--- title: "Flag Football Practice Plan: 60-Minute Youth Session" description: "A flag football practice plan for youth teams: 60 minutes of warm-up, route and flag pulling drills, offense and defense install, then a scrimmage." url: "https://www.coachboard.app/library/flag-football/practice-plan" sport: "Flag Football" category: "Training Session" level: "beginner" dateModified: "2026-09-24" --- # Flag Football Practice Plan — Flag Football Training Session This flag football practice plan is a 60-minute youth session that moves from a warm-up through route and flag pulling drills to a play install, a defensive walk-through and a controlled scrimmage. Most youth flag teams get one or two practices a week, often an hour each, and a lot of that time disappears into lines, water breaks and explaining the next drill. A written plan with fixed timings is the simplest fix: players move from station to station, and the most important work (catching, pulling flags, and the two or three plays you will actually run on Saturday) gets done every week. The session below is built for 8–12 players aged roughly 7 to 12 on half of a 5v5 field. Every block keeps players moving in small groups, and the last 15 minutes look like a game, because children remember what they did in the scrimmage far better than what they heard in the huddle. ## Objective Run a complete 60-minute flag football practice that builds catching, route running and flag pulling, installs one or two plays and a base defense, and finishes with game-like reps. ## Setup - **Area:** Half of a 5v5 field (30 x 35 yards) plus a 10 x 10 yard warm-up area - **Players:** 8–12 players, 1–2 coaches - **Equipment:** Flag belts for every player, 6–8 balls, 20 cones, Pinnies in two colours - **Duration:** 60 minutes - **Level:** beginner (U8–U12) ## How it works 1. **0:00–0:08 Dynamic warm-up and belts** — Belts on before the whistle. Two lines of players jog 15 yards and back with high knees, butt kicks, side shuffles, carioca and backpedal, then finish with two 10-yard sprints. End with a quick catching circle: coach in the middle, 10 soft throws each so hands are warm. 2. **0:08–0:18 Route running** — Two lines of receivers, one coach at quarterback. Run the week's routes at their set depths (slant at 3 yards, out at 5, post at 8) from both sides of the ball. Every player gets 6–8 catches; ball on the ground means a quick five-second reset, not a lecture. 3. **0:18–0:28 Flag pulling** — Split into three 5-yard-wide channels. Pairs work breakdown and two-hand pulls, then add one cut, then an open-field angle toward the sideline. Rotate runners and defenders every rep. Water break at 0:28 for 2 minutes. 4. **0:30–0:42 Offense install** — Walk through one new play at half speed with no defense: formation, the snap, each route and the quarterback's first and second read. Run it 3 times walking, 3 times jogging, then 4 times at full speed against air. Revisit last week's play for the final 3 minutes. 5. **0:42–0:50 Defense install** — Put five defenders in the base zone with one rusher starting behind the rush line (7 yards in NFL FLAG; follow your league). Coaches run crossing routes so defenders practise calling "crossing" and passing receivers on. Everyone rotates through the rusher spot once. 6. **0:50–1:00 Controlled scrimmage** — 5v5 with a coach calling plays from the huddle for both teams. Rotate quarterbacks every 3 plays, and reward effort outcomes (a clean flag pull, a route at the right depth) as loudly as touchdowns. Finish with a 1-minute huddle: one thing we did well, one thing to fix. ## Coaching points - Keep lines to three players or fewer; if more than three are waiting, split the drill and hand the second group to a parent helper. - Teach one new play per week at most, since young teams run two well-drilled plays better than eight half-learned ones. - Every drill should end with a ball caught or a flag pulled, so players finish reps with success rather than a mistake. - Write the timings down and stick to them, because running long in the first block steals the scrimmage kids came for. - Rotate positions, especially quarterback and center, so every player learns the snap, the handoff and the throw. ## Variations - **45-minute version** — Cut the warm-up to 6 minutes, merge routes and flag pulling into one 12-minute block (catch, turn upfield, and a defender pulls the flag), keep a 10-minute install and finish with a 12-minute scrimmage. Skip the defense install and coach the zone during the scrimmage instead. - **Game-week plan** — The practice before a game installs nothing new. Replace the offense install with a rehearsal of your three best plays against a live defense, add 5 minutes of extra-point and no-run-zone situations, and keep the scrimmage short and upbeat. ## Build it in Coach Board Keep the whole practice in Coach Board: one board per block on the flag football field showing where the cones, lines and players go, plus the play you are installing animated route by route. Organise the boards into a playbook for your age group, and share the link with parents and players the night before so they arrive already knowing the new play. [Flag Football coaching app](https://www.coachboard.app/sports/flag-football) · [Start 14-day free trial, no card](https://my.coachboard.app) ## FAQ ### How long should a youth flag football practice be? Most youth flag football practices run 60 minutes, which is long enough for a warm-up, two skill drills, one play install and a scrimmage while keeping young players focused. Teams with players under 8 often do better with 45 minutes, and older teams sometimes stretch to 75 or 90. ### What drills should I run at flag football practice? Every flag football practice should include a route running and catching drill, a flag pulling drill, and some game-like reps. Add a rushing drill and a defensive walk-through as the season goes on. Keep each drill to about 10 minutes and use small groups so nobody stands in line for long. ## Related - https://www.coachboard.app/library/flag-football/routes.md - https://www.coachboard.app/library/flag-football/flag-pulling-drill.md - https://www.coachboard.app/library/flag-football/5v5-plays.md - https://www.coachboard.app/library/flag-football/rushing-drill.md --- [Flag Football coaching app](https://www.coachboard.app/sports/flag-football) · Animate and share this training session with your team: https://my.coachboard.app