Evaluating Personal

Teaching proper tackling form on the pads

Author: Jim Oddo

I am a big believer in using the hand held pads throughout the entire youth football practice.

The pads are especially effective early in the season to make sure the kids are learning the proper techniques.

Football is a game that is still all about blocking and tackling. The team the blocks and tackles better than the other team will have a clear advantage.

I believe that all kids can be taught to block and tackle with the proper techniques. These are youth football players and it doesn’t matter if they are your studs or a weaker player they all should be taught the proper way of doing things.

I have always used the line that Basketball is a contact sport but Football at all levels is a collision sport.

You need to make sure that all the players know the proper way of blocking and tackling to help avoid any potential unnecessary injuries.

I feel the best way to teach the proper technique is by using the pads. It also gives the kids a chance to be involved in both the drill and holding the pads to help their teammate.

What I like to do is split the squad in half and have them face each other. One side will be holding the pads while the other side will perform the drill.

We are talking about tackling so the tackling line of players will come out of a “ready tackle or breakdown position” or a three point stance an on the coaches whistle drive into the player holding the pad across from him.

The tacklers are supposed to make contact and wrap up the pad. By wrapping up we mean hug. That is right, try to teach the kids to get as big a hug as possible and try to clasp their hands together around the player and the pad. In reality you want them to wrap their arms around the opponent and grab onto any part of them whether it is a jersey or their legs. They are only supposed to make contact and wrap, not tackle the player holding the pad. Make it clear that you are looking for proper tackling form, not an actual tackle.

What you need to look for is a straight back, head up and arms wrapping around the pads/player.

You must make sure that they do not arch their backs or lower their helmets. This is a sure way to get hurt. I use a little saying “See what you hit”. This is where the NFL does us absolutely no good. You will see time and time again players tackling leading with their helmet down. Please make sure to advise the players how dangerous this is and when you see a player doing this blow the whistle immediately. Make sure a coach goes over and completely explains to the player and all players what was done wrong. The youth football coach then needs to show the proper technique.

There needs to be zero tolerance for lowering your helmet while tackling.

On a much lesser level, we have not wrapping up when you tackle. The NFL once again does not do us ant favors. The NFL loves to show big collisions. If I see a player try this stuff the whistle goes off and a very stern voice expresses my disapproval. It is hard enough coaching youth football players, but the NFL does us no favors.

Not wrapping up is not a safety issue but a team issue. If you do not wrap up I guarantee you will miss the majority of tackles.

A little reminder I have seen a previous coach use was to have a player who missed a tackle in practice during a drill goes and hug a tree. It was not uncommon to see the park full of youth football players hugging all the trees in the park.

While this is an extreme example it seemed to work because only a few weeks later and no body were hugging any trees. The kids got the message.

It amazes us how many youth football coaches ignore working on form and refuse to use pads. I have had many years of success with weaker players with better form outperforming more talented kids with bad form.

Pad Blocking to test Drive Blocking Ability

Author: Jim Oddo

When I try to figure out who my blockers are I run this youth football drill. Actually I have the Line Coaches run this drill. It is a simple drill where you have each player block against the coach was holding a dummy. The players start in a three point stance right in front of the pad. On the whistle, or snap the player hit the pad as hard as he can and drive blocks the coach. The coach should give resistance but let the player move him. The coach gives out a number giving that player a rating. We use a scale of 1 (weak) to 10 (strong). The players then go to the end of the line and wait their turn to try it again.

You will notice very fast that a competition will start among the players and they start asking each other “What was your score?” They all start trying to out do each other.

Similar to the Iron man drill, you will click quickly realize which players constantly tried to improve on their grade in which players shy away the competition.

You read time and time again that you are a coach of youth football, not High School or the Pros. You need to make sure that the weaker players do not get lost in the shuffle. You will have to keep great records and make sure you do not put these kids in bad situations for themselves or the team.

You will want to make sure the kids are always in the proper three point stance when they start this drill.

If you are not sure what a proper three point stance is please see The Proper Three Point Stance.

The other question that is always asked is should the youth football players be taught to block with their hands or their shoulder pads.
I believe the answer lies in which type of block your play needs at that time. The kids should be taught both techniques since certain situations will require different ways to block it.

Different kids may also feel more comfortable with one method over another so it is good ideas to have all kids try both ways.

If you need more details on these different youth football blocking techniques please go to that chapter in the book or check the website.

You will notice that the same kids seem to be your best runners, throwers and blockers. That is great since they will all have to block at some point on certain plays. Also depending on the offense you run many of the backs and ends have to make the key blocks and need to be your best blockers.

General Football Toughness Iron man

Author: Jim Oddo

If you really want to know the football toughness of each of your players then the Iron man drill will fit the bill. Many youth football players may not be the fastest or the biggest but they just might be the toughest.

My favorite youth football drill to run to check the toughness level of each player is this one. This drill will check not only the physical but also the mental toughness. It is an extremely physical drill which I strongly suggest you run only a few times a year.

You will instantly find out from his drill, which players have the “it factor” both in mental and physical toughness.

The Iron man drill is a very basic drill but the coaches need to keep a close eye on this one. It is very important that the players realize they must go hard to avoid injury. I know that sounds strange but the player that hesitates or slows down just before contact is more likely to get hurt than if he goes full speed.

This youth football drill is basically one man versus the team. You run this drill at the goal line and set your tackler (the “Iron Man”) at the 2 yard line. Then you line up the entire team at the 10 yard line in a single file line.

You then use the sideline as out of bounds and cones for the other side. You want to make the width of the drill no more than 2 yards.

Each teammate takes turns and carries the ball directly at the Iron man trying to score while the Iron man must tackle him or push them out of bounds.

The running back must move up to the 6 or 5 yard line since we are not looking to kill anyone. We want to make sure there is good contact.

The goal of this tight lane is you want to make sure there is no way a running back can go around the Iron man. The running backs are forced to go through him.

You will instantly see players who want no part of being the Iron man and the ones who will strive to defeat the entire team.

It is very important that you do your duty as a youth football coach and DO NOT force anyone to continue in this drill. This and all drills must be run in a positive reinforcement way. You should never insult, belittle or guilt any youth football player into this or any drill.

You also should never even think of running this drill until mid to late season. By this time you will have a handle on your team and especially which players you need to watch out for.
The only reason you should ever be coaching youth football is for the kids. When running the high intensity or heavy contract drills please remember your weaker players and look out for them. I have noticed that most of the time they will take themselves out of the drill so please be supportive of them.

You will definitely see players rise to the challenge and again please be a responsible youth football coach and make sure they are not over doing it.

It is a great drill to give the kids self esteem and push them to a new level.

I love this drill but to put it in perspective two seasons ago I ran it for the first time the week before our first playoff game. I believe it helped motivate the team’s confidence which propelled us into the Title game.

Last year I did not run it once. The make up of the football team did not warrant it. We went to the youth football playoffs but I knew this team was a bit fragile and this intense of a drill would not be a positive.

Evaluating Players Speed Using Competitive Speed Races

Author: Jim Oddo

Speed kills at the youth football level. Our definition of speed is the kid who can out one the entire defense to the sideline. He is the rare player that can take a pitch and go the distance for a touchdown.

Please note I am not referring to the fastest kid on your team or the fastest kid at the local school. I am talking about the fastest kid in the league. The kids that can out run every team in the youth football league.

In my twenty years of youth football coaching I have had that kind of speed only twice.
Think about that for a minute. In over twenty years, and in many of those years I was coaching more than one team, only two teams our speed was the best in the youth football league.

The first was a 14 year old travel team, who won the youth football championship, with only one loss. The talent was so deep that many of those kids went on to the local High School and won the first ever state championship in the School’s history. The one loss happened during the last week in the regular season versus an opponent who was on a 6 year undefeated winning streak.

The weather was miserable that late October day with a driving rain storm that had started the night before and continued throughout the entire game. It was a rain soaked game with no footing on the field. The loss was on an offensive turnover we had early on our first drive that was returned for a touchdown. The rest of the youth football game was a standstill.

The second team was an in-house (not cut), flag football team made up of five, six, seven and eight-year-olds. This youth football team went undefeated, and there were no playoffs.

We were fortunate enough to have the fastest 8 year olds in the “In House” flag league and had our entire offense return from a 7-2 campaign last year.

These 2 teams came over a decade apart. The point I’m driving home is that most of you will have average talent most years and you need to plan for that.

If you are blessed with the best speed in the youth football league go to church and thank God. Please do not over think your season or play calling and just enjoy the good fortune.

Again it is not rare to have good speed, just great speed.

The best test I have found to evaluate the speed of your players is to let them compete versus their teammates in 10 and 20 yards sprints. This is as easy as it sounds. Set up two cones at a ten yard distance and two cones at a twenty yard distance. Run at least 3 groups and have the winners move to the group on the right and the losers move left to the other group.

The set looks like this

 

Have a coach stand 10 or 20 yards away where I have the label at for each Group. Set one cone there with a coach behind it. Set the second cone in between each player 1 and 2 in each group. Have the balance of the players stand in line behind player one.

The coach should straddle the cone and extend each are straight out explaining that on the “Go” command each player is to run the race and the first one to touch his hand is the winner. Player one needs to touch the coach’s right hand while player 2 must touch his left hand.

Each player must run straight in a line and will lose by forfeit if they interfere in the runner’s lane.

You should run all three lines continuous and they do not have to be on the same count.

To keep it simple if you are in Group C and lose you stay in Group C and go to the end of the line. If you win in Group C you move over into Group B.

If you are in Group B and lose you go to Group C. If you win in Group B you move up to Group A.

Group A winners stay and the losers go to Group B.

You can run this drill for about twenty minutes and you will have all the fast kids in A or B.

Your fastest kids will continue to be showing up in Group A.

There is no stop watch, bad timers, poorly measured distances or changes in field conditions when you use this method.

Too many youth football coaches use the 40 yard dash as the barometer of testing speed. This is a joke at the youth football level. You can not use a stop watch to judge speed. Remember this is not even High School let alone the Pros. This is youth football and we need to keep it real and fun for the kids.

You will see I use this 3 or more line evaluation system time and time again.

There really are two different kinds of running speed. There is open field speed that once a player is in the clear he runs like a gazelle. Once that player breaks free from the initial 10 or 20 yards run he is off to the races.

The other kind of speed is what I refer to as “Impact” speed. This is the time it takes a player to get going from the moment he touches the ball.

Impact speed is different for the different positions. Below is a list of positions showing what I look for in speed.

Running backs – How fast they hit the hole. If you are running a standard QB Exchange it is the time from when the ball hits his belly to when he hits the hole.

Quarterbacks – While passing it is his ability to tuck and run. While running the ball it would be his ability to hit the corner when running the option, bootleg or sweeps.

Direct Snap Backs – The time from the direct snap to the hole.

Receivers – The time from catching the ball in FULL STRIDE to turn and cut up into the secondary.

When coaching your football team please keep these different positions in mind when looking at he speed of each player by position.