USA Football Senior Manager of Education and Engagement Andy Ryland recently volunteered to be an assistant coach for his local youth football team. A former Penn State linebacker and member of the U.S. Men’s Rugby National Team, Ryland is an expert on tackling and preparation for contact with athletes, consistent with USA Football's Football Development Model. He also assists coaches of all sports in areas of drill design and skill development. This series of journal entries chronicles his 2023 youth football experience. 

First “team” week, first practice. It’s week three of the league but the first with our team. Teams were divided, so the players and coaches had their sixth football engagement, the first out of camp and the first with their team and coaches. 

What did a first day look like? The first 20 minutes were spent on admin and logistics. Things like meeting the players and shaking parents’ hands. The kids got jerseys (and numbers), decals on helmets and coaches did an equipment check.  

Our head coach also planned a parent meeting to address the parents. It was a brief coaches’ introduction that touched on goals and themes of the league, team and staff. Because our league plays modified football, the coach explained the nine-on-nine game. This included the big differences from last year (returning parents) and the differences from what they will see on TV in 11-on-11 (new parents). 

I think items like this are incredibly important to set the expectations, not just for the coaches, but also for the players, their capabilities and what youth football practice and games will look like. 

I gave my brief intro and goal, addressed my style and then had the equipment section explaining how chinstraps go under the face mask, buckles can be hard for kids and advice on cleaning, storing and drying equipment in between practices and games. 

Practice Time

Before practice started, we talked about our athletic development period as a bit of an evaluation. Players had run time tests in camp but for me, as a coach, I want to know how people move. Being that camp was mixed (random groups), this was a great opportunity to see our players. 

After a basic dynamic warm up, we did some animal movements and hops. It was five minutes and nothing too serious, but with a focused eye you can see/tell a lot about the players. 

We started with what I call gorilla and monkey walks. Both of these start in a frog position. A deep squat with hands flat on the ground. Hands in the middle, feet to the outside. For the gorilla, athletes go forward, reach hands out, “jump” the feet back to starting position – back to deep squat and good groin stretch. The monkey walk is sideways, big reach of the arms laterally and jump back to the start position. Both of these would be 1-2-1-2 rhythmic style. Hands, feet, hands, feet. Not a jump and land in same position. 

This brings me to the title of this article, “Mobility, Coordination and Control.” As youngsters are developing traits such as flexibility, mobility, coordination, body control and strength, they all develop at different levels and at different times. 

Physical development nerding out for a moment; one of the key metrics of athleticism is not just mobility but (motor) control. If I were to do a test on a table with a doctor or physical therapist, they might be able to move my joints around in big ranges. But, if I can’t get myself into that range of motion, or get myself out of it, I don’t have control over it. Therefore, the only usable ranges in sporting activities, my functional range, are at the limit I can get to, control and get out of. 

What I noticed in our youth athletes is that 90-95% of them could get into a great frog position to start, but as soon as they added movement they massively struggled to get back to that position. Now, a simple squat to hand touch is very basic movement, so they had good control, but as soon as the movement got challenging (the animal walking), they could not re-find that good position and were all over the places. 

What does this tell us? They have the capacity for that deep squat position but really struggled to move from it or back into it. They lacked control. They lacked movement stability for those positions. Now the frog position is not sport specific but can tell you a lot about ankle and hip positions that players can move through.  

Why is this important? Well helping to develop that control is vital for them playing at good body heights and pad levels. Adding movement and control is also a key growth ingredient. More strength and stretching won’t help if they already have the strength and mobility but lack the motor control. 

That’s why game and movement based athletic development is so vital for kids. Remember, there is a time and place for increasing the horsepower of players (strength/power/speed), but the basics are always the ABC: agility, balance, coordination. Coordination is key to control movement and access the current abilities of the players.