Youth Football Plays: Choosing the Right Plays

If you are going to coaching youth tackle football then you should be interested in these facts:

1. The majority of tackle football coaches use plays that where designed for the PRO level or College level.  These tackle football plays are simple to COMPLEX for your youth football team.

2. When coaching a tackle football team under the age of 12 years old its is recommended to stick with 1-2 formations on offense, 1 defensive formation and no more than 15-20 offensive plays.

3. It is better to MASTER the 15-20 tackle football plays than to try and teach 40-50 plays.  If you master a small number of plays your team will be alot better off than trying to overload your young football players minds.
   

4. Another mistake most youth football coaches make is trying to pass too often.  At the youth level the majority of your playbook should be running plays, use the pass sparingly to either offset your running attack or to setup your running game.  Trying to pass more than 3-5 times per game will only cause you problems such at turnovers, having to convert 3rd down and long situations or not being able to convert first downs.

A coach should really choose the tackle football plays he uses wisely, however this is not as complicted as one might think.  Here are some examples of how you might choose your offense.

Example #1- My Team has 1-2 fast running backs but a smaller offensive line.

This is a very common situation at the youth football level.  The solution is simple, you must plan for your strengths such as speed.  If you have speed in the backfield you should consider using an offense that can get to the outside quickly.  Don't limit your attack to just the outside, you should still attack the middle, but just to keep the defense honest.  If you have success outside they may stack against you on the outside, then you hit them quickly up the middle.

Recommened Offenses for this example:

Pro Formation

Singleback Formation

Wing-T Formation

Example #2- My Team has 3-4 good running backs, a decent size line, but not alot of speed.

This is another very common situation.  Once again you have to be sure to play to your strengths, which is going to be pounding the middle and off tackle.  Another advantage is by having more than 2 running backs you can hit the opposing defense from all angles, they won't be able to key  on which back is the featured back because you won't have a  "featured back".  This running attach should attack all inside gaps often and also hit off tackle.  Also don't be afraid to attack the outside with power leads and bootlegs because after a few series of pounding the middle the outside will be weak.

Recommended Offenses:

I Formation

Wing Formation

Straight T Formation

Tandem Formation

Broken I Formation

Hopefully this will help you choose the best tackle football plays for your team.  Good luck this upcoming season,

Coach Wamer

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