Flag Football Practice Plan

This blank template works for any age group or skill level. It covers the core structure of a flag football practice: warm-up, individual skills, team plays, scrimmage, and cool-down. Fill in the focus column with your drills, print it, and bring it to the field.

A 5-year-old playing flag football for the first time and a 12-year-old running option routes need completely different practices. The table below breaks down practice length, skill focus, game format, and coaching approach for four age brackets. Adjust based on your players' experience level.

Flag Football Practice for 5 and 6 Year Olds

At this age, most players have never worn a flag belt before. Start every practice with a movement game (freeze tag, relay races) so players warm up without standing in lines. Teach flag pulling as its own skill: have one player run while another chases and pulls. Keep each activity under 4 minutes. If you see wandering eyes, switch drills. The goal is not to install an offense. The goal is to get every player comfortable running, catching, and pulling flags.

Flag Football Drills for 7 and 8 Year Olds

Players at 7-8 can handle basic structure. Introduce two or three positions (quarterback, receiver, rusher) and rotate everyone through each one. Teach the center snap, a simple handoff, and one or two pass routes (out, slant). On defense, focus on flag pulling angles rather than coverage schemes. Practices can run 40-50 minutes if you keep drills competitive: relay races with the football, accuracy contests, flag-pull tournaments.

Flag Football Practice Plan for 8 to 10 Year Olds

This is the age range where you can start teaching real plays. Players understand assignments, can memorize routes, and have enough arm strength to throw 10-15 yards consistently. Build a playbook of 4-6 plays and practice them against air (no defense), then against a scout defense. Introduce zone defense concepts: show players where to stand and what area they cover, rather than assigning a specific player to follow.

Flag Football Practice for 10 to 12+ Year Olds

Older players are ready for game-specific preparation. Add play-action fakes, option routes where the receiver reads the defense and adjusts, and blitz pickup assignments. Practices should include at least 10 minutes of live scrimmage with the same rules as game day. Film review (even smartphone video from practice) helps players see their own mistakes and builds accountability. Plan your flag football season week by week with Striveon's season planning tools.

Forty-five minutes is the standard for players ages 5-8. Every block is short, transitions are fast, and the scrimmage at the end is where players apply what they just practiced. Print this plan or copy it to your clipboard.

Tips for Short Practices

• Set up cones and flag belts before players arrive. Zero minutes lost on equipment
• Use the warm-up game as your teaching tool. Flag tag builds pulling technique without a lecture
• Water breaks happen during transitions, not as separate 3-minute blocks
• If a drill is not working after 2 minutes, drop it and move on. Attention spans are short at this age

Sixty minutes gives you enough time to separate offense from defense and run a longer scrimmage. This format works for ages 9-12+ and competitive leagues. The extra 15 minutes compared to the 45-minute plan go toward route running, defensive schemes, and more live reps.

Making the Most of 60 Minutes

• Alternate physical and mental blocks. Follow flag pulling (high effort) with route running (technique focus) so players recover while still learning
• Scrimmage is the most important block. Give it the most time. Players learn more from live reps than from standing in a drill line
• Track which plays you installed each week so you build on previous practices instead of starting over

The practice plan templates tell you when to teach each skill. The table below tells you what to teach. Pick 3-5 drills per practice from different skill categories. Rotate them weekly so players develop across all areas and stay engaged.

Choosing Drills for Your Age Group

For 5-7 year olds, stick to the game-based drills: Sharks and Minnows, Target Toss, and High-Low Catches. These teach flag football fundamentals through play rather than repetition. For 8-10 year olds, add the Route Tree Walk-Through and Zone Drop Drill to build football-specific skills. For 11-12+, the full drill table applies, and you can run 1-on-1 Routes and Play Install drills at game speed.

Build a library of drills that work for your team. Store them in a shared document or coaching platform so your volunteer coaches can run the same drills consistently.

Flag football practices break down for the same reason every time: too much standing around. When eight players share one football and take turns running routes, six of them are doing nothing. Here is how to keep every player active for the full session.

Use Stations Instead of Lines

Split your team into three or four groups and rotate through stations every 6-8 minutes. Station 1: throwing and catching. Station 2: flag pulling. Station 3: route running. Station 4: play walk-through. Every player gets constant reps instead of waiting in a line of ten.

Teach Plays in Layers

Walk the play first. Every player stands at their position and the coach explains each assignment one at a time. Then jog it at half speed. Then run it full speed against air (no defense). Then run it against a scout defense. This walk-jog-run approach is a standard coaching progression, and it prevents the confusion that happens when you throw players into a play they do not understand. With flag football expanding nationwide as a high school sport(opens in new tab), structured practice habits like this one matter more than ever.

Keep the Playbook Small

Three to five plays executed well will beat fifteen plays run poorly. Younger teams (under 10) need two run plays and two pass plays. Older teams can add play-action, screens, and option routes. Every player on your roster should be able to run every play from memory before you add a new one.

End with Scrimmage, Not Drills

The scrimmage is where players connect individual skills to game situations. Call your plays from the sideline the same way you will during a game. Stop play when you see a teaching moment, correct the mistake, and restart. This is more valuable than any isolated drill because it mirrors what players will face on Saturday.

Paper practice plans handle a single session. They fall short when you coach multiple age groups, need to track which plays you covered last week, or want to share plans with assistant coaches who missed practice.

When Paper Works

• You coach one team with a short season (6-8 games)
• You are a volunteer parent coaching for the first time
• Your playbook has fewer than five plays

When Digital Tools Add Value

• You manage multiple age groups or divisions with overlapping schedules
• You want to track what each player has practiced and where they need more reps
• Assistant coaches need the same plan without a text thread
• You need to connect practice plans to player evaluations and season goals

For programs that plan practices alongside player development, platforms like Striveon connect your session plans to athlete evaluations, drill libraries, and season calendars. Discover how Striveon links flag football practice plans to player progress tracking.