Defensive Drills For Football

Every football defensive position coach needs to identify the 4 most important skills for their player to have. These skills need to be covered every single day in practice, and perhaps even during pre-game warm-up. For us, these are position-specific drills and do not include the basics which all defenders must do. We will have a separate period for pursuit, or for tackling.

There should be no discussion of individual play calls during these periods. In fact, after Day 1 or 2, there should be no discussion during this period. Everything is habit, everything is planned. This is not a time for creativity, it is a time for establishing great habits in the players.

After a warm-up using the Pursuit Drill (5 minutes), we will move directly in to individual groups to work those Big 4 skills. This period is no more than 10 minutes, and will become less as the season goes on. Linebackers may perform a football drill for footwork, for block destruct, for blitzing and for pass drops. Defensive Linemen will need Get Off & Engage work, Escape technique, wrong arming and pass rush moves. We understand that if a player is an expert, a natural, in his Big 4, he can play for us.

Never ask a player to perform a task that goes against his Big 4 football drills. Do not suddenly change those techniques in the middle of the season as a knee-jerk reaction to early season failures. These are ingrained habits. They can be performed by the player without thinking, and without slowing down.

Be careful not to ask much more than those Big 4 out of a player. If a practice includes 10 minutes on the Big 4, and 20 minutes on other skill sets - you send the player the wrong message. They will get the impression, and rightly so, that the Big 4 football drills are only half as important as the other skill sets, since practice time of the Big 4 is half as long. Use the extra time for group work, installation, film, or weight room time.

Or, just get off the field. Your hard work and preparation has led to the players gaining great football defense habits. Let them benefit from it.

Joe Daniel is an experienced football coach at the High School and College level. He writes the Football-Defense Report blog. Click here to find out about his 4-3 Defense book and a special bonus!

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