Coaching Youth Football

Congratulations on your commitment to coach youth football. If you have played but haven't coached before, you'll need some help to make your first season a success. If you have coached previously, every season is an opportunity to do better.

Coaching Youth Football, with its field-tested information and advice, will help you run your team with confidence. You'll find methods and tips for communicating with players, minimizing risk and preventing injuries, providing basic first aid, planning and conducting practices, teaching the fundamental techniques and tactics, coaching on game day, and keeping it all fun.

Written by Joe Galat, a former college and NFL coach and the president and founder of American Youth Football (AYF), this book covers fundamentals of offense, defense, and special teams. It features separate chapters on offensive and defensive techniques and tactics, as well as the best practices for blocking and tackling to minimize the risk of injury. More than 70 drills and 126 photos and illustrations are included in the chapters.

Designed for coaches of players ages 14 and under, this book is also a valuable component of the Coaching Youth Football: The AYF Way online course, the official course of AYF, offered through Human Kinetics Coach Education. With this book, you can create an athlete-centered environment that promotes player development, enjoyment, motivation, and safety so that players will come out for the team year after year.

American Youth Football, Inc. (AYF), established in 1996, is a support-services organization dedicated to giving back to communities by promoting the wholesome development of young people through their association with exemplary adult leaders in the sport of American football. AYF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that provides support services, scholarships, grants, community programs, and tournaments to its member organizations, which service over one million members in 50 states and several countries worldwide.

Joe Galat is president and founder of AYF. As a college player, Joe captained the Miami University (Ohio) football team, was an All-Mid-American Conference selection, and was named Outstanding Student Athlete in his senior year. He went on to coach at all levels of the sport, including the National Football League (New York Giants and Houston Oilers) and the Canadian Football League (Montreal Alouettes and British Columbia Lions) at the professional level, and Miami University, Yale University, University of Kentucky, and Youngstown State University at the college level. He has participated in youth football clinics in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and throughout Europe and Russia. Joe resides in Miami, Florida.