Last month, I sent out a request for my newsletter subscribers to send in their favorite youth football conditioning drills. Check out this one below (very creative!).
From Jim…
Here is a tackling/game football drill I use often during the season. It’s called “Bull Rush“. Basically, it’s sprints with tackling.
Object of the game is to be the last player standing at the end.
Coaching Point is to work on open field tackling, by the book–Tackling legs.
“Square off” a 40 yard area with cones. 2 end lines and 2 out of bounds. Line your team up at one end, like they were lining up for sprints. Choose someone to be ‘in the middle’. On that player’s command (yells BULL RUSH), the entire team sprints to the other end.
It is the football player in the middle’s job to tackle someone before they make it to the other end. (Runners MUST stay in bounds.) When he does, the player he tackled stays in the middle with him while the team lines back and goes again on his command “BULL RUSH”, while the two try to make tackles. And this is repeated until all the players have been tackled and end up in the middle, or just one is left standing. The last player to make it through without getting tackled is the winner and starts the next ‘game’ in the middle. You can play this as many times as you have time for.
POINTS: First and foremost, this IS a sprint. Don’t let anyone ‘jog’ or TRY to get tackled. Secondly, don’t let them ’street tackle’ . No by the shirt, or by the head, or jump on someones back. Good crisp tackles. Wrap up, drive through. This is a chance to see how quick, and tough your runners are. Or maybe find a runner in the rough or a fullback. And it’s a chance to see how good your tacklers are.
This is a game the kids love and will ask you to play often. I use it as a ‘reward’ for a good football practice. It teaches them good tackling form in the open field. It’s a football conditioning drill that makes running sprints at the end of practice a lot more fun. And it teaches teamwork. There is some strategy involved in this game.
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