Some of you may be in a position where you have to or
maybe even want to help coach multiple teams during the same season. It
can be done using some planning, scheduling and organizing techniques.
Be warned however, it is not recommended for most and certainly not for
those who don't feel very confident in your time management or coaching
abilities.
I've head coached more than one youth football team in
three seasons, more about that later. What is important is I have done
it in real life, this isn't theory. Coaching Youth football is one
thing, coaching multiple teams is a whole new equation.
Coaching
more than one team may involve organizing your football practices in a
way that is much different than what you are used to. In order to make
it work, you have to get creative. Here are some of the things I did:
I
started my football practices 30 minutes early for my younger team, My
older team practiced 30 minutes later than the younger team. This
allowed me 30 minutes of time alone with each team.
Early on we had a few practices alone, we varied the days each team practiced to allow each team one day per week alone with me.
We
combined some of the skill building and technique work within age
groups. Some of the more advanced and mature kids on the younger team
practiced with the older team and some of the weaker older kids were
grouped with the younger kids. This allowed our weaker older kids to
rep and get better against kids of their own abilities while allowing
the more mature younger kids to be challenged by the older kids. The
groups worked side by side with both groups doing the same exact drills.
Most
of the special teams work and dynamic warm ups including angle form
tackling were supervised by my assistants, which gave me segmented
"alone time" with one team.
Team Defensive segments were often
done by the defensive coordinators after the first few weeks. In the
first few weeks it was important to show the defensive coordinators and
players how to run a proper team defensive and defensive recognition
segment. After that it was just making sure the written practice plan
covered what they needed to work on that segment and what football
plays and formations they needed to concentrate on defending that week
You
must delegate all the logistics responsibilities to other coaches and
parents when coaching multiple youth football teams at once. When the
parents pressured me into doing this, I responded by putting all the
blocking dummies, and equipment on the field and requiring that they be
responsible for it. I did the same for the team "books" and whatever
else I could farm out to others. If you have a life, you have to.
Other key factors:
Most
of my assistants were second or third year coached with me.The
assistant coaches were believers in the system. I had full control of
both teams. The parents wanted me to head coach both teams.You MUST
have written minute-by-minute practice plans when having multiple teams
or even one for that matter when coaching youth football.
My
first year coaching two teams was simply because there were not enough
coaches. We had plenty of coaches for our "A" and "B" teams but we were
real short in our "In House" age 6-8 teams. Since it was "In House" and
not very competitive I was able to add this team to my regular coaching
duties that year, our age 8-10 "Select" team.
Another year I had
to fire an entire age 13-14 coaching staff one week before their first
game for not meeting the terms of the agreed upon coaches contract. In
addition to that they were "stacking" a "B" team, a very
unsportsmanlike and unfair thing to do which by the way is common with
very weak coaches who feel the only way their youth football teams can
do well is to have overwhelming talent. In this case this "B" team was
coached by me and another coach that was also coaching another team at
the same time. We couldn't practice all these teams on the same field
so we went to a Tuesday/Saturday schedule. Fortunately the league
scheduled so there were no game day conflicts. Funny how that works out
when you try to do the right thing. By the way, we kicked the 4 best
players up to the "A" team and ended up with a second place team in a
very satisfying season.
In 2007 I head coached an age 7-9 and
10-11 team, due to pressure from parents to continue coaching their
older children. My preference is to coach a new younger kids team every
year and send players on to the next age group rather than stay with
the team as they age through the system. In 2008 I'm head coaching 3
teams but we have put in place a set mentoring/apprenticeship program
for head coaches that will allow me to go back to coaching just one
team in 2009.
If you decide to do this, make sure all your
coaches are on board. Make sure to consult with the parents and for
safety reasons, do not put kids of dissimilar abilities with huge age
gaps against one another.
Dave
has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop
teams that are competitive and well organized. He is a Nike "Coach of
the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book
"Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" was endorsed by Tom
Osborne and Dave Rimington.
With over 15 years of hands-on
experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic
approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to
using this system to date have won 94% of their games in 5 Different
Leagues.
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