According to Portland, Oregon-based football coach Mark Barlow, football requires general fitness and specialized skills. To develop these, coaches push their athletes through many exercises and drills any fitness enthusiast will find familiar, plus a number that are unique to football.
Goals of Football Training
Sportswriter Ivan Maisel notes football requires many kinds: cardiovascular endurance, speed, coordination, strength, body composition and flexibility. Success in football also requires players to develop specific skills, such as ball handling, body control and play patterning.
Specialization
A football team consists of players playing different positions, each of which has its own set of skills and rules. While teams train and condition as a unit, a part of each practice is devoted individual athletes practicing the skills most important to his position. During this time, a lineman might practice hitting while the quarterback practiced to develop ball handling skills.
Strength and Conditioning
Strength and conditioning drills for football are the most similar to workouts for other sports. A typical practice will find football players running sprints and practicing calisthenics such as push-ups, sit-ups and burpees. Weight training and extended aerobic work such as jogging are also common, though often they take place between workouts or even get their focus during the offseason.
Speed Training
According to Barlow, speed training focuses on acceleration and short sprints. Two typical drills to develop speed are "takeoff drills" and "sled drills." Takeoff drills involve starting in a down position, often the standard three-point football stance, then accelerating at top speed to sprint several yards. Sled drills have the athlete run a short distance while pushing or pulling a weighted sled.
Agility Drills
Agility in football includes precision footwork and, in the case of players who handle the ball, ballhandling skills. Footwork drills include running short or high hurdles, tire drills as seen on TV and evasion practice where team members try to catch or avoid one another. Passing practice and holding the ball while practicing other skills are common examples of ball handling drills.
Play Patterning
Football is a team sport, where individual players perform a specialized role within the framework of a master play. Barlow has athletes practice plays repeatedly until each athlete has his role memorized, then works them in context during mock games, called scrimmages.
References
- Mark Barlow, Football Coach, Roosevelt High School, Portland, OR
- ESPN: Speed, Athleticism Required to Combat Fast-Tempo Offenses
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