Recommended Youth Football Training Drills

By Nelda Powers


Every coach working on youth football training needs to have in mind that they are kids first. They need to be handled in a way that they will learn fast and not feel pushed too much. Football training drills however should not be the major part of training in any session. Other tactics and team building should be done for a good team to be brought up.

The definition of a drill is the activity that is closely supervised, narrowly defined and is repetitive. This process makes the players learn skills that they otherwise would resist due to the rigor and routine. With drills, skills are perfected and remembered even after years of no use. However, no matter how important this is, the coach should leave only a small fraction of the training for drills so as to concentrate on other team building exercises.

Repetition is another drill every team should participate in. This helps in making the team learn specific single skills after doing it over and over. Each team can decide what skill works best for them then they repeat it for the benefit of the team. Skills like centers and long snappers are important therefore should be repeated enough times to stick in the mind and muscles. These however require very little supervision from the coach as the players can organize themselves and learn the skills after one or two demonstrations. This helps in creating harmony and synchrony in the team.

The very start of skill training is called chalk. Here, the team is taught verbally like in a classroom. The retaining of the lesson is not high but is necessary before the actual physical training. Every team member will have got the explanation before trying out the new skill in the field. Muscle memory is the best way to remember what is taught hence the repetition stage.

Without put-ins, a team will not be fit to play a real match. These are the initial activities a team needs to master t make them consistent and correct in performing certain offenses and defensively stop the other team. Training in football starts with chalk then goes to walk-through then ends in a full speed run. This gives the team the correct timing and reaction skills for a match.

After put-in, the team is taken through a process called walk-through. This stage takes the longest time to inculcate. The team walks through the specific skill while carrying out the defensive or offensive maneuver. Here, the opposing team stays motionless to allow the other team show what they have learned of the new skill. A good example is the fit-and-freeze technique.

The last stage in the drill is the scrimmage. Here, both teams perform their leant skills at full game speed. With the guidance of the coach, the offensive tries the maneuvers skillfully while the defense quickly prepares to stop them like in a real game. This helps so much especially the rookies who are yet to face a real team in a match. Reorganization after passes is also coordinated in this stage in most cases by the team members themselves since the coach dos very little supervision here due to the speeds.

20 minutes is just enough for the drill section for a youth football training. This will leave enough time in the two hour period for the players to learn other skills and coordinate a play. A good coach will let the flow with periodic input here and there.




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