Helping Elementary American Football Playing Drills
The High Toss Football Catch
Because not all throws are perfect you will need to practice making catches that are high or low. Because of the variety of passes that you might receive here are some basics to high pass catching: When you go to make the high catch extend your arms, but keep your hands close together with your hands coming together in a diamond formation. When you try to catch the ball with your body there is a greater chance that it is going to bounce off and cause an incomplete pass. Important to look the catch through and tuck it away. 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.
Learning the Basics of Catching a Low Football Pass
Great plays are made through dedicated practice of the fundamentals. Making the plays means that you have practiced the “non-optimal” situation and know how to react to them. One situation that happens a lot in a game is catching the low passes. Here are some great techniques in coaching and learning the low catch. First, keep your hands down low in a scooping or shovel position; you can even cross your pinkies. This ensures that the ball will not slip through your fingers. 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. Remember, the cardinal rule of catching is to use your hands and not your body. Keep your eyes right on the ball. Catch it first and then worry about running it.
Constant motion drill to increase ball handling skills
This drill is used to increase player’s ball handling skills on the field. The secret to this drill is having the ball constantly moving around and from hand to hand. The drill starts with the head moving the ball in a circular motion from hand to hand, then proceeds to go under the arms, around the waist, then the knees, and finally through and in between the players legs.
Coaches can mix up the drill by shouting out body parts that the players will have to start circling with the football; they can also reverse the direction that the ball is traveling by calling, “reverse”. Changing the direction of the football ensures that they don’t form a habit, and that they remained focused on the ball and controlling the movement.
When the coach calls and end to the drill the players will drop the ball several times (at least 7). The player will drop the ball and quickly pick it up again. They also should rotate which hand they are using to pick it up so that you can increase ball handling with both.
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. In sync with that first player, a second player leaves line B, when they meet player A passes to player B. Now player B has the ball and will hand off the ball to the next person in Line A who will hand off to the next player in Line B. The motion should be constantly moving from one line to another in this drill, almost like a juggling pattern. This is a great drill to help running backs practice hand offs, and should be run every day.
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