Knack Coaching Youth Football

Each spring and fall, hundreds of thousands of kids across North America join local recreation department soccer teams—and thousands of unprepared adults are drafted as coaches. Similarly, every summer, camp counselors are expected to play soccer with children from age five to fifteen. Knack Coaching Youth Soccer applies the unique quick-reference, visually organized Knack format to present a season's worth of plans, exercises, strategies, and tips to help coaches avoid embarrassment, have fun, and leave kids with the happiest experience possible. It addresses the different levels of coaching, both by age and by league. And it expertly covers soccer mechanics, strategy, and coaching philosophy, and provides extensive examples of drills and games for practices. Its 450 full-color photos plus charts and diagrams are complemented by easy-to-follow instructions and plenty of ideas for creating a winning team. • 450 full-color photos • Charts and diagrams • Kindergarten to middle school • Covers soccer both for boys and for girls

After years of watching, reporting on, and photographing pro baseball, Kevin T. Czerwinski and Beth Balbierz began coaching Little League in their respective home towns. In Knack Coaching Youth Baseball, this expert team combine real-life know-how about how to deal with kids with the best lessons they've learned from the pros, creating a reliable, usable, and winning instruction book for youth baseball coaches -- and for parents who want some ideas for giving their kids a few pointers in the backyard.

You volunteered to coach the football team, but are you ready? How will you teach the fundamental skills, run effective practices, and harness the energy of your young team? Fear not: Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Football has the answers. Longtime coach Jim Dougherty teams up with Brandon Castel to share experience and advice you can rely on from the first practice to the final game. It’s all here in the drills and the plays: evaluating players’ skills, establishing realistic goals, offering in-game coaching tips, and making the practices fun! Develop your team’s offensive and defensive skills for all positions with the Survival Guide’s collection of the game’s best youth drills. For plays that young players can actually run, flip to the Survival Guide’s offensive playbook and defensive alignments. And to get the most out of every practice, follow the ready-to-use practice plans. Turn to the series that has already guided thousands of first-time coaches in basketball, soccer, and softball to rewarding and productive seasons. With Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Football, you’re already well on your way.

Congratulations on your commitment to coach youth football. If you have played but haven’t coached before, you’ll need some help to make your first season a success. If you have coached previously, every season is an opportunity to do better. Coaching Youth Football, with its field-tested information and advice, will help you run your team with confidence. You’ll find methods and tips for communicating with players, minimizing risk and preventing injuries, providing basic first aid, planning and conducting practices, teaching the fundamental techniques and tactics, coaching on game day, and keeping it all fun. Written by Joe Galat, a former college and NFL coach and the president and founder of American Youth Football (AYF), this book covers fundamentals of offense, defense, and special teams. It features separate chapters on offensive and defensive techniques and tactics, as well as the best practices for blocking and tackling to minimize the risk of injury. More than 70 drills and 126 photos and illustrations are included in the chapters. Designed for coaches of players ages 14 and under, this book is also a valuable component of the Coaching Youth Football: The AYF Way online course, the official course of AYF, offered through Human Kinetics Coach Education. With this book, you can create an athlete-centered environment that promotes player development, enjoyment, motivation, and safety so that players will come out for the team year after year.

An acclaimed sportswriter offers an inside look at the Black quarterbacks whose skill and grit transformed the NFL In Rocket Men, John Eisenberg offers the definitive history of Black quarterbacks in the NFL—men who shaped not only the history of football but the cause of civil rights in America. From early pioneers like Fritz Pollard to groundbreaking modern standouts like Marlin Briscoe and James “Shack” Harris, Black quarterbacks had to be twice as good as their white counterparts to get playing time—and even then, many never got that chance. That didn’t begin to change in earnest until the 1990s and the 2000s, when racist notions about what Black quarterbacks supposedly couldn’t do began to fade, paving the way for today’s stars like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. Drawing on deep historical research and exclusive interviews with Black quarterbacks and players, coaches, and talent evaluators who have worked alongside them, Rocket Men is a celebration of the athletes and activists who transformed the game.

Few experiences are more rewarding than coaching a youth football team. Your journey through the season will be packed with moments that make you smile and that you and your players will remember for the rest of your lives. But what if you’ve never coached before? No worries! Coaching Football For Dummies is the fun and easy way to tackle the basics of coaching youth football. This friendly guide shows you how to teach your players effectively, regardless of their age or skill level, and lead your team to victory—even if you’re a first-time coach. You’ll discover how to: Develop a coaching philosophy Teach football fundamentals Encourage good sportsmanship Improve your team’s skills Ensure safety on the field Communicate effectively with parents Packed with valuable information on preparing your game plan before you even step on the field, this hands-on resource gives you expert guidance in building your coaching skills, from evaluating your players and running enjoyable, productive practices to working with all types of kids—uncoordinated, shy, highly talented—at once. You’ll find a variety of fun-filled drills for teaching everything from tackling and blocking to running and catching, as well as advanced drills to take your players’ skills up a notch. You’ll also see how to: Conduct a preseason parents’ meeting—an often overlooked aspect of coaching Gather the necessary gear and fit the equipment to your players Raise the level of play on offense, defense, and special teams Take steps to avoid injuries Deal with discipline issues and problem parents Make critical half-time adjustments Transition to coaching an All-Star Team Complete with tips for working with parents, keeping your players healthy, and leading your team effectively on game days, Coaching Football For Dummies is all you need—besides a whistle and a clipboard—to navigate your players through a safe, fun, rewarding season!