Best Drills For Youth Football Training

By Nelda Powers


Youth football training varies from that given to adult players. A number of coaches may not know this but the young need special drills to get the best out of them. More drills only waste training time therefore leaving the team weak and prone to defeat in a game.

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.

The other drill is repetition, the act of iterating a single skill of football. It is good to allow the players to try what skills are best for them so as to repeat. For example centers and long snappers should be seriously repeated for best performance, they however need little supervision by the coach. These repetitions make a team synchronized in their game without showing the audience what they are actually doing.

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.




About the Author: