I was having lunch with my family at a sports-themed restaurant this past Saturday when one of the video screens showed a pee-wee football “play of the year.” In the clip, the running back takes a handoff and begins to run to the right but sees that there is no hole to run through and proceeds to change direction and cut back the other way.

The young man is able to go the distance for the touchdown which, according to the graphic on the screen, won the game. From what I could see on the television, it looked like these kids were in the 8-to-10-year-old range. Given how young they were, it was impressive to see the ball carrier have the wherewithal to recognize that he was heading for trouble running right before reversing field and finding room to the left. 

As I watched this, it dawned on me just how important instinct is for a football player and how instinct is impossible to teach. Having said that, it’s the job of a youth football coach to teach his players the proper fundamentals of the game. When a play is taught and run in practice, the expectation is that the kids will follow instructions and execute the play. 

When it comes to that play I saw on television, the play was drawn up to have the offensive line block for the runner to scamper to the right. If the young man just went with the plan and kept running to the right, chances are that he was going to be tackled for a loss or, at best, a small gain. But instinct told him that the right thing to do was to abandon what the play was supposed to look like and find another option.

Not every kid would have done this. 

The reality is that there are a lot of players that would have followed the play as it was meant to be and that would have led to disaster. At the end of the day, the child wouldn’t necessarily be wrong in doing that, because he was just following what the coach was instructing. The difference here is that the player had the instinct to think quickly and make a play to help his team win the game.

Here’s where a coach has to find the right balance when teaching the kids on his team. He wants them to learn and execute the plays that they work on in practice, but how much leeway does a coach give an 8-year-old or a 9-year-old to change things up when something is going wrong? Let’s be fair, this is not Peyton Manning yelling “Omaha” at the line of scrimmage to change plays. These are kids and it’s hard enough asking them to follow directions much less to think on their feet and make something out of nothing.

Coming from a dad whose son does not play a skill position, I also realize that good football instinct isn't just confined to running backs, wide receivers or quarterbacks. Each and every football player (and this is not easy when we’re talking about kids) should step onto a field with a mental rolodex of what to do when something goes wrong. A coach or even a parent can’t necessarily teach a child to have instinct, but there should be some direction to have a Plan B. 

When you’re watching a youth football game, it shouldn’t take too long to get a feel for which players on the field have instinct and which don’t. This is not to say that the kids who don’t have it aren’t having fun playing the game, but it could be indicative of how much passion a child has for the game.

Those kids who watch a lot of football on television or go to see their local NFL, college or high school teams in person might have a better chance of gaining instinct simply by absorbing others playing football.

Here are some things to think about for the New Year:

Watch your child carefully when the new season starts. Does he or she have instinct? How do you think he or she got it?  And if your child doesn’t “have it,” what can you or your child’s coach do to help? 

Again, I don’t think that instinct can be taught directly, but if the fundamentals are taught the right way, with a couple of options thrown in, perhaps more kids will have the ability to develop it on their own.

Peter Schwartz is an anchor and reporter for the CBS Sports Radio Network. He also writes a CBS New York sports blog at http://newyork.cbslocal.com/tag/peter-schwartz/. You can follow him on Twitter @pschwartzcbsfan. Peter’s son Bradley plays for the Levittown Red Devils of the Nassau Suffolk Football League on Long Island in New York. His son Jared cheers on Bradley and then Bradley returns the favor when Jared is playing soccer.