Youth Football Defensive Line Technique Series
FirstDown PlayBook is excited to announce that we are starting a new series aimed at helping youth football coaches. We are going to focus on the defensive side of the ball and more specifically the defensive line. Starting From a 0 nose to a 9 technique we will break down some key fundamentals to use when coaching defensive line technique.
With apologies to the youth football linebacker coaches and defensive back coaches out there, we think this is probably the position that is hardest to coach. Our reasoning goes like this. Your youth football linebackers are likely some of your more instinctive players and your secondary players are not threatened very much.
A youth football linebacker who is 8-9 years old normally keys the backfied as opposed to the offensive line. These players have the advantage of doing this from a two point stance. This is a luxury that your defensive tackle does not have.
Coaching Youth Football Defensive Line Technique Correctly Is No Small Task
Also, while a youth football defensive back must defend the pass, it is not quite the threat that the run game presents. The majority of this coaching revolves around run support and making sure no receiver gets behind them.
A youth football defensive lineman faces a whole new world. If coached properly, this young player is asked to get in a three or four point stance and key the ball or an offensive lineman. As the ball is snapped this young player is asked to stay low and defend a gap. All new stuff for an eight year old!
FirstDown PlayBook will have all of this in mind as we start this new series. We will start next week with a youth football Nose Guard or Nose Tackle. We will provide technique diagrams as well as instructional videos.
Our goal is to provide a youth football coach a defensive line manual of sorts. Something to learn from if you are new to coaching the defensive line. It will also provide a valuable resource to reference from time to time throughout your youth football season.
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!
