Youth Football Training Drills For Every Coach

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.

Another skill in football training is repetition. This involves doing one move over and over till it is learnt and memorized. Players can choose the skills that work best for them then work on repeating it. Doing this helps a team work together in synchrony and the learning process require very little supervision by the coach.

The chalk is simply a verbal training like what happens in a classroom. Before letting the players do the actual physical exercise, a talk should precede it for the explanation. No one however can learn a skill by chalk talk alone but it is important. Some muscle memory is necessary to instill the skill permanently into memory together with the mental hologram.

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.

Once a skill has been learnt in the slow stages, the team then goes full speed also known as scrimmage. Under the watchful eye of the coach, the teams play their specific skills at game speed with the offensive showcasing and defense preparing to stop the new skill appropriately. This is important for rookies so as to acclimatize their muscles and minds to real game situations. This also helps the defense with timing and reaction planning on the go. The offense team can use this to learn how to reorganize after passes and late-developing blocks. In this stage, very limited coaching takes place since the coach can only see a little of what goes on due to the speed.

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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