Practice Time - Flag Football Defense

If team defense is mpst important in winning titles

, why do so many pee wee football groups spend very little time on team defense? I observe, every year, teams from our town ignore practicing on team defense. The only defensive work they get is when they scrimmage.

I need to be more clear on what I mean by when we ask this question. Not only overall defense, but individual and team defense needs to be practiced.

Just like my answer under the offensive question, the defensive side of the ball directly influences many of the daily routine skills and drills. Every single stretch and exercise helps your defense in one way or another.

The way we run, our agilities through the pads are based on a good linebacker stance. We have the players learn to shuffle their feet and keep their heads up so they can see the play develop.

We work on form tackling the pads every day. 90% of my practices will contain some form of either the Angle Tackle Drill or Open Field Tackling.

When the season is underway and we have scouting reports to go on, we will spend extensive time running a "scout offense" against the defense teaching all of our upcoming opponents tendencies and special plays.

As a general rule, at least 70-80% of our practice time is going over our defensive gameplan or working on some defensive skill or concept.

Teaching the players to trust each other and not to try to make every play can be a challenge with the little kids. It is second nature for the kids to just run after the ball carrier and try to make the tackle.

Each player's individual reponsibility is what make the team defense so effective. You cannot roam over the field and have a successful defense if the individual assignments are being ignored.

The younger the kids, the harder it is to teach concepts like outside containment. It takes great discipline to stay home when the play appears to be going in the opposite direction from you.

A good coach looks for defensive players who don't stay home and he will run counters and reverse plays against this player for big yardage.

In conclusion, take the time in practice to make certain the players are well schooled in the defensive scheme you have choosen to use this year. If your opponent cannot score, they cannot win.

by: Jim Oddo

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