Football Field

We aren’t talking about new football drills, but philosophies, methodologies and approaches, not a bunch of new football drills. One of the things Hall of Fame Basketball Coach John Wooden did in every off-season was to pick a narrow part of the game of basketball, analyze it, study it and develop a core competency in it. Wooden took things like beating the Zone Press and made it his off-season project for the year. He would seek out the experts in that field, buy every book he could on the subject, go to clinics, go visit zone press teams, study it and seek out coaches advice in the off-season. Coach Wooden did this every year he coached, he chose just one narrow area of the game and made a commitment to excel in that area of the game. Just imagine the wealth of knowledge you would have if you did this for 5-10 years in a row. Unfortunately many youth football coaches just don’t have the base coaching knowledge like Coach Wooden would have. They know lots of good football drills, but …

Coaching Youth Football (Baffled Parent’s Guides)

A PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Features the expertise of one of the nation’s top-ranking college football coaches

Author Paul Pasqualoni, head coach at Syracuse University, is renowned for the hands-on style he developed over years of coaching football at all levels. Like all Baffled Parent’s Guides, Coaching Youth Football takes an upbeat, inspirational approach to coaching, with an emphasis on creating a positive, supportive environment. Pasqualoni offers the fundamentals of motivating, controlling, and encouraging a disparate group of children of varying skills and dispositions. Readers learn the secrets of coaching football, including how to determine a child’s position, how to teach blocking and tackling safely, and how to calm a player’s and parent’s fear of being hurt.

In youth football, I can’t count the number of times I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the play and actions of teams and coaches. Quite often the reputation of these Pee Wee teams and coaches was a product of others, just the aggregated frustration and covetousness of other youth coaches, nothing more than just sour grapes. Unfortunately in the world of youth football coaching, these impressions and attitudes are pervasive, widespread and often WRONG. Be Open Minded When coaching Pee Wee football, I try to go into these situations with an open mind and a soft heart and let the other team and coaches prove me wrong. One of the most disliked and misunderstood coaches in two different leagues my teams have competed in has actually become a trusted friend and confidant. His organization has gone out of its way to treat us well and in turn we have gone out of our way to do the same for them. Now our organizations enjoy a strong but respectful rivalry and we look forward to playing each oth …