Has Recruiting Ruined Youth Football?

Recruiting Has Gone Mad in Youth Football

The private coaches/team clinics I do all across the country for youth football teams are interesting to say the least. Many of the coaches share thought provoking stories of their teams, leagues and opponents. While I always enjoy working with the coaches and kids, what I enjoy most is going out to dinner with the coaches after we get done and just listening to these stories, sharing a few laughs and learning about the nuances of how things are done in their neck of the woods. The trip I’m speaking of and the story you are about to hear made me laugh so hard I think the waitress and patrons thought I was having some kind of attack or maybe had choked on some food and needed the Hymlich Maneuver.

A fairly recent trip showed me the extent youth football coaches will go to put a winner on the football field. I’ve been coaching youth football for about 15 years and coached in 3 different organizations in 3 different towns in 7 different leagues. I’ve been to football clinics from California to Florida and talked with literally thousands of youth football coaches, I thought I had heard it all, but this story takes the cake. During a very tasty dinner at a local restaurant, coach shared with me a rather amazing story about the extent one youth football coach in his league went to so his team could maintain their dominance in the league. Many competitive youth football teams have to recruit players every year to get enough kids to put together a team or teams. While it is a necessity for most, it is a year-round obsession for others and for some they go off the deep end.

This story starts out with a very big and fast running back that moves from the local area his team is in, to a town right at an hour away. This new town mind you is a hotbed for youth football and has plenty of quality teams the boy can play for. But instead of playing for a team in his new home and making new friends, the player continues to play for his old team over an hour away. In addition to this wackiness, the coach drives the hour to pick him up every Friday, has him sleep at his home and then drives him back home after the game on Saturday. This coach logs 4 hours of drive time every weekend so this player can play on his youth football team. Is it just me or does this sound lame to anyone?

To have such little confidence in your team and coaching abilities that you would spend 4 hours driving every weekend to pick up a kid to “carry” your team is just weak in my mind. This kid only came to games, he did not practice with his team during the week. Why not play a local kid, coach everyone up and make due with the team you have? What kind of message is this sending to this teams players and to this “superstar”? You guys can’t win without the star, football is a one man game, you don’t have to practice to play, teamwork counts for nothing etc etc. A good coach adapts and will figure out a way to compete with the hand that was dealt him, not rely on one superstar to carry his youth football team. This came from an organization that dominates this youth football league. But a coach this desperate for wins is vulnerable, obviously he doesn’t think much of his coaching ability and thinks talent is all that matters in youth football. What’s next, flying kids in for games?

This same "coach" often tries to pull the rug out from under the teams in his league. My friend learned this the hard way, this opposing coach actually showed up at the homes of several of his players to convince their mothers to come play football for his team. This coach actually drives by my friends practice field, goes into the neighborhood to ask where the kids live and shows up on their doorsteps with his song and dance about playing football for him. Fortunately for my friend, his players and parents just adore him so the only thing generated from these escapades in an immediate phone call from mom to my friend to report the shenannigans. This "coach" even had the audacity to "be in the neighborhood" when my friend put on his team barbeque, he even stopped by to say hello and talk some football. My friend is more patient with this person than I might have been.

While recruiting is necessary in youth football, it can be overemphasized to the detriment of the program. Many youth football coaches mistakenly think they HAVE to have the best players to win championships. When their teams lose games they often look at personnel as the reason they lost rather than looking at schemes to counter the other teams personnel or improving their own team. Good coaches concentrate their effrots on working on the aspects of the game they can control. Blaming losses on personnel mismatches frees the youth coach of personal blame, (he can't control the talent levels of the other team) while in reality no youth football team should allow one player to beat them. Recruiting star players or driving 4 hours to pick one up every weekend are shortcuts to success, it is the easy way out. Good coaches put the time in to become better coaches so they don't need star players to win or have to cut corners and make accomodations for "star" players.

In youth football I see less talented teams competing and beating much better teams every week. I see this in our league as well as in every league I’ve ever coached in and in the regional and national tournaments I’ve gone to. I see it in the tapes and DVDs people send me every week. Good coaching nearly every time trumps talent in youth football. Now I’m not saying the weakest team can win it all, But the weakest of teams if coached well can compete and finish .500. The average talent team can vie for and even win league titles with good coaching. Meanwhile the best talented teams and poorly coached teams don’t always win it all and can in fact end up to be a .500 team.

If recruiting is allowed in your youth football league, most often you need to recruit. But don’t obsess over it and don’t get down if you don’t recruit the monsters of the midway. My most satisfying seasons were by far the ones we clearly had very little size or talent, yet came together and played very well. Nearly all well coached youth football teams can compete if they have the right priorities, scheme and well defined vision for success and if you have average talent you can even win championships.

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Dave Cisar-With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams that has enabled his personal teams to win 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.rnrn Dave is a trainer of youth football coaches nationwide. He has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized, while having fun and retaining players. His book “Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan” was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His DVDs and book have been used by teams nationwide to run integrity based programs that win championships. His web site is: Football Plays

Youth Football Practices, Fun Increases Competitiveness - it is Your Friend, See How

Having Fun and Being Competitive Are NOT Mutually Exclusive

First let's start off by establishing, you can have fun, play all your kids, teach great fundamentals and play well (win), these aren't somehow mutually exclusive goals like some soccer moms or perennial losing coaches would like you to believe. But I've also been challenged by some of the win-at-all costs guys or the skeptical negative naybobs of negativism that you can't interject fun into everything you do in youth football. One of these cheerful guys once challenged me to make an angle form fit and freeze tackling drill fun.

How To Interject Fun Into the Most Mundane Drill

While this very important drill is probably one of the few drills we do every day in practice, it can be a very vanilla and bland drill. These are the EXACT type of drills you HAVE to make fun, otherwise the kids end up just going through the motions on the drill instead of getting the full benefit of it.

First, let's describe the Angle Form Fit Tackling Drill: 2 players facing the same direction (towards the coach) about 10-12 yards apart. The coach is about 7 -10 yards in front of the players, he is standing in-between the 2 players 10 yard spacing. The "defender" is in his defensive position stance, whatever that may be. The "offensive" player is standing in a 2 point stance. On "go" each player jogs at about 1/3 speed toward the coach, so each player is running at about a 45 degree angle. The players converge just in front of the coach, with the 'defender" executing a "fit" form tackle on the offensive player. The coaching points we are looking for are: defenders feet nearly on top of the feet of the "offensive" player, knees bent, feet just wider than shoulder length apart, head up and in front of the offensive player, backside shoulder making contact with the offensive players midsection, and arms wrapped completely around the offensive players midsection. Upon contact each player freezes and the coach corrects any mistakes, once the coach taps the players on the head or says "go" they can come off the "freeze" and go to the end of the line.

Pace is Key

You can do this at a pace of 4-5 per minute; I do mine at a pace of 6-10 per minute. Do this in very small groups of 6 or 8, get several groups going and remember to alternate which line is offense and defense so the kids get used to tackling from both angles. This drill is part of our dynamic warm up, where our goal is to get blood flow to the muscles as well as teach a very important football skill. You can't accomplish this goal if the pace is not quick and the lines are too long. The pace should be such that the kids are breathing a bit heavier than normal, but not winded.

To interject some "fun" into this very important but monotonous drill is fairly simple. Divide the group into 2 teams of 3-4 players each. Team A is in line 1, team B is line 2. Alternate each rep the line that is the designated tackler. See which team can get to 5 perfect "fits" first. A perfect "fit" is a repetition where every coaching point is met perfectly by the tackler. As the kids get better, move the number to 10 perfect fits. The losing team has to do 5 pushups. Another way to do this is to see how many perfect "fits" in a row each team can do. Once a team makes a mistake they have to start back at zero. The first team to 10 perfect fits in a row, wins, with the losing team doing 5 pushups. Another way to do this drill is to have a team record. Keep the teams the same every practice and see which team can set the record of the most perfect "fits" in row.

Why it Works

Youth football players love competition, setting records and making their counterparts do pushups, so adding this into a drill will make them more focused and motivated to do the drill correctly. It also exerts some peer pressure on the players in their respective groups to stay focused, as no one wants to be the player that breaks the streak.

Fun is Your Friend

Remember that fun is your friend. Competition is just one component of many that you can use to make your football practices more fun. The book covers many more. Making your practices fun without giving up anything is just good coaching, Not only will your players be more attentive, your attendance and retention numbers will be off the charts.

I'm always perplexed by coaches that e-mail me about attendance issues or retention problems. While much of it can be solved through the expectation setting process and player contracts detailed in the book, a lot of the problem is solved by having great practice plans and interjecting a fun component to each drill.

Since moving to this practice methodology we have consistently had about 80% of the kids with perfect practice attendance. Our drops are almost non-existent and our retention numbers (kids who sign up again the following year) range from 90-95%. This season we have 97.5% of the kids back from two teams I coached last year.

Building the Emotional Bank Account

Another thing interjecting fun into your drills and practice does for your youth football team is it builds up your "emotional bank account" with your parents. Steven Covey talks about an imaginary bank account we all have with each other, where we are always making deposits and taking withdrawals. By having interjecting fun and the enthusiasm it generates into your football practices, you are making deposits into that emotional bank account of your parents. When it comes time to do something they don't like, like moving Junior from tailback to tight end, (making a withdrawal) the parents are more apt to be accepting if you have made a bunch of deposits along the way.

Fun is your friend; use it to make your youth football team better.

Dave Cisar-

Dave has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized. He 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.

With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 94% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

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How to mix Basketball, football and gym, By Kraouvic

How to mix Basketball, football and gym, By Kraouvic. For more awesome football tricks... www.soccershowdown.com For more crazy www.youtube.com



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