My First Youth Football Coaching Experience
By: Scott Lancaster, Youth Evolution Sports
Monday, August 4, 2008
If there was ever a time where the best plans were made to be broken it was today. I had spent nearly 90 minutes planning and writing out a 90-minute practice, attempting to prepare for any number of scenarios that may arise. What I failed to consider was that I was dealing with 8-year-old boys.
I showed up at the field 30 minutes prior to the start of practice to set-up. After arranging our one third of an official size football field that we shared with the fourth and fifth grade teams, all 5 coaches and 28 third graders showed up.
After an introduction of coaches, attendance, and the rules for practice, we asked each of the 28 players if they knew how to take their helmets on & off. As expected that’s when chaos erupted with kids running to their parents for help, of course chinstraps were not adjusted correctly and helmets that did not fit correctly became quite apparent. Twenty minutes later we were 30 minutes into our practice. Originally I had projected, naively, one third of our practice would be complete, when in fact we had not even begun.
The practice objectives were originally to include the following introduced through 5,10,and 15 minute segments.
- Organization & Team Rules
- Acclimate with Helmets
- Fun/Throwing, Catching, Movement Skill Development
- Fun/Conditioning Drills
- Fun/Skill Development Competitions
Teach:
- Stances
- Offensive Position Explanation
- Throwing techniques
- Catching techniques
Due to the slow unexpected yet understandable start, and longer than planned water breaks, we were successful to begin to acclimate them to helmets, begin to introduce throwing and catching techniques (which is important when getting them used to their helmets), provide a basic introduction to the three different stances (2,3 & 4 point), and successfully execute a fun conditioning/movement drill.
What we did not accomplish but I quickly learned was 8 year olds need additional time for repeated demonstrations in conjunction with time to experience either the movement or technique introduced repeatedly & briefly throughout each practice. This allows for muscle memory to naturally take over. For example, the most important body position and foundation to every stance and movement in football, the breakdown position, is something that we need to repeat throughout every practice on a regular basis. Kids have difficulty in getting their bodies into this uncomfortable yet vital athletic position.
The breakdown position technique and execution also served as an organizational and focus tool, going a long way in combating an 8 year-olds limited ability to focus for any extended period of time. What worked wonders and brought the entire team to focus at any given moment was when we required all of the players to immediately get into a breakdown position wherever they were on the field when they heard a whistle followed by the command “breakdown”. To further emphasize this command, and get them to further focus on the stance we required the entire team to also yell “breakdown” when a coach shouted the command out. This did wonders in bringing everything quickly to order.
For a first day of practice we were successful conducting a fast paced practice by never dwelling for long periods of time on any one drill or technique, and finishing the practice with a fun continuous moving competition called Ultimate Football where everyone was moving, changing direction, throwing, catching, and working together to score points without any stoppage time. Every kid left with a smile on their face and hopefully excited to return on Tuesday night.