Football is a very popular youth sport in the United States. The Pop Warner Football league, for example, has more than 400,000 participants--and that's just one league. The dream of many of these athletes is to one day play football at the collegiate and professional level. Intense focus and training is needed get to that level; one area that is vital to performance in football is the conditioning level. Football is a predominately anaerobic sport, and so most football conditioning must be anaerobic.
Suicides
Use the yard markers for this drill. Line up on the goal line, then run and tag the 10 yard line. Run back and tag the goal line. Then run to the 20-yard line, tag and return to the goal line. Continue running back and forth from the goal to the next tag line (which increases by 10 yards each time). Finish by running from goal line to goal line.
Shuttles
In a shuttle you will run back and forth between two lines or markers until a given distance is covered. The difference between a suicide and a shuttle is that in a shuttle the two line markers never change, while in a suicide the tag line changes with each pass. The 300 shuttle is a very popular conditioning drill: run three trips from the goal line to the 50-yard line and back.
Gassers
Gassers are a particularly fun type of a shuttle that is a common drill for football players. Gassers are completed by running across a football field four times. Line up on one sideline, then run across the field, touch the opposite sideline and return back to the starting sideline. Touch the starting side line and complete another pass across the field and back. Finish at the starting sideline after completing a total of four trips across the field.
Reaction Drills
Reaction drills are useful for any athlete who has to respond to rapidly changing variables. Thus reaction drills are great for particularly defensive players such as linebackers. Reaction drills can also be used to improve conditioning. In a reaction drill, another person, most often a coach, will instruct you by yelling directions such as to do the backpedal, which is a controlled backwards run in a low defensive position; to turn to the left, right or complete opposite direction and run; to shuffle, which is a controlled side-to-side motion in a low defensive position; or to sprint forward, among other directions.
References
- "Strength and Conditioning Journal;" Is Football Conditioning Necessary for the Youth Football Athlete?; David Martinez; August 1997
- "NSCA's Performance Training Journal;" Is Conditioning Games; Terry Handzel; December 2005
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