Middle School Football Tryout Prep: The 3-Week Plan

Everything in this plan builds toward the third day of camp, when the heat has caught up with everyone and the coach is watching who still gets into a stance.

Run 45 seconds at a pace you could hold a conversation at, then walk 75 seconds. Eight rounds. Do it in the morning or the evening, never the middle of the day, with the water bottle waiting at the end of the run and a drink every two rounds. Write down how many rounds you finished feeling good. The point this week is to get your body used to working in warm air with rest built in, because camp is not going to give you a choice about the air.

Two-point stance: feet under your shoulders, knees bent, weight on the balls of your feet, hands ready. Hold it for ten seconds, then take three hard steps forward and stop under control. Ten reps. Then three-point: same feet, one hand down with a little weight on it, back flat, eyes up. Ten more reps of the three-step fire-out. You are not hitting anything. You are learning to get low and come out low, which is the thing every position coach corrects first.

Ten push-ups, fifteen squats, a twenty-second plank, ten lunges each leg, then rest 60 seconds. Four rounds. Squats go down to chair height with heels flat. Plank is a straight line from head to heel, no sag. Nothing in this plan loads your neck and nothing in this plan involves hitting a person; blocking and tackling are taught at practice, with equipment, by a coach, and that is the only place they belong.

Run 60 seconds, walk 60, eight rounds. Same rules about the time of day and the water. Beat last week’s count of rounds that felt good, and write the new number down.

Sprint to the first cone, shuffle to the second without crossing your feet, backpedal to the third, sprint through the fourth. Rest 30 seconds, then run it the other direction. Six reps each way. On the shuffle, keep your hips down instead of standing up to make it easier; on the backpedal, keep your weight forward so you could turn and run at any moment. Every position group does some version of this on day two.

Partner throws from ten yards, twenty catches: hands out in front, thumbs together for high balls, pinkies together for low balls, eyes on the point of the ball all the way into your hands, then tuck it high and tight. Then twenty more while jogging sideways. If you are solo, throw it against a wall from five yards and catch the rebound. Linemen do this too. You will have a ball come at you in a drill at some point and coaches notice who can catch it.

Run the four-cone box three times, then ten stance fire-outs, then twenty catches, then two interval rounds. Rest two minutes with water. Do the whole sequence three times. This is a small version of a practice: tired legs, then technique. Notice which of the three gets sloppy first when you are tired. That is the thing to think about at camp when the coach is watching.

Same four exercises, five rounds, and add a one-second hold at the bottom of every squat and lunge. Still no weights, still no neck work, still nobody to hit.

The two days before camp: no hard running. Walk through the stances, the box, and a few catches at half speed, and lay out everything you need. Drink water all day the day before, not just that morning. Then sleep.

Run the plan, then after the first day of camp, tell us which position group the coach put you in and which drill they spent the most time on. That is where the next plan starts.