Five Things Youth Football Coaches Do Wrong
Posted: Sunday, January 11, 2009
by Erik Saunders
Union County Sports Academy
A list of fatal errors for youth football coaches to avoid
Most people that coach youth football do so because they because they have a child participating or they love the game and want to be involved. Since youth sports rely on volunteers with little or no experience, most youth football coaches bring their occupational skills to the field. That is fine for motivational speakers and physical education teachers but not so good for correction officers and lawyers. This article points out the top five things most youth football coaches do that most negatively affect their practices, game management and overall success.
The second thing that many youth football coaches do wrong is spend all their time correcting poor performance and not enough time praising positive results or efforts. Coaching youth football presents many problems for adult coaches but number one on the list is that there is not enough time to actually teach everyone what they need to know to play the game. Because most people are driven to be problem solvers in their professional life, that methodology frequently carries over to the football field. Many football coaches simply point out areas for improvement when players execute their assignments but remain silent or move on to the next player when the technique is executed properly. Coaching defined is an effort to help another person improve a skill or behavior and thus rewarding the player with an Atta boy when they have done well or demonstrated proper effort is essential to maintain a healthy relationship. Just like Pavlov's dog, player will respond to you when you use verbal rewards and their parents will respect you more for coaching properly.
Third on the list but a favorite among all coaches is saying what you don't want as opposed to instructing what you do want. We are a negative driven culture and the manner in which we make correction with our players reflects that fact hundreds of times during the season. If you have ever attended a youth football game you will have heard coaches screaming what they don't want over and over at the top of their lungs. A good example is the coach that implores his team not to jump offsides. If you can play along with me for a moment, please pretend you are nine years old and you are the nose guard preparing for 4th down and goal to go on the one yard line with the game on the line. The nerves are racing, youre tired from the long drive and you are trying to hold the other team. And then you hear your coach saying "Don't jump offsides"! Now please say the word Jump and close your eyes. You should be able to make that image happen in your mind. Now please say the word offsides and close your eyes. Any football person should find that easy as well. Now please say the word don't and close your eyes. What image did you have for the word don't? Unfortunately there isn't one for adults and there definitely isn't one for nervous nine year olds trying to do the right thing. Be sure to give the player a chance by saying exactly what you want. In this case a simple "Watch the ball" would do just fine. In all instruction avoid saying the things that you don't want and give clear precise explanation of what you do want and you'll find players executing your commands more consistently.
We are moving upwards in importance as we go which means number four is really important. The fourth thing that youth football coaches do wrong is talk too much. If you have ever been to a youth football practice where there are multiple teams practicing you will observe an interesting fact of youth sports. About ninety percent of the players are standing around listening to a coach talk. Practice time is such short supply that talking should be kept to a minimum just to be sure everyone gets enough reps but the real problem comes from player's inability to listen for more than a few seconds at a time. Youth football players are the same guys that stare blankly at you when you ask them to brush their teeth and then immediately turn their playstation back on. I would imagine that players can listen effectively for several seconds if you have something important to say but if you continue on for several minutes you can expect that most have left the conversation mentally. A big reason children don't stay in conversations very long is they cannot process multiple pieces of information very easily. A good approach is to quickly instruct 1 part of an exercise and then rep it quickly. Don't stop and explain every time someone messes up, simply work through the drill and make comments to group when you are done. Have assistant coaches or volunteer parents instruct guys that are struggling off to the side while the group progresses. Less talking is better in youth football so keep the guys moving and make your instruction short and sweet.
Number five is the grand daddy of things that youth football coaches do wrong and if you commit this error you deserve whatever horrible things the parents say about you. Never, ever fail to plan and write down every part of your practice in great detail. Practice preparation is a whole article in itself but suffice it to say those that do not plan every part of their practice with start and stop times for each session will be doomed to failure. Having a plan forces coaches to coach more quickly, to start practice on time regardless of how many players are there and to be sure to cover everything necessary. Without a plan coaches run drills based on their gut feel and usually find that they forget important sessions that show themselves on game day. There are thousands of tasks to teach football players and the simply truth is you can't teach everything but you do have to consider very carefully which things you will teach and which things you feel will least hurt your team if you skip them. There are plenty of resources available to coaches for practice planning on the internet and if you cannot find one, email me and Ill send you my personal method. Plan your work and then work your plan and you'll avoid the worst of the five things youth football coaches do wrong.
About the author:
Erik Saunders has 17 years of coaching experience and is currently operating "The Football Academy" football training program in Charlotte North Carolina. Erik professionally coaches more than 100 athletes each year in football, speed and agility and physical conditioning. Erik also coaches Pop Warner football at the Junior Pee Wee level and has a record of 54-16 over the past 7 seasons including three league championships and two undefeated seasons. To contact Erik or see more articles and training videos from his company please visit www.unioncountysports.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Coaching, an essential part of the formation of a child or young adult. Bad coaching can ruin a young person as good can make them.
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