Tired of Weak Offensive Line Play in Youth Football? 4 Quick Tips

Here are 4 quick tips to improve your youth football teams offensive line play:

"Who" to block is as or more important than "How" to block for most youth football teams.

Even the greatest block on the wrong player can result in football plays that go for losses.

On the other hand, many times even a poorly executed block on the right player can impede the defender long enough for your team to get a descent gain out of the play.

Some things to consider:

1) In order for your team to effectively block the right player on each play, you must have a simple and sound blocking scheme and rules. Our blocking rule on most plays is GOD, inside gap, "on", unconditional down. The player looks to the inside gap first, if no one is there, they look to "on". if no one is there, they move to an unconditional down block.

2) You must teach the scheme to the players in a fashion they can understand it and where it becomes second nature to them. We do lots of first two step and freeze drills. Also assign our best coach to the offensive line.

3) Your offense must take the time during practice to make sure that every play is run perfectly. Make sure the correct player is being blocked every play and with proper first steps and head placement using methods like "birddogging" and fit and freezing. These methods include the offensive line taking steps on your count 1-2-3-4 and "fitting" on the defender he is to block. This is a slow motion drill, not live scrimmaging.

4) Technique is important too, but "Who" to block is often the most neglected area with most youth football teams.

150 free youth football coaching tips for you here: Youth Football

Copyright 2006 Cisar Management, All rigths reserved.

Dave Cisar- 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 at all levels and age groups while retaining 90% of his kids.

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. Sign up for his free newsletter here: free newsletter coaching tips and he can be reached at dacisar@aol.com

Should You Script Football Plays in Youth Football?

Many great High School, College and Pro coaches script plays. Ken Hofer, the Single Wing Legend from Menominee High School in Michigan scripts his first 15 plays or so. He likes to see how the defense lines up and how specific defenders respond to certain football plays in his playbook. I’ve watched many Menominee games and often thought the play calling was a bit odd in the first possession or two. The Maroons didn’t seem to move the ball as well as normal in their first two possessions, and ran a different play on each snap. On subsequent possessions they seemed nearly unstoppable. It became obvious Coach Hofer was scripting his first 10-15 plays.

When coaching youth football, you are under different constraints than the High School guys. The quarters are just 10 minutes long in most cases instead of 12 minutes at the High School level. The youth games move slower so there are far fewer possessions, each possession then becomes very important. Using up an entire possession or 2 or 3 to follow a script may put your youth football team in a hole that may be difficult to crawl out of.

A hybrid way to get some of the benefit of scripting without giving up 2-3 possessions is to scout for just your base play and a handful of your “homerun” plays. An example would be on your off-tackle run, make sure and scout the playside defensive end, if he’s boxing keep running off-tackle, if he’s a rush end, run the sweep. On wedge plays see how hard the weakside defensive tackle is coming, if he’s charging hard, run a trap play, if not charging hard keep wedging. On sweep plays if the playside corner is sitting back keep running the sweep, if he is coming hard, throw the sweep pass. On the sweep, if the backside defensive end and corner bail out, run the reverse. All this is detailed in Chapter 13 my book “Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan” along with our “Quick Scout” and “Easy Count” scouting methods . Most youth football coaches prefer to “watch” the game rather than scout the game, you have to stay disciplined and watch your keys to determine what will work and what won’t. It is definitely more fun to watch the game than to properly scout it.

Another thing many youth football coaches fail to do well is to set up their home run plays properly. If you are running a play action pass, the run off that play has to be established well before you go for the throat on the play action pass play. In youth football, that means 5-6 times minimum. If you are running a trap or reverse, the off-tackle or sweep flow has to be there and it won’t be there if you have not run the off-tackle or sweep enough. The buck wedge series won’t work unless the wedge has been established, so on and so forth. Too many coaches get anxious and go for the throat when the opponent isn’t quite ready yet for the “kill shot”.

I go into a game with a script for the first 6 plays or so. I'm going to scout specific defenders on each of those plays to help determine what I’m going to call most of the game. Then I have mini scripts of 4 play series that I’m going to run as the game unfolds, each mini script is designed to set up a home run play in the series or something in the next possession. I also remind myself to try and work in a certain play or two we may have neglected or need work on. In the meantime I’m making sure the defense has to stop our base football play, if they don’t I’m going to keep running it until they over adjust, then they get hit with that plays complementary play for a long gain. Too many youth football coaches don’t pound a play that is working enough. Make the defense do something they aren’t used to doing, make the overcompensate for that football play, then hit the weakness it exposes.

For more useful youth football coaching tips please go to:

Youth Football

Copyright 2007 Cisar Management

Republishing permitted if links are kept intact.

Dave Cisar- 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 at all levels and age groups while retaining 90% of his kids.

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 web site is http://www.winningyouthfootball.com

Are you Ready For Fantasy Football?

To be honest, I knew very little about fantasy football. I was one of those sports fans who follows football when it is in season, watches some games on TV, follows games on the internet, somehow remembers every score and stat, and then gets really excited during the playoffs and, of course, the Super Bowl. I don't have the time or money to go see actual NFL games, though I am sure I'd greatly enjoy them.

Anyway, I kept seeing ads for fantasy football online and in other places wondered what it was, so I did some research. Apparently, fantasy football is a sports game for those who want to be involved with football all year round. And not just involved as in watching games, but actually owning, managing and running a "fantasy" football team. When the real football season starts - and it can be the NFL or a division of the NCAA or some other league - scores in the fantasy football leagues are determined by using statistics compiled by actual players.

Who started fantasy football, and when? It all goes back almost 50 years when a limited partner in the Oakland Raiders and some of his sports writer and editor friends cooked up the idea during a long road trip. When they got back, they started the first fantasy football league. Initially, it was hard to form leagues and keep the information flowing, but then came personal computers and finally the Web. Today, fantasy football is big business and fantasy football team fanatics are being courted by television networks and advertisers because they watch more games, buy more tickets, and spend more on their sport than average fans.

But how does it all work? The big attraction of fantasy football is that it's not just watching games. Fantasy football is living the game and actively participating in it. You pick a team, you draft players, you follow rules, you observe salary caps and negotiate contracts. Franchise owners may have to pay (fictional) taxes, trade players, and, of course, try to win games and championships, establish dynasties or make to a coveted Hall of Fame. Things can get quite competitive, but you make friends in the process and many of the same teams play each other season after season.

Fantasy football games have as many rules as the real thing. Scoring can be complex as it depends on the stats of actual players on actual teams. And since fantasy league teams have players from a number of teams, a fantasy franchise owner often doesn't know which real-world team he should root for! What's important here is that the real performance and stats of real players in real games decides how well your fantasy team does. So picking and drafting the right players is very important.

How do you get started with this fascinating and addictive pastime? Fantasy football information is easy to come by on the web. Look around, check some of the many leagues, and then sign up with one and become a team owner. There are any number of leagues with different flavors and rules (the commissioner usually determines the scoring system). Some leagues cost a lot, but others are affordable and suit the novice as well as the expert fantasy football player. Give it a shot!

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Are you Ready For Fantasy Football? or Majon's Sports directory