“Nothing beats failure but to try. If you keep on trying, you keep on preparing, eventually you’re going to crack that ceiling. It’s going to happen for you.” The Northern Illinois Spartans youth football program is set to debut in the fall. To help with the costs to fund the program, the team raised money […]

Be slow to speak; quick to listen. When you listen to your kid, and really listen, you have a better chance of understanding them. If you are a sports parent, you will lose your patience. It can’t be helped. In your opinion, kids don’t try hard enough sometimes and may not seem to care about […]

The key in coaching the H Back in the Spread Offense is creating a simple set of rules and limiting the amount of skills they need to learn. The H Back is one of the most difficult positions to coach because of its versatility and the amount of different skills they must learn. For an […]

“We said this is a good idea, and this is a way that, you know, football should be going because it does make it safer,” A Cheektowaga-based youth football association is changing its policies when it comes to full-contact practices. The goal is to protect players from head injuries. “It’s as safe as we can […]

The point is that there’s no reason for a parent to be hostile towards another parent in any kind of environment. During our time as youth football parents, my wife and I have built some great friendships through our sons playing tackle and flag. I’ve always felt that with football provides a more familial atmosphere […]

Blitz off of the edge. Pre-snap show man to man coverage, once the QB begins his cadence he comes down and blitzes on ball movement. The 4-3 Defense allows you to be multiple and it also allows you to implement several different kinds of blitzes. There are several different types of coverages that can be […]

Whenever receivers cross in their paths DBs have to adjust and determine who is defending who. This inevitably slows the defenders down a step. One of the things we discovered was one of the simplest route adjustments I’ve ever seen. We simply used our Close tag on our all hitches route. The result, one of […]

As any experienced bodybuilder will attest, the mind-muscle connection is both real and highly effective at changing your physique, and it is front and center in ring training. Gymnastics rings are showing up in more gyms than ever before. However, many people mistakenly believe these wooden implements are only useful for athletes who use them […]

In my eyes, that commitment means being a coach when I can, even if my own son isn’t playing for any reason. Sometimes we have to miss youth sports games – whether it’s a child not playing or a parent not watching. Unless illness or injury is involved, the missed game is usually due to […]

It’s the dream Austin says he wants to keep pursuing, and it’s Brighton Middle School that keeps him aiming for the stars. It’s been almost three months since a charter school bus carrying a Memphis youth football team crashed in Arkansas, killing one player and injuring more. Now one seventh grader who was on that bus is […]