Flag Football Drills and Practice Plans

For those who want to get a taste of what real football is, without the shoving and pushing and aggressive tackling and the alike, flag football is the way to go. But, even if it can be metaphorically called a poorer cousin of American football, it takes equal amount of seriousness and practice for excelling in flag football games. So inevitably then, practice drills comes into picture, as practice makes a man perfect! Flag football plays and practice drills are a major part of the flag football practice and help the teams perform well in the flag football season. Coaches decide their own schedule of practice drills and types and plays, as per their perspective of the game and their idea of what will enhance the performance of the players to the optimum. Here is a low down on a few of these flag football drills and practice plans.

Flag Football Practice Drills

The sheer number of drills for practicing flag football is awe inspiring and mind-blowing. Yet we will try and describe some of the drills here.

Practice Drill #1
The objective of this drill is to find an open area for the wide receiver for catching as pass. The quarterbacks have to pass the football till they get a chance to pass the ball to the wide receiver. The players are divided in groups of 6, with 5 players in the offensive flank and 1 in the defense. In a 10 x 10 yard area, ask four players to stand in four corners. One receiver will be flanked by a defender in the area.

Practice Drill #2
According to coaches, practice drills for flag football should emphasize on hand offs too. So here we take a look at a type of hand off drill, a deep angle handoff. The coach in this drill has to station himself as close as possible to the quarterback and the quarterback will take a small step in direction he is going to go. The purpose of this drill is to teach the quarterback to focus on area where the running back will receive the hand off. The hand off in this drill will happen away from the line of scrimmage. It happens in the back field on the side of the offense. These drills help the players understand flag football rules too.

Practice Drill #3
This one is called Quarterback center exchange. Coaches can use this for developing proper snapping technique amongst the players. The drill resembles a relay race. It starts with the quarterback and center from each team and then the center snaps the ball directly to the quarterback. While the quarterback runs to the next cone, the center will stay put. Then the quarterback will snap to center, then center gives it to the quarterback and the cycle will carry on till it is completed. Each player has to get a turn.

That was just a glimpse of what flag football drills are all about. These were pretty generic, as there are flag football defense drills, offensive drills, etc. Now coaching flag football is easy as coaching proper American football! Sarcasm apart, flag football practice plans are no different. These plans include videos of the previous games played by the team so that the players understand what went wrong and what clicked.

Flag Football Practice Plans

Here are some things that the flag football drills and practice plans should emphasize on. I mean there is no need to say that it should focus both on offense and defense. Coming up are the aspects coaches suggest to take care of!

• Offensive drills should focus on misdirection and tricking the defense men in a wrong direction and to trick them.
• Football agility drills too are very important.
• Breaking in the direction of sidelines after a catch and catching the ball at the highest possible point is important in flag football drills and plans.
• Flag football drills should also include strengthening the defense in situations like a hand off and tackling and snapping and blocking passes.

Last, but not the least, blocking and defense too is equally crucial as one good block can lead to points for that team. Flag football drills for kids should emphasize on defense too! Have fun playing! All the best!