lyons
Sophomore Member
Posts: 164
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Post by lyons on May 2, 2013 12:25:17 GMT -6
We are hosting a youth camp with around 30 kids showing up. Grades 2-6
What is the best way to handle the practice? We are going 2 saturdays at 2 hours a piece. What has worked and what doesn't.
Thanks
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Post by simione916 on May 16, 2013 22:07:58 GMT -6
lyons, I have been doing a couple of them. 2 hours on Saturdays. Kind of feeling our way around with this, as I am a HS coach trying help to jumpstart a fledgling youth feeder program. Our coaches are a mix of my HS seniors and youth coaches. Coaches who have done these, forgive me if this is totally wrong and doesn't work, but it has for us as far as engagement and keeping the kids coming.
We start with a dynamic stretch.
Then we bring the kids up for a quick talk and break them out.
On the break, kids are split up by age group (6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13). Each group goes to a station (4 stations).
Kids do some kind of footwork/agility drill in each station for FIVE minutes. At the end of the rotations, kids get a water break, then bring it up to the middle of the field. We talk offense briefly.
Kids break off into their stations again, but this time it is offensive emphasis. Everybody gets instruction in every position. So everyone learns OL, QB, WR, RB drills and technique. Same times...5 minutes.
After rotations, the exact same cycle happens as before, then they break into defensive stations. The stations are DL, DB, LB, and kickers (we kind of added that one, even though it isn't technically "defense").
After the last rotations, kids get a water break again, then we divide them into teams. We have them play touch football for about 15-20 minutes.
After the football games, we do some sort of obstacle course relay, relay race, etc.
At the end of that, we bring the kids up, give some sort of talk, and let them go. Coaches wait at the gate and make sure kids don't walk off by themselves.
The challenges here are many, but here are the main ones:
1. Coaching up the coaches to make those 5 minutes count. Don't be a master lecturer by talking for 3 out of the 5 minutes. Coach from the feet up, be active, get reps, and encourage.
2. Making sure coaches can differentiate drills and emphasis points for different age groups. Don't have little kids backpedal full speed or they will hurt themselves. Adjust equipment for sure. The first time we did this, I saw my 6 year old daughter trying to runt through and step over the agility bags. I then turned to the stands to make sure my wife wasn't cussing at me lol.
3. Making sure the adults have energy the whole time. This is a draining deal for coaches if they do it right. But kids will eat it up and it will be worth it.
The kids have left happy for the most part. I like how the coaches have an opportunity to get better at what they do. If you only have 5 minutes, you have to be on your stuff. Hopefully they can take that approach to individual periods and practice planning when their real practices start.
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lyons
Sophomore Member
Posts: 164
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Post by lyons on May 18, 2013 14:27:45 GMT -6
That is a huge help! I really like how you have organized the camp! Thanks , I will definitely be using this format!
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Post by simione916 on May 22, 2013 1:13:45 GMT -6
You are most welcome, lyons. Best of luck with the camps and your season! I have two more of these--June 1st and June 15th. Then I will let the youth coaches take the reigns while I go back to my drama queens (the high school team).
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dangerzone
Freshmen Member
[F4:jthompson383]
Posts: 35
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Post by dangerzone on May 22, 2013 23:41:41 GMT -6
we hold a free camp for the community 3rd thru 7th graders...We use exactly the same format as stated. It has been working for us for the last 4 years
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Post by dacoachmo on May 27, 2013 7:09:58 GMT -6
Any ideas for fun activities for stations??
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Post by simione916 on Jun 2, 2013 13:16:28 GMT -6
Coach, try setting up 2 hoops. Many threads here on how to make them if you don't have them. Kids start at opposite ends...bring them closer if one is faster than the other. Basically they run figure 8s around the hoops until one catches the other. Loser does 5 pushups. If winner does a full figure 8 without getting tagged, the chaser does pushups.
Good fun drill that teaches "running the hoop" on the way to qb, leverage while coming off the edge, and motor in finishing a play.
There are alot of drills just be creative and think about something that relates to football movement. The best drills are the ones you make up. Of course, I stole the one I described above lol.
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Post by linecoach79 on Jun 13, 2013 3:02:53 GMT -6
We have been running a program Camp, we have 4 different stations, we focus on speed and agilities, we do this once a week for kids in our entire program, As the season grows near, we will focus on football specific stuff, Stance and Starts First step, hand placement, Get offs, Ball Security, Snapping, angle form tackling, we work stations for 90 minutes rotating every 10 to 15 minutes on the whistle, for last 30 minutes we have them run routes, 2x crossing where coach leads them and then the bomb. we are conditioning them in this manner and they dont even know it, For the bomb we will overthrow the ball for our kids which may need to drop a few pounds.
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