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Football Coach in Canada

I notice from your bio that you are involved in the NFL Jr. Player Development Program. I am interested in learning more about some of the technical aspects of the program. Toronto Canada is not an NFL market and as such I have not gotten a lot of attention from the local NFL office or the one in NY.

I am a coach who is presently working with an under-19 team for the summer, will assist with the local University team and thinking about volunteering with the local Pop Warner team if my 6-year-old expresses interest.

If you are able to share the practice outlines as they relate to the skill development and introduction of skills over the eight week program, I would be extremely grateful. I think that this outline would provide an excellent framework to coach the Pop Warner kids as well as the high school summer team.

We run this program as an alternative to our Pop Warner program so that parents and players have a choice between the highly competitive Pop Warner traveling teams and the "play to learn and have fun" philosophy of the development program.

After coaching for many years in highly competitive programs such as Pop Warner and Long Island Midget Football, I was troubled by a number of things. Many coaches were too intense, concerned only about winning not in teaching all the players. They had a "play the best and bench/cut the rest" philosophy and as a result, too many kids were being turned off of football. In highly competitive programs, fun and total participation are sacrificed to enhance a team's chance of winning. Players are usually restricted to certain positions and not everyone has an opportunity to learn the skill positions. The skilled players get the bulk of the playing time in games and most of the repetitions in practice as well. While it is true that Pop Warner has a minimum play requirement, it is typically only six plays per game. In some Pop Warner leagues, players in the youngest age group play only on offense or defense, not on both.

Our development program tries to avoid all of these issues by focusing totally on teaching skills and providing 100% participation for all players. We group the players according to age, size, weight and ability and match them up accordingly in the various drills and games. Early practices are organized into eight position stations at which each player learns and practices the fundamental skills needed to play each position.

The first several practices are devoted almost entirely to position stations. These stations are repeated during the first few weeks of practice until all players have had an opportunity to work a number of times at each. During the course of the season, the time spent on position stations is reduced, although not completely eliminated, and different group drills are added. These drills typically consist of offensive groups of two, three, four or more players working against comparable defensive groups.

Here are a few examples of some of the drills we use. We start out with a tackling walk-though called the "Wrap, Lock and Carry" drill. Players are paired according to size. Player A is the tackler, player B is passive. The tackler, in football ready position with knees bent and head up, positions himself in front of player B. He then wraps his arms around B, locks his hand and wrist, lifts player B off the ground and carries him a few feet. Players take turns as A and B.

The first serious contact drills we do, and ones the payers usually like the best, are the one-on-one tackling drill and the four corner tackling drill. In the one-on-one drill, Player A, the runner, lies on the ground on his back between two cones about two yards apart holding a football. Player B lies on his back, head to head with A. On the coach's whistle, the runner gets up and tries to run through the cones and B gets up and tries to tackle A.

The four corner tackling drill uses four cones set up in a square about three yards on a side. Tacklers line up on one cone and runners line up on an adjacent cone. Runners run at half speed toward the opposite cone and tacklers meet the runner approximately in the middle of the box to make the tackle. Tacklers must keep their head up and in front of the runner on the tackle. Players rotate as tacklers and runners.

Other drills include a basic blocking drill with several O-line blockers against defensive linemen. A ball carrier can be added to the mix once the basic blocking techniques have been demonstrated and absorbed.

A group consisting of a center, quarterback and running backs (and later, wide receivers) start out practicing handoffs or running basic plays. O-linemen are then added and the unit runs against a skeleton set of defenders, typically seven-on-seven.

We also have string out and pursuit angle drills for defense as well as handoff, pitchout and pass route drills for the offense. We mix up the different drills to keep practice varied and fresh so that kids don't get bored doing the same things every practice.

As players progress, half-line and full scrimmages become regular activities for the final segment of practice. Kids love the scrimmages and coaches should use the scrimmage time to perfect execution by both the offense and defense.

All of our coaches, and we have quite a few, work with all the kids in the different drills and rotate around as needed. You need at least one coach for each station. Usually after the first week of practice, we introduce the offensive formations and the numbering system. All players learn the same set of plays and receive a play book containing offensive, and defensive formations, plays and blocking priorities. All players are encouraged to learn all the plays so that they will be able to play the different positions throughout the season.

A significant differences between our program and the NFL Junior Development Program is that each weekend we organize the boys into pairs of teams and play real games. Coaches are assigned to each game and they coach either offense or defense for both teams. This ensures that the coach remains focused on the players and their performance, and are not caught up in the outcome of the game.

Each week, players are assigned to a team in the appropriate group for the upcoming game. Each player is assigned a position on offense and on defense for that game and practices those positions during the weekly practice sessions. We limit the roster size of each team in each group to 13 players so that playing time is not an issue, every player players essentially the entire game.

The following week the players are assigned a different position and a different team and spend practice time working at that position. Players are carefully assigned to teams each week considering their skill level to ensure competitive balance. Over our eight to nine week season, players play a variety of (if not all) positions. While not all players are interested in playing all positions, we allow and encourage players to try different positions in addition to their favorite one.

Scores are kept during games, but no won-loss records are kept from week to week since teams are comprised of different players each week. All the games in each group are played at our home field so there is no traveling involved. And since our coaches, parents and players all believe that fun, participation and development are the objectives of the program, there are never any unpleasant incidents at games. The players who have played in this program and their parents think it is wonderful.

I believe most kids should be playing in such a developmental recreational program. Traveling teams should be reserved for the very skilled player. Their rosters should be limited in size and there should be a total substitution rule and a requirement that all players on the team play in at least half of every game. Too many kids, and worse, too many parents, think that playing on a highly competitive traveling program is a symbol of status. Even if their child is not a very skilled player, they want him on the elite travel team. Unfortunately, on most travel teams the "average" player spends most of the game on the bench and the parents wind up regretting the decision and complaining that their son is not playing enough.

We offer our players a choice but I'm sorry to say that far too often parents or players don't make the correct choice.