Football Drills & Plays

If you’re looking for effective football training drills, try the one below.  We use this football drill called Hamburger.

• 2 equal lines that are 5 yards apart and for what I call a tunnel.
• 1 line is ball carriers, the other line are tacklers.
• 1 player from each line lays on their back with their helmets facing inside the tunnel.
• On the coach’s whistle each player has to get up and run on the outside of the tunnel.
• The ball carrier is trying to get across the end line and the tackler is trying to stop him.

This football drill works on several things: agility to get up off your back quickly, runners to lower shoulders, stay square and run over the tackler. The tacklers learn to breakdown with good, form tackling 1 on 1 skills.

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This football coaching drill relates to young players (1st and 2nd year).

To teach them the formations, hole numbers, and position numbers I line up cones as a representation of each football player in the formation. Then I explain the formation, the positions and their numbers as well as the hole numbers. Next, realign the cones for each formation in the offense and repeat.

Each day for the first week or so, we will take 5-10 minutes of football practice and review each formation, the position numbers, hole numbers, and what each position does for a number of plays.

I place special emphasis on who is on the line of scrimmage and who is not. Because it can be interactive and visual, it is a very effective teaching method.

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One of the best football tackling drills we have done to really improve our tackling is our THUD drill.

1 – Line up players kneeling down knee to knee. (It works best if the players are around the same build and height.)

2 – Have the defensive player sit on his heels while the offensive player is upright on his knees with his arms straight out to a tee.

3 – Have the defensive player explode off his heels with both arms wrapping around the other player (under the arm pits) while grabbing the back of the jerseys.

4 – Once this has been done a few times have them stand up and repeat with feet to feet.

Containment Drill
We also do a great containment football drill where I line up a running back behind a blocking fullback in the “I” formation.

Place cones where the center, guard, tackle, and offensive end are (based on which side I want to run the drill on). Then line up the defensive ends who rotate thru the football drill.

On the whistle, the defensive end fires across and jams the lead blocker, ensuring the runner is forced inside and then attempts to slide off the block and make the tackle.

This has really helped our ends learn how to contain the sweep and disrupt the play.

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Try these flag football tips to teach your players the positions.  In order to quickly teach youth flag football players positions on the field, I take old golf balls and mark them with “quarterback”, “cornerback” etc.

I show the team where these positions are on my clipboard, then each player draws a golf ball out of a bag in a huddle, and on “break” quickly looks at the ball and goes to their respective positions.   We drill this every football practice.

I use two bags, one for offense and one for defensive positions. The kids have to think fast and get to learn multiple football positions.

Works for other sports, such as basketball, positions as well.

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I like to use quick football lineman drills to warm up the linemen before doing an individual football drill.

The players line up in two lines (more if you have a large team).

When the football coach yells “ready”, the front guy in each line starts chopping his feet.
The coach will yell “Right” and the guys drop their right hand to the ground and run in a circle around it, then stand up and keep chopping their feet.
The coach will then yell “Left” and the guys drop their left hand to the ground and run in a circle.  After they stand up, feet still chopping, the coach yells “go” and the guys sprint 5 yards.

This is a good football warm-up drill for footwork, hip flexibility, and movement.  Look for the players to run controlled in a circle, and keep a base (2 point stance i.e. hips bent, head up) while chopping.  The little spin helps with coordination.

You can run this drill fairly quick with each guy doing it 2 times.  You might need to start with 4 reps with young players or those new to football.  It sounds simple to do, but you would be surprised at how uncoordinated some players will be.

Technorati Tags: football lineman drills, football drill, football coach, football warm-up drill, football