them with any
information we want to go over.

The key to a successful season is preparation and practice. I hope that I gave you some functional tips to help you prepare and plan a successful practice for your youth football team.

How to Plan and Run an Effective Youth Football Practice

Things You'll Need:

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