Youth Football Blocking Drills – Helmet or Back

Coaching kids at the 60 pound level (5-6 year olds) I noticed that one thing the kids like to do is block in the back on a long gainer. I came up with the following ideas for youth football blocking drills to correct this.

The goal of this football drill is to help them remember to not block in the back.

Line the kids up in front of a football coach holding a dummy.
Have another coach with a stand up dummy, that has a picture of a helmet on one side, lined up about 5-10 yards down field from the first dummy.
On the word “go”, the player blocks the first dummy for about 3 seconds, then peels off and goes after the second dummy.
The coach can either keep the helmet side facing the player or suddenly turn the dummy so the “back” of the dummy faces the football player.
If the helmet is facing the player, he blocks the dummy.
If the helmet is not facing the player, he runs past the dummy.
If the player hits the dummy while the helmet side is facing away from him, he has to do 5 push-ups.

After a few times through this drill, most players learn not to hit the dummy in the “back”. Our blocking in the back penalties decreased dramatically since I came up with this drill.

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