OT: Coaching 5-6 graders. Tips, drills, help

i don't have kids, but if i did i don't think i'd let them play football. so based on that, not sure i could ethically coach kids this young.

neg away

Run em till they die, then run them some more

and email address. I turned over stacks of notes and bound material I had gathered through the years, but I can give you some hints for basic techniques that should do a world of good. 

If you play sound, fundamental football you won't be on the short end of scores like that. 

I'll be happy to do all I can. Lots of times on my hands. I can say with certainty you should know your qb before conditioning drills are over. Getting the leader in the right place is key. I wouldn't put too much faith in youtube and internet, etc. Much of that has to do with personnel and its much better to teach what you know. 

play some form of the gap 8, using the 52 as your base. Not important that you send the house. Use your two strongest players for DE to feed everything bak to the middle and don't allow them to take a direct route to qb because contain is much more important. Just have them go as deep as deepest back and let them know they are responsible for the outside. Let them know why you are doing this. They respond well to why and then they start asking questions. Tell them you funnel to the inside because that is where the majority of your defenders are. 

1-800-forfeit

for 3rd and 4th graders.   Playoffs start this weekend after we finished 6-1 during the regular season....    Recommend keeping it simple... we probably only have 8 plays we run.. but our kids have mastered them.   

For d-line just have the kids work rip and swim moves.    For o-line constantly work on short first step and inside hand placement...

I haven't coached football, but I have coached a lot of age group swimming, and a lot of kids this age.

First, forget about trying to "condition" them.  Pre-adolescent bodies don't respond to physical training the same way more mature bodies do.  Teach them fundamental techniques (like the stuff dragonchild mentioned); muscle memory will stick with them as they get older.

Second, expect to repeat yourself, early, often and at several different volumes.  Also, remember people have different learning styles.  Some understand a verbal explanation best.  Some need to see it on film or a moving diagram on a tablet.  Some need to just play, either on the field or doing Madden.  If you use ALL of the verbal, visual and experiential teaching styles, you maximize you chance of reaching every kid.  There was an article on this blog about Jim Harbaugh's first practice at Michigan--the legendary 4 hour practice.  Everyone thought it was all about hard core conditioning, but Jim explained to his father that it was also "class on grass."  Jack talked about the normal first spring practice typically started with a couple hours of lectures or film study, and he would expect to hold the attention of only about half the players.  In contrast, Jim's 4 hour practice was getting the experiential learners involved right away.  Brilliant.

Third, forget about winning and keep the scheme as simple as possible.  You want these kids to HAVE FUN!  Confidence enables learning.  Enjoying the process enables learning.  Give the kids the experience of being successful while having fun, and they will learn by themselves.  Don't worry about your record; it's a sign you're more focused on your ego and your agenda.  Focus on the kids playing well and learning skills, and you're doing your job.

I've coached baseball and Tball at this and other age groups.

Have fun. You can never be too positive. Criticism will kill the spirit of kids this age. Smile, a lot. Tell the parents they are not allowed to coach from the sidelines but positive cheering is always welcome.

Go to YouTube or other websites for age appropriate drills. It's amazing what's available for free, it's usually super easy to implement, and makes an enormous difference.

But most of all, have and foster fun

I coached my son's bball teams the last 3 seasons (grades 3-5th). Those little bastards will get you sick every step of the way. Douse yourself in sanitizer daily.

literally force teams to beat you in the air (as few can). LOAD THE BOX. Don't be afraid to deploy your fastest kid directly behind the LBs, essentially putting 9 in the box and have him sprint deep of he sees pass. Get any CB used to playing off, avoiding block and attacking runners. Basically, if you're going to lose don't let it be on the ground. Offensively, tons of misdirection runs if not handing the ball to your best athlete. Even when you do use a lot of heavy counters, reverses, motion sprint, etc. If you know your opponent or see it early in game, find their big, slow DL (all kid teams have at least one kid on the DL for no reason beyond size) and literally don't block him while running from him. Save blockers, teach pulling and know who to ignore on the opposong defense. Winning in Youth football is much more about basic fundamentals being ran by the more athletic, physical kids than deep football strategy. If you lack talent you have to get creative while still teaching fundamentals. You have to gamble, offense and defense.

Head up, wrap up...offesense line: small choppy steps, punching low and extending out. RB: read the alignment, and cover the points...you know what: teach em to believe and enjoy the moment...just put a smile in their face

worked well at CC, just ask the catholic league

Thanks for this! Really interesting thread, and if I ever end up coaching little ones, this will be my first resource.

I coached this age group for 2 years. But all the crying and 11 year old stuff (lol) forced me to the HS level. 1. Make sure they're having fun. Theyll respect you more, play harder for you, and be easier to coach. Make drills a constant game and competition for them and go CRAZY when they do them right. Hell, do the drills with them. 2. Find 5 plays that they understand, that work, and that you can design/call complimentary plays to. Perfect those. Run them until youre blue in the face. Coach them hard on these plays. Make your opponent plan/adjust for these plays. Then design a counter for each. Then sit back and watch the magic happen.

website. Start on page one and work the kids through to the back. A friend of mine has done that with the USA Hockey ADM model with great success. Don't question it, just do it.

You're likely aware of what type of teams you have at that age. It's just a human rule that your players will break down into the rough categories/numbers of: 30% just don't want to be there and/or are terrified of contact, 20% really want to be there and love the contact and 50% are a mix that will happily surprise you at times and disappoint you at other times. Half the team will tackle mostly if they have more momentum, are larger than the other kid, etc (ha). MY POINT: at that level it's important to turn as many of those 50% kids into the 20% kids. How do you do that? Dominating opponents can happen quickly if you teach kids proper tackling technique and eliminating actions that make hitting hurt more. You need to truly get it into their mind (by showing them) that pausing before a tackle hurts worse than following through with a form tackle. Heck, teach them Gator/Hawk/Rugby tackling if that's what it takes. If you can eliminate the fear of pain from just half of those 50% kids to put them in the 20% and bring some of the 30% kids into the 50%, it can get you more wins than any gameplan. At that age having more kids that WANT TO HIT than the other team will win most games.

Run a Wing-T, Dead T, or Wishbone, something with a lot of misdirection. Run about 4 plays to start (both ways, so you'll really have 8 plays) and then see if you get good enough to add some plays to the arsenal.

Four plays to run:

- Trap
- Sweep
- Dive/Iso
- Waggle

Defensively, you probably want to play a 6-2.

sound like the future ones at MSU.

I have coached flag football for several years, and I assume you are coaching tackle. However, there are some parallels particularly in that age group.

Offense:

The first rule of thumb is that misdirection is the name of the game on offense. Most kids that age prefer to run to the edge over running into tackles. I've found that practicing jet sweeps, pitches, and reverses is paramount. Start with the basics and grade upwards. For instance, have them work on handing off the ball with the QB standing still and the tailback running to the QB. Then, advance them to pitches where the QB is stationary but pitches the ball 2-3 yards out to the HB for a sweep. A step up from that is the reverse with a running handoff and finally the running pitch which is great for the old reverse flea-flicker (seen this twice in CFB this year).  For passing, I break it down into two separate drills. The first is route running. You have to get them to know that they must stick to their route - kids often start the route, don't get the ball then stop and yell for it. Second, practice two types of catches - crossing routes and deep routes. Crossing routes are great when you want a quick pass without misdirection. The vertical routes are perfect for the misdirection plays or if you happen to have a height advantage on your team. 

Defense:

People play all sorts of defense. I think zone is easier then man for this age group and I use my linebackers (typically the more experienced kids on the team) to adjust. This simplifies the defense - particularly for the younger kids. The linebackers read the offense and either shift into coverage on the slots or delay to read misdirection. As I referenced in the post above - kids love to try and get the edge, so we spend a TON of time working on our DBs and OLBs sealing the edge. A good drill for this is placing a marker ~10 yds inside the field boundary. Have both the ball carrier and the defensive player start 15-20yds off the line of scrimage and run to the sideline. The ball carrier cannot cut back inside until he passes the marker and the defensive player's goal is to make sure he doesn't get outside to the boundary - ie. seal the edge. You'll be surprised how bad they are at sealing the edge before the drill and how good they get after 10 minutes. This pays off in games as it allows your team to gang tackle the outside rush. 

There are tons of websites for coaching and drills, but these are some basic philosophies which work well in that age group from my experience. The bottom line however is have fun! We used kicking competitions and Gauntlet flag drills to pick captains and game day starters. It made practice almost as much fun as the games!

If Archer has taught me anything, it is to 

Always
Be
Berating 
+
Belittling

Gotta break em down and then build em up. /s

Do you happen to coach in New Jersey and be named Chris Ash?

coaching is enough to do without being a sales manager, pancake maker or spaghetti chef.

I'd limit the contact drills in practice to ~ 1/3 of your time.  I don't think there is benefit to more than that.  Nothing with over 3 yards lead on head to head drills.  

Try and give each unit and player a good word and a coaching point every practice.

The good advice is already given...and far better than I could give.

Run, run, run...

Some of my best memories are from 5th grade football (first TD pass made (it had the Billy Kilmer  / Tim Tebow wobble) and catch.)  

Good luck,  load up on coach speak and have fun.  

One of the best pieces of advice that I received when I started coaching is what I use as a golden rule.

YOU DO NOT have to explain your reasoning why a kid isn't getting as much playing time as other's. You watch them practice and perform everyday... their parent's only get to hear their story which 9 times out of 10 is the kid just saying what they think their parent's want to hear. It is ok for a kid to not be good at everything they do and try so don't do things just to please the parent's, but if a parent does ask just tell them the truth and tell them what they can work on and leave it at that, don't argue with them about it.

Make sure you start simple in teaching basic's techniques at every position. If you don't know much about a position, ask someone or get on youtube and get actual information on how to teach things for that position. I have seen way to many guys/gals that just spout off and teach the wrong things. Also, when it comes to putting it all together choose an offense and defense that is geared towards the kids you have, at that age a good Georgia Tech type offense or a wing- T type offense is both easy and effecient. When it comes to D just stack the box and bring a couple linebackers, you want your kids to not  be afraid of contact and with blitzing and creating that contact the will eventually get used to it and usually will start wanting to hit someone. 

Repetition is key but you have to do it in an engaging way. Most kids that age will not stay focused on something for more than 25-30 mins. past that you are wasting your time because they may look attentive but really they are thinking about dinner, school, the booger in their nose and everything else a 12 or 13 year old kid thinks of. 

Last but not least, remember when you may be frustrated beyond whits end you are out their shaping young men's or woman's lives in the grand scheme of things, so make sure you carry yourself in a way that is a good example when around them... oh and at the end of the day the kids usually don't care if they win every game they just want to have fun, I know I know winning is awesome and all but if you teach the fundamentals and make it fun the winning will come and they will be winners when it becomes important like High School or College. 

Here is a great website: https://coacheschoice.com

I did coach at the Middle School level and now high school wrestling with no previous experience personally coaching, nor with any wrestlers who knew how... and in 3 years, we were competiting for championships and heading for states...So a few thoughts, for whatever pixels they are worth:

1) Know your kids strengths. Do you have more size? speed? Intelligence? Pass/catch? Choose a pass-blocking scheme that matches their strengths.

2) Play to their strengths and keep it simple. Have 3 plays that they can run to the left and right that feed off each other. Don't move on until they get those right. 

3) Don't discount conditioning. Their bodies are so adaptive and need sooooooo much work. Building in conditioning time will pay off big... especially days without pads. In track and wrestling we do hard day - easy day - hard day - easy day, so that their bodies have time to strengthen through recovery. On the "Easy Days" we do more skill drill and mental. Hard days, keep it simple and intense.

4) Defense. Defense. Defense. Was mentioned else where, but 11 in the box or 10 and 1 deeeeeeeep safety.

5) John Wooden: Correct one thing at a time. Give the correction, model, restate the correction = redrill it. Their minds can focus on .1 things at a time. Anything more then that, and they will freeze.

6) Praise, Praise, Praise. If the kid farted better this time then previously... let'em know. Any little improvement, let'em know. Don't allow any negative talk between athletes or in the locker room. 

Google "Olivet wing T playbook" choose a handful and WORK THE BLOCKING just like it reads. This is a GREAT playbook for football in general.
Also google "double wing for youth football" it's broken down to be youth geared.
Defense: google "gap-air-mirror" defense. Also the best for youth level.
I've coached youth football for 6yrs. Sometimes we have talent and go 6-0 sometimes not and we go 3-3. Always have fun either way.