Youth athletes take the field each season and have to learn new plays, positions and techniques. This can be a little overwhelming at times, but as a coach, there is something that can be done to make this initial learning curve much smoother. Before coaches are the ones doing the teaching, however, they should prepare for the upcoming season by doing a little studying of their own.
Coaches can do their part to prepare in the offseason by brushing up on football fundamentals, proper technique and safety information with the help of USA Football's Certified Coaching Education Program (CCEP). And for 550 coaches in the Trans Valley (Calif.) Youth Football League (TVYFL) serving 3,400 players, this is exactly what they'll do.
"The attitude of your coaches set the climate for the entire program," TVYFL President and Hilmar, Calif., resident John Nixon said. "When we educate the staff, they become better role models for the youth that they are working with. As we educate our coaches, our liability decreases with their applications of the knowledge they have received."
The CCEP encompasses coaching philosophy, practice planning, communicating with young players and parents and how to teach football fundamentals, including blocking and tackling technique though computer animation and audio narration. Upon completing the course, coaches receive a USA Football coaching certificate and have their name added to usafootball.com's national coaches registry.
Smaller programs have also seen the benefits that coaching education can provide, which is why Churchville Chargers Youth Football & Cheerleading President and Churchville, N.Y., resident Mike Taddonio felt it was important for his organization to enroll its 15 coaches into USA Football's coaching membership.
"We like everything about USA Football's coaching membership benefits: the film rooms, drills, you name it," Taddonio said. "Coaching education is important to our program because we want coaches that are knowledgeable and coaches that are willing to learn."
For coaches to advance through the curriculum online, which takes roughly two hours each to complete, a coach must receive a cumulative score of at least 80 percent on the 11 course quizzes. As the official youth football development partner of the NFL, each of its 32 teams and the NFL Players Association, USA Football has set this benchmark to ensure youth coaches are really familiarizing themselves with the material so they can apply it to the field when their players suit up for practice in the fall.
Prior to the 2010 season, 40 coaches in the Southern Maryland Hawks Youth Association will also complete the CCEP. The league serves approximately 250 youth football players and 75 cheerleaders and encompasses all Charles County (Md.) communities. The league's president, Carlos Edwards, believes that coaching education can help fulfill his coaches' responsibility to the community - something the association takes very seriously.
"SMYA Hawks serves as a pillar of the community, inspiring the pursuit of excellence on and off the field," Edwards said. "Having been entrusted with the opportunity to be a part in the life of our youth participants, we do not take lightly this responsibility to prepare our youth for life's challenges through progressive character development.
"This progressive development is not limited to the mentoring and character-building of our youth but also the professional development and education of our coaches and administrators. Much of our success can be attributed to the lessons shared and learned with USA Football offering guidance on how to engage and be a part of our communities."
USA Football, the sport's national governing body on youth and amateur levels, has trained more than 26,000 youth football coaches nationwide in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., since March 2007.
Click here to learn more about USA Football's Certified Coaching Education Program and become a commissioner member to get started!
