Building Your Defense at the Youth Level

Choosing which defense to run is one of a youth coach’s most important decisions. The youth football defense has to match the offense. And since most youth offenses are ground-based, you have to find a scheme that swallows up the running game—but you also can’t ignore the pass and leave your team susceptible to the deep ball.

There likely isn’t a perfect solution for every coach. After all, different leagues face different offenses and present separate challenges. But many of the following takeaways can be applied to a number of schemes. 

Focus on Fundamentals

When it comes to coaching defense, tackling fundamentals are the best place to start. There are multiple techniques you could teach, but here are two of the best:

Break Down Position 

• Feet shoulder-width apart 
• Knees bent
• Back flat 
• Chest up and arms ready

Heads-Up Tackling (Hawk Tackle)

• Keep head up and to the side.
• Wrap arms around the ball carrier.
• Drive through the hips and run feet on contact.

Running drills on tackling is the logical first step in teaching your athletes how it’s done. Making the hits on pads or dummies is how they’ll learn what tackling is going to feel like. Don’t forget to cover angle tackling (approaching from a 45-degree angle) and open-field tackling techniques. 

But it doesn’t all have to happen on the field. Recording practices and reviewing the footage with your team on Hudl will give them a break from the physical stuff while also showing them where they’re doing well and where they need to spend more time in practice. 

Go Big, but Don't Sacrifice Speed

The majority of the offensive sets you’ll see feature at least seven blockers—five linemen and two tight ends, not to mention a fullback. So your first thought might be to place some big bodies up front to match that.

But be careful not to rely on size alone. Building a defense full of big guys might not be the solution, as that strategy leaves you open to perimeter runs. You have to find the right blend of size and athleticism to stay versatile.

Having smaller kids who are aggressive and can move quicker than the big guys can actually put you in position to succeed.

Stay in the Zone

Playing man defense on the back end can get tricky. Crossing routes can cause defenders to collide and motion can bring confusion.

Why not try using a zone scheme? Each player knows exactly what his responsibility is on every play instead of having his job dictated by what the offense does. For example: 

1. Assign your cornerbacks to the back thirds of the field, your safety to the middle third, the outside linebackers to the flats, and the middle linebacker to patrol the center of the field.
2. At the snap of the ball, have your corners take three steps back automatically.
3. Always assume it’s a pass, but read the play. If it’s a run, have them come up and fill in. 

You’re going to give up some plays, but giving up six yards on a sweep outside or off-tackle run because you’re backpedaling is better than giving up a 60-yard pass.

Pursue and Contain with the Best of Them

After building a solid defensive foundation, you can focus on stopping the run. Emphasizing pursuit and containment skills will truly shut down opposing offenses.

Pursuit Angles

One of the biggest mistakes young defenders make is taking poor angles to the ball carrier, often resulting in missed tackles and big plays. Teaching proper pursuit angles means helping players understand basic geometry on the field:

• For plays coming directly at defenders, teach them to break down and square up.
• For angled pursuit, instruct players to aim for where the runner will be, not where they currently are.
• Practice "leverage drills" where defenders must maintain outside or inside leverage depending on their role.

After all, speed without the right angle is just wasted energy. 

Team Pursuit Drill

Time for more drills, this time a sideline-to-sideline team pursuit drill. This will not only build conditioning, but also reinforce lane discipline and team pursuit concepts.

1. Line up the entire defense in their base formation.
2. Have a coach or player carry the ball parallel to the line of scrimmage, starting at one sideline.
3. At the whistle, all defenders must pursue at full speed while maintaining their assigned lanes.
4. Players must break down and tag off when they reach the ball carrier.
5. Repeat the drill going back in the opposite direction.

What you’re looking for is all 11 players arriving with proper leverage and in their correct pursuit lanes. The minute one player takes a shortcut or crosses into another lane, blow the whistle and start over. Don’t forget to recognize the players who consistently demonstrate great effort and proper technique during these drills.

Contain Responsibility

Setting the edge is critical for any successful defense, particularly against youth offenses that love to run outside. Make sure your defensive ends and outside linebackers know they have the most important job on outside runs—if they get hooked or cave in, there's no one left to force the play back inside where help is.

Try this simple mantra with your edge defenders: "Force and squeeze." Force the play back inside, then squeeze down to make the tackle or compress the running lane.

Give Your Players Ownership

Let your players come up with audible names for their positions. Whether it’s an animal, food item, cartoon name, whatever—it will help athletes better remember what they’re supposed to do.

Then try giving each player a wristband with a set of numbers on it that refer to different plays. Number your players across the line (the left defensive end is 1, the left outside linebacker is 2, etc.) so you can easily call out blitzes and coverage switches.

Know Your Enemy

The coaches of the teams you’re playing are like you—they can smart strategic thinkers, but they’re not professionals—they don’t have the time with their players to install detailed offensive schemes. Most teams only have three or four plays they can run out of each formation.

This is where Hudl comes in as an incredibly important tool. When you spend time analyzing video and his opponents’ tendency reports, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what they are going to run.

For example, if you know that when they’re in a specific formation, they do the same three things, then you can tell your team exactly what to do when they see that formation line up. That can really set you apart from a defensive perspective. For a true competitive advantage, Hudl Assist is the answer. You’ll get key team and player stats added to any game video, without you lifting a finger.