September 16th, 2008
The "Compete" Drill for Youth Football
One of the many things youth football coaches have a problem with is having their team ready to play on game day. Many coaches tell me they see their kids coming to games lethargic and not ready to play. I've even seen some of my own teams in very early morning games maybe being less sharp than normal. This can cost your team, you can get down early, have a few breaks go against you and before your team finally wakes up out of its funk, the game can be out of reach.
We are blessed to have a 7 year NFL vet on our coaching staff this year. He is a very humble guy who has been an absolute joy to coach with so far, He hasn't tired to tkae over or pushed to get the kids to use techniques or schemes that non-select kids can't do, He has however been very helpful in helping us get ready in areas we probably needed help in. One of those areas was early morning games, making sure we were sharp from the opening gun.
This player played for Bill B and believe it or not they had some of the same issues, In order to solve the problem they used to do a drill called "Compete". At any point in the day, anytime, this NFL coach would blow his whistle and yelled "compete". The team would run full speed to the 10 yard line and go full speed, full contact for 10 minutes, with everyone yelling and whooping it up the entire time. During our offensive days, we do it with our first team offense against all the rest, with 24 kids that is 11 vs 13. Our kids know where to line up on offense and defense when we yell compete, they sprint to the predesignared area and we get after it. We no huddle with wrist bands and go all out for those 10 minutes. We don't take time to put scrimmage vests on or anything like that, when "compete" is yelled, everyone, players coaches etc run full blast to the designated area.
The key is to run this drill when the kids least expect it. In the middle of individual instruction, in the middle of a water break, in the middle of our first little talk at the end of cals/warmup and even after they thought practice was over. We never tell them when or even if we are going to run the "compete" drill. What seems to help is to be able to get the kids mentally conditioned to compete at a moments notice, anytime, anywhere. While this is our first season using this drill, so far so good, I highly recommend it.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Cisar
Showing posts with label Youth Football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Youth Football. Show all posts
Friday, October 31, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Youth Football - Getting Your Offensive Linemen to Get the Lead Out
In youth football, if you have the most size and talent in the league, you probably don't need to bother pulling linemen. With proper technique your team should be able to handle all their blocks 1 on 1. On the other hand if you don't have the most size and talent, most likely you will have to rely on double team blocks and overwhelming the opposition at the point of attack with more numbers. The only effective way to really do that consistently is to pull linemen.
Some of you may say, hey we cant pull at this age. That's simply not true, pulling can be taught to players as young as 5 years old, I've seen may youth team even age 5-7 run trap and reverse plays with pullers. I coached an age 6-8 team in 2002 and we pulled and pulled well.
One of the problems with pullers in the youth game is they aren't getting to the point of attack quick enough. There are several reasons why they don't and a few simple solutions.
#1) Pulling too deep.
Often a player won't make it to the point of attack if he is pulling too deep. When a player pulls deep, he has a lot more ground to cover. If he is pulling too deep it is often because that is the way he has been taught or because your double team blocks are not getting the defender to the second level. If the double team is getting the defender to the second level the puller doesn't go lateral at all, he is running downhill on his second step.
#2) Puller is hesitating.
Often a puller will stop in his tracks after he takes his drop step and opens up his hips. He has to explode off his drop step and run full speed to his point of attack. A simple way to do this is rep the drop step first and then the first 2 steps of the pull.
After you feel there is no hesitation you can use a simple chaser drill. Put a chaser (tackler) 1 step behind and away from the side the puller is pulling. Mark a "safe zone" with pylons at the point of attack. Give a cadence and have the puller move to the point of attack at full speed using the proper technique and footwork. Hold the chaser up just for a moment, then release him to tackle the puller from behind. Release the chaser at a point where the puller has to run at maximum potential to get to the safe zone. Mark with cones the holes etc to make sure there is not corner cutting.
This will teach your linemen to explode off their drop step and run full speed. After doing this drill a few times, I've found many youth football linemen have no idea that they could or should run this fast when they pull.
#3) Wrong players pulling
While not all of our linemen will pull, those that do have to have reasonable feet. While none of our linemen are going to be great athletes don't hesitate to put a backup fullback or blocking back in a pulling position. You can help develop some quickness with things like the tennis ball drill listed here on the blog and in the book.
Pulling is like any other football technique and skill, it has to be taught, repped and developed. Rest assured it is time very well spent and will work if you make it a priority in youth football.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Cisar
Some of you may say, hey we cant pull at this age. That's simply not true, pulling can be taught to players as young as 5 years old, I've seen may youth team even age 5-7 run trap and reverse plays with pullers. I coached an age 6-8 team in 2002 and we pulled and pulled well.
One of the problems with pullers in the youth game is they aren't getting to the point of attack quick enough. There are several reasons why they don't and a few simple solutions.
#1) Pulling too deep.
Often a player won't make it to the point of attack if he is pulling too deep. When a player pulls deep, he has a lot more ground to cover. If he is pulling too deep it is often because that is the way he has been taught or because your double team blocks are not getting the defender to the second level. If the double team is getting the defender to the second level the puller doesn't go lateral at all, he is running downhill on his second step.
#2) Puller is hesitating.
Often a puller will stop in his tracks after he takes his drop step and opens up his hips. He has to explode off his drop step and run full speed to his point of attack. A simple way to do this is rep the drop step first and then the first 2 steps of the pull.
After you feel there is no hesitation you can use a simple chaser drill. Put a chaser (tackler) 1 step behind and away from the side the puller is pulling. Mark a "safe zone" with pylons at the point of attack. Give a cadence and have the puller move to the point of attack at full speed using the proper technique and footwork. Hold the chaser up just for a moment, then release him to tackle the puller from behind. Release the chaser at a point where the puller has to run at maximum potential to get to the safe zone. Mark with cones the holes etc to make sure there is not corner cutting.
This will teach your linemen to explode off their drop step and run full speed. After doing this drill a few times, I've found many youth football linemen have no idea that they could or should run this fast when they pull.
#3) Wrong players pulling
While not all of our linemen will pull, those that do have to have reasonable feet. While none of our linemen are going to be great athletes don't hesitate to put a backup fullback or blocking back in a pulling position. You can help develop some quickness with things like the tennis ball drill listed here on the blog and in the book.
Pulling is like any other football technique and skill, it has to be taught, repped and developed. Rest assured it is time very well spent and will work if you make it a priority in youth football.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Cisar
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)