Catching the ball high

High passes happen, and as a receiver you need to be ready for something unexpected. Here are some simple steps when making a high catch: Make a diamond with their forefingers and thumbs. Never catch or try to catch a ball with your body, especially a high ball. Once you have your hands around the ball, dont take your eyes off the ball but follow it right into your tuck. Some receivers fear an oncoming tackle and want to check out the field as soon as possible, those receivers that follow the catch with their eyes are going to catch more and receive more playing time.

Angle tackling

Because not every tackle is direct and head on, it is necessary to set up an angle tackling situations during practice. This can be done by having a player run with the ball on a straight line with the defender at any angle. As the defender he will need to adjust his body to cover the shortest distance towards the ball carrier, and make the stop by placing his foot squarely in front, and remembers for safety to put his head in front of the ball carrier. A good tackle is now executed as the defender lunges at the opponent wrapping his arms around his opponent grabbing cloth and completing the tackle by pulling him down or pushing him off sides.

Conditioning: Dot drilling

Strength and reaction time is what makes a great football athlete. This drills intention is to help quickness and accuracy on the field which will reduce errors and increase the chances of great plays. Setting up this drill is very simple, you will need five markers placed about a foot apart in an x formation with one of the dots being in the center surrounded by four other dots in a square formation.

This drill begins with the player starting on two of the outer dots and jumps feet together to the middle dot and then out again to the edge dots separating their feet. Next the player will jump touching each dot with on leg only, and then switch using the other leg. The next step is jumping on all five dots with both feet together. The last phase is really returning to the original starting phase of jumping together and apart, however this time the athlete will change directions after they have jumped to the outer dots. Because this drill is intended for accuracy and speed, it is recommended that players start out slow and deliberate and then speed up to their maximum time.

Hand off drill

Running backs should constantly practice the hand off. One great hand off drill starts by having two separate lines of players facing each other: line A and line B. At the coaches signal player A leaves line A running with the football towards line B. At the same time that the first player leaves player B leaves his line towards player A, as they pass each other in the middle player A hands off the football to player B. At the point of the hand off another player leaves line A and runs towards player B, who hands off the ball to the new player. The motion should be constantly moving from one line to another in this drill, almost like a juggling pattern. It is an effective drill to teach handoff skills and help running backs achieve higher accuracy and consistency.