Flag Football Practice Plans
Free 60-minute youth flag football practice plans, one for each age group plus a plan for your very first practice. Every plan is a timed schedule with drills, the plays to install, what to say to the kids and what to bring. Print it, or pull it up on your phone at the field.
Any ageFirst Flag Football Practice of the SeasonEvery kid learns every teammate's name, can put on a flag belt, pull a flag, take a handoff and catch a soft pass, and knows two plays by name.60 minutes · 4 drills6U6U Flag Football Practice PlanPull a flag from a moving runner, take a clean handoff, snap the ball, and run Crossbuck and Sweep the right way.60 minutes · 4 drills8U8U Flag Football Practice PlanTake good angles to pull flags, make one juke and go, run a slant, out and curl at the right depth, and learn Curl-Flat, Stack Go-Out and Snag.60 minutes · 3 drills10U10U Flag Football Practice PlanRush from 7 yards without jumping offside, drop to a zone and break on the ball, and install Flood (a zone beater) and Mesh (a man beater).60 minutes · 3 drills12U12U Flag Football Practice PlanThrow accurately while rolling out, catch the deep ball over the shoulder at full speed, and run Smash, Drive and Slant and Go on time.60 minutes · 3 drills14U14U Flag Football Practice PlanRun routes at exact depths on time, throw on the move against a rusher, rush and drop into zones with discipline, and install Spread Verticals, Flood and Smash.60 minutes · 4 drills
How to run a youth flag football practice
Most volunteer coaches get about an hour. The plans on this page all follow the same shape, because it works for kids of every age:
- Warm up with movement, not lines. A quick jog and a few skips and shuffles, or a game like Sharks and Minnows, gets everyone moving right away.
- Teach skills in short blocks. Seven to ten minutes per drill is plenty. Switch before the kids get bored, and come back to the same drill next week.
- Put a water break in the middle. Use it to set up the next drill so no practice time is lost.
- Install only two or three plays. Walk each play, jog it, then run it at full speed. Learning two plays well beats half-learning six.
- Scrimmage every practice. Kids came to play football. Finish with a scrimmage using the plays you just installed.
- End with a huddle. Ask what they learned, praise effort by name, and send them home on a good note.
Tips that make every practice go better
- Keep lines short. Two or three lines of three kids are better than one line of ten.
- Use a parent helper for every drill station if you can. Most parents are happy to hold a cone and count reps.
- Say the coaching point once, then let them go. Kids learn by doing, not by listening.
- Every player tries every position in practice, including QB.
- Write the plan down before you get to the field. A plan on a clipboard keeps an hour from turning into forty minutes of waiting.
Looking for more drills to swap in? See all youth flag football drills with diagrams, or browse the play library.