Special Teams Archives:

More Data on Onside Kicks When Coaching Youth Football   Onside kicks are often the difference between average teams and good teams in youth football. They are especially important when your team is less talented than those in your league.   Why Onside Kicks?   I’ve been a firm believer in onside kicks for the [...]

  Quick Placekicking Tip for Youth Football Coaches A very simple way to improve your placekickers effectiveness is to make sure he is striking the ball in the proper place.  Just like a baseball bat or golf club, the football has a “sweet spot” a place in the ball which allows for maximum distance and [...]

Punting Tips For Youth Football Coach Kohl from the Kohl’s Kicking Camps presented three times at the Chicago Glazier Clinic and did a great job. Kicking is an area we admittedly have yet to develop a core excellence in and Coach Kohl showed us why or better yet, maybe why not. Like most youth football [...]

Drilling Your Kickoff Teams Many youth football coaches don’t spend a lot of time with special teams, which is a huge mistake. With proper practice priorities and a good practice methodology, every youth coach should have plenty of time to devote to developing good special teams. While we are proponents of the onside or “pooch” [...]

Indianapolis Glazier Clinic The Indianapolis Glazier Clinic was a medium sized clinic with a small but enthusiastic contingent of youth football coaches. It was great to see guys from all the way from Cincinnatti there that ran my system last year for the first time. I got to the clinic just in time to see [...]

Do you think you know the rules of football well ? Have you ever heard of a placekick field goal ? Place Kick Field Goal There is a little known High School rule that allows you a free kick place kicked field goal attempt if you do so immediately following a fair catch. Most of [...]

Field Goal Punts? Did you know that a field goal attempt is treated just like a punt under both Federation and NCAA High School Rules? If the ball goes out of bounds or is downed by the punting team, the opponent takes the ball over at that point. There are a handful of High Schools, [...]

Many youth football players in the 5-8 year old range and many first year players often have problems remembering when to go out on the field for their special team’s duties. Many times in the excitement of the game or because of distractions, the young or rookie player will forget they are supposed to be [...]

If your youth football team gets blessed with a kicker that is out of the ordinary and can kick deeper than 30 yards, many youth footbal coaches are tempted to kick the ball deep. That probably is not the best strategy: Why put the ball “in space” to the other teams very best open field [...]

When coaching youth football teams, most coaches should consider using an “onsides’” kick every time on their kickoffs when the games are still in doubt.