complete running back drills © copyright football inner ......rialto, california. today we're...

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Complete Running Back Drills © Copyright Football Inner Circle 1 of 28

My name is John Rice. I'm the head football coach at Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California. Today we're going to be showing you a complete running back drill package for any offense. First thing we're going to talk about is planning and executing drills for all positions.

The first thing we want to do is determine the specific skill that we're trying to perfect; the skill that we see in the game. The question to ask ourselves is, does the drill incorporate one skill or more than one skill. In other words, should I teach component parts of this drill separately, individually, and then build and put them together into one drill.

Second, we need to develop a progression to teach and perfect the drill. Number one, let's assume we're going to take a running back handoff for the inside zone and break off a defensive lineman. That would involve three skills. The first step would be to introduce or rep skill A, which is taking the proper approach steps for the running back. We would introduce and rep that skill only.

Then to build, we would introduce skill B which would be to take the proper handoff; forming the pocket and squeezing the ball. So then we would teach the proper steps and taking the handoff. And then skill C would be to read the lineman to the play side of the zone and break opposite his technique.

So then we would rep skill A, B, and C; the steps, the handoff, and cutting opposite the lineman's technique. If we take this approach in our drills, they're going to be more effective and they're going to help us do better in the skills we're trying to put together.

The next thing we'd make sure that we do is to introduce the drill to the participants in a specific manner, so that everybody understands and we get the best benefit out of the drill. We clearly want to demonstrate each step and technique of the drill. We want to show

the participants and now tell. If we do this, we can save a lot of headaches and wasted time.

We want to set up the drill, the other participants in the drill – their roles, reactions, and expectations – so that when we run the drill we teach them how to participate to switch roles. Then we want to demonstrate well thought-out drill rotation for the participants.

Number four, we want to determine the drill mode to be taught during practice. Is it going to be teaching mode, half speed, or full speed? And then we want to give


relevant and meaningful feedback, either on the run during the drill or in practice review sessions.

The next thing we want to do is make sure when we have a drill, we want to get the most meaningful repetitions as possible. Instead of having one or two players benefit in the drill and have other players standing around, we're always trying to find ways to maximize our teaching and learning. And so here's an example of having three running backs set up with three linemen and three defensive linemen.

And this is a simple drill, but if we set up three repetitions at once, we can get three times the work, three times the feedback. For example, the running back cuts off the offensive lineman's block, the defender sheds a block and goes a make a tackle. In this way, we can get three reps instead of one and we can coach on the run and more kids can get some benefit out of the drills.

Alright, the running back drills that we teach in the progression are five different areas, and we'll start out with agility drills. We have several drills here. We have an active warm-up.

An active warm-up, what we're trying to work on here first is our ball security. Keeping the ball tucked tightly to our body with our fingers over the edge of the ball as we have here, switching. It's not a race. We want them to go slow to get a good stretch in their quads, keep their shoulders up. We want to turn them around and go the other way.


Again, here, about halfway through, we're going to switch as in the middle of a run. We want to keep the ball tight. Our head and shoulder sup. Good forward body lean. When we go back, coach is going to work on, the high knees is our next progression. We're trying to work at a forward body lean at the waist. Halfway through the drill we're going to switch, as we did here. We want our head and eyes forward, shoulder lean, shoulders square. Again, going back we want to make a smooth transition to the other hand, with high knees, and work on ball security.

The third thing we're going to do is turn our hips and work our carioca. And we want to work on, again, smooth ball transition halfway through the drill. Working our quick hips, quick feet. Head and eyes forward. One of the things coach will do that we've done is put a coach in the front of the drill over here and flash numbers every few steps and have them focus on something up field while they're switching the ball.

Again, if coach was in the next progression, he would be standing over here in front of number three about halfway down and he would flash a four, a three, a two, and a one. And the players would have to keep their eyes up and focus on calling out the numbers.

The next thing we want to work on is a series of ball drills. Everybody has different bag drills that they use. We're going to use these for agility. Most of them we're going to keep our ball with. Right here we're working on planting. He's doing a fantastic job of planting on the outside foot and not crossing over. Good job getting up the field. Again, plant and drive. Plant, redirect. Plant, redirect. Plant, redirect. Now this is not an L-cut that's in a zone. This is an open field cut. Again, we're going to face the coach here and go high knees, focus on catching the ball, changing direction, and coming through. Again, high knees.

We use the very high bags on purpose here. We want to emphasize high knee action. These are not little step-its; these are big sausage bags. Again, we're working on high knees. Rapid arm fire, foot fire, and focus. The last time, they want to catch the ball, turn, and get up the field.


Again, high knees has to be a second-nature type thing. When we come back, we're going to go laterally across. Halfway through we're going to switch directions in traffic. Turn the opposite way. Smooth transition. We're looking for agility. We want to switch the ball to the other hand, which some of these kids didn't do. If coach isn't doing it in this progression, we would do that next.

The thing we want to do is called popcorn. It's a fun drill we have where the players are working on agility in catching the football. Coach is going to throw them as many balls as he can while they're moving laterally. They like to challenge coach. Try to catch every ball. If they can catch five in a row, coach says they're doing a good job. We're working on lateral movement over here and not clicking our feet.

Keeping our head and eyes up. We don't want to cross over and we want to stay on this line right here. A little warm-up drill that we do to keep their hands and eyes ready to go. As you can see, it's pretty challenging. Some of the kids aren't as good at moving their feet and staying lateral, and some are really good at it. Now the second time through, sometimes we'll have two footballs and he'll increase the pace of the drill. This time he's got two and he's throwing the ball a little bit farther so they have to work a little bit harder.


Bags and cans is our next drill. Agility and demeanor in traffic. What do we want them to look like. This drill we're trying to get them to be able to turn their hips in traffic after they get through the line of scrimmage. They want to turn their hips; that's what they're simulating. They get to the second level of the defense and they have to get around traffic and around blocks. They use their hips to use lateral steps. They're through the line. They're behind some blockers. They have to get through traffic. They're using lateral movement to accomplish that. And that's what this drill is working.

High knee drill. It's a little bit different than we ran last time. This is just one in the hole. We would start our progression off with this. Coach will progress to stand over here by this cone off to the side and flash the numbers with his fingers, so that the backs have to keep their head and eyes up.

Again, we're going to work this drill with really high bags. We want them to get high knee action. Here again some of the running backs are looking down to the ground. We want to get coach over here in the next progression again and flash them some numbers. We want their head and eyes up looking down field into traffic, anticipating what their cuts are going to be.

We have some ladder drills that we use like everybody else. Ropes or ladders. Ladders take less time to set up than cones, and also less injuries than the old-style ropes. But we're trying to work quick foot fire, crossing over on breaks. Again, we want to plant and drive toward the direction we're going without clicking our heels. We're working on quick change of direction. We want to keep our head

and eyes up.


Again, a good way to progress this drill is to have a coach over on this side at the end with flashing numbers. Just a quick two or three times to force the players to keep their eyes up. Again, this is a stick-it drill. We're trying to stick both feet in the pocket right here. Again, and a good progression is to get a coach on the opposite side.

Here is a zigzag drill. We're trying to plant and drive, not crossing over. We want to plant and push that off-drive foot in the direction that we're going at 45 degrees. We want to use rapid hand movement. This player right here is not. Is a new running back. He's not used to moving his hands; he was a tight end.

And there you have some guys getting some good rapid hand fire and arm fire. Again, the next progression would be to have a coach over here at

the end of the drill flashing numbers. Plant, drive at 45, quick arm movement, quick foot movement. We want to get his hands moving a little bit. He's a little bit better going back.

Here, this is a stick-it, one foot stick-it drill. We want to teach them to plant and be able to drive off the foot. Here it is to the right. Again, we want to get their head and eyes up after they get good at this drill, so that they're looking over here. You can have the coach stand right over here and flash numbers to them. Again, we're going back the opposite direction. You can see some of the players here, just starting this drill, really have to keep their head down. He's a little bit better at keeping his eyes up. So is he. You could use this drill to flash footballs to them, to keep them alert,

and toss footballs as we did earlier in the drill, the popcorn drill.


PART 2

Next drill, trying to teach balance to our players. And this is a fantastic one for balance. We're having them hop up in the middle of the air, okay, in the middle of the air and switch the ball in the middle of the air. Off balance.

While using their off hand as a post hand. That's called post hand. Use the post hand and balance. We're trying to get them to transfer the ball in the air. This is a very good drill to teach balance and to use their off hand as a post hand.

Another challenge to this drill is to take a bag with a coach and pop them with a bag when they come off the hop. Again, they start with the off hand as their post hand. They hop up, switch, and use another post hand for balance. And we tell them it's not a race, it's a balance drill.

They need to learn when they’re about to fall to keep their feet at all costs. To use their hand to balance; their off hand which we call a post hand. We want to actually get them down a little bit better. On the way back, coach has them, after five yards, get up and sprint. So for five yards, they're going to switch the ball, get the post hand all the way down, and then sprint.

Here, the next progression would be to get them hit with a bag. This is the same principle we just worked on except we're going to hit them with a bag. Teaching them

to keep their balance, and to sprint five. So post hand.

Here they're not switching, they just keep their post hand down, and coach pops them


with a bag and they go hard for five yards. Teach them to keep their balance. And to hang on to the football at all cost. And if you can have two coaches and two lines with two bags, you can get more reps.

This is called alternate hand down. Just a warm-up drill teaching balance and ball transfer. Here coach has them turning one full rotation. We want to stay as low as we can and then we want to get back to the original line of

scrimmage. A lot of coaches use cones for these, and hoops. You can use those if you want or the little markers on the ground. Set up various courses for them, to teach ball transfer and balance. They should be transferring the ball when we go the opposite hand. Second time through, try to go a little bit faster. Get our hand down and we turn the opposite way around and get back to the line of scrimmage.

The next course of drills are steps, mesh, and course drills for running backs. Taking the proper steps, the proper handoff, and taking the proper course. Here is the first step in pocket drill. We're combining two of these together. We're working on the mesh point and the run course.

Okay? Just a proper step, an inside zone. Taking the first step outside. We're working on first step and taking the ball with the proper pocket. Inside elbow up, back of the palm of the hand on the top of the jersey, working two things only. First step, proper pocket, securing the ball

for the inside zone. And we would also do this for counter, for trap, and for draw. First step, pocket.


Now when we emphasize this, we're coming over here for a zone on the other side is we want to switch our feet, again, open 45-degree angle, with the left foot, eliminate the false steps. With our receiving hand, we want to make sure that the elbow is tight to the chest. And that was not a good job right there. We want to work

on it, make sure that we have good fundamentals when we do that.

Here is some jump cuts to teach the inside zone run. Agility and demeanor in traffic. You get one cut on this. So you get the ball, you do one jump cut, and you get up the field. Inside zone is a one-cut play. We're running it to the right. We face a wall at the line of scrimmage, we make a jump cut, and we get up field.

So you could add a handoff in the first steps if you want to make this a three-phase drill. But here, the running back already has the ball. He approaches the line. He makes one jump cut and then he makes one cut off of a second-level defender as a linebacker. So we have two things going on here. One is the jump cut and then we have a break in the linebacker area.

Okay? Again, we've already got the ball from the mesh point. We're jump cut, come over, and break off a linebacker. And we're going to work this to the right and to the left. There were three to the right here. Now we're going to go

to the left. Jump cut, get to the linebacker and break off of him. Again, jump cut to the left, get to the linebacker and break off of him. Jump cut and get up field.


Now, a double jump cut is where you make two jump cuts in traffic. We take it to the next level. Jump cut that way, jump cut that way. So we're going to jump cut to the right; secondary, jump cut to the left. Jump cut to the right, jump cut to the left. Teaching them double jump cuts. One at the line of scrimmage and one where the linebackers are. Again, if you want to add a handoff to teach proper mesh between the quarterback and the running back, you could also do that. You could also run this from an inside zone play, a stretch play, if he was cut off, or a counter play.

The next one we're going to run is a jet drill to teach the proper course. We will go empty and hand the ball off to a running back on a jet sweep. So we're going to have to learn to snap the ball, go full speed. We're working on proper pocket. Inside elbow at the top. We want to work on proper technique until we get this right. We have two lines going at once.

They're going to take the jet handoff to the right, and what we're trying to do here is work on proper going full speed in a short amount of time. We want to snap the ball on the inside cheek when the receiver here, when the running back's on the inside cheek of the tackle. So timing's a factor. The mesh point, forming the pocket, and our running course when we get outside the cone.

Again, this takes a lot of reps to teach the proper timing. But we want to run this about five minutes a day with the running backs and the receiver. We also want to get in a proper stance, which we weren't right here. Quarterbacks are also switching sides, handing off to both sides and opening up both ways. There's a full speed one; not a bad job. And we have the quarterback take a few steps out for a boot fake. That's a little better job right there.


Here's a course bag. Taking the proper footwork for any specific run. Here it would be an inside run drill – taking the first step, getting to the line of scrimmage – and an agility drill. So we're putting two drills together, which is a high knee agility drill and a footwork drill. We're assuming that they already have the ball. We're not having to mesh. We're taking that out of the drill and we're running inside zone to the right. You could do this for a counter or a draw as well.

And also we're trying to run it both ways. So we come back here at the other way and then we run inside zone to the left. And the emphasis is no false step down here, open up, 45-degree step with the left foot here. No false steps. And taking a proper course, pressing the line of scrimmage, and then using our high knees and we want to keep our head and eyes up. And what we do also is keep, again, keep a coach over at the end flashing numbers at the running backs to keep their head and eyes up. Keep them focusing down field.

PART 3

Zone mesh drill is we get the quarterback in. We'll work in all together with our steps, our mesh, and our course. We have it going two ways. This is a down lineman. He's the first down lineman outside the center which we're reading. And so after he takes the steps and the handoff, the running back's going to read this young man right here and go opposite him.

Okay, we'll do this from under center and in the gun. If he goes out, we press up field. If there's movement. If there's no movement, he goes outside. So now we're adding the read to the play. And then they go to the opposite side. So right here we're working inside zone, under center, and we're working it to the right. And we're working it both directions. There's our down lineman. The running back's going to get his eyes here. Now coach will stand in the back and he will


tell him whether to go inside or outside. There, he's inside so now we're taking that play outside.

Here we're going to work on full-speed cuts which is balance in the open field after we have the ball. These are full-speed cuts five yards apart. Full-speed cuts. Plant and go.

This is a wider version of the ladder drill where they plant opposite the squares. They want to plant and push off the plant foot and point their opposite foot in the direction they're going. There's a real good example right there. Open field cuts teaching balance.

There's several pocket drills that we run, receiving the handoff. This one is a general drill. We're trying to over-emphasize getting our inside up and clamping down on the ball. We'll progress to tighten up this drill later, but we're just trying to get our inside hand and arm up. Later on we'll tighten up and we'll get our elbow and the back of our wrist tight to our jersey. We're just doing this to warm up and teach the proper hand and arm up. Some of these are better than others.

Okay, now we're going to switch and we're going to go with the opposite hand. So now their left hand is their inside hand and we're going both ways. Get the ball secure, get it back up. Actually, you could slow this drill down a little bit and work on more fundamentals and emphasis on proper techniques.

A form pocket drill is taking a little more time to form the proper pocket. Okay, going a lot slower. Making sure that the elbow is up. The

distance is a lot tighter. You could use this more as a draw drill if you wanted to use it that way. But there's more emphasis on the proper placement of the elbow, the inside elbow and hand tight to the chest. Partner pocket drill, you get more reps. With arm movement, simulated arm movement.


Okay, this is kind of the drill that we were running a few minutes ago, but we're going to work on slowing the drill down and actually looking the ball into the pocket with our elbow and the back of our wrist tight to our jersey. The emphasis is not on how many reps you get, but rather quality reps. Making sure that we get the inside arm up, the elbow and the wrist tight to the jersey, and rolling over the ball when we get it. And then also making sure that we switch sides so that both arms are used as the inside hand, as in right and left runs.

Okay, the next drill is a partner pocket where we're simulating arm movement. Getting a lot of reps in here. We're all stationary, isolating body parts because we're concerned with the upper body only. Okay? We're working on arm movement when he pops the ball in, clamping down on it.

And you get more reps here because you've got a coach watching over three different players. And we want to switch sides. Now this would be a run to the right side with the left elbow up.

So we're trying to really emphasize the back of the wrist tight to the jersey and the elbow high. And securing the ball, getting it to the outside hand. And really whipping it over to secure the ball. As you see, their elbows are coming out here to the right side. Coach is really emphasizing them to get the ball tight to the opposite hand.

The next area that we're going to work on with running backs is catching the football. In today's modern offense and spread offenses, receivers are asked to catch the ball more and more. So we have several ball drills that they do either with the receiver coach or the running back coach.

Here's a 45-angle approach drill that everybody runs. We're trying to get them to focus on the ball in a short distance. We want them to, if the ball's caught above the waist we want them to work on getting their thumbs in and forming a pocket for the crosshair of the ball to go. We want to get them to tuck the ball.


So right now we're working on focus on the ball, thumbs up. If the ball is thrown above, thumbs to the inside. If it's thrown below, we want thumbs out.

Tuck and tap is a drill that we work to secure the ball. To look it in and secure it and tap the ball. And we have a couple good slow-motion shots here of what we're trying to do. This is a warm-up drill we use before practice and it's overemphasizing the placement of the ball underneath the arm.

And what you're going to see is a little slow-motion cut here of him forming a pocket, putting the ball, tucking it and tapping the ball. We want him to tap the ball. You have another slow-motion shot coming up right here. Catch the ball, secure it under the shoulder, and tap the ball. Tuck and tap. That's what they're trying to do with every throw. Tuck and tap. We do this with the receivers as well and the tight ends. Play catch, tuck and tap. And we try to alternate it.

The next one's a catch and hit drill. We want them to catch the ball and anticipate being hit. So we want to have the mindset that we're going to secure the ball.

We want to keep them down the line and not let them avoid what they're… if they're going to get hit, we want them to anticipate that and secure the ball. Secure the ball tight to the body. Some are better than others. Some don't want to get hit. Right here we do a good job securing the ball. Excellent job.

We want to make sure we don't hit him in the head. Of course, we don't have any equipment on right now and we want to make sure that they stay on the line. We don't want to veer out. Make sure they secure the ball.

And then we want to switch and go the other way. Don't let them come out. Catch the ball and secure it. Catch the ball and secure it. Teach them concentration and some ball security. As you see, most of these players are better in this drill catching the ball to their right and we want to make sure that we develop the ability to catch the ball to both sides.


Next drill is called a line drill. Again, we're just trying to strip the ball after we catch it. Have them head right down the line and get up field. This could be after a swing pass, a draw, actually even a run; but we're trying to get them to continue to go up field and hang onto the football when someone's trying to strip it. Secure the ball and keep their feet moving. Spin, keep going up field no matter what.

Again, it gets to be a lot of fun when you get into practice and get pads on and you can bring them to the ground and see how far they can carry somebody when they're trying to get stripped.

Goalpost catch. Trying to get the receivers and the running backs and tight ends to catch the ball in front of their body with their hands and fingers, and not their body.

We want them to use the tips of their fingers to catch the ball. We want to

tuck and tap as we emphasized earlier. So this drill would be worked with the receivers and the tight ends. Sometimes the drill will be run with the receivers and running backs, and sometimes by themselves, depending on the practice schedule. We want them to get as many reps as they can. There's a lot of ways to run this drill.

You can run five or 10 in a row and then switch, or you can go rapid fire and have everybody involved. Again, the emphasis is getting their hands out in front forming a pocket, watching the crosshair come between their thumb and forefinger, squeezing the ball with their finger, and tucking and tapping. Tuck, tap. Form a pocket. Didn't concentrate. Get another one. Form a pocket, tuck, tap. If the ball is thrown below, you can practice throwing the ball at six o'clock here, the thumbs would be out. You could go what's called round-the-clock and throw some at 12, three, and six.


PART 4

Pyramid course. Coach uses a pyramid course for some body control in catching. And what they're going to do is they're going to catch the ball once going one way, throw it, catch it again and then go deep. And he's going to purposely make them catch the ball over their shoulder.

Good catch, and then he drops it. So we're trying to use body control here, switching directions quickly, and then throwing the ball back and getting up field and catching the deep ball. Have a little competition. The kids enjoy it. Good catch. Again, throwing the ball across, change of direction, catch the ball again, get rid of it, and get deep. Throw the ball deep and over their shoulder, and go up for the ball at its highest point.

Again, we also will do this from this direction right here. We'll run them the opposite way. Again, a lot of the drills we're running on the tape today are only run from one direction to save time. But you want to run them

from both directions. Keep the ball close to your body and focus. Another way to run this drill, if they drop one of the balls they're done with the drill.

Meat grinder is we want to catch the backs in a position where they have to concentrate and focus. Want to put a back in here and have two linebackers with bags simulating backers pushing them, hitting them. We want to throw 10 in a row and see how many they can catch. They keep track and the next man goes in. And the winner gets a little incentive at the end of practice.

Again, we want to focus on getting a frame for the ball, watching the crosshair of the ball come between our forefingers and our thumb. Squeezing the ball, tucking and tapping it.

If the ball is thrown below the waist, we want to get our thumbs out and still secure the ball. We can challenge the players by throwing the balls at different places. We can throw it at 12


o'clock above their head. We can throw it to one side at three, and then below at six and at nine.

Settle and noose, we're going to teach the backs to get off and right past the line of scrimmage. Where they run through and get into where the linebackers are. So sometimes we'll start the running backs here and they'll have to go find this space between the linebackers. To settle down, sit down with their hips a little low, get a target up to the ball, frame it, catch, tuck it, tap it, and get up the field. So there's different ways to run this drill.

We can get the, again, the running backs can start back here and get up field through a scrimmage line and then go both ways if you want to do that. This is the end of the route. We also could run it from the beginning of the route if we so desired, but we're trying to get a lot of reps here.

Quick foot movement. Lower the hips, change direction, find the open spot, tuck, tap, and get up the field. Again, we're trying to use concentration. You could add a person with a bag to pop them as soon

as they catch the ball. Get them to focus.

Alright, one-hand warm-up. We're going to include the receivers and the running backs together at the beginning of practice. This is pre-practice, usually 15 minutes before anybody hits the field.

And we're trying to catch the ball with one hand. We're trying to focus on the ball, use some body control, and catch the ball with our up field hand. One hand only. We'll run this drill half speed like this to begin. The next step is we'll run it half speed, but we'll put

the receivers instead of on the hash here we'll put them at the top of the numbers where the distance the ball travels is a little farther.

And then phase three, we'll go full speed at the bottom of the numbers. So again, coaching point is we want to catch with one hand, we want to focus on our up field hand.

We want to throw it no more than 10-15 yards in the air to begin. They're on the


hash and then we move them out to the top of the numbers where it's a little farther. And then we move full speed.

Over the shoulder. We want to teach them to catch the ball over their shoulder.

And we're going to use this as an end-of-the-route drill for more reps and more benefit of the drill if we have them out here instead of a full route, where it takes a lot of time. This way we get a lot of reps. They can only use one hand when we do this to begin.

Okay, it's just like the drill we ran but tighter quarters and more reps for the receiver coach. Now he may or may not emphasize one hand here. The last receiver caught it with two hands. Yeah, we're trying to catch it with one hand. If they have to use two, they can. So coaching point is if we don't run it before practice, coach may run it during practice in an individual.

He's also going to switch sides and run it so they catch the ball over both shoulders. If we want to make this a little

bit tougher we could add a defender here with a bag and have him swing at them a little bit and hit them in the midsection with a bag and concentrate on ball security.

Opposite hip, we're going to work on catching the ball when the ball's thrown poorly to our opposite hip.

We're just trying to catch the pitch or the ball on the opposite hip. It's going to be behind him on purpose and we're trying to reach back with no loss in continuity and movement.

So this would be a pitch or some type of pass that's behind them at waist level, where they have to reach back and continue down the line.

And again, we're going to run this both directions. This phase is the teaching phase. It's going very slowly. We want to incorporate the quarterback in this as well for teaching purposes only and go full speed and have the ball pitched behind them on purpose.


Of course, you don't want to have the quarterback do that a lot to develop a bad habit. We want to increase the speed of this drill.

Sideline catch, we're going to teach the receivers to catch a ball on the sideline. Okay, the receivers and the running backs will run this drill. And we're trying to get them to come under control and drag their feet.

Now once in a while we can also have them try to go up the sideline. There's a good toe drag that we used with the receivers. Backs are going to be catching a lot of passes in our offense. We want to make sure that they can anticipate the sideline, use some body control and stay in bounds. The next thing we'll do is ask them to go up the field if they can do it.

We'll catch the ball and try to keep our body in bounds and get up the field so our momentum doesn't take us out. There's a good one right there. Now another thing is, they're going to their right. We do want to switch this drill, again, and have them go to their left and catch the ball.

So we would move the coach to this side of the drill over here and throw it the other way. Now what we've done here too is we've moved the trash can a little closer, it's more challenging. They have less time to recuperate and get their feet down. And we'll try to run this drill in phases, where we start the cone back and then we get it tighter.


Now here we switch directions. There's almost no chance to get up the field, but we're working on keeping our feet in bounds and catching the ball. Very good job with two feet here.

We can use a toe drag if necessary. There's a good two feet. And we're going to run this together with the running backs and the receivers for body control. Again, the quarterback is standing probably 10 yards away for a high amount of reps. Sometimes we'll have two quarterbacks doing that. We tried to get up field on that. If you want to challenge him, you can certainly do that.

But the tighter… we can't get the trash cans here too much tighter. It gets real, real tough. But we try to get it as tight as we can. And the better they get, the closer they can do it.

We're going to work some blocking drills here. We have five of them. The first one in the progression is called a strike drill. We have to learn how to strike on linebackers. So we're going to get on our knees and isolate body parts and learn to strike up and in. Up and in and extend our hips. Strike and extend. And this would be a linebacker coming in on a blitz. We have to learn to stay low, get our hips down lower than the linebacker, to strike with the inside part of our hands, and extend.

Again, we're going to switch. Get in a hitting position. This is a recoiled football position. We're isolating the upper body and we're trying to strike and extend. The next phase is the extension phase.

We're going to emphasize the extension and we're going to actually be in a stance now instead of on our knees. So now we're in a football stance. Okay? Running back stance and we're coming up and extending and blocking. And we're simulating a blitz drill where the linebacker's coming and we have to hit and extend and use our hips. Stay lower than the linebacker.

Finish drill would be the next in the blocking progression. Okay, where we're going to finish the drill. We're going to start from a two-point stance and we're going to drive. We're going to put our hands, place our hands and strike inside of the frame and we're going to drive with a wide base. We're not going to absorb the blow. Once we strike, we're going to finish.


So we've worked on our knees, we've progressed to three-point, and then we're going to a two-point stance. We're going to strike and finish. Another coaching point is we want to make sure that we're always going inside out. So if the quarterback's inside, they're going to drive and have a little angle driving them outside. Driving them a little bit outside. They're going to always strike from inside out, protecting the quarterback. Another thing you may do is you can use pipes or boards at an angle here, to have them go outside.

PART 5

This drill's called pads out versus the linebacker. You're actually going to put a linebacker blitzing from a corner or from up the middle. And you're going to start him inside out, strike and finish the drill, come back, go to the right, strike, finish, drive. Come back, reset. Rotate the bags. Blitz is coming from one side or the other. Right, drive. Get your hips down. Come back. Linebacker's blitzing from the left. Finish and drive. Rotate the bags and do the same thing again.

Drive to the right, extend, get your hands up. New back comes in, people switch. Drive to the right, hustle back. Coming to the left. Get in a football position, strike, pads inside out. Again, this emphasizes inside out position you have to block to protect the quarterback and finish your block.

Then, of course, you can go one-on-one, make it live with the linebackers, you put it all together. Put a quarterback in there, simulated quarterback in here. You


can also use a pop-up bag or a dummy bag. The blitzer's coming from right here and it's live. Just finish until you hear the whistle. Just take that guy and drive him inside out.

Again, inside out position, you're taking a blitzing linebacker and you're playing it to the whistle. Don't let him get to the quarterback. Keep your feet moving, keep your hips down, strike inside out and drive with your feet. Again, you want to progress with this drill to middle linebackers as well, and you can also move to dual pickup where they read the inside backer to the outside backer and one of them comes.

Again, we're going to the left, we're going to strike and drive. Strike and drive. Inside out. To the whistle. Strike and drive. Secondary blitz, strike and drive. Strike and drive. Inside out. Again, the next phase would be to take a linebacker from the inside and blitz him from the inside as well.

Okay, we have ball security drills and we're starting with a two-sided strip drill. And the thing that makes this drill different is the football is on both the right and the left side.

You have two footballs and two defenders trying to strip the ball, getting the running back to focus on ball security for two footballs, with five-point security, and two defenders trying to strip the ball. One on each side. So it is challenging. It requires the running back to use both hands equally and to work ball security on both hands.

Next drill we have is a toss sideline drill. We want the running back to stay in bounds and square up when he gets to the sideline and not be forced out of bounds. We want every yard possible. Of course, this is not simulating a two-minute drill.


This is in the middle of the game when we want every yard possible in our run. He's taking a toss and he's trying to square up when he gets to the bottom of the numbers and stay in bounds. You're working on ball transfer as well. Squaring up and staying in bounds and not being forced out of bounds.

Turn and catch drill. Trying to work on some ball security here. And alertness. There's five backs that are going to turn and catch the ball and secure it. What

makes this a ball security drill is the next phase. We have a man with a bag try to hit them after they catch the ball. We're working on focus here. He's called out, he turns, catches the ball, and tucks it.

Here's a blast and spin drill that we use to teach agility and demeanor in traffic. There are some times you will not be able to force your way through two blockers.

So we're working on a blast, shoulders down and spin off and get up field. Spin, get up field. You hit a wall, spin, get to the outside. You want to do that to both sides as well. Spin, a double hit. Okay, you get a hit, you spin off, you get hit again. That's teaching demeanor to get your shoulders back up the field and protect the football. Spin off of one, get square, and ready for another tackle.

Blaster drill is also teaching agility and demeanor in traffic. We're trying to teach the running back to square up between two defenders, to dip his shoulders, protect the football, and get up the field.


Again, we're going to have him come back, approach, square up. If it's possible to reduce the shoulder to get through with securing it, they can do that as well. Wide base going through two defenders. You'll see them doing that.

The next one is a sideline blaster. We're going to move it to the sideline. Also to teach agility and demeanor in traffic. Where they're trying to stay in bounds. This is just another part of the drill where we had a toss drill on the sideline.

And what we're trying to teach them on any side, any outside run or catch near the sideline, the bottom of numbers, that they want to square up and not be taken out of bounds.

Lower their shoulder, possibly dip and rip. To protect the football, keep their shoulders square and get up the field, and stay in bounds. Dip and rip. Dip and rip. Dip and rip. Dip and rip.

A mass strip drill, you want to get everybody in a line. Probably pre-practice. Teach them from one side to strip, the drill, go five yards, they can get it out any way they can. You want to turn the drill back and go the other way. If you want to slow them down a little bit, you can even do it walking, as we did with the receivers, or you can have them go half speed as here and have them punch the ball from any direction.

Drill called the gauntlet. We're teaching ball security and balance. Here we're trying to go through three different hits here with the ball.


We're trying to teach going into traffic on the second level of the defense, and people taking shots at the football. You can add as many defenders as you choose in here.

You want to have them go both sides. You want to have them have the ball on each shoulder. Again, we're switching going on the way back. The idea is to protect the football in traffic, keep your shoulders square, and get up field.

Now on this drill, the ball is on their left hand. So they have taken the ball from the right. And they come back, we want to switch it. The ball's on their right hand, they've taken the ball from their left as an inside zone to the right side.

And when we come back, we're going to switch it. The ball's on the other hand. Again, we want to keep our shoulders square, we want to keep our feet moving full speed, and stay on a north and south course up the field.

One-on-one tackle drill. We're going to put it all together versus the DBs. Okay? You can start this a number of ways. You can start it with a handoff or you can start them right here with the ball. Have them get up, square up, and beat the running back. Either by running over him or putting a move on him. Again, we want to square up. This is not a drill where we want to have them race to the sideline. They have to cut up between the hash and the top of the numbers and get by him. Try to teach them one move and get up the

field.

There's pursuit coming. We don't want them dancing here; they get one move. Here we are handing the ball off. We can start them with or without the ball. We're simulating a zone handoff here. Zone handoff to the left on a stretch play, our outside zone.

The next one is an up down strip drill. We're trying to teach them balance and security in an unexpected situation. So they're going to be going up and down here, and having


the ball be stripped in an uncomfortable position. We want ball security at all times and we'll focus in on a couple here.

And we want the ball stripped as in a post drill. Post one hand balance drill. Same principle. Try to focus in here and have them go down and have them strip the ball when he's not expecting it. On the way up or the way down. We want to teach ball security at all times. Tight elbow, five-point control over the football.

Here's a seat roll and sprint drill. Trying to teach balance and reaction. Coach is going to start them in a three-point and he's going them roll in one direction or other. We're trying to teach ball security in all times during a play. They're going to finish with a seat roll and they're going to somersault and get up the field. So we want to alternate the hands as well on the way back. So right now we're on the right hand. We do a seat roll, we keep the ball in one hand, and then we come up, do a somersault and get up the field.

And on the way back, we would switch hands. And we'll see that here. Coach has them switch hands. Start in the stance. Head and eyes up. Move their feet. Seat roll, keep the ball tight to their body, somersault, and get up the field.

Again, what we're looking for here is for them to keep the ball tight to their body and not loose. Don't let it hang out. Tight to the body. Squeeze the football. Squeeze the football. Somersault, let's go. Get up the field. Keep in tight.

Four-cone strip drill is we're going to have them stripped at four cones. Working on brakes in the open field. So they're working on little 90-degree plants, to have them get stripped at every point.

Protect the ball at different points in your run course. That's what we're trying to simulate here. Protect the ball. Protect the ball. Protect the ball. He did a good job one out of three here. Let's see the next running back. Protect the ball. Did protect it on three cones.


Good job. Also want to run this, coaches, to the other side so they're braking to the right at 90-degree angles as well.

Thanks for watching. We hope that you can take one or more of these drills and incorporate them into your system to help your football team be more productive. If you'd like to contact me, my email address is [email protected]. Good luck this season.


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