Motivation for Youth Offensive Line

[erusjoh]

Hey Coaches,

Wondering if any of you could share your experience with motivating young football players, specifically offensive lineman. I’m a coach for 5th grade football team, we have had a lots of success this year, however we just suffered our first loss this weekend in a tough battle 10 – 6. I’m concerned that the OL, has lost their drive / focus, after watching the video of the game, our OL body language is very poor, energy level is low, and the boys faces during the game seemed like dazed and confused … During the season we try to keep things fun, practices have been pretty lite, focus more of technique on each play facing different defensive fronts… We achieved several goals in certain games through the season, where I challenge the team in certain areas with ice cream, or pizza after practice if we achieve our goals during the game, a couple times we didn’t achieve the goal, and got no reward. I guess what I’m looking for is if any of you have been in this situation, I could use some advice on how to get past this funk.

[carrcaleb]

Best advice I can give is to dance with the lady that brought ya..meaning--don't change anything. Maybe change up your blocking drills that you do in practice, just for the sake of variety so they don't get bored (king of the boards is my go to). Sounds like rewards have worked for you but the real prize is at the end of the season, not during it