Good Drills for Young Football Players

Youth coaches have the challenge of training the future football players of America. You can help develop and prepare young football players to be better athletes by creating good drills that help improve their conditioning, strength, footwork and technique. These drills will help improve your players for the upcoming season and develop your team into a youth powerhouse.

  1. The Ready Stance

    • The ready stance is a basic drill that teaches children the proper "ready" football position. This is an important beginning aspect that should be known by all players. You need to get your team into lines and shout "ready" and then "stance" to make them form into the correct stance, depending on position. Walk up and down the lines to inspect the stances and to correct any players who are not in the proper position. An additional drill is to then have your players dash out for 5 yards and properly execute a designated skill from the stance.

    40-Yard Dash

    • The 40-yard dash is used to determine the acceleration of an individual and is a reliable indicator of speed, agility and quickness, which are needed in football. The 40-yard dash is a drill that can condition individual athletes despite performing it within a team setting. Divide your team into four groups. The first group dashes on the whistle. The whistle blows again when the last person from the team crosses the line before the second group goes. Continue the drill until all four groups have gone for at least six repetitions.

    Quick Hit Drill

    • The quick hit drill is another basic drill that helps team members such as the blocking backs and linemen to quickly move from the ready stance into a blocking position. Have the players create a circle and stand in their ready stance position. The drill begins with your players placing themselves into a pass protection position. They need to take a quick step with the outside foot, and get into the squat position ready for the hit.

    Circle Toss

    • Youth players need to work on throwing while on the run without fumbling the ball. The circle toss is a great drill that can work on such a movement. Have your players begin running in a circle playing catch. The kids need to release the ball quickly to their teammate while having their shoulders and hips squared up to the target. They should reverse the direction after the toss. A variation of the circle toss is to have one kid stand still while the other runs around him performing the same action. Your players need to also change direction and switch positions.