I'm coaching alone and need help with practice plans

Don't practice 2.25 hours with 5th/6th graders. That is crazy.

Don't practice 2.25 hours with 5th/6th graders. That is crazy.

Coach - 

You put a lot of effort into this. I commend you...far better than I have seen from most youth coaches.

With that being said, I think you are doing WAY too much. With 14 kids and a 2+hour practice, you are going to wear these kids out. You need 11 to play. What happens when 2 or 3 of these kids quit because practice is too long and hard?

Here's what I would do if I was in your situation:

1) Find some assistant coaches. There has to be at least 1 or 2 dads who are willing to help. Doesn't even matter if they know anything. You just need some warm bodies to help you out.

2) Assess your players. First practice should be something of a "combine". Come up with some skills tests that will help you separate linemen from backs.

3) Schedule a 90-minute practice and break it into two 45-minute periods. First part of practice is linemen and ends only. For 45 minutes, linemen work on stance, drive blocking progressions, and whatever special techniques (pulling/trapping/double teaming, etc, etc) you need. Second 45-minute period is for backs only. Work handoffs, ball security, and begin installing base plays using cones or garbage cans for the OL. Also a good time to let kids try out for center...gives the QB an opportunity to take live snaps in a "safe" environment. Work tackling EVERY day.

4) Do the above for about a week. After that time, you and your 1 or 2 assistant coaches should be able to coach either backs or line/ends. By the second week, you should be able spend the first 45 minutes repping team offense. You will have to coach and make corrections on the fly. Begin installing and coaching up the defense. Use garbage cans as the OL and find some adults to run the backfield motions for the basic plays you will see every week. Understand that you won't stop many teams. Emphasize slowing them down.

5) Realize that you probably aren't going to be very good. Don't yell and scream and carry on and berate kids. Regardless of how disastrous things get, remind yourself that you only have 14 kids and you took a thankless gig no one else was willing to do.

6) Run the DW on offense and the WT6 on defense. Both schemes can be run with 2 coaches (offense...1 guy takes line and ends, other guy takes backs. defense...1 guy takes interior DL and MLBs and other guy takes OLBs and DBs). Get to know Hugh Wyatt and Dave Cisar REALLY well! 

Just my thoughts...hang in there, coach...my thoughts are with you this fall!

Voice of slight dissent here.

We go 2.5 hours 4 nights a week throughout August, then three nights a week in September/October (5:30 - 8pm). With kids younger than that. Never have been issues with practice being too long. We start to shorten it up about halfway through the season, cut them loose about 7:30-7:45. The only practice complaints we get are that we start the season too early (Aug 1), which I agree with, but that's the Pop Warner start date.

That said, I wouldn't argue against a well run fast-paced 90 minute practice. Might need to be more like 2 hours at first until you're up to speed.

Totally disagree with the "wear them out" comment. With a short roster, you have to make sure they're very well conditioned or you're going to have game issues. That should happen naturally if you're running practice at a fast pace. See Dave Cisar's practice material, he does that as well as anyone out there. He never does "conditioning" and practices fewer hours than his competition, he runs very fast paced practices that MOVE.

I will tell you flat out we've won 4-5 games in the past two years against teams that were physically better than us, we just wore them out by going no huddle at a fairly fast pace. Last year we "stole" 2-3 games that way with a 30 man roster vs. their 18-20 who were dead by the 4th quarter. The year before we only had 20 on the roster (18 for a couple of games), and still wore teams out going fast. We were just in better shape.

I liked your practice plan, but I won't profess to be all that good at practice planning.

Coach,

Teach snap count during dynamic warmp-ups. Sprints, tail-kickers, etc... should all be on the snap count- especially if you are using any of Dave Cisar's stuff. I would definitely recommend that you do use Cisar's material. Correct 3pt stances during this time, also. Instill discipline at this time. You won't have time for horse-play during practices. Time is crucial for any staff of coaches. It's even more important when you're coaching alone.

This is a half-line drill that I used when I had to coach alone. It isn't an end-all/be-all, magic bullet, or whatever. It does get the kids busy, conditions them and you can teach basics out of it. But, like the other coaches mentioned, get some AC's to help you out asap.

.........................................................................C
................................X X X
................................O O O............................... W

..................................Q

Don't just jump into the half-line drill. Progress your way into it. You begin with a basic 1 vs. 1 'Sumo Drill'. Have the players 'bet' on who's going to win. Winners do 5 push-ups. Losers do 10, along with the losing sumo participant. Winning sumo'er does no push-ups. This is a dogfight. Make the spectators cheer on their guy. Get them hyped and aggressive.

...........................................X
...........................................O

Build and progress to this: Begin teaching correct O-line and D-line techniques. (i.e... shoulder blocking, hand blocking, rip, swim, whatever...). Look for a single winner. Ex.: one of the X's rips under the 'O' and gets into the backfield. He's the winner. He does no push-ups. All others do push-ups. Winner rotates out. New player in. It's also no longer really a sumo drill. O's are trying to drive and pancake. D's are trying whatever defensive techniques that fit your defense.

............................................D D D
............................................O O O

Progress to this:

...........................................D D D
...........................................O O O................... W

.............................................QB(Coach)

Same drill. But, this time the winner goes out for a pass. You're the QB. Don't worry. They all want to go deep, which works out great for you. It's all about the conditioning. You could care less who actually catches the ball, for now. Fat kids that hate sprints will run their hearts out for a deep pass that they 'earned' by kicking someone's @$$ in 'sumo'.

Progress to this: Now, a player is QB. Begin teaching QB candidates proper throwing techniques, W begins learning pass routes, everyone else is the same as usual. You can be on one knee and 'hiking' the ball to the Q.

........................................X X X
........................................O O O....................... W

........................................Coach
...........................................Q

Now, you need a Center. Progress to this: It's best to have two center candidates. The center is not involved in blocking! He needs to focus on one job, only- properly snapping the football. The other center not in the drill is on the side snapping the ball to a QB candidate or anyone you can find. The winner of Sumo goes to R and your QB & R begin with proper hand-offs. No one is to tackle the Rb, either. RB takes hand-off and runs through the correct hole.. i.e.. 2, 4. 6, 8 when half-line drill is to the center's right. 1, 3, 5, 7 when half-line is to the center's left. Or, however you have your holes numbered.

...........................................X X X
........................................c O O O
........................................Q (Doesn't matter if Q is UC or shotgun. You know where to put him and how the C's are to snap in your offense.)

.........................................R(Winner)


Player-wise, this all starts out a little hodge-podge. But, you will see who dominates up front, who can throw, who can learn QB steps, etc... You progress at how many things you can keep track of and what you want to emphasize as a coach.


Some suggestions:
1.) Keep everything very fast-paced.

2.) Only add what you're comfortable with tracking simultaneously. For example, at first it's pretty difficult to keep up with a CB's drop steps at the same time you're trying to check for correct hit & drive steps from your OG. I couldn't. But, I was better at watching a CB's B & R technique while watching the O-line.

3.) Get some assistants asap!

Just found this thread and I am very curious to how this all worked out for you.

Just found this thread and I am very curious to how this all worked out for you.

It appears that I am the only coach for my 5th/6th grade team. Our practice starts Monday and will go 2.25 hours. I have roughly 14 kids. Does anyone have any practice plan ideas or suggestions?