USA Football recommendations for youth play earn endorsements

2. Recommendation to prohibit select drills

In the interest of safer play and to remove high-risk drills which have limited transfer to skill development, USA Football recommends youth programs prohibit contact drills that meet the following criteria:

• Only promote or teach contact “down the middle” of an opponent with no intent to offset the contact point.
• Do not allow for players to win with speed or angles, but only through physical contact or collision.
• Game- or Pod-based drills that require no game-specific reaction such as a designated ball insertion point for the offense, a run/pass option or designating a specific gap to control for the defense.
• Any full-contact drills that allow for greater than a 2:1 player-to-player ratio.

This would include player-to-player contact drills such as:

• Board Drill // OL vs. DL In-Line Run Blocking with no variation of run, pass or play going right or left
• Bull in the Ring // King of the Circle
• Oklahoma Drill
• Pods // 3-Spot without a Run/Pass read

3. Recommendation on the Two-Point Stance

For youth football programs playing any version of Non-Contact, Limited Contact and/or Modified Contact games (i.e., Rookie Tackle®), it is recommended that all players initiate movement from the two-point stance.

4. Recommendation at the youth Senior Tackle™ level (traditional full field, full contact) to use the two-point stance for offensive…