As more kids are playing youth football today than ever before, there are also more youth football coaches than ever before. That’s great and youth football coaching can be very rewarding. You’ll be able to truly have a positive and lasting impact on the kids you work with, teaching things like work ethic, winning and losing in grace, putting it all on the line and sportsmanship. However, many coaches are now inexperienced and fall into common traps. Here are some of the most common youth football coaching mistakes that are made and how you can avoid them.
Remember that you are a football coach and not a conditioning coach. Of course you have to condition your kids, and this is especially important in the first weeks of practice before the season starts. However, if you only focus on conditioning your kids will lose interest, become tired out and they won’t get better at playing the sport. Limit your conditioning drills to 25-30% of your total practice time or less. Fill the rest of your time with actual football drills, scrimmages and other important areas you need to cover.
The second thing that you should remember is that when you are coaching youth football players that the expectations have to be tailored to who you are dealing with. It is one thing if you are working with teenagers who are in their final year of high school. On the other hand, when you are dealing with seventh and eight graders, remember that they are not going to be as strong, they are not going to be as coordinated, and that their abilities are still being formulated. This does not mean that you need to lower your expectations; just ask yourself what is good performance for an eighth grader.
Too many coaches don’t plan out their practices well enough. They may have a general idea of one or two things they want to do, but in between there is lots of downtime and confusion. Every practice should be planned from beginning to end, so that is packed with drills and sessions. This will keep your kids intensely focused and will make things easier on you and the rest of your staff. Once those kids are on the practice field they are yours, so be sure to use your and their time appropriately so everybody makes the most of it.
Finally, remember that the biggest coaching youth football mistake that you can make is not researching the topic. There are lots of resources out there that will tell you how to be a good coach and how to get the most out of your players. There are resources out there, so make sure that you use them!
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