Thread: youth football coaching advice

Hey geniuses, I'm helping coach my 5th graders youth football team. We're 5-1 and we have some great aspirations for the post season. The kids have done a great job so far but we (as coaches) are worried they are getting a little bit apathetic during practices due to the 'same old thing' routines. The HC is a good guy but he has yet to come to practice with a plan.

I guess what I'm looking for is some advice on how to keep the practices fun for the kids and still stay focused on improving fundamental skills like open field tackling, blocking, etc. The two things we need to improve on the most is open field tackling on the edges (containment) and getting the linemen better at maintaining blocks.

If anyone has some references for fun drills, games, etc., that would be greatly appreciated. There is so much content on the internet out there but a lot of it seems to be garbage.

If you've coached before and had success with something I would love to hear about it.

How can I help get these kids energized for the last few games of the season and into the playoffs? TIA

for ballhandling skill for any position, and some fun. play ultimate frisbee, but use a football instead. Seriously, that's what I'd do if I were coaching. develop skills in intercepting tipped balls, picking up loose ones, things like that.. especially for lineman positons

When I played youth sports, my favorite part of practice was always when we scrimmaged. At the end of the day they just want to play - so let them, but stop the play midstream anytime they don't run it correctly and have them do it over. So it's not a full-on live scrimmage, but pretty close.

Especially for 5th graders. At this point in the season, they probably aren't interested in many drills.

yes 'buff. that was the fun part of practice. i always looked forward to that. Some drills were fun on an individual basis, but when you start to burn out, it's time to add something more fun or trysomething different. it's not the amount of time that one spends on training so much as it is the quality of training one puts into that time. same is true with studying, working, making love, killing people, whatever.

We used to do bull in the middle (kids loved it and looked forward to it every Friday) ,the towel pull, jumble the positions around in practice letting lineman play skilled positions and vice versa one day. there were few other things but I forget the names.

I did Bull in the Pen in HS, that was fun, but a lot of dudes got hurt playing it. There's such a large margin of athleticism I'll have to be carefull with that one.

The towel game is good too. All good ideas. Thanks guys.

If anyone else can add to this I would greatly appreciate it!

Originally Posted by BigSarge87

I did Bull in the Pen in HS, that was fun, but a lot of dudes got hurt playing it. There's such a large margin of athleticism I'll have to be carefull with that one.

The towel game is good too. All good ideas. Thanks guys.

If anyone else can add to this I would greatly appreciate it!

we used to play ding dong ditch it. seriously though, another thought comes to mind. Play smear the queer. It's like rugby in the sense that you tackle the ball carrier who must then release the ball. keep the ball passing. don't let it die,. no object to this game that I can recall anyway.