Youth Football: Selecting an Offense A guest post from Coach Jeff at YouthFootballOnline.com When selecting an offense for your youth football team you must have an understanding of the talent you have to work with. You have to select an offense that you have experience with as well. Picking the right offense for your youth football team is essential for overall team success. Your offense must be adapted to the type of skilled players you have on your team. If you have a couple of kids that can really run, get them the ball with plays attacking the edge of the defense (out in the open field). If you have a bigger team but lack pure speed, use plays that will pound the ball inside. Say you have a smaller team and running inside is difficult, you can take the scheme you are running and widen the line splits. Spreading the defense out creates natural running lanes. It also creates easier blocking angles on bigger defensive linemen. Double team blocking schemes will help get those good defensive linemen off of the line of scrimmage. I do feel that to be successful you must be able to attack all areas of the field. The best offenses are offenses that are balanced. You can add or customize some plays to help your offense attack all areas of the field. For example, if you have a team that doesn’t have any “burners” (fast kids), maybe use an offensive system that implements the jet or rocket sweep. The jet and rocket sweep will give your running backs the ball while they are running full speed in motion. This allows your running back to have a full head of steam while the defense is standing still. A playbook like the Jet Wing T Series offers balance and is very explosive. When picking an offense it must be a system you are comfortable and experienced with. One of the biggest mistakes is picking an offensive scheme that you do not fully understand. If you do not have a full understanding of the offense, how are you going to teach it to your youth football team? Pick something you understand, it will make your coaching life much easier. If you are interested in running a certain offense there are clinics all over the country that you can attend to learn. You can also purchases instructional videos and other coaching aids offline. Good luck! tags in this article Athlete Fan Issues & Advice SportsEngine