Football Maniacs

Football may be the most popular team sport in America, but you don’t need a team to become good at it! Though passing needs to be done with a partner, almost all of the speed, endurance, and strength training can be done alone, at home or in a gym. The one drill that makes you training for football and not just any sport is catching the ball, so we’ll start with that.

Solo Catching Practice: Spiral the ball into the air. Pump your arms vigorously to simulate running without the ball. Look up as the ball begins to descend. Create a window out of your thumbs with arms extended above your head. When the ball is close, attack it. Receivers do not wait for the ball; they go get it! This way there is less of a chance for interception. The second your hands make contact rip the ball down and cradle it to your body. From here you can sprint to your “end zone” or just start over. [...]

Up Downs Conditioning Drill

Out of all of the football conditioning drills up downs is one of the most popular. 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. At the coaches signal the players will drop to the ground and do a push up, and then quickly get back up and start running again. This drill is an excellent workout and should be worked in slowly at first and then increased in intensity and length over time.

Drive Block

Driving and blocking are the bases for a good lineman. 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 driving start with your play side foot. Connect hard against your opponent, bring your other foot into play and continue to drive in the aligned direction. [...]