Building Chemistry When Coaching Youth Football
The best youth football coaches are not only very good X and O guys and great teachers, they are outstanding at bringing their teams together. One of the best I've seen at doing that is my friend Tony Holland from Baltimore. Tony has been using our system for the last 3 years and has had some amazing results. He has some very unique techniques he uses to bring his teams together. Tony is a voracious learner and has taken some concepts he has used so successfully in his business and applied it to his youth football team to make it better and improve the experience for his kids.
Laying the Foundation of Your Youth Football Team
Like us, Tony divides his team into multiple groups of 5-6 players. We do the same and assign a coach to each group and allow the group to name their little "team". By organizing your team in this way the kids feel more connected. When you are running circuit type drills and take a break, it is much easier calling out each group by name and sending that group to the next station. The kids often take pride in their little group. We've found when doing competitive drills or the fun team building drills from the group, the kids have more fun and effort greater when there is competition between groups. By keeping kids in those smaller groups, the kids connect quicker and deeper which in turn improves their fun and commitment levels.
Laying The Solid Rock Foundation
Tony takes this a step further. Before the season, Tony goes to Walmart and buys a bunch of small smooth round rocks. His team is the Ravens, so Tony spray paints each rock purple and puts Ravens stickers on each rock. After each practice the coach of each of the groups awards a rock to one player in his group who has listened the best and efforted the hardest. Each coach hands out the rock to his group winner before the entire team at the end of each practice. Tony said his kids go nuts over getting these little rocks. He calls the effort the kids put during practice as the foundation (rock) of success for his team. The foundation is built with the help of these strong little rocks that cost Tony less than .25 each.
Lifetime Lessons From Youth Football
These simple and inexpensive rocks are treasured by Tony's players. One player in fact was moving and mentioned to Tony he had put his treasured rocks in a box and made sure he got them to his new house. It was as if these rocks were his most treasured possession. He told Tony "I'm keeping my rocks forever"m which brought a huge and knowing smile to the lips of my buddy Tony. The teams parents even bought in after some initial skepticism and now are all for it after seeing the results.
Just think about this kid, 40 years from now in 2048, this same kid is moving again. He is now 49 years old and loading his belongings into the moving truck. he takes a look at that last small box from the attic. In that box are a few old scrapbooks, some old kids trophies and his little box of treasured rocks from Tony Holland, he got back in 2008. 40 years from now that player will still remember Tony and his lessons on effort, commitment and team work. How many other people are going to remember you 40 years from now? Think about that.
If you are coaching youth football, my good friend Tony is definitely one of the guys you want to emulate if you want those kind of permanent lessons ingrained into your players.
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 90% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.
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