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Breaking the Large Group into Smaller Groups during the Youth Football Tryouts
Youth football tryouts or evaluations by an organization are done to split the players into different teams. The different teams may be split based on
- Age of the players
- Talent Level
- Experience
- Geographical reasons
- Any combination of the above
I believe that the youth football tryouts need to be fair and unbiased. Each player deserves a new look each year. In youth football, years of experience can change player’s ability greatly. I think it is best to have different coaches look at the players each year. A new set of eyes may find something in a player that another coach misses, and this way any old biases will not matter.
The youth football organization you are coaching for may have a complete agenda fro you to follow during the youth football tryaouts and evaluations, but if they do not, then please read to see how I do it. I believe that the youth football evaluations need to be run with as little individual coaching as possible. The players all need to be treated equally so the evaluation is fair. The only exception I make is for the first year tackle players. These players are always in a separate group until the prove they are ready to go to a more experienced group of players.
Please do not misunderstand what I am saying, each drill need to be fully explained and demonstrated in great detail before the players are to try it. Once it has been explained to the group then the coaches become evaluators and need to see which players excel in the drills as well as who listened to the instructions.
I make most of the youth football tryouts and evaluations competitive among the players. I will first take the entire group and break them into smaller groups for each evaluation. Please look at figure 4-1 to see how many smaller groups I will use based on the entire number of players.
Number of Total Players |
Number of Players/Group |
Number of smaller groups |
1-40 |
10 |
1-4 |
41-80 |
12 |
3-6 |
81-120 |
15 |
5-8 |
120+ |
15 |
9 or more |
Figure 4-1
I believe the more groups you have, the better the evaluation will be. The players will get more opportunities, hence a better evaluation. Look at figure 4-2 and I will explain below the process I use. I will use a simple example of 40 players that will be broke down into four small groups of 10 each.
Group D |
Group C |
Group B |
Group A |
Figure 4-2
I have a youth football coach in charge of each group. I will use as an example the test I use for speed. I do not believe in using the 40-yard dash like most coaches. There are too many variances including the actual measurement, place of race and field conditions. I prefer to have two players race against each other. I know they are both trying and there is a competitive reason to try to win. This will also show the players that “rise to the occasion” or “fold under pressure”.
I break the players up differently depending on the test. For the speed test, I will break the players in groups by alphabetical order. Since this is youth football, I will test the speed for a 20-yard distance. I will have the coach in charge of each group stand 20 yard down field and have two players at a time race to the coach. I have found it easier for the coach to hold both arms above his head, and when he drops them, the race begins. After the coach drops his arms, he then holds them straight out, instructing the players to touch the hand on the side they are running. This makes it easier for the youth football coach to declare the winner.
The movement of players could not be easier. If you win, you go to the group on the RIGHT. If you lose, you move to the group on the LEFT. If you win while in Group a you stay. If you lose while in Group D you stay. The coaches are instructed to keep the races going, one after another, until the head coach blows the whistle signaling the end of the drill.
I like to run each youth football drill for a minimum of 20 minutes. Usually after about ten minutes, you start to get a great idea of which group the players will wind up in. All your speed is in groups A & B. I will run this a few times throughout the evaluations to make sure all the players get a good solid look. When I blow the whistle to end the drill I have all the players in that group go to the coach of that group where the coach marks his name with a letter. I give each coach a clipboard and roster list with the template ready to be filled in.
Look at figure 4-3 for an example.
Player Name |
Speed Test |
Sumo Test |
Receiving |
Adams, Joe |
|
|
|
Burns, Mike |
|
|
|
Oddo, Jim |
|
|
|
Wells, Matt |
|
|
|
Figure 4-3
The coach just marks the group letter he was running next to the player’s name. This is a fast, effective and fair way to judge your players during the youth football tryouts.
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