Martin L. Schulman

A lot of information is crammed into this short video to help you minimize risk and maximize gain when playing fantasy football. You get tips to follow during the entire season from when to pick your key players during the draft, when to concentrate on coaching and bye weeks, and when to use the waiver wire and online trade calculators.

Fantasy football is a fun, competitive, and addictive hobby. Get your fantasy season started by drafting players to build a solid team and using coaching tips to keep your team going strong. If you need to improve on a position, try some strategies for trading players and acquiring free agents. Keep a guide handy of important league dates so you don’t miss anything exciting or an opportunity to improve your fantasy football team.

If you're new to fantasy football, you run the risk of making rookie mistakes, such as auto-selecting your lineup or ignoring the NFL schedule. Here are some top missteps novice fantasy football coaches make and how to avoid them.One of the biggest temptations fantasy coaches face on draft day is to complete the starting lineup before adding bench players (who add depth at important positions).

As you prepare for an upcoming fantasy football draft, you should rely on several resources for info and help, including televisions shows, magazines, and websites. Keep in mind that a well-prepared coach on draft day is a winning coach at the end of the season!Fantasy football is played online and so online research really is the best way to prepare for your draft.

Football is the ultimate team game, and you need to motivate your players to work as a team. Although the sport allows individuals in some positions (such as quarterbacks, who can elude defenders and scramble downfield) to create plays on their own, you and your team are much better off if you can get everyone to work together as a cohesive unit on the field.

Part of your responsibility when coaching football is knowing and understanding what to expect — both physically and emotionally — from youngsters who play the game at a particular age level. Coaching kids ages 6 and under Children in this age bracket have probably never played football before, and this season may very well be their first experience in an organized team setting.

When playing football, kids must be outfitted for safety. In addition to organizing practices and teaching skills, good football coaches need to know how to properly fit equipment, such as helmets and shoulder pads, on young players. When it comes to helmets, proper fit is the key to providing valuable protection and comfort.

While coaching your football team for the first half of a game, you see all sorts of things: players scoring touchdowns, dropping passes, making diving tackles, and fumbling the ball, among others. So, as your players trot off the field for halftime, you'll have a lot of information in your head and not much time — probably 10 minutes tops — to relay it.