It cooled down to 88 degrees or so, so much nicer day today and even a 5-10 mph breeze. We are not in pads yet and started off with our normal dynamic warm ups of jumping jacks, high knees form stance on cadence, butt kickers from stance on cadence, lunges and a quick yell breakout. This took us about 7 minutes, as the kids picked up well from where we left off yesterday, About 90% of our kids are in a perfect stance on every drill now, we expect the other 10% to be there by weeks end.
We have about 73 kids split into 3 teams, age 7-9, 10-11 and 12-13, about 40% are first time players. I'm head coach of all three teams.
Foot Ball Drills
We did our usual angle form and fit tackle drill, doing 1 rep every 6 seconds or so. We did 8 minutes of this, By weeks end the dynamic warm up and angle form tackling fit will combined be 10 minutes long as angle form is on a jog and part of the dynamic warmup period.
Next was the snap progression drill. This drill helps us understand the players natural quickness, body control, agility and willingness to work through contact. That drill of course is in the book and goes from stance to seating the ball to running to the correct hole and 10 yards to running the hole squeezing between two coaches holding/pushing hand shield dummies together and the last progression adding a gauntlet.
Our first break included a review and "quiz" of the hole back and hole numbering using the touch method in the book. Coaches had already made many of their line/backs decisions after our first practice and evaluation period, but the snap progression and gauntlet helped them decide on the kids that were sitting on the fence.
The line worked on our 2 step offensive lineman drill. We worked at least 8 minutes just on the first step and added the second step in about 5 minutes, working both in unison for about 3 minutes after freezing on the first step. We then moved on to dummy fit using the 2 steps and then on to the 2 steps with dummy fit adding the drive for 5 yards. Next the line worked our crab blocking progression. Last we walked though the base blocking rule going through it in a progression. Even the youngest kids seemed to do real well, when we did our "quiz" we were getting about 95% correct answers. Lastly we grouped each o-line up and formed them into what we think will be their positions, got into the correct splits and did group 2 step drills in formation with backups rotating every snap. We were going on cadence and getting a new snap in about every 7 seconds.
Meanwhile the backs were going a modified gauntlet drill with a shield squeeze at the end. We worked 10 yard pass catching progression starting with stationary above the waist catches, then 10 yard below the waist catches, all using the progression in the book with ball seating and running the ball back to the QB. They moved on to splatter blocking drills and then deer hunter to get some conditioning in.
During one break we discussed the base defense, the importance of defense and our base scheme. (5 minutes).
We ended a good practice with a more detailed discussion on our sportsmanship standard, using lots of real world examples and asking the kids what they though sportsmanship meant.
We had a few players try and test the "ready focus" communication method/standard and we had 5-6 have to take a short run for that. We had zero problems with it day 1, but kids always test limits. It is always best to take care of that all in the first week, 5-6 violations is right at the norm if not just below. We expect zero problems with that by the end of the first week.
All of these drills are detailed in words and diagrams/pictures in the book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan", or the DVDs.
On Thursday we will be in full pads, stay tuned for more.
Youth Football 2008 - Our Second Practice of the Year
Dave Cisar-
Dave is a Nike "Coach of the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His personal teams using this system to date have won 94% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.
To Sign up for his free tips and drills newsletter or to view 325 free youth football coaching tips go to: Youth Football Practice
A Video Taste of Dave's teams:
Youth Football Practice [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-699579089183056593&q=youth+football&ei=6CJRSJ-gEJOg4ALIt5W8DA&hl=en]
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