I read an article the other day about a High School team that has decided not to Punt on Special Teams. Based on their stats, they conclude that they have a better opportunity to make a first down vs the gains made by punting. Since I coach youth football pre-teens, this seems like a pretty [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Special Teams’
June 15, 2008
Football Book Review – Complete Guide to Special Teams
Last night, I read American Football Coaches Association’s Complete Guide to Special Teams. This is an excellent 250 page book on Special Teams tactics, drills and techniques written by some of the best Special Teams coaches in football and edited by Coach Bill Mallory and Coach Don Nehlen. Some of the tactics outlined in the book [...]
June 12, 2008
The Onside Kick in Youth Football
In 2006 when I started coaching tackle youth football again, the leagues coaching coordinator was very big on kicking onside kicks. That was his thing. To be honest, onside kicking every kick did not work out for us. Sure we picked a few turnovers, but the majority of time we gave the other team 7 [...]
June 5, 2008
Kick Return Blocking – Special Teams
The other day, I was talking to another youth tackle football coach about how his 4th grade youth football team blocks on kick returns. We did not do a great job blocking on kick returns last year, and I want to see how other coaches are blocking kick off defenders. He says he makes sure the kick [...]
May 29, 2008
Kick Return Blocking – Special Teams
Our youth football kick return blocking is not that great. We did better this year by assigning players to block but we can do better. We missed many blocks and one that hurt us in our final play off game last season.
After reading Coaching Offensive Linemen by Dave Christensen and James Peterson, I learned something [...]
May 22, 2008
Kick Off Coverage
Close games are won by field position and the kicking game. On a Kick Off you can influence the field position by a great kick and coverage or recovering a fumble. I particularly like the latter. The key to special teams and the kick off is practice, practice, and more practice of special teams. The most successful special [...]
May 12, 2008
Coaching Youth Football – Special Teams
Special Teams is a game breaker in youth football. Most pee wee teams do not practice Special Teams the needed amount of time, and they pay the consequences in the game. Plus, a lot of youth teams, place a high number of minimum play players (MPPs) on their Special Team units. Not enough practice time and [...]
