Fun Youth Football Skill Activities

Wind sprints, tackling drills and relay races can wear down a youth football team during practice. Add some variety and excitement to practice by including competitions as breaks from other drills during practice. These contests allow players to compete for prizes or bragging rights among each other while participating in some friendly competition.

  1. Field Goal Contests

    • Play a game of field goal elimination to practice kicking skills. Have the players start kicking the ball off a tee at the 10 yard line. Each player that makes the field goal through the uprights remains on the field. Players that miss return to the sideline. Move the ball back three to five yards for the next round of kicks, depending on the skill level of the players as judged by the coach. Continue this until there is only one player that makes a field goal; that player is the winner. Give him an award such as not having to run laps with the team after practice that day.

    Passing Contest

    • Set up a variety of different targets around the playing field. Give each player 10 throws with a football to try to hit the targets on the football field. Assign point values to each target based on distance from the location the players are throwing the ball. Add up the points for each player from his 10 throws. The player with the highest score is the winner. If there is a tie, let the players involved in the tie each have five more throws to break the tie.

    Pass and Catch Contest

    • Team up players in pairs for the pass-and-catch contest. One player performs the role of the quarterback and the other is the receiver. Each quarterback-and-receiver combination gets five passes. The receiver and quarterback line up on the 20 yard line. The receiver may run any pass pattern he wishes. If he catches the pass from the quarterback, his team receives a number of points equal to the amount of yards the ball was caught from where the quarterback threw it. Missed passes are a 10-point deduction. There are no defenders in this game, it's a test of accuracy for the quarterback and catching ability for the receiver. The pair of players with the highest score wins.