Catching the ball low

Great plays are made through dedicated practice of the fundamentals. Execution on a football field starts with practice. One situation that most offensive players will face is the low catch. Here are some great techniques in coaching and learning the low catch. First keep the pinkies together down low to make a shovel. This technique stops the ball from bouncing away and also helps the player scoop up the ball quickly. Second, keep your knees bent low and in extreme cases you should be flat on the ground or diving. Third, once the ball touches your hands scoop it up into your chest and tuck it away into a secure position. Use your hands and not your body. Always watch the ball through from the first time you see it in the air until it is in a secure ball carrying position. And always see the ball through, meaning that you are watching it into the tuck.

Drive Block

When talking about the fundamentals of a great offense or defense, you have to know what a good driving and blocking techniques are. Hence the name for the most common drive: the drive block. This drive block means that you are going to push the opponent in the direction that they are aligned. If the Defensive lineman is aligned slightly to the right of the offensive linemen then the drive block with pus the defender to the right. When executing this block start with your play side foot, meaning if the play is on the right side of you it will be your right foot. Move quickly and in a speed bursting motion, make solid contact with your opponent to drive them off in the direction that you want.

Hand off drill

Running backs should constantly practice the hand off. This drill requires more than one player; it starts off with two lines, line A and line B, the front of each line facing each other a couple of yards apart. 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.

Ball security: The Gauntlet Drill

There is nothing more important for offense to learn great ball security. This of course is even more important for wide receivers and running backs as they handle the ball more than most. That is why the gauntlet drill was created, to test and practice effective ball security. This drill is set up with one ball carrier, there objective is to run through a group of opponents that try to knock the ball out. A coach can set up short fast runs or longer relays with several obstacles and defenders prying at the ball. Run each of the gauntlet drills slow and then speed them up as each player gets better at effective ball security.