FREE “Two Plays in One” Youth Football Playbook

By Coach
Oct
01

I have discussed how I have combined the Sweep and Bootleg together to form a “Two in One” Combination Play that allows my team to take advantage of how the defense is reacting to my motioning slot man.  So, I am pleased to release my Sweep/Bootleg (“Sweep-B”), Sweep/Option and Sweep/Isolation audible-based combination plays in a free ebook. Simply sign to the Youth Football Drils mailing list (don’t worry I hate spam and your info will never be sold) and as a thank you the PDF will be mailed to you instantly. Enjoy!  And if you have any feedback, leave me a comment.  I am always on the lookout for new ideas.


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The “Opposite” Youth Football Playbook

By Coach
Sep
25

As our youth team first began to find success when running our “Opposite“ sweep concept, we decided to develop a small group of very basic plays that could be run easily to each side of our double slot, one back formation.

To quickly review our “Opposite” concept, we would let the QB change the original huddle call if he felt that the defensive alignment was going to make running the called play very difficult. An example play call from the sideline would be “sweep right”, but our QB could “change” the play so that we could run “sweep left” if the defense’s alignment dictated that they had the manpower advantage on our right side. Our other offensive players picked this concept faster than I might have imagined.

The “Sweep” was the first of our “Opposite” audibles, but we quickly added three additional plays that utilized the same concept of reading the alignment of the defense. These three plays were the triple option, an off tackle power play and an isolation (blast in our terminology) aimed at the guard area. Over the years I have added other plays to my “opposite” package (including a couple of pass plays), but have never gone beyond four such plays to be readily used in any one game. Read More »

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Wide Receiver Release vs. the Press

By Coach
Sep
23

Youth football wide receivers must be taught how to release from the line of scrimmage against the press technique as there seems to be more and more defenses who are using the press technique to disrupt the timing of pass routes. Your passing game will be a wild scramble if your receivers are not where you want them at the time you want them there The first thing we teach to our receivers is to make sure that they have almost all their weight directly over their front (inside for us) foot with the knee bent at ninety degrees. This is done to help prevent the receiver from wasting steps while getting ready to release into his route.

Most of our opponents are teaching the press technique with the defensive back aligning slightly to the inside of our receivers. The footwork for our receivers is first to step with the outside foot. This is also the first step we use when asking our wide receiver to block that defensive back to the inside for our sweep play. Next we ask our receivers to get their hands on the defensive back as quickly as possible. We want the receiver to make the first hand contact and this must be done before the receiver’s second step hits the ground.

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Blocking a Place Kick

By Coach
Sep
19

In youth football the place kick after a touchdown plays can hold significantly larger role than what it does in high school, college or pro football because it, when successful, is awarded with two points.

Many coaches tell their kids to “get in there and block the kick”, but often do not teach the skill of how to block these kicks.

I break down blocking points after touchdown and field goals into two separate drills. The first one is for the kids who you are trying to block the kick by coming around the edge of the offensive team’s blocking formation. The second is for the kids who are trying to block the kick by coming (up the middle) through the offensive team’s interior blockers. Today, we will discuss the first phase of kick blocking.

The “Around the Corner Drill” teaches the defensive player to cut the distance from his stance to the “lay out spot” as much as possible. Part of this, in the game, is accomplished with help from near by defenders, but in a drill is done by having the kick blocker run on a path that is chalked onto the field. The kick blocker must always start his actions based on watching the center snap the ball to the holder.
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Defensive End Drill – Control the Tight End

By Coach
Sep
17

My belief is that the tight end is always one of the biggest threats to our defensive success in that most teams have a very good and versatile athlete at this position who can both block and catch passes if allowed to roam at his whim. I know that when our tight end has good days both blocking and receiving that our offense functions at its highest.

To counteract this threat, we need to prepare the defensive end to control the tight end.   “Maul the Tight End” drill is not fancy in name, but is very necessary for defensive success.  First, we always ask our defensive end to line up slightly to the inside eye of the tight end in order to keep that tight end from releasing inside easily to either block our inside linebackers or release up field for a pass route.

The drill is a three part drill that begins with proper alignment to include the defensive end having his outside foot slightly ahead of his inside foot.  The “steps only” part of the drill allows him to take his first step with his inside foot which helps prevent the tight end from releasing freely to the inside (we feel less threatened if the tight end has to release to the outside to either block or release for a pass) and then his second step places his outside foot in front of the TE’s outside number.  Emphasis is placed on the speed at which our DE can get his second step on the ground.  The first two steps are repeated and repeated with the initial move starting with the center snap and are done without any contact.

Following the “steps only” we add in a tight end  and allow him to move forward one step forward on the snap while the defensive end repeats his steps and adds in his “shooting hands” which is our term for getting the DE’s hands on the tight end’s chest.  This part of the drill is with limited contact.

The third part of the “Maul” drill is done live where the TE is directed by the defensive end coach who stands behind the DE to either try to release inside to block the inside LB, release inside to get into a pass route or try to release to the outside to either block the DE to the inside or to release outside for a pass.  In all cases, the DE tries to negate whatever move the TE attempts.  The DE fights pressure with pressure while staying parallel to the line of scrimmage.

Note: We do not ask our defensive end to contain our opponent’s offensive attack as our outside linebackers have this responsibility.

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Properly Fitting the Youth Football Helmet

By Coach
Sep
16

Easily the most important piece of youth football equipment is the helmet.  If there is one place NOT to make a mistake as a coach or coaching staff it is to make sure that every kid is properly fitted with a good quality youth football helmet.  In my opinion, the coach should never let the kid fit himself.

The first step in fitting a helmet involves how the helmet fits from front to back. Helmets come in different shell sizes, but (without the chin strap attached and buckled up) the helmet should be quite snug.  It should not be able to be easily manipulated either up or down.  Most helmet manufacturers provide different forehead pads that are part of the liner around the crown of the head in different widths that can be changed out to help eliminate that up or down movement.

Note: if your helmets have the inflatable rubber rings on the inside around the crown of the head you should know that they are really designed for “extra” protection and should not be used to try to limit the up and down movements of the helmet. Read More »

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Drilling Audibles – How to Get More Repetitions

By Coach
Sep
13

Audibles can be used in many different ways, but all methods allow the offense to change the original offensive play to another play that has a better chance of success.  Sometimes audibles are necessary because the opponent’s defensive coordinator has “guessed right” and has aligned his defense in advance to stop your play or maybe just one player on the opponent’s defense lined up in the “wrong” but was still in position to help his team stop your play.

I have used several methods of changing plays once at the line of scrimmage.  The first one, taught to me by our young quarterback, was  “opposite“.  “Opposite” just changed the original play called (say, sweep to the right) in to sweep to the left.  This system is very effective if you can equally run most of your offensive plays to either side of your formation.

The second method I used was to put two plays together by design (we call it “Sweep-B” or the Sweep / Bootleg Combo Play) and have the QB decide which of the two to run depending upon the defense’s adjustment (or non-adjustment) to our motion.  This read turned out to be quite easy for our quarterback (and later our fullback as well).   Read More »

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Youth Football Drill For Offensive Guard Trap

By Coach
Sep
09

Here is a quick and easy youth football drill to help your guards become more efficient at “trapping.”  Many youth football teams wonder why their trap play is often ineffective. Sometimes the play fails because the defense guesses right and floods the trap area. This great play fails many times, however, because the guy who was supposed to be “trapped” is not effectively blocked.  To fix this I have designed our “Banana Angle Trap Drill”.

This drill includes a stand up blocking bag that we place in the spot of the center, a defensive player simulating the guy we are trying to trap on the opposite side of the center’s position and our trapping guard. We also have a chalk line on the ground depicting the exact path (we call it the “Banana Angle”) we want the trapping guard to take when he pulls to trap (see diagrams).

Correct "banana angle" for the guard trap

Correct "banana angle" for the guard trap

Common, but incorrect angle for trap

Common, but incorrect angle for trap

The pulling offensive guard aligns with his inside foot on the chalk line when he assumes stance. When he pulls we want this inside foot/leg to stay right on the line as he approaches his target. This makes him ready and able to handle the guy we are trying to trap if the defensive lineman moves in any direction. Any other angle taken by the trapping guard leaves him vulnerable to missing his block. Read More »

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Defensive Line Start Drill – Never Whistle!

By Coach
Sep
07

The key to good youth football defensive line play is get the lineman moving forward as soon as the center initiates ball movement. Whether your defensive scheme asks for penetration into the offensive backfield by your defensive linemen or whether it asks your defensive linemen to “hit and control” the nearest offensive lineman your defensive linemen always benefit by “getting off the ball” faster and faster. Very often winning the battle along the line of scrimmage is determined by who makes contact first.

I have seen many youth football coaches attempt to teach this skill using poor methods. Some of the things that I have seen coaches do to begin this drill have been: start the defense with a verbal cue (either by whistle or by snap count), move a foot that was supposed to simulate the movement of the ball and even attach a ball (or ball-like object) to a string or a stick and move the entire object to make it look like a snap. Some of these approaches are better than others, but there is nothing like actually having a human hand gripping and then moving the ball to best train the defensive linemen to really focus on the ball and get going as soon as it begins to move.

I would suggest that if you only have even one manager, here is where he/she needs to be during the defensive skill time of your practices. Any kid (even a parent) can be taught to simulate the beginning ball movement of the snap procedure even if he cannot fully execute the snap. This “snapping” person could also be an injured player, but he should snap for every defensive lineman or group of linemen skill repetition. Every skill drill for a defensive lineman should begin with his stance to perfect his start. A note on safety, take care to keep your manager away from all possible contact.

You can also do some of your defensive line starts in practice each week with someone calling out your next opponent’s snap cadence (known from scouting reports) to further help train your defensive linemen to “turn off their ears” and only watch for the first movement of the ball. Be sure to include any of your opponent’s snap count variations that are designed to get your defensive linemen to jump offsides.

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Defensive Containment Drills

By Coach
Sep
06

This post will show you the youth football drills I use for teaching defensive containment to my players.   Every year of coaching youth football,  I study the two main methods of defensive containment and decide which method best fits our personnel for that particular year.  I have used both the old school “turn the play in” method as well the newer approach of “spilling everything to the sideline” to prevent the offense from out-flanking us.  My yearly decision is made based on what I feel is our defensive team’s overall speed.

If I think that we are going to be maybe a bigger and possibly slower team, we will utilize  the “turn-the-play-in” approach and if I think that our team speed is going to measure up to our schedule we used the “spill-it-to-the-sideline” style.

The “turn-it-in” approach requires that your contain man attack the nearest blocker (back or lineman), deliver a controlling blow to that blocker while keeping his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage and keeping his outside arm and leg free.  The blow delivered to control the blocker must be done with the defender’s inside arm and shoulder. This is done so that the contain man may step up into the path of the ball carrier (after shedding the block) and force the ball carrier to have to stop and cut back towards the rest of the pursuing defenders.

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