Fun and Games – Gym Class Dad

The ability to throw and catch a football is about as American as apple pie. Growing up I always enjoyed spending time with my father playing catch with a football. Over time I would graduate to school yard two-hand touch, flag football, and then full on high school football. My football career stopped at high school, but as an adult I still find myself playing catch with a football at family get togethers, camping, or even a day at the beach. I even would randomly find myself throwing a football at a work function (i have a typical office job). It’s my opinion that the ability to throw and catch a football is an essential life skill that can come up randomly and is always fun to do especially if you are good at throwing and catching. With that belief in mind I added to the skills that I wanted to teach my kids. Throwing and catching a football is fun and it made it easy to incorporate into our daily workout/P.E. routine. With football you can get a game day and by adding running into some of the football drills you can get endurance checked off too. When I started my kids with throwing and catching a football, they had 0 experience and were particularly afraid of catching the ball. Both of my kids were not naturals in throwing or catching a football so I had to start with some fundamentals and drills to get them used to the ball coming in their direction and having the confidence and technique to make consistent catches. To teach kids how to catch a football you need the right football for them, technique, and practice. Read on to find out how I taught my beginner kids how to catch a football. What Type of Football to Get for Beginners I always had a full sized leather football in the garage and I took it out a few times to play catch with my kids. The football was way too big for them to get a good grip on and was also way too hard for their hands and fingers to catch. They were in fact afraid to catch it as anywhere it impacted them would hurt even when thrown lightly. This necessitated the need for me to find the right foot ball for them to start with and develop solid catching techniques before moving on to regulation footballs. I remembered in elementary we would always use nerf footballs and they were always easy to throw and catch. I had a look on the market for modern day Nerf footballs and found a couple of options: the Nerf Pro Grip football and the Nerf All Weather Blitz football. We tested both of these and ended up going with the Nerf All Weather Blitz football which is a fine ball for starting out beginner kids with. I did a full review of both these balls which you can find here: Nerf All Weather Blitz Football Review Nerf Pro Grip Football Review If your kids are a bit more advanced in catching and throwing a football you can always look to start them with footballs that are harder and larger getting closer to a full sized football with laces. There are many sizes and material types of footballs on the market. My goal is progress up to larger firmer footballs until they get the point where a full sized leather football can be used. Have your kids test out different footballs. The football should be sized and soft enough to where they can get a good grip on the ball for throwing it. You also want it soft enough for it not to hurt when the ball hits their hands, fingers, and other body parts. Foam footballs are the best for beginners. How to Teach Kids How to Catch a Football Thrown Above Their Waist To teach my kids how to catch a football I used the methodical approach of prepare, teach, try it out, practice and feedback. To prepare I had my kids circle up and showed them the football explaining that today we are going to learn how to catch a football. I let them know that this is a special football that is pretty soft and should hurt when caught especially if you use the right technique. I then set the expectation that we will learn a specific technique, try it out, and practice to get good at it. Next we get into the teaching phase of how to catch a football. The first above the waist technique I taught my kids was to present a target with the hands and fingers and once the ball approaches to catch it with soft hands and fingers. Instruct your kids to place their thumbs together with the palms facing out towards the QB or person throwing the ball at about chest height.. Then the hands should be rotated in slightly with the pointer fingers then touching. The pointer fingers and thumbs should create a triangle or diamond shape that is the target for the person throwing the ball. The other fingers are spread apart and ready to collapse on the ball as it enters the target. Explain that the target moves to the ball after it is thrown and once the ball enters the diamond target, the fingers and hands remain soft but collapse on the ball locking it in for the catch. Once caught the ball should be locked down with a hand, forearm, and the elbow crook. Explain to the kids that this is the primary way to catch the football and you shouldn’t rely on catching with the body unless it is absolutely necessary. Catching with the body or arms gives more surface area for the ball to bounce off of making an incomplete pass. The hand target helps the thrower on where to aim and creates a nice platform for the ball to land in. This method is used both standing and when running routes. Keeping soft hands and fingers is a must to be a good catcher. Elbows are another aspect to coach on. Coach your kids to bend the elbows so that the arms come into the body after the ball is in the hands to provide even more cushion and shock absorption when catching the ball. Stiff hands, fingers, and arms cause incomplete catches. How to Teach Kids How to Catch a Football Thrown Below Their Waist Catching balls below the waist is very similar to above the waist, but the hand position is inverted with the palms facing at a downward angle towards the sky. To explain this to my kids I had them create the above waist target then roll both of their hands outward until the pinkies touch. Once the pinkies touch they then put their hands below their waist and can't the hands, wrists, and elbows down until the fingers are pointed towards the ground and the palms are facing up towards the sky. The hands should look like a basket that the football is going to be dropped into. All the same tips apply as above the waist with special focus placed on soft hands and fingers that collapse on the ball as it enters the basket. Progressive Drills to Practice Catching Footballs After you taught your kids the two techniques, it’s time to put it into practice. I like to use progression to build their skill to where they are able to consistently catch the football. I did this progression each time we played catch to ensure they got closer to the habit formation or making the above the waist target, moving it to below the waist when needed, catching with soft hands, and securing after the catch before throwing the football back. Kneeling Down Practice Catching the Football I like to start out practicing catching on the knees. Starting on the knees removes the feet and extra movement out of the equation allowing your kids to focus and presenting a good hand target and catching with soft hands and fingers. Have you kids circle around you a few feet apart and have them show you a proper hand target before throwing the football. Begin by throwing the football as light as you can to allow the kids to get a feel for the football hitting the fingers and hand. I like to use an underhand toss rotating the football into a spiral. After a few reps and successful catches, you can throw the ball a little harder and increase the distance between you and your kids. When they are comfortable attempting catches you can then move to tossing the football on the feet. Standing Practice Catching the Football Again with standing practice start with light tosses and short distances. Have your kids stand facing towards you about 10 feet away and have them present the hand target to get the ball. After the catch ensure the secure the ball before throwing it back to. Remember the main focus here is on the catch so try to have some good throws directly on the target without having your kids have to move too much to attempt the catch. Mix it up with a few tosses below the waist so that they can also practice their cupped hand basket catch. After they’ve made a few good catches and have confidence in catching the ball, progressively step it up by throwing the ball harder and increasing the distance of the toss. Once your kids are making consistent catches with confidence you can then move on to route running. Route Running to Practice Catching the Football A route is a path that a receiver runs to get open in order to receive a pass from the person throwing the football. There are many different routes that are deployed to get a receiver open including slants, curls, comebacks, and outs. The first route I like to teach my kids is the slant. The slant is an easy first route to learn and gives a good chance to put all the catch techniques into practice along with running and footwork. The slant involves the receiver taking a few running steps up the field followed by a quick breaking step to the inside allowing the receiver to continue running up the field in a diagonal slant. The receiver will look back at the thrower in anticipation of the toss and can present the hand target. Once the catch is made the ball should be immediately secured in the hand, forearm, and elbow crook. After the catch and secure the receiver should continue up the field without breaking stride when possible. First demonstrate the route to you kids. I like to take three steps and on the fourth break step into the slant route. After you’ve demonstrated and explained the route have your kids take a few practice routes without the football being thrown. Once they’ve gotten the route down it’s time to practice with the football being thrown. To begin the receiver lines up in line with the football or thrower. Leave a good distance of 6-10 feet between you and the receiver. To begin the route hold the football out in front of you and command HIKE!. After the receiver breaks into the slant look to throw the ball just in front of them so that they don’t break their stride during and after the catch. Look for opportunities to coach your kids in the break step, before the catch they should be looking at you and presenting the hand target, securing the football after the catch, and continuing up field after the catch. Practice Catching the Football Makes Perfect When we first started regularly incorporating football into our weekly at home P.E. sessions I had my kids start with the knee, standing, route progression each time. After a few sessions they improved their catching skills and were no longer afraid of getting in front of the ball and we could start the session standing. It’s important to keep your kids engaged by providing positive feedback when the opportunity presents itself. Not every toss is going to be completed so it’s important to call out things that went well. Call it out when they presented a good hand target, nearly caught the pass, or ran a good route. Another thing you can do to keep you kids engaged is to make it fun. Competition can be a fun way to practice and continuously learn. Some simple ways to do this is to see who can catch the most balls in a row or who can complete the longest route with a good catch. Progressively practicing catching, positive reinforcement, and engaged fun will lead to kids being excellent football catchers.