Conditioning - The Five Dot Drill and Other Ways to Help Your Football Games

Conditioning: The five dot drill

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. In order to execute the drill you will need a place with five dots, either marked on the grass or on a mat, forming an x shape much like the dots for the number five side of dice.

Foot Ball Drills

The player will start by placing a foot on the back two dots and then jumps together to the middle dot and then out separating his legs to the outer dots, much like you would see in hop scotch. Next the player will jump touching each dot with on leg only, and then switch using the other leg. After this, the player will touch all of the dots with both feet together. The last step is the same as the first hop scotch method but this time when the player reaches the other side they will turn around on the two 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.

Practicing the Hand off

Drills practicing fundamentals like an effective hand offs can make the difference between a mediocre team and an excellent one. A simple drill for a hand off is to line up all of your running backs in two lines facing each other in what we will call line A and Line B. The player from line A leaves the line with the football running 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. It should be a constant motion. This is a great drill to help running backs practice hand offs, and should be run every day.

Up Downs Conditioning Drill

Up downs is an excellent conditioning drill that will improve reaction time and endurance. This drill starts by having the players run in place as fast as they can encourage them to get their knees up as high as they can. Then at random a coach will yell, "down" or blow a whistle at which the players must dive to the ground do a push up and then jump back into running in place. Because this drill can be very taxing, it is important to increase the time spent at this slowly over time as the player's strength increases.

Practice can help turnovers

In order to win football games you need to have possession of the football. Forcing a fumble is one of the quickest ways that you can turn the tides and retain possession of the football. Practice dislodging the football on the field in pairs of players. The defender will practice stripping the ball by bringing his hands up quickly with a clenched fist to grab the opponent and as he does so to aim to knock out the football. This drill is most effective if you start it slow focusing on the motions needed to be effective, and then speed up over time.

Conditioning - The Five Dot Drill and Other Ways to Help Your Football Games

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