How to Coach Pee Wee and Little League Football Practices

Coaching youth football should focus on teaching fundamentals and making sure kids have fun. Instead of advanced schemes and platooning players between offense and defense, harp on fundamental drills and allow players to learn multiple positions which will help them later in higher levels of football. As a coach, establish yourself as a leader fromthe first practice, but also serve as a positive role model on and off the field. Children are impressionable and likely to follow the lead of their coach.

Things You'll Need

  • Coaching staff
  • Practice plan
  • Positive attitude
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Instructions

    • 1

      Assemble a coaching staff. Hiring a functional staff is critical. Look for volunteers that you either know very well personally or trust will work with you. Having a parent or assistant coach that argues and disagrees with you in front of the players will have a negative effect on your team and limit productivity.

    • 2

      Devote a large percentage of practice to fundamentals in the preseason. Once games start, increase the amount of time spent on executing plays and scrimmaging, but always ensure fundamentals are addressed for a long time during every practice. Youth football players need to develop fundamental skills and are expected to have a firm grasp on fundamentals at junior high school and high school levels.

    • 3

      Limit wasted time. Repetitions of drills and plays are vital to developing skills in youth players. Spending time talking about plays instead of actually doing them wastes time. Also, young children get bored standing around. Design your practice to incorporate drills and move from play to play as quickly as possible.

    • 4

      Encourage children frequently. Instead of chastising or scolding a child for doing something incorrectly, briefly take him aside and show him the proper way to do it. Do not yell or embarrass the child in front of the team. The game is a learning experience, but players must have fun.

    • 5

      Rotate as many players into the game as possible. In game situations, make sure that everyone gets a chance to play, but give a slight preference toward players with better development skills. Everyone wants to participate, but they also want to win. Players all feel better having contributed to a win than feeling that they were the reason the team lost. Carefully balance levels of participation and desire to win.