Youth Football Wedge Blocking
If you have ever coached six, seven or eight year old Pop Warner aged players, you know the value of the word “simple”. When it comes to youth football then it gets magnified because on top of the complexity of the game also comes things like physical contact, helmets, communication. You get the picture. That’s why this youth football wedge blocking play can be a good place to start.
Here at FirstDown PlayBook we hesitate to call this play a “wedge” just for the pure simple reason that we don’t teach it that way. It is tempting to do that and at times, it probably looks like that but we still think it’s important to start teaching blocking assignments regardless of your players’ age.
We typically like this play out of one of our three back formations. The two you will see in the video are a youth football Wishbone and a Power I. The play is a quick hitting play to the A or B gap on one side or another. We want there to be a frontside and a backside to this play.
FirstDown PlayBook Calls It Wedge But We Teach Frontside & Backside Assignments
This is a good first step for a young quarterback to work on handing the ball off to a back coming downhill. The Fullback will be taught to have the inside elbow up on the handoff. The Quarterback will also learn how to boot out away from the play. One more reason we have a playside and a backside.
On the FirstDown PlayBook version of this wedge run here are the rules:
CENTER: STEP PLAYSIDE AND WORK WITH THE GUARD TO BLOCK ANYTHING IN THE A GAP.
PLAYSIDE GUARD: WORK WITH THE CENTER TO BLOCK ANYTHING IN THE A GAP. IF NOTHING IS IN THE A GAP BLOCK THE B GAP DEFENDER UP TO THE LINEBACKER.
PLAYSIDE TACKLE: WORK WITH THE GUARD TO BLOCK ANYTHING IN THE B GAP. IF NOTHING IS IN THE B GAP BLOCK THE C GAP DEFENDER UP TO THE LINEBACKER.
PLAYSIDE TIGHT END: WORK WITH THE TACKLE TO BLOCK ANYTHING IN THE C GAP. IF NOTHING IS IN THE C GAP THEN WORK UP TO THE LINEBACKER INSIDE. LEAVE THE END MAN FOR THE RB.
All of your backside linemen cutoff the gap inside and make the defenders go outside. This allows your two backs who do not get the ball to seal the edges. This video explains how we teach it. Would teaching the offensive linemen to step inside and block the gap be easier? Maybe, we will give you that.
However; we don’t think it teaches real football. yes there is the Tush Push in the NFL but that’s not the play we want to be teaching our Pop Warner aged six and seven year olds.
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!
