A behavioral approach to coaching football: improving the play execution of the offensive backfield on a youth football team.

The researchers worked with a youth football team. They picked three offensive plays that the kids kept messing up.

Each play was split into five clear steps. Coaches used checklists and gave quick praise or corrections after every try.

They started the new coaching plan at different times for each play. This let them see if the plan itself caused any gains.

Correct play steps rose by about twenty percent for every play after the coaching began.

The kids kept the new skill level as the season went on. No extra practice time was added.

Allison et al. (1980) used almost the same coaching package on older athletes in football, gymnastics, and tennis. Their skills jumped up to ten times higher, so the 1980 paper supersedes the 1977 result with a stronger package and bigger gains.

Brobst et al. (2002) moved the idea to teen girls’ soccer. They added public posting and goal setting. Skills shot up in practice but barely showed in real games, showing the plan extends to new sports yet needs game-day support.

Park et al. (2025) tried a simple kick-teaching plan with autistic 7- to 8-year-olds. Gains were smaller, giving an apparent contradiction. The gap is due to diagnosis and age, not bad coaching.

You can borrow the 1977 checklist trick for any skill that has clear steps: warm-up routines, tooth brushing, or vocational tasks. Write the steps, watch, and give instant feedback. Pair it with later studies’ extras—public charts, goal setting, or positive practice—to get even bigger gains. Try one play, one client, one day next week.