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Stay at Home for Counters Youth Football Defense
You must teach your defensive players to stay home for counters and reverses. Youth football defense is all about not giving up the big play. The younger the age of your players, the more likely they will get beat by misdirection.
I spend the majority of our team defense teaching the players what position they need to stay in to protect the entire defense. All of the defensive players need to have trust in their fellow player and only worry about their assignment. You will not see linebackers flying all over the field on my defensive teams. I teach my linebackers to keep their feet in cement and move laterally when they know where the play is going.
I teach all of my backside defenders to stay home for counters and reverses. I coach players never to chase a player down across the field. Each player has an assignment, and is expected to do his job on defense.
When teams face us, opposing coaches stop running counters, if we are doing our job. I like to have the opposing coach think we are doing one thing, and then spring another on him.
I am referring to containment responsibility. Most team use just the defensive end for containment, while I will use any of the following players
- End
- Inside linebacker
- Outside linebacker
- Defensive back
- Safety
It is impossible for the opponent to know whom I am using for containment. To make it even harder I will change up containment responsibilities on each side of the field.
It does not matter what front alignment you use just make sure that you have the backside defenders respect the counter and reverses.
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