Drill ladder

Effcient Youth Drills

Though a well-designed playbook may get you far, execution and technique will take your team to the next level. In youth football, practice time is often limited, meaning every drill must serve a dual purpose. Building physical muscle memory and reinforcing mental cues found in your playbook. The following drills are a great start to helping your team, but it is hugely important to make sure you do not overuse these drills and switch things up to keep kids engaged.

Avoiding Long Lines:

One of the killers of productivity in youth football are lines, a great way to reduce wait time at practice is to have everyone separate into position groups linemen, defensive backs, receivers, etc. Doing this will help decrease the time between drills for each player, but as well it will be easier to do position specific drills.

Pursuit Drill or Bunny Drill:

  • Setup: Have your defense lined up in their normal position and your base defense, A diagram of the Pursuit/Bunny drill displaying a regular defense chasing the bunnythen one player is the bunny, and the coach behind the defense tells them which way to run.
  • Action: As the whistle is blown the bunny runs to the direction the coach pointed, then each defensive player has to take the correct pursuit angle in which to catch the “bunny”. THE DEFENSE DOES NOT HIT JUST A TOUCH WILL DO.
  • The Goal: This drill not only is great for conditioning but also teaches kids about the importance of pursuit angles.

5 Cone Drill:

  • Setup:This drill not only is great for conditioning but also teaches kids about the importance of pursuit angles. A diagram of the 5 cone drill, displaying 5 cones in a zig-zag formation.
  • Action:When the coach blows the whitsle each player is meant to run to each cone and then breakdown as they reach one cone to pivot and run to the next cone.
  • The Goal:This drill helps players learn the importance of breaking down before tackling an opponent, as well as breaking down during a route.

Second Level

  • Setup: have two linemen side by side with one coach on the opposite side in the middle of them with a bag, as well as a coach at the linebacker position. A diagram of the Second Level Drill, displaying two offensive linemen and two coaches.
  • Action:When the coach blows the whistle both linemen attack the first coach pushing him back, then they communicate between each other who goes to the second level to get the linebacker.
  • The Goal:This drill is great for linemen to start communicating with each other, and learn the importance of attacking the second level after a successful double team.

For youth football the most important thing to remember is the importance of changing these drills up, rather it’s using a ladder for footwork or a different arrangement of cones for the 5-cone drill. Changing drills and doing different ones adds a level of excitement and keeps players motivated and engaged during practice.