Football Drills & Plays

Here are two football tackling drills we use frequently.  The Island is a modified Oklahoma and helps players who may be timid about tackling.  The Angle Tackling Drill is one the players love.

The Island
Both players are on their back about three feet apart. It works on quickness off of the ground, finding the football and making the tackle. The defender is not off of the island, until he makes five consecutive stops without giving up a touchdown.

It’s a fun  drill, and it shows what a player will do when he is fatigued. One of our players made 15 straight stops without giving up a touchdown. Every time we do this drill, we get a crowd of about 20 or thirty people rooting the boys on.

I think you’ll love seeing how instincts take over for a player who is timid about tackling.

Angle Tackling Drill
I line up 5 players on the 10 yard line and the running back is in the end zone. The running backs goal is to score by running as fast as possible down the sideline he starts at my whistle. The players on the ten yard line have to try to tackle the running back by using the correct angle. The tacklers go one at a time starting with the closest one to the sidelines were the running back is running.

This drill I learned years ago while playing line backer in high school football. This drill improves their angle tackling by 95%. If the running back scores a touchdown then the tacklers run 2 laps around the football field. If the running back gets tackled then he runs 2 laps, it makes it more challenging.

Technorati Tags: football tackling drills, football, angle tackling

Try these ideas for pre-season drills for football. After pre-season practice, when 2x days are over, begin practicing team time the entire practice.

During team time you can teach fundamentals and techniques, but this way you will have seen the opponents offense, defense and special teams several hundred times before game time.  Also, you will be practicing exactly as you play–11 on 11.

During pre-season, continually drill and execute techniques until the players are sick of it.  That way, when the actual football season begins, you’ll have focused on technique and drills about as much as your opponent come game time.

Your advantage is that you will have seen and practiced against your opponent several hundred more times than your opponent will have practiced against your offense, defense and ST.

Technorati Tags: pre-season drills for football, football

If you are in need of some fresh ideas for line backer football drills, try this one.  An added plus is that it is fun and the players love it.

Set up two rows of pop up bags (any soft obstacle will do) about 5 yards apart with a bag every 10 yards and staggered.
Get two LBs to run down the parallel rows at the same time passing a football back and forth.
They must make contact in some way with each pop up. This forces them to use their peripheral vision or have their head on a swivel to keep track of the pop ups while focusing on the ball.

It is very helpful in avoiding crack back blocks and such while in pursuit. I have them start at half speed and work up to whatever speed that they can do it at. You can also make it competitive; your players will love it.

Technorati Tags: line backer football drills, football

This football coaching drill is for youth receivers and older.  It helps them learn proper hand position for the three types of catches they basically ever need to make and it makes a good warm up drill as well.

Simply have two players stand facing each other about 8 yards apart.  They throw the football to each other aiming for 5 spots.  The first three have the players facing each other and the throws are 1. high right, 2. high left and 3. low center…basically at 2 o’clock, 10 o’clock and 6 o’clock.  The player has thumbs together (triangle) for 2 and 10 and pinkies together for 6 o’clock.  With fingers spread and looking the ball in.  They do this for 2-3 minutes and then switch to an over the shoulder catch.  Now the receiver turns their back to the passer, slightly opened up to the shoulder the ball will come over.  The idea is to learn to catch balls thrown over the shoulder (post, corner, up) with pinkies together and fingers spread, looking the ball in. They pass back and forth to one shoulder and switch to the other shoulder so both sides are developed.  This is key…many times receivers have a strong side and a weak side and we want to develop both.

You start slow and as they learn proper hand positioning the drill can go very quickly.   You can get a lot of catches in over a few minutes.

Technorati Tags: football coaching, football

Here is one of the football practice drills I use often, especially early in the season. In order to setup a good one on one coverage drill without wasting too much time I set up 3 lines on each side of the football.

On the offensive side:
1: Running backs (line up behind QB)
2: Inside receivers (usually the smaller faster guys)
3: Wide receivers (usually the bigger guys)

On the defensive side of the ball I have the following
1: Linebackers
2: Linebackers/DB
3: DB

Then I have a line of 3 or 4 quarterbacks.

In order to get a good flow I have the QB’s let their player know what route he would like them to run. That player then lines up and runs the one on one drill against the defender. As the rep is being run the next QB and receiver combo are discussing the route the next receiver will run.

As soon as the current play is complete or incomplete the next group should be ready. The cycle carries on until everyone has a few reps and it keeps everyone involved. You should be able to run 5-6 reps a minute.

Technorati Tags: football practice drills, football