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.

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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

Getting Kids to Want to Play Offensive Line in Youth Football

This past weekend we had the pleasure of speaking at the Baltimore Glazier Clinic.

Not only were there at least 20 youth football coaches there that are running my system, I got to sit in on some excellent presentations myself. There were even two brave souls from North Carolina that had driven about 6 hours to get there. No wonder these gusy team had gone 9-1 last season, they were two focused guys.

Worst to First Story

Scott Burton from Richmond University really impressed me and I'm going to share a couple of very simple things he talked about that you can do to help develop your offensive linemen. Scott just started at Richmond this season. The past 10 years he has been the Head Football Coach at Highland Springs High School in Virginia, a very down, low on numbers inner-city team. Before he got there the program had fallen on hard times, the team was 1-19 the two previous seasons before Scott got there. Under Scott they made the playoffs 7 of 10 years and were even District Champs twice. He finished 72-26 at a place most thought no one could win at. He is the kind of guy I like listening to, he's had success, he knows how to get the job done and did it from virtual scratch. My kind of football coach, a real up and comer, he is one of those young on fire, no excuses types I would love my kids to play for.

His first order of business as a head coach of this 1700 student school at age 25 was to get the kids to believe in his processes and system. He suffered a lot of initial resistance both from players, parents and imbedded coaches. The way he sold it to them is that while he was only 25 he had been successful with his previous team, and he was very confident he had a "recipe" for success, those were his exact words. He said "I told the players all cakes need oil, flour and eggs, but if you put 18 eggs into the cake rather than 2 that the recipe calls for, the cake probably isn't going to turn out very well. If you follow me I'm going to give you a recipe that if you decide to follow it, is going to make a very good cake". Scott got the kids to believe in him because he was consistent, had a vision, a concrete plan and they trusted him.

Offensive Line Tips For Those Coaching Youth Football

He also had a real tough time with his offensive linemen, he didn't have any, no one wanted to play offensive line on this team. Scott was a defensive back in college, but became the offensive line coach out of necessity and made the offensive line something very special at Highland Springs. He did things like: all the lineman drank water first during breaks, the offensive linemen were written up in the newspaper each week, no individual pictures in the newspaper all team shots and the linemen got to do special drills that no one else got to run. For conditioning for the offensive linemen he did 40 yard fumble "scoop and score" drills, where the lineman were allowed to spike the ball as they entered the endzone. He had special t-shirts made for his offensive linemen and gave them an acronym ACT, he would not share with us what ACT meant. His linemen were also not allowed to tell ANYONE what it meant. It was like the offensive linemen were in some type of exclusive fraternity or something. The more exclusive they became, the more kids wanted to be an offensive linemen and the better they played.

Haven't We Heard This Before?

For you that have my book, doesn't that sound familiar, and aren't all of those specific points in the book, minus the scoop and score drill, which we will add next year? I was amening the heck out of him like he was some type of on fire Evangelist and I was in church. I was nodding so much during this presentation, I think I hurt my neck.

Scott didn't talk about a single scheme, playbook or even any football plays, he talked about developing trust and having fun with his football team. It was his opinion that this had much more to do with the turnaround than did his schemes or football plays.

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Football Plays 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

Coaching Youth Football - Offensive Line

The offensive lineman is the unsung hero of any good offense. He is not always recognized as the hero of the game. But without him the backs can't run anywhere. NO line, NO scoring, NO winning. This tells me the better the offensive line the better the team. The offensive line is a team within a team. They have to play as a unit from left end to right end. They can and should help each other. They MUST work together.

The offensive lineman must have the determination and the mental discipline to practice different blocking assignments constantly. His blocks must be correct on every play and that can only be achieved through working hard everyday at practice. There are no shortcuts in this respect. You must practice hard if you want to get better.

Blocking is the key to any offensive game. Good offensive line play is based on a good stance, an explosive start, body control, correct hitting position on contact , delivery of a forceful block and driving your legs. The line must come off the ball as one. Explode with the snap, staying low, make contact, bring forearms and shoulders up and into his man, keeping his legs under himself and moving, driving his man out.

Remember he doesn't have to move the defensive man too far to open up the hole. You might have to move him left or right and you always want to move him back. To do this keep your body square and use short choppy steps.

I am a youth football coach. dedicated to teaching the game of football. The passion for youth sports has inspired my family and I to create a web site for helping youth coaches of all youth sports. My family has coached football, baseball, wrestling, and cheerleading for over 30 years. You can check out our web site at http://www.wecoachyouthsports.com