Youth Football Coaching Help????

[StinkyFish]

I am one of 5 coaches on my sons 5-6 grade football team and we have a handfull of boys ( 4 or 5 ) that just wont commit to making contact, tackeling or blocking. If anyboady has some tips that might help it would be greatly appreciated. I dont want to break these boys so they wont ever play the game again. I just want them to pick of the intensity and make stronger effort. I know not every kid is a superstar but as a coach I want to develop them the best I can. thanks again for any advise.

Coach

[StickFish]

That is the fun part of the game and practice - hitting someone. I loved that part rung my bell hitting some bigger guys a few times, leveled a QB every now and again, gotten stuck myself and got the scars on my head to go with em too!

Motivating today's kids I hear ya some just won't commit. I don't coach football so I'm no help to ya there. I coach Junior racquetball and when I find a kid (boy or girl) that needs to learn how to throw themselves into the game and has the rest of the skill set but just won't engage - I invite them to come watch a high level match - get the excitement up. Maybe talk to you local high school coach see if you can bring a couple kids by the watch practice one day. Heck I've even partnered up on the adult challenge court with them to play for fun - show them that coach has some game see the effort level it takes. Only reason anyone is any good is effort.

Had this one girl last year, she moved mid season and she was just starting to catch on. Could hit the ball, but making her move took an act of congress. I tried a bunch of stuff, one day I over heard her talking about a younger sibling always getting into her stuff. Next one-on-one, we talked about the younger sister it turned out. So she makes ya mad does she how mad does she make you. I bet I can walk to a ball faster than you can run, but if your sister was me I bet you'd beat her to the ball - next thing I know she is running. That weekend she won her first doubles match - should have seen that smile - that is what it is all about.

[sschwab]

Ask the boys what they want our of their experience playing football, and then give it to them.

Youth football is about fun. When it becomes fun to block and tackle aggressively, they'll do it.

Start with stationary tackling dummies, move to coach held pads, then to side angle tackling of live players going half speed. Teach body position and angles. Once they understand the techniques, they will feel more comfortable and increase their intensity.

DO NOT line them up straight on and instruct them to crush each other. It hardly ever happens that way in a game, and there is a much higher likelihood of a bad result.

If you were trying something new that you thought might be fun, but ended up hurting yourself every time you tried it, would you want to continue?

Try one of Anthony Newman's camps or clinics next summer. And encourage your kids to go. He makes football fun.

[Ghost hunter]

I think a lot of it falls on the coaches at this age. I'm a parent of the 5 / 6th grade youth football, and our coaches get 100% out of the kids. Our record shows it too Also the coaches involve us parents, every available dad or mom is holding pads or involved in some manner or another.

[dre5063]

I have dealt with this very same issue with my sons when they played football. I have two suggestions...both of which have worked for me.

The first one is one I used just 2 weeks ago. I took my son, in pads, and showed him the difference between hitting with his shoulder and hitting someone body to body. What I had noticed was he was afraid to hit someone so he would approach more in a full body motion. I explained the target area is much larger when you do that. Also the part of the body most exposed is the least padded (mid-section, legs, etc). I had him hit a full size tackle pad. First with just his shoulder, then with the whole body. He soon realized there was more force and more protection with his shoulder.

The second suggestions is this.....my oldest son (now 22) was very afraid to hit someone. I tried talking to him, I tried motivating him, I tried to understand what the issue was. He wanted to play ball and he was excited to practice and play in the games, just no hitting. Finally I just gave up and thought he will work this out. He played safety since he was the fastest kid on the team. Suddenly he realized that it was much easier to outrun the receiver, get position, and catch the ball instead of hitting someone. His school record of 17 interceptions in one league season still stands.

Above all, patience. The kids will work it out for themselves. Bruises heal but hard feelings don't. You'll get some who want to trade paint all day long and others who just need to find out on their own where they fit. Buy a camcorder and film every second...it will all be gone way too soon.

[RidgeRunner]

I had the same problem many years ago with the same age kids. It was a complete struggle, tried all the above mentioned ideas. Nothing worked.
So us coaches had the bench warming pep talk, told the kids if they did not give an effort , they had more of a chance of getting hurt and they would sit on the bench and watch the game. This took about two weeks, and the kids started hitting. We kept encouraging the kids they could hit better so they would not get hurt. All kids involved played the rest of the season with no injuries. The power of sitting on the bench, I don't know. But it worked for us.

[Deeman]

There are a couple of things.
First, set the proper tone. At that age, to often coaches are to intense and set the drills up that way. While it may be fine to up the pressure some for learning situations, high intensity is not conducive to getting passive kids involved at that age. Be excited, positive and loud. with the passive ones any effort is rewarded with effusive praise, and very liottle corrective action. Make sure to not correct any more than one technique flaw at a time, once they get that one move on to the next. Start with safety issues in hitting.
Second, set up fun drills with light contact that involve competition. Ex. two lines facing forward one yard apart with a coach in the middle. Bounce a ball a couple of yards call fumble and have the first two go after it. Loser does 3 push-ups (not punative but givs them something to shoot for) If you are targeting only a couple of kids, Have the coach pick who goes against who and set the shy ones up against shy ones. Be excited and get the whole team cheering for the contestents.
Another one that worked well for us was to go get a few of the cheap punching bags (get the real cheap ones they will get destroyed) Set them up in one line that forms a semi-circle so everyone can watch. At the whistle the first kid gets 5 yd run and crashes the bag. Focus on correct form and wrapping up.(make sure head is to the side because they will flip over) Be sure to loudly reward the big tumbles. before long the shy ones will forget they are shy and one of them will turn out to be your biggest hitter. PM if you want more drills for bringing them out of their shell.

[uhmw]

Most kids have no business playing football. It is a extremly violent sport that requires a level of aggresstion simular to boxing. If you took 20 kids to the top of the 10 meter platform only a few would jump and only a very small % would attempt to dive even though most phisically have the ability to do it. Most kids havent figured this out about football they just see the glory at the high school level.. Thats what pee wee football is all about. Put your hitters vs the non hitters (size simular of course). They will figure it out fairly quickly. The 5-6 graders that return next year will be ready to hit from day one.

[fishbuilder]

As a youth football defensive coach, hitting and being hit can be two difficult things to overcome for some kids. Some kids come in with the attitude that they will hit anything no matter how big they are and no matter how big the person they are to hit. Others will not hit anything or anyone!
The best thing to teach them is basic tackling fundementals for their own safety, the rest will come! if you continue to push fundementals, and continue to work on techniques.

Use blocking dummies, landing pads, and coach held pads to start the process and continue with this process through out the season. Keep on them with praise and correct form when incorrect. Work closely pushing them harder and harder through out the season, make them do it over and over until you see they understand proper methods and forms.

A little "king of the hill" at the end of every practice helps, they need to hit their own teamates from time to time to keep everything in check. Bring in outside help to get your point across from time to time, this gives them another prospective from another "expert" who may shed different light on the subject.

When other teams play us, win or lose...they know they were in a game on Saturday.
Push conditioning.....hard, better shape=better tackles!