Playing a traditional football game is great, but it's always fun to mix things up a little with games and drills that focus on specific aspects of the game. These games also can fire up the competitive spirit in players, while giving coaches a chance to look at a player's skills, such as throwing, catching, punting and long-snapping. You can use your own variations or encourage players to tweak them as they desire.
500
This is a football version of the popular baseball catching drill, in which a coach tosses or hits a ball toward a group of fielders and whoever catches it in the air receives 100 points. Catching it on a bounce is worth 50 points. The first player to 500 points wins. With a football you can do the same thing, only with a little more contact as receivers all go up to catch the ball. This is a fun way to get players used to battling for position when going after a pass. Fielding a ball on one bounce is good practice for recovering fumbles and kickoffs.
Rapid Toss
The Youth Football Coaches Association recommends this drill to improve a quarterback's quick release, reaction time and footwork. Start with two quarterbacks about 10 yards apart. Give one quarterback the ball and have him start jogging toward the other quarterback, who jogs backward. After a few steps, the first QB passes the ball to the other and starts to jog backward. As soon as the other QB catches the pass, he immediately starts jogging forward and prepares to pass back. This continues until both quarterbacks have thrown five to 10 passes.
Pinpoint Punting
Using cones or with imaginary boundaries, establish a square using the goal line, 10-yard line and out-of-bounds line. Have your punter stand about 40 yards away and see how many punts he needs to land the ball in that square 10 times. If the ball rolls into the end zone, it doesn't count. Encourage competition between punters on the team or have your punter try beat his personal best at every practice. You can move the punter closer or farther away depending on his skill level. Consider giving him a prize if he can place the ball in the square, or have it roll out of bounds from the square 10 out of 10 times.
Long Snaps
Chicago Bears long-snapper Patrick Mannelly called this his favorite drill. It's fun for centers, long-snappers and anyone on the team who thinks he can snap the ball back between his legs with real accuracy. Have players set up about 12 to 15 yards directly in front of a goal post, snap the ball and see how many times in a row they can hit the goal post. For variation, have them perform 10 snaps and record how many they make out of 10. When they get to where they're hitting the target 10 out of 10 times, move a few yards farther away or hang up a target on the goal post and make them try to be even more accurate.
Member Comments