Practice Planning

Larry Canard, Coordinator of Youth Football for USA Football, treats practice planning as an evolving process rather than a form you fill out in August. In this session he details the elements of practice planning for youth leagues and keeps returning to one question every youth coach should be asking: are you accomplishing what you need to be? He walks through the separate phases of a youth practice - pre-practice, warm-up and fundamentals - and shows how the plan should change as the season moves.

What you'll learn

• The key elements of successful practice planning for a youth football team
• How a written practice plan becomes the blueprint for the whole season
• The pre-practice phase and what it should accomplish before the whistle
• The warm-up phase and how to make it purposeful instead of filler
• The fundamentals phase and why fundamentals belong in every single practice
• How to open practice with the right overview so players know what is coming
• How to judge where the team needs to be as practices and the season progress
• Attention to detail that eliminates wasted time on the field

Who it's for

Youth football head coaches and assistants, plus league and program directors who want their staffs planning practice the same way.

About the coach

Larry Canard was the Coordinator of Youth Football for USA Football, where he developed coaching education for youth programs across the country.

Part of Coach Canard's seven-part youth football series. Runtime: about 45 minutes.