Kickoff Coverage Techniques For Youth Football

The Indianapolis Glazier Clinic was a medium sized clinic with a small but enthusiastic contingent of youth football coaches. It was great to see guys from all the way from Cincinnatti there that ran my system last year for the first time.

I got to the clinic just in time to see some excellent speakers including a Special Teams guru that had sent a number of kickers to Division I and NFL teams. I got the chance to listen to an Illinois Hall of Fame High School coach, Mike Rude talk about the nuances of his famous Shotgun 'T' Series as well as hear a former 11 year NFL vet speak about connecting to players. I had breakfast one on one with a High School head coach from El Paso whose team set numerous Texas Passing Records. I had the pleasure of sharing a ride with fellow speaker David Tennison, the Defensive Coordinator from Jenks High School in Oklahoma and got a chance to talk with him on the 40 minute trip to the airport as well as when we waited for our flights. Jenks as many of you know is a perennial USA Today Top 10 Program. It was non stop football for 3 days and 2 nights and as usual I came away the better for the experience. We don't go to these things with the idea we are looking for new football plays or new schemes, just better ways to accomplish our goals and to see how other successful coaches and programs do things.

Kickoff Coverage

One area I thought we needed improvement on was our kickoff coverage. We onside kick with a mob or pooch kick until we are leading by 3 touchdowns, then we kick deep. Our onside and pooch kick coverage has been very good. In the last 8 seasons, we have yet to have a return for a touchdown and our recovery rates have ranged from about 5 %-30 %. Our theory is, why put the ball in the hands of the other teams best player "in space", when no one is holding a gun to your head to do so? They want the ball in that guys hands, so why do I want to give the other team exactly what they want?

Deep Kicks

What hasn't looked so good for us has been our deep kickoff coverage. We just haven't bothered to put a descent coverage scheme in place or even practice covering deep kicks. Part of my lack of coaching effort in this area comes from priorities and part comes from the fact that when we are up by 3 or more scores and kick deep we really don't care if there is a descent return or not. But if part of our charge as youth football coaches is to pursue excellence in every aspect of the game, our deep kick coverage was in need of a lot of work.

High School Legend and His Kick Coverage Concepts

Phil Acton is a High School coach with a tremendous track record of success, especially in the special teams arena. His kick off coverage team had not had a kickoff return for a touchdown in over 20 years and last season had just 2 returns go past the 30 yard line. Phil is firmly convinced the "lane theory" that most kick-off coverage teams use doesn't make much sense. He drew up a number of returns that showed the sheer silliness of this concept. If the opposing team were to receive the kick on the right hash and the returner ran the ball straight up the right hash, the kicking teams players on the left hash and to the left of the left hash would be wasted players if they stayed in their lanes. These left hash defenders could even be left unblocked, allowing the return team to use double teams and numbers to overwhelm the coverage team where the return team wanted to focus its return.

Phil had a very simple concept imparted to all his kick coverage players: keep the returner in front of and inside of you. So if you are on the left side of the returner, you would adjust your pursuit path to insure the ball carrier was in front of but also inside your right shoulder. The defenders would continue to adjust their pursuit paths to insure they were not being outflanked. Now the ball carrier instead of just having to beat 2-3 players that are in or nearby the 'lane' he chose to run in, he has to beat 8-10 defenders. Phil also suggested directional kicking so his teams had to only defend a portion of rather than the entire field. He always wanted to kick away from the most dangerous return man and make that returner run to field the football.

Kick Coverage for Youth Football

When coaching youth football it is important that you understand the importance of special teams. Your kick coverage team is not the one you load up all your non-starters on, that is a recipe for disaster. Open space tackling is something most of your non-starters don't do very well in most cases. In my book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" we give you much safer and player development friendly methods of getting those kids playing time, but it surely isn't on the kickoff team.

Youth Football Coaching Adjustment

In youth football it may make sense to add a small adjustment to this strategy. A simple way to force the ball carrier to the inside would be to position your boxing ends in positions that would force the ballcarrier to the middle of the field or better yet to one side of the field, so you have less field to defend. You could also assign your best open field tacklers to the side you are forcing to. As most of you know, I don't like to recommend anything we have not heavily field tested with a variety of teams, ages, skill sets and competition, so I'm not advocating this method just yet. But this is an area we will be looking at very closely for next season. I've never been a fan of lanes and the simple "in front of inside" method, seems to make sense and worth a hard look for next fall.

For 200 free youth football coaching tips or to sign up for Dave's free Youth Football Tips newsletter please go to:

Youth Football Coaching Copyright 2007 Cisar Management. Republishing this article is allowed if this paragraph and links are included.

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 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues. His web site is: Football Plays

Kickoff Coverage Techniques For Youth Football

The Indianapolis Glazier Clinic was a medium sized clinic with a small but enthusiastic contingent of youth football coaches. It was great to see guys from all the way from Cincinnatti there that ran my system last year for the first time.

I got to the clinic just in time to see some excellent speakers including a Special Teams guru that had sent a number of kickers to Division I and NFL teams. I got the chance to listen to an Illinois Hall of Fame High School coach, Mike Rude talk about the nuances of his famous Shotgun 'T' Series as well as hear a former 11 year NFL vet speak about connecting to players. I had breakfast one on one with a High School head coach from El Paso whose team set numerous Texas Passing Records. I had the pleasure of sharing a ride with fellow speaker David Tennison, the Defensive Coordinator from Jenks High School in Oklahoma and got a chance to talk with him on the 40 minute trip to the airport as well as when we waited for our flights. Jenks as many of you know is a perennial USA Today Top 10 Program. It was non stop football for 3 days and 2 nights and as usual I came away the better for the experience. We don't go to these things with the idea we are looking for new football plays or new schemes, just better ways to accomplish our goals and to see how other successful coaches and programs do things.

Kickoff Coverage

One area I thought we needed improvement on was our kickoff coverage. We onside kick with a mob or pooch kick until we are leading by 3 touchdowns, then we kick deep. Our onside and pooch kick coverage has been very good. In the last 8 seasons, we have yet to have a return for a touchdown and our recovery rates have ranged from about 5 %-30 %. Our theory is, why put the ball in the hands of the other teams best player "in space", when no one is holding a gun to your head to do so? They want the ball in that guys hands, so why do I want to give the other team exactly what they want?

Deep Kicks

What hasn't looked so good for us has been our deep kickoff coverage. We just haven't bothered to put a descent coverage scheme in place or even practice covering deep kicks. Part of my lack of coaching effort in this area comes from priorities and part comes from the fact that when we are up by 3 or more scores and kick deep we really don't care if there is a descent return or not. But if part of our charge as youth football coaches is to pursue excellence in every aspect of the game, our deep kick coverage was in need of a lot of work.

High School Legend and His Kick Coverage Concepts

Phil Acton is a High School coach with a tremendous track record of success, especially in the special teams arena. His kick off coverage team had not had a kickoff return for a touchdown in over 20 years and last season had just 2 returns go past the 30 yard line. Phil is firmly convinced the "lane theory" that most kick-off coverage teams use doesn't make much sense. He drew up a number of returns that showed the sheer silliness of this concept. If the opposing team were to receive the kick on the right hash and the returner ran the ball straight up the right hash, the kicking teams players on the left hash and to the left of the left hash would be wasted players if they stayed in their lanes. These left hash defenders could even be left unblocked, allowing the return team to use double teams and numbers to overwhelm the coverage team where the return team wanted to focus its return.

Phil had a very simple concept imparted to all his kick coverage players: keep the returner in front of and inside of you. So if you are on the left side of the returner, you would adjust your pursuit path to insure the ball carrier was in front of but also inside your right shoulder. The defenders would continue to adjust their pursuit paths to insure they were not being outflanked. Now the ball carrier instead of just having to beat 2-3 players that are in or nearby the 'lane' he chose to run in, he has to beat 8-10 defenders. Phil also suggested directional kicking so his teams had to only defend a portion of rather than the entire field. He always wanted to kick away from the most dangerous return man and make that returner run to field the football.

Kick Coverage for Youth Football

When coaching youth football it is important that you understand the importance of special teams. Your kick coverage team is not the one you load up all your non-starters on, that is a recipe for disaster. Open space tackling is something most of your non-starters don't do very well in most cases. In my book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" we give you much safer and player development friendly methods of getting those kids playing time, but it surely isn't on the kickoff team.

Youth Football Coaching Adjustment

In youth football it may make sense to add a small adjustment to this strategy. A simple way to force the ball carrier to the inside would be to position your boxing ends in positions that would force the ballcarrier to the middle of the field or better yet to one side of the field, so you have less field to defend. You could also assign your best open field tacklers to the side you are forcing to. As most of you know, I don't like to recommend anything we have not heavily field tested with a variety of teams, ages, skill sets and competition, so I'm not advocating this method just yet. But this is an area we will be looking at very closely for next season. I've never been a fan of lanes and the simple "in front of inside" method, seems to make sense and worth a hard look for next fall.

For 200 free youth football coaching tips or to sign up for Dave's free Youth Football Tips newsletter please go to:

Youth Football Coaching Copyright 2007 Cisar Management. Republishing this article is allowed if this paragraph and links are included.

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 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues. His web site is: Football Plays

Kickoff Coverage Drills for Youth Football

Drilling Your Kickoff Teams

Many youth football coaches don't spend a lot of time with special teams, which is a huge mistake. With proper practice priorities and a good practice methodology, every youth coach should have plenty of time to devote to developing good special teams.

While we are proponents of the onside or "pooch" kick for every kickoff, until the game is no longer in doubt, we know many coaches don't agree with that and would prefer to put the ball in the hands of the other teams best player "in space" and take their chances.

Repping the deep kick coverage can be quite a chore and often results in injured players. Here are some ideas to rep it during football practice without banging your kids all up:

Some More Ideas for the Youth Football Coach on Kick Coverage:

Deep Kick Coverage Reps

One simple way to practice covering kickoffs is to drill it going horizontal on your field, using the yard lines as boundaries for your drills. You can set one kick coverage player every 5 yards, squarely in the middle of every 5 yard marking. Start this drill with each coverage player lined up on the sidelines facing the opposite sidelines. To simulate blocking, you can have one offensive player set up as a blocker with a hand shield, 10 yards in front of each defender. Have your kicker kick with the cover team sprinting on the kick and staying in their 'lanes' for the first 15 yards. The defenders initial goal is to sprint in his lane and avoid contact with the blocker with the shield. If the defender can not avoid contact without going out of his boundary lane, he would execute a swim, rip or other 2 handed hand move to move off the blocker.

Adding a Return Component

If you are using the recommended "keep in front of/keep the runner inside" kick coverage technique (keep the runner in front of, and inside of the defender) you can add a returner and test your cover kids ability to keep the returner inside and in front of themselves. The keys are to make sure the cover players can avoid or get past initial resistance and take proper pursuit angles under control. Do not let the cover kids tackle the returner, have them fit on him or tackle to thud, not to the ground.

Covering kicks needs to be practiced but if you do it full speed and tackle to the ground with full blocking, you are asking for trouble. Drilling coverage in the above fashion will allow your defenders the repetitions of avoiding and coming off blocks while practicing proper pursuit techniques. Leave the tackling for your tackling drills.

If you can't practice on a real field with markings, use cones or practice jerseys as boundaries. Coaching Youth Football well is more than having a few good football plays, it means you are setting good priorities and practicing special teams in a way that simulates what is going to happen in a game without the full danger of injuries. This is also a very good conditioning drill if you need to build up endurance in your team.

For 200 free youth football coaching tips or to sign up for Dave's free Youth Football Tips newsletter please go to:

Football Coaching Copyright 2007 Cisar Management. Republishing this article is allowed if this paragraph and links are included.

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 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues. His web site is: Football Plays