Best Drills For Youth Football Training

By Nelda Powers


The process of training kids football may require a little more care than that of the adult players. Youth football training calls for the coaches to use special skills so as to make them as good as desired. As much as drills are important, they should not be over emphasized while neglecting other parts of the training program. This may leave the team unprepared to face an opponent in a match.

Drill is defined as a closely supervised activity that is repetitive and narrowly defined. This builds into the players habits that otherwise they would resist. Drils are used to perfect techniques into kids that they don't want to learnt unless under close supervision. As much as the drills are necessary, coaches should not waste time doing only those but should allow the team to participate in other skill building exercises.

Repetition is another drill every team should participate in. This helps in making the team learn specific single skills after doing it over and over. Each team can decide what skill works best for them then they repeat it for the benefit of the team. Skills like centers and long snappers are important therefore should be repeated enough times to stick in the mind and muscles. These however require very little supervision from the coach as the players can organize themselves and learn the skills after one or two demonstrations. This helps in creating harmony and synchrony in the team.

The chalk is simply a verbal training like what happens in a classroom. Before letting the players do the actual physical exercise, a talk should precede it for the explanation. No one however can learn a skill by chalk talk alone but it is important. Some muscle memory is necessary to instill the skill permanently into memory together with the mental hologram.

Without put-ins, a team will not be fit to play a real match. These are the initial activities a team needs to master t make them consistent and correct in performing certain offenses and defensively stop the other team. Training in football starts with chalk then goes to walk-through then ends in a full speed run. This gives the team the correct timing and reaction skills for a match.

The next stage is walk-through. Here the learnt skill is put into play at slow speed for everyone to see what is happening and for the coach to make corrections where required. This is the longest process since it is done very slowly. The offensive team demonstrates their new skills whereas the other team observes and prepares to react to the offensive. The opposing team stays almost motionless for example the fit-and-freeze technique.

After this walk-through stage, the team will go to a full speed level also known as the scrimmage. Closely watched by the coach, the team shows a skill in full game speed skillfully. The defense also prepares for and stops the offense with accurate timing and analysis. When training rookies, this stage gives them the feeling of a real game preparing them for a real match. Psychological and physical acclimatization also takes place effectively. Reactions to offense and learning to reorganize after passes are also learnt. The coach provides very little supervision here due to the speed.

As little as 20minutes is adequate for drill session in every training time. Youth football training needs a lot of time to master other skills and make the team one. Drill will only tire them out but leave them exposed to defeat in a real game.




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