Should A Pop Warner Defense Bring Pressure?
At some point during your youth football season, your Pop Warner defense will begin to settle in and understand your base defense. Every coach has to monitor this because some groups just master the basics sooner than others. When it happens though, it is a chance to add a youth football defensive pressure or two.
If your Pop Warner defensive unit is still at a point where just getting lined up in your base defense is hard, then our advice to you would be to continue to stay pretty basic. No defensive pressure is going to solve your problems if you can’t get lined up. So master this part first, before advancing to your youth football defensive pressures. Remember, a teaching progression is always important.
Now once you decide to bring a little defensive pressure you are still faced with the task of covering all of the eligible receivers. Be sure to address this first. You will normally want to play either a man free coverage or a pure zero coverage with no free safety in the middle of the field. The easiest way to get this done is to make sure you Pop Warner aged players count the eligibles from outside in.
Check Out 6 Sound Youth Football Defenses From NFL Coaches
If your players communicate and end up with five eligibles other than the quarterback then you are in good shape. The pressure you dial up should help with the amount of time the quarterback has to throw the ball. It will also help vs the run game as you should have every gap covered with your pressure.
There are a lot of different ways to bring youth football defensive pressure. You can see that we have put together a simple FirstDown PlayBook PlayGrid to illustrate this. The two factors we would consider when calling a youth football blitz or dog would be this.
Who Are My Best Tacklers To Bring On My Pop Warner Defensive Pressure?
Odds are you are going to have one or two players on your Pop Warner defense that have a nose for the football. These are the players you want coming on your defensive pressure. It won’t matter if you free a player up in a blitz, if they won’t make the play once they are in the backfield. Personnel matters with youth football too.
Where Is My Pop Warner Defense Getting Hurt?
Sometimes an offense can be taking advantage of your defensive alignment or personnel and they are wearing it out. This is when you might want to consider bringing your pressure right at the point of attack. Sure, they may find another weakness after you do this a time or two. However, at least make them play left handed to beat you. Always take away what they do best first.
NFL Coaches On 12 Formations To Consider For Your Youth Football Offense
If it seems like this is a lot, that’s because it is. Coaching defense is every bit as hard as coaching offense, if not harder. That’s why FirstDown PlayBook has devoted an entire section just to youth football defense. All of the defenses are lined up against multiple offensive formations, with coaching points and player assignments. There are youth football chalk talks for defensive coaches too.
You can lean on the experience of NFL coaches while also having the technology that allows you to edit your defense to fit your youth football team. It really is the best of both worlds. We are so sure of it that we let you go in and take a free look at FirstDown PlayBook right here!
FirstDown PlayBook offers you 6 different Pop Warner defenses. You should consider one or two of these for your Pop Warner defense. Tap on any one of the tiles below to visit the article describing that defense. After reading the article then go join FirstDown PlayBook and get busy coaching your Pop Warner team with the best football playbook available!
