I’m A New Youth Football Coach. How Can I Learn?
As I write this, I am totally aware that I write it for many coaches who don’t even know they need it yet. I am not only referring to the normal lack of respect a human has as they accept the job of coaching a Pop Warner football team. It goes much deeper than that. This blog is also for those of you who are going to be a youth football coach next season and haven’t even been asked to do it yet. In other words, you get thrown into the fire at the last minute.
Regardless of the situation, most youth football coaches are ill prepared for the task ahead of them. This is the point where I could just simply point you to the overall benefits of youth football and how much you can teach your team about life, regardless of your football IQ.
That’s not where we are going today. We are going to talk about how you can get better at youth football X’s and O’s. I am writing this is in December. Whether you already know you are coaching next season or will find out at the last minute, this is for you.
If you are studying youth football at this point in the calendar year, you have either received an early warning about next year or you had your behind handed to you this season. Your commitment has been made that next season is going to be different.
FirstDown PlayBook Is The Perfect Place To Learn Youth Football
By now you have already reached for your phone and said…”Show me the best youth football plays.” or “Show me the best youth football defenses.” Who knows what you saw. Likely you saw whatever Google wanted you to see, based on where you live and what you ate for dinner.
Here’s my point. In the world of artificial intelligence and the internet, where you can find almost whatever you want.
You will probably find three things:
- Totally AI generated or human plagiarized work. In other words, the content either computer generated or human generated is just copied from what it or they have seen out there. Better not have to make an adjustment if you use this option.
- The old ball player or fan turned coach turned expert on how to win a youth football game. Notice I did not say anything about teaching football. These are the guys that take advantage of their passion for the game. Nothing wrong with that but then they live it through a youth football game.
- Football plays or defenses used by NFL coaches or college coaches that are great schemes but far too complicated for your eight and nine year old Pop Warner team.
Each of those options will get you in trouble as you coach a youth football team, in one way or another. Coaching football is like just about anything you encounter in life. Before you can run you have to walk and even crawl. FirstDown PlayBook understands this. That is why we break our youth football sections down so that we are actually teaching football.
You will notice that this play is a simple Pop Warner toss sweep. So why is it drawn six times? It’s because if you look closer you will see it is drawn versus six different defenses. Every time a defense changes ever so slightly, the blocking scheme will adjust. This is why FirstDown PlayBook takes the time to draw the play up to teach youth football coaches before they teach their players.
New Youth Football Coaches Need A Place That Shows Them How & Why
Now before someone pops up and says “Well, we have rules that our players use. We don’t need diagrams.” As a thirty year coach who is (like most players & coaches) a visual learner, let me assure you that you need both. FirstDown PlayBook provides player assignments and rules for every play and defense too.
The final point I want to circle back around to is that FirstDown PlayBook is all about coaches coaching coaches. It is a place where an inexperienced youth football coach can sit down and learn at their own pace. They can also learn from proven coaches who have done this their whole life for players at all ages and levels. Check out a free trial today.
FirstDown PlayBook offers you 12 youth football formations. There are unbalanced formation plays out of every one. You should consider one or two of these for your Pop Warner offense. Tap on any one of the tiles below to visit the article describing that formation. After reading the article then go join FirstDown PlayBook and get busy coaching your Pop Warner team with the best football playbook available!
