Winning Youth Football

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Monday, February 7, 2011

Football Practice: Eliminate Interceptions and Fumbles


Football statistics are a big part of the game. First downs, penalties, time of possession, yards rushing, yards, receiving, tackles, all are a big factors in the football game and poor statsistics usually results in a loss or a poor performance.

But at the same time great football statistics don't always mean that you will get the win and be successfull on the football field either. The biggest killer in a football game is turnovers, that is, when a football team turns the ball over to the opposing team via a fumble or interception and as a result gives up a quick score. These quick scores can be game breakers no matter how good statistically you are on the football field during that game.

Your team can be playing great, rushing the football, passing the football, and even stopping them with your defence and then "boom" a turn-over happens and worst of all a touchdown results. Not only does it deflate your team but it gives the opposing teams the momentum and confidence and turn around what was a great game statistically into a disaster. So it really is possible to outplay a football team statistically, lead all the categories and despite this lose the game as a result of turn-overs.

For the most part the rule of thumb is that if you turn the ball over a minimum of three times per game your chances of winning that game are diminished severely.So as a coach how do you eliminate turn-overs in a football game? The fairest answer to that question is that you probably will not eliminate turn-overs completely from your game, but if you practice football fundamentals effectively in practice, then you can manage the turn-overs and reduce them significantly. Most turn-overs are mental errors caused by poor fundamentals or poor judgement. For example, your star running back does not hold the ball properly as he runs through the line of scrimmage. An opposing defensive linemen slaps at the ball as he runs by and causes the ball to pop out and create a turn-over.
To sum it up if the running back had good ball carring fundamentals and protected the football then it would have limited the chances of being stripped out by the slap of the defensive linemen. This mistake could have been prevented in practice.
Secondly, your quarterback trys to jam a pass in to your reciever downfield who is running a poor pass pattern. The quarterback  makes a poor throw resulting in an interception. Now, we have two mistakes that occurred which resulted in a turn-over. First of all, a poor route by the reciever as well as a poor decision by the quarterback to throw the football resulted in the interception. Both mistakes are mental errors that can be easily fixed in your football practice. All in all turn-overs can be a big factor in any football game. One of your goals through the football season is to efffectively minimize your turn-overs. This can be done mainly by practicing good football fundamentals as well as working with individual players and groups during your football systems time on either offence or defence and coaching them up to be solid fundamentally as well as to make good football decisions on the field.