Monday, February 10, 2014

Youth Football Training Drills For Every Coach

Youth Football Training Drills For Every Coach


by Nelda Powers


The process of training kids football may require a little more care than that of the adult players. Youth football training calls for the coaches to use special skills so as to make them as good as desired. As much as drills are important, they should not be over emphasized while neglecting other parts of the training program. This may leave the team unprepared to face an opponent in a match.

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.

Chalk is the other stage. This is basically a classroom like talk to the players. This is important before exposing the players to the actual physical exercise even though verbal drill has little effect on memory. Players learn better when they hear first what they are about to do physically hence the chalk.

The other stage is put-ins; these are the first time activities a team goes through to make them accurate and consistent in what they do. These helps in performing specific offensive moves and defensive stops where necessary. The training process goes from chalk, walk-through and is completed at the scrimmage where full speed reins. Doing these properly makes a great youth football team.

The walk-through stage is the longest in time. It is done very slowly so every player remembers how a skill plays out. For a given defensive maneuver or an offense tactic to be mastered, the team needs to play it out slowly, even walking while playing with the opposing team being motionless. This allows the practicing team to show what skill they have learnt and allows the coach to correct them step by step.

After this walk-through stage, the team will go to a full speed level also known as the scrimmage. Closely watched by the coach, the team shows a skill in full game speed skillfully. The defense also prepares for and stops the offense with accurate timing and analysis. When training rookies, this stage gives them the feeling of a real game preparing them for a real match. Psychological and physical acclimatization also takes place effectively. Reactions to offense and learning to reorganize after passes are also learnt. The coach provides very little supervision here due to the speed.

It is advisable to take only 20 minutes to do drills in youth football training. This will allow more time for team coordination and synchronizing plays. In general, a two hour practice session per day is just enough to make a good team.




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