Your First Youth Football Play


By FirstDown PlayBook on Apr 28, 2024
#1 Tool For Youth Football & Pop Warner Coaches

There are a lot of things to consider when you agree to coach a youth football team. Many of them have little to do with X’s and O’s. We usually get into some of these in June as we get closer to the youth football season. Today we want to look at the first youth football play you should install this season.

Why is this the first play you should install? Because it is the most simple and elemental offensive play in football other than the quarterback sneak or sweep. Trust us when we say that simplicity is going to be your friend when choosing your first youth football play to install.

This will be the first time that many of your players have executed a base block or a cutoff block. It will be the first time they have ever handed the ball off securely to a running back. Some will have never taken a handoff from the quarterback. Sometimes even teaching the center quarterback exchange can be challenging. You will find that the fundamentals on defense will be just as important.

Your First Youth Football Play Should Teach Football Fundamental

For all of these reasons, we suggest installing a dive handoff as your first youth football play. As you will see in the short video below a youth football dive allows you to install a play that your players can handle. It also gives you the opportunity to teach fundamentals. Once again, fundamentals like a base block and cutoff block will benefit your youth football players forever.

Finally, the youth football play you will see in this short video also gives you options as you build your offense. Some of these options may not even be a part of this youth football play initially. However, as your players begin to master the basics, you can install extensions of that play. Take a look at this short video and see why we like the dive handoff as a good starting point for a youth football offense.

FirstDown PlayBook offers you 12 different youth football offensive formations . 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. Then get on over to FirstDown PlayBook to get busy coaching your Pop Warner team with the best football playbook available!

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