Youth Football Practice, Your Fourth Practice of the 2008 Season

This is a continuation of the football practice schedule my three youth football teams are following for the 2008 season as well as comments on the progress of all three teams age 7-9, 10-11 and 12-13.

We gave the kids Friday-Sunday off. While most of our competition is practicing 5 days per week, we feel very confident that using the practice methodology we employ along with the proper pace and priorities, we will be able to compete. We believe that youth football players should be really looking forward to practice and are going to make sure no one gets "burned out", while preparing the kids for our first game on 8/23. This is the earliest game we have ever played and the least amount of practice time I've ever had in coaching youth football for over 15 years.

We got started with the base dynamic warm ups, team fit form tackle and angle form tackling, We are easily getting done with all of this in 10 minutes, the pace is where we want it and everyone is breathing a bit heavy at the end of it. Coaches are getting the hang of the perfection we are looking for and the super fast pace, where each small group of 6 kids is getting a rep about every 6 seconds.

Today was a defensive day and our second day in pads.

We worked 20 minutes competitive group tacking drills, loser goes to left group, winner to right group, Close quarters tackling drills and for those progressing well, 3 slot challenge tackling drills. For those struggling, back to the form splatter tackling drills.

The competitive group tackling process helped us determine where kids were going to play on defense. We had a real good idea based on last weeks practice, but this helped us on the kids sitting on the fence. Our coaches all have a detailed description of each position and the traits required to play each position.

We divided up into and did the following for 30 minutes:

Linebackers-Open Field tackling and block shedding drills

D-backs- backpedal, 45 degree break on backpedal, Cover Post, Out

D-Linemen- Bull Rush move, Swim Move, Both moves then form tackle fit

Bearcrawlers- Bearcrawler progression per the book, relay, squeeze, squeeze to form tackle fit

D-Ends- Base alignment, base move, versus lead block sweep, versus coaches as scout on sweep, reverse, off-tackle

Team Defense 40 minutes- 3 steps and stop on ball movement, versus double tight full house, versus double tight wing, versus split with slot

Subbing every play- Every player has both an offensive and defensive position

The with coaches running backfield, sweep, boot, reverse, dive, off-tackle, play action

20 minutes Kicker tryouts-Younger team

10 minutes "game time" Deer Hunter, Dummy Relay Races

Older team 20 minutes - Punt and Kickoff teams

Stay tuned for more developments.

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management

Republishing allowed if links are kept intact

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 94% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

To Sign up for his free tips and drills newsletter or to view 325 free youth football coaching tips go to: Football Plays

A Video Taste of Dave's teams:
Youth Football

How to Get Kids to Come to Football Practice in Youth Football

Our offense and defense is not based on beating a team with overwhelming talent, it is based on scheme, teamwork and technique. We simply can’t get those all in sync unless we consistently get all the kids together.

On the very first day of football practice during that mandatory parents meeting, we talk in depth about the attendance requirements that are required to have the privilege of playing on our youth football team. We have a very hard 2 strikes and you’re out policy, two unexcused absences and we pick up your gear. Two excused absences means a reduction in playing time. Our definition of an excused absence is for a church sponsored education event or ritual, a school sponsored mandatory educational event (not skate parties) or a family wedding or funeral. If a player is so sick he is not in school, he gets a pass as well ,we check on him via his classmates. A coach must be contacted ahead of time for the absence to be defined as excused. We make it very clear we do not negotiate off of this standard and the player signs a contract agreeing to these terms. We do not allow the practices or games of other sports to ever take priority over our football practices or games.

Since we practice less than any youth football team in our league, it is imperative we get 100% attendance at practice. We feel because of our unique practice methodology, pace and priorities, we can get as much or more done in one of our typical 2 hour practices than most of our competition can get done in 2 practices.

In my 2 year study of successful and poor youth football teams, there was no direct correlation of more practice time equating to wins. In fact many of the perennial poor teams I studied started earlier and practiced more than the successful teams I studied. The keys were priorities, pace and scheme.

If we have an injured player, we require he attends practice and watches. If we have a player that is falling behind in his schoolwork, we require that he attends football practice with his books and homework and does his schoolwork off to the side while we practice. We let those kids know we are disappointed in them, we need them, their team mates need them, they are letting the team down and they need to get the schoolwork squared up ASAP. The peer pressure this brings to bear means we rarely see this problem rear its ugly head.

In 1998, first year we had this attendance policy we lost just 1 player and this was with a team right across the street from Omaha’s most violent housing projects, with very little parental involvement and support. In 1999 we had some kids that were suffering some major issues not under their control at home and I came off the standard, our attendance plummeted and our drop rates spiraled upward. The next year we went back to the original standard and again we had very high attendance numbers, so we have stuck with the hard standard ever since. In the last 4 seasons I have lost just 2-3 players due to them not meeting the attendance standard.

It just isn't fair to the kids that come to football practice every day for a coach to start or even play a player that has unexcused absences. You crush the spirit of the loyal hard working kids that see that being consistent and working hard gets them no reward, it matters little. Is that the kind of lesson we want the kids to learn? Is winning that next game more important than teaching all the kids life lessons? Let's not even get into the parent hassles you solve by linking attendance to playing time or even inclusion on your team.

Part of our success may come from our practice methodology and the fact our football practices have segments that are a lot of fun. It may also come from the fact we practice less than our competitors, ease our kids into contact and do lots of fit and freeze technique drills rather than dulling and beating the kids up with large space full contact drills. Our kids are itching to come to practice, not dreading it.

When a player does choose to have that second unexcused absence we make sure to pick up his gear and leave it in a pile at football practice right in the cal lines to remind our players how serious we are about attendance. If we give the kids and even parents a free pass on this, what kind of lessons are we teaching? Won’t the player be required to attend school or how about when it comes time for him to work, won’t he be required to attend there regularly?

When coaching youth football remember you have a duty to that player beyond football. Holding him accountable to a standard may be the biggest “favor” you ever do for them. Have an attendance standard and stick to it, no matter the short term pain it causes you or your team. In the end it is what’s best for your kids and your team. It will earn you the respect of your players and parents in the end.

Click here to sign up for Dave’s free youth football coaching newsletter filled with great football coaching tips:
Youth Football [http://winningyouthfootball.com/author]

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.

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 Practice - Assessing Your Talent Levels

Taking a Peek at Next Years Teams

Many coaches like to know what kinds of kids I have to work with so they can make comparisons with what they have. My guess is our experiences are fairly similar.

FASST Peek

While running our FASST program it's hard not to take a peek at a few of the new players coming in. Like most of you, looking at the new players is like opening a box of chocolates, you are always hopeful, but you never know what you are going to get. When your teams have huge gaps to fill, those hopeful thoughts can almost be thoughts of desperation.

As many of you know I'm head coaching 3 teams this season for a variety of reasons, an age 7-9 team, an age 10-11 team and an age 12-13 team. Every team has it's own unique strengths, weaknesses, personality and needs. All three of these teams are incredibly different from one another.

Age 7-9 Team

Here is how next years squads stack up:

The age 7-9 team finished 7-2 but really came on strong at the end, winning 7 games in a row. At seasons end we were averaging about 30 points a game and no one wanted to play us. This was the youngest team in the league and all but 3 of our players were brand new to youth football. All of the players on this team signed up to play again but a few aged out to the next age bracket.

We have our entire starting offensive line back and all are "stripers" meaning they are over the running back weight. This is a very unusual group and we even have 2 new kids that are 'striper" weight as well. We are almost always one of the smallest teams in the league, so this will be a welcome change. We have our starting Wingback back, but will move him to "Quarterback" as he did get a few snaps at that position last season and can handle the position. All of our other starting running backs moved up, so that will be our challenge. About 70% of our touchdown scoring moved up to the next age group. On defense we lost one starting defensive end, one starting linebacker and one starting corner. While this sounds like a lot, it isn't anything compared to what we had to work with last year with this group, they were almost all rookies. We have a real nice coaching staff with this group including 3 returners. This team should be very solid and has potential to be one of the better offensive lines I've coached. We will need more out of our right tight end on this team or find a replacement. If we find a descent blocking back and an average wingback and fullback we should be able to average about 40 points a game with this group.

Age 10-11 Team

The age 10-11 team had every player but 1 sign back up to play again. This team went 9-1 last season, "mercy ruling" 9 opponents. Unfortunately, most of the starters from this team are moving up to the age 12-13 team. There are just 6 players back on this team and only 2 were starters. With the younger players moving up, we can fill a number of holes, but we will be by far the smallest team in the league with just 1 "striped" player. All of our backs are under 90 pounds and we will have at least 10 rookie players on this team. Over 90% of the touchdowns scored on this team moved up to the older group. The coaching staff is good but thin, just 1 coach with lots of experience, a 2nd year coach, a rookie coach and me. Needless to say this will be one of my biggest challenges in my 15 years of coaching youth football. We are small and slow and will have little experience in an age bracket full of teams that will be much bigger, better and more experienced than us. I love these kinds of challenges and look forward to coaching these kids probably more than the other 2 teams. My guess my very best effort can at best yield a .500 season.

Age 12-13 Team

The age 12-13 team will have descent experience, with just 5 rookie players on it. We again will be the smallest team in the league with just 1 "striped" player. This group has lost just 2 games in the last 4 years so there is nice continuity and experience but no size. We will be the youngest team in the league at this age group, with just 6 kids that are 13 years old. For those of you that have coached youth football, you know how important it is to have good numbers at the top age in the age bracket. However these kids have consistently put up 35 points per game, so our expectations are high. We need some tight ends, an offensive lineman, a safety and some descent backup running backs. The coaching staff on this team is made up entirely of coaches that have coached with us for the last 3-4 years, a nice group. While we will be the youngest and smallest team in this age bracket, and have a few holes to fill, our expectations will be high for this team.

Why Share This Information?

Why am I sharing this with you? I think it's important for you to know I still am a hands on youth football coach. What I'm imparting to you I'm field testing with my own teams. What I'm suggesting to you is working now in 2008 it isn't something that worked back in 1992. I remember back in 2000 when I took my break from coaching to grow my fledgling youth football program. I took that time to study the best and worst programs in the country to come up with a system that would allow our teams to compete, relatively talent independent. During that time, I was often asking my coaches to do things that were not doable. Because I wasn't in the trenches I was a bit out of touch, even though I was at all the practices and games. I can assure you that isn't the case now, I'm having many of the same thoughts and concerns you are feeling right now and anxiously looking at what's in my box of chocolates.

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.

To Sign up for his free tips newsletter or to see his 325 free tips go to:

Football Plays

A Taste of Dave's teams:

Youth Football Practice

Offensive Line

Youth Football Practice Number 10

After assessing our teams performance and watching the game film we set the practice plans for the week. As is the case with most teams we will do a little bit of tweaking with personnel, but not much. Our initial evaluations were pretty much right on target, but we did see some additional effort and potential coming from a couple of first year players that warranted some additional responsibilities.

On my youngest team that means our undersized power tackle will see some reps at wingback and on the age 10-11 team the safety will see some reps at linebacker.

On individuals we worked on finishing our blocks off, with hands and playing to a very long whistle of about 7 seconds. We emphasized coming of the ball on the "G" of go. A longer than normal in time and distance board drill was added and we worked our quickness off the ball with our tennis ball drill to round out the work for our linemen.

The backs worked on open field blocking technique including the diamond drill as well as some 3 level Oklahoma and the Gauntlet drill. We still have a few of the backup backs hesitating a bit, not attacking the line of scrimmage, so we worked the chaser drill some as well. All of our starters we are real happy with their aggressiveness, the backups however needed the work and we are coaching everyone up.

We worked the last hour on team fit and freeze offense and to get some conditioning is, we are moving the play forward and spotting the ball 10 yards forward every snap. We rotate on every play at full speed and are at about 14 seconds between reps at the age 12-13 level. Both teams worked out some minor execution problems that one can expect after just 9 practices.

All the drills, offense and defense can be found in the book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan".

Copyright 2008 Cisar Management, all rights reserved
Republishing allowed if links are kept intact

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. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 94% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

To Sign up for his free tips newsletter or to see his 325 free tips go to: Football Plays

A Video Taste of Dave's teams:
Youth Football Defense

Youth Football - The First Week of Practice - What Do You DO?

The First Week of Football Practice

For many youth football coaches they reserve the first week of practice for "conditioning" with no pads. For some this is a league rule, for others this is a traditional preference.

Why Many Do What they Do

For many youth football coaches, what they do in this first week has a lot to do with what they did as a kid when they played youth football or maybe how they practiced in High School 20 years ago. I know when I first started coaching I just used the same practice drills and approach I had used as a youth football player 25 years prior. We did all the things I had suffered through, monkey rolls, hills, crab drills, grass drills, firemens carrys, butt rolls, laps, pushup, sit-ups, squat thrusts, gassers, line drills, etc etc We were a team that was never going to be out-conditioned we were going to win that 4th quarter, blah blah bah.

Why We Changed

That all changed about 10 seasons ago after I had the pleasure of coaching with a former High School coach, Jay Smith that had coached at Canyon Springs High School in California. His teams had won two USA Today National Championships. This coach did things significantly different than most of us had been used to, no grass drills, no monkey rolls, no crab drills, no gassers, if it wasn't football related he didn't do it. This coach took a 2-8 team and turned them into a 10-0 team in one season in the most competitive division in the league I had teams in. While most of us were initially very skeptical of his methods, the results could not be argued with. He took the very same kids and had very different results than his predecessor using a totally different approach to football practice.

The Results

It made me examine everything we were doing. We looked at our practices to determine exactly how each and every drill or activity was helping us reach our goals. In the end we gutted about 80% of what we were doing in favor of an entirely different practice methodology that focused on developing football skills and youth football teams, not pushup or monkey roll champions. In the first year of going to this at the time revolutionary process, the aggregated winning percentage of the program went from the 30-40% area to 61%, in the following season it rose to 81% and our program won the "A" League Championship in all 3 age groups ( had never been done before or since), ages 8-10, 11-12 and 13-14. In addition, our "B" programs did extremely well also, with several division and League Championships to boot.

Your First Week Goals SHOULD be:

Consider doing things a bit differently this season if you are looking for different results than you've had in the past. These are our goals for the first week of no pads practice:

Evaluate players for positions and put them into the correct position on offense and defense that fits the players abilities and the teams needs best.

Teach the players how to interact properly with the coaching staff and other players. This is what many people refer to as learning how to be "coachable".

Develop an enthusiasm within the kids for playing football and playing on our team.

Teach the fundamental building blocks of base blocking and tackling (yes without pads and without contact)

Teach the base numbering system and play calling system for the offense.

Teach proper stances and splits.

Teach the explosive first step and for the offensive linemen their explosive first 2 steps.

For backs (we determine who our backs are at the first practice), seating the ball and ball security. Learning proper body lean and accelerating through contact (dummy contact).

Teach the base defensive formation, the goals and base philosophy of the defense.

At the end of week 1 all players will be in their offensive and defensive positions, know what positions they are in and what it is called.

Key Concepts Used to Accomplish These Goals

Some of the things we do to make sure we accomplish these goals:
Keep all movements in the 6-7 second range with maximum effort. Allow 30-50 seconds (depending on strenuousness of movement) for recovery. For things like fit and freeze reps that require just a couple of steps there is no reason for going at a pace slower than 1 rep every 12 seconds for linemen. For first 2 step drills, you should be able to do a team rep every 6-10 seconds. The keys to this methodology is a very fast practice pace, no wasted time or movements, small groups, lots of technique perfecting form instruction/drills and lots of fit and freeze reps. To teach all the above we don't have the time to set aside to do traditional conditioning. Like many Colleges and High School teams we condition withing the fast paced confines of our regular practice or within the context of a fun evaluation or team building game.

The first year we went to this methodology we were a bit nervous, we had always been conditioning fanatics. We were always going to win through better conditioning, but our results were mixed. Our first game using this methodology was Labor Day weekend 8 seasons ago and it was about 95 degrees out and about 80% humidity, it was a steam bath. We were really concerned about our kids being able to play 4 quarters of football in those kinds of conditions as we had not run a single gasser or lap in the 4 weeks leading up to this game. The end result was our kids won that first game in a blowout after leading by just 2 touchdowns at the half. As it turned out the team we beat ended up in 2nd place at seasons end behind my team. I might add we are a no-huddle team and the game goes that much faster for us and usually results in about 30% more offensive snaps in most games.

Kids Need More Conditioning? Really?

The thing that really impressed me from this game was what happened after it. Many of the boys on this team had older brothers playing in the following game, so the kids stuck around. What did these kids do after this game in 95 degree heat? The went behind the game field in the warm up area and were playing full speed touch football including kickoffs and punts on a 60 yard field. These kids weren't sitting under a tree exhausted from the game, they were going all out for another 60 minutes, almost non-stop in 90+ degree heat!

While our competition may be practicing 5 nights a week and conditioning their brains out, we are practicing just 3 nights a week and our kids were not only having fun, but they were learning the game.

The moral of this youth football story is to seriously consider everything you do in practice to see if there is anything that should be cut out so you can concentrate on developing great fundamentals as well as a love and appreciation for the game in your players.

All of these drills and games as well as daily minute by minute practice plans for your entire season are in the book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" by Dave Cisar.

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.

To See Dave Teams in Action or to Sign up for his free tips and drills newsletter go here: Football Plays