Tuesday, November 3, 2009

When to Get Hard on the Youth Football Players

There will come a time at some point while coaching your youth football team's season where it feels like the inmates are starting to run the asylum. This is especially true at the younger ages where the majority of the players have the attention span of an earthworm.

I am always balancing fun versus work during my youth football practices. You want to teach the kids and give them the best football experience you can, but you also want the players to have fun. It never seems to fail, but each year the team will have on practice where they start to stray. I believe that coaching is an extension of parenting and at times, we need to show some "tough love".

I have long been a believer that if the team starts to get out of control and stops listening then "hell night" as I call it is in order. I do not believe in excessive conditioning of your youth football players, on a regular basis but when you need to "reel them in" nothing works as good as some old fashion conditioning.

I have found that once the kids believe your threats, they will listen. I do not believe in making idol threats. Every youth football team I have ever coached has listened well because they understood the consequences if they did not. There is no reason to be dictator or run your team as a military unit,but you must maintain some kind of control over the team.

Jim has over 22 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach. The system he has used with great success for both youth football and youth basketball. His personal teams have won over 80% of their games.


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Sunday, November 1, 2009

HOME :: Recreation-and-Sports / Football

When you are looking for the best South Eastern Conference tickets to Florida Gators football, it pays to purchase your tickets online. Gator tickets can be hard to come by as these football tickets are coveted by the many fans that follow this awesome team. But when you let your fingers do the walking over your keyboard and you open up a whole new world of how to get the best Gator tickets.

Now, you may get confused when it comes to buying football tickets online. After all, there are many places where you can purchase online tickets to various events, including Gator tickets. Naturally, you want to get the best price as well as fast service. And above all, you want to know that the site from which you purchase your football tickets is legit. And has been in operation for a long period of time.

And you also want to be sure that you get the best football tickets for your money. When you are seeking out Florida Gator tickets, you are going to want to get the best seats to the best games for the best price - every single time!

It is best to discover as much about the site where you buy SEC tickets before you actually make your purchase. You can do this by learning from sites that not only sell football tickets, but specialize in where to get Florida Gator tickets. When you want the best tickets, as well as the opportunity to discover the schedule and which teams they are playing, you can do so by going to an online site that will give you the lowdown on the games in the SEC.

When you are looking for Florida Gator tickets, you want to get the best tickets to the most exciting games. The Florida Gators play football games each year against other teams in the SEC Eastern Division. These include Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. They also play rotating teams from the Western Division as well.

Florida Gator tickets make the perfect gift for the football fan and also make a great gift for you to give yourself. If you follow the Gators and want to find the best football tickets, they are only a mouse click away when you go online.

So show off your team spirit, get on your gear and start getting your football tickets!

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Friday, October 30, 2009

Organizing Practice Schedule - Coaching Youth Football

Coaching youth football is all about preparation and organization. I think it is very important to have a consistent schedule for the practice. The days and time should remain the same. The parents can then plan around your schedule. Make sure you know the administration's rules as far as how many hours and days per week, you are allowed to practice.

In the current league, I am coaching once school starts we can only practice six hours maximum per week.

I set youth football practices when school starts for three times a week but for only 90 minutes. I believe that two hours is just too long and you lose the attention span of the players. I like to go a serious 90 minutes with no down time.

I also believe it is very important to start and end your practices on time. Do not be the coach that starts practice 15 minutes late and runs 30 minutes over. Neither the parents nor the players appreciate this. I have very productive and consistent practices. Every part of the practice has been prepared in advance. My youth football practices are well thought out. The early part of the season is fundamentals and teaching the schemes while later in the season a good portion of the practice goes into the Game Plan.

It is a good idea to get a list of the religious education schedule since that always seems to affect a good number of players on the same night. If you can determine in advance what night it is and how many players it will effect this may change the day you practice.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Bad Youth Football Practices - Coaching Youth Football

It does not matter how organized you are while coaching your youth football team there are going to be days when everything seems to go wrong.

Sometimes right from the beginning of your youth football practice things will not go as according to plan. One of he sure signs that the practice is not going to be productive is unexcused absents. You may have it scheduled to work on a specific play or scheme and the player you need does not show up. If you are coaching a youth football team with fewer than 20 players it is hard enough to run plays but when a few kids miss your practice options become limited.

There will also be times where it feels like "there is something in the air" and the practice just sucks. You and your coaches are ready to go but the kids just have an off day. I am not talking about an off day because the players are screwing around, I cover how to handle that in the next topic, but just a day where all the players are missing tackles. The players are brain dead as you add a new youth football or a variety of other bad signs.

As long as this is an exception and not the rule, I tend to turn the balance of the practice into a drill or something FUN that the kids will enjoy.

I find when coaching youth football that by turning a bad experience into a fun one the kids respond well and come back strong the next practice.

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Surprise 2009 NFL Teams Through Week 6

This has been a great season of football so far, and some outcomes have been far from what we've expected through the first third of the season. For example, who would have thought that the Titans and the Panthers, two of the best teams in the NFL in 2008, would have one combined win through the first five weeks of the season? Both of these teams were seen as legitimate playoff contenders in 2009, so this comes as a huge surprise to many.

On the other side of the issue, there have been some teams who have been pleasant surprises in 2009. Expected to have a losing season of football, these teams have outdone the expectations of many and continue to impress. Here are a few of them.

1. The Cincinnati Bengals. Perhaps we forgot about the fact that they were a pretty good team with Carson Palmer at QB, but their 4 win season in 2008 quickly cast this team as one of the weakest in the NFL. Palmer is back from an injured 2008, and the Bengals sit at 4-2.

2. Minnesota Vikings. Yes, we knew they'd be good and we knew they could win their division - but was anyone expecting a 6-0 start? Brett Favre has quieted any doubters so far with some exceptional play at the QB position.

3. Denver Broncos. At the time I write this, the Broncos are still undefeated, with a 5-0 record and will meet the Chargers on the big stage with a Monday Night Football game. If they can win again, they have to be considered legitimate contenders this season.

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

10 Great Reasons Football Coaching Will Help You

If you play football then you might already play for a club, and be a regular in the first team. If you just have a kick around with friends in the park every so often, but want to play for a team, then football coaching could be just what you need.
Here are 10 reasons that football coaching will help you.

1. You'll improve as a player, as you play more often, and become better at reading the game, and know what's expected of you. You might have never played in a team before, or never played 11 a side for 90 minutes. You might have never had proper training sessions, with soccer drills and exercise routines.
2. You'll learn a lot from your team mates, and coach / manager. Some of these players / coaches or managers might have been professionals, and know exactly what they are talking about, and what works and what doesn't work.
3. Playing regularly will ensure that you get fitter. Playing for half an hour with a hangover every couple of weeks is not the same as playing for 90 minutes on a Saturday and a mid week training session.
4. You'll learn more about commitment and responsibility, whether it's turning up for training when you don't feel like it, or following your manager's instructions even when you don't think they are working. You might not be the most prolific striker, or skilful player, but your commitment and enthusiasm will ne noted by those who matter.
5. Proper football coaching will help you to avoid injury through over training, or doing the wrong sort of exercise regimes. If you do suffer an injury, knowing how to deal with your injury will help you on your road to recovery
6. If you go through a loss of form, your football coach and manger will be able to help you. Perhaps it's just a lack of confidence, or is there something else that's affecting your game?
7. You'll get the chance to play for a team, and all that that entails. Perhaps you've never played for a team before, or you've been playing for many years. You'll find that you learn something new every game, which will help to make you a better player, and a better person.
8. You'll make friends with your new team mates, and learn their strengths, both on and off the pitch.
9. By playing for a team there's more chance of you playing more regularly, and if you think that you can impress the scouts for a professional team, then you might just make it
10. By being able to play the game properly you'll enjoy it more, and get more out of the game. You won't be frustrated when your mates don't turn up, or are hung over and not interested in playing. Playing for a team will make you proud and rightly so.
If you just want to play in the park with your mates, then that's fine, but if you want to play professionally you'll have to make the commitment to be the best you can be. When you look back in a few years time, will you think "if only"?
For expert online
Football Coaching from a Premier League club, why not learn How To Play Soccer, the Everton Way?

5 Steps to Improve Your Football Coaching

Your football coaching skills can be improved in many of ways. Autobiographies of renowned players and managers, dedicated football coaching books, football magazines, and watching football on TV can be beneficial, but for a coach, they are not always convenient methods to explain techniques or tactics when the whole team is trying to watch the screen, or read a book.
Online training courses are designed to provide you with the football techniques and coaching skills you need in order to help your players to progress. Utilising video clips, and other tried and tested methods, you can follow the training programmes that other teams use, and gain more knowledge about soccer coaching. If you are serious about becoming a football coach, perhaps you will decide to embark on a nationally recognised football coaching qualification.
Your players will want to develop their technical skills which will involve them becoming more aware of the "right" run, or pass, or action, as well as improving techniques and getting fitter. Soccer drills can be used to simulate events and situations in a game.
Maybe as a coach you can learn about the sports science aspects of football, and impart your knowledge to your players. As technology and science have improved, the knowledge of the human body and how it works has increased. This means that new techniques, diets and training regimes that can help improve players' performance can be implemented. Scientific analysis can help football players to improve their fitness and well being.
Physiotherapy and injury prevention are also important, and will help players to learn the advantages of being and staying fit, stretching before and after training, and generally looking after their bodies. Strength and resistance training can also be used to help improve speed and endurance.
As a football coach, you will need to be able to mange the different age groups and amend you coaching and expectations to meet the ability of each group. Expecting 5 year olds to be able to last 90 minutes on a full pitch is unrealistic, while 16-18 year olds need to be able to play for this long. Each age group will be concentrating on different techniques and aspects of the game.
As well as focusing on football, children shouldn't neglect other aspects of their life for football at an early age. Forcing reluctant children to play football is unlikely to work, and they could end up resenting the game
The psychological aspects of the game shouldn't be ignored either. What about players who have long term injuries, or who aren't good enough? How do you help those who are going through a bad spell, such as a striker suffering a goal drought, or a goalkeeper lacking confidence? As a coach, you will need to be able to deal with the issues and the reactions from parents and siblings.
Those involved in modern football coaching can call upon a wealth of resources from physical training to mentoring, as well as traditional soccer coaching techniques. If you are involved in soccer coaching at any level, why not learn from the professionals?