Successful Youth Football Coaching
Posted: Tuesday, May 01, 2007
by Dave Cisar
Winning Youth Football
Unfortunately many youth football coaches go down a path that leads to frustration for their players and youth football teams. Many fail because of somethng as simple as having too many or too few plays in their playbooks.
A two year study of the best and worst youth teams in the country showed that on average the teams at the top of their respective leagues had "playbooks" that consisted of between just 8 and 18 football plays. Even teams in the 13-14 age group that consistently won, executed just a handful of football plays perfectly, no matter the offense they were running. On the flipside the teams that consistently were at the bottom of the standings had playbooks of 30,40 even 60 plays.
Here are a few quick coaching tips on number of plays to have in your playbook: For the first game even with 3 weeks or less practice time, most youth coaches can get in a series of 6 football plays. By get in, we mean they are running these plays 19 out of 20 times perfectly on air against no defense.
For many youth football teams at the younger age of the spectrum, these 6 plays are often all the team needs for the entire season. In 2002, the first year I ran the Single Wing Offense, this was all we ran and went 11-0. As the age and experience levels of your teams change along with your coaching expertise, the play numbers change as well. In 2006 we had about 18 plays we could run 19 out of 20 times perfectly on air and qualify to be part of our game day playbook.
For most teams after the “Perfect Six" are perfected, it is time to look at your teams strengths and add in other series. The speed which you put the offense in depends on how fast your kids perfect each play in the sequence.
My more experienced teams have often had 16 plays in before the first game, bu that is very rare; I’ve also had teams that just had the 6 in also. Remember you have the entire season to put in the offense, don’t get too far ahead of yourself.
This article was brought to you by Dave Cisar. Dave is a nationally known expert in the area of youth football coaching. He is a featured speaker at the Mega and Nike Coaching Clinics and is author of the book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan". His teams have compiled an amazing 97% wins in fall football using this system. For more free youth coaching tips and Dave's book please stop here:
www.winningyouthfootball.com
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