Youth Football Training – End of Practice Relay Race

I received this suggestion for [tag]youth football training[/tag] from Steve, one of my subscribers. I’ve included it for you below. Creative and effective but best of all the kids love it!

I coach Pop Warner Mitey Mite (7, 8 & 9 year olds) in Jacksonville, Florida.   As with most [tag]football coach[/tag]es we practice pretty hard but, at the end of [tag]football practice[/tag] I set up a relay race on parallel courses.

The identical courses start with 5 or six zig-zag cones for the first 10 yards, then the players jump over 3 consecutive tackling dummies (laid down) for the next 10 yards, then the players sprint another 10 yards and go around a blocking pad (held by a coach), then they turn for home and sprint the 30 yards and the next player goes.

In order to make it interesting, the [tag]football[/tag] coaches with the blocking pads at the end of the [tag]football drill[/tag] (30 yards down field) move, stay still, or move further from the start/finish line so that the first relay ends in a tie or a very close finish.

The players don’t realize (or don’t say anything) that we are “rigging” the race to be close so everyone always wants a rematch.   We will run this relay 3 or 4 times at the end of practice and all of the kids run full out.   They want to win the race.   We make it fun and it works for us.