The following drill was stolen after visiting Vince Okruch’s
Western Illinois 3-3 nickel practices as well as from Jeff Walker’s exhaustive
work, “Coaching the 40 Nickel Defense”,
which every coach absolutely needs to own. I find this drill to be the single
most important technique reinforcement tool to develop consistent
linebackers. The drill can be conducted
at varying levels of difficulty and lends itself to training many players in
rapid succession.
The drill represents the run fits for your linebacker group,
broken into 3 distinct reactions; In, At, and Out (represented here in green,
yellow, red).
The IN area is any quick hitting play between the
guards. This is the
responsibility of the middle or stack (inside) linebacker. Plays represented here would be
dive, trap, or wedge.
The AT area is an immediate responsibility of the
bubble (outside) linebacker sandwiched between the guard and inside the tight
end. Iso, zone, and power are common
“At” runs.
The “Out” area is any play which leaves the box (outside the TE)
towards the perimeter, such as toss, sweep,
stretch.
We use this drill from day 1 after teaching stance and
starts. It is best when repped at
a high-tempo, with verbal cues provided, but no stopping of the drill; make intensity the priority and discourage
improper footwork. Don’t try to
over-complicate the drill or trick your linebackers. This should be an easy
exercise to develop confidence in your players. Also, DO NOT use a ball in this
drill, as it will only slow you down and isn’t what you are reinforcing with this
drill.
We introduce the drill using (single) back flow. We don't exclusively read the flow of the backfield players, as linemen keys are essential, but for the sake of indoctrination we develop our linebackers in stages. The natural way to play linebacker is to just chase after backs. The old school way of doing this was to line your linebackers in front of offensive linemen hoping one of them can provide a decent offensive lineman block (down, pull, base, scoop, etc). This could be frustrating, because if your backer didn’t understand the block, he couldn’t progress in his development and damaged his confidence. Whether ingrained at the lower levels or not, use this momentum to build their skillset rather than trying to “break them” of bad habits. We start with a single back, then progress to adding guards with the read. During camp, we actually paint the field for this drill, just like the (Texas vs. OSU) illustration above.
We introduce the drill using (single) back flow. We don't exclusively read the flow of the backfield players, as linemen keys are essential, but for the sake of indoctrination we develop our linebackers in stages. The natural way to play linebacker is to just chase after backs. The old school way of doing this was to line your linebackers in front of offensive linemen hoping one of them can provide a decent offensive lineman block (down, pull, base, scoop, etc). This could be frustrating, because if your backer didn’t understand the block, he couldn’t progress in his development and damaged his confidence. Whether ingrained at the lower levels or not, use this momentum to build their skillset rather than trying to “break them” of bad habits. We start with a single back, then progress to adding guards with the read. During camp, we actually paint the field for this drill, just like the (Texas vs. OSU) illustration above.
To explain this drill, it’s important to first
understand its benefits.
The purpose is to train your linebackers on the proper:
- Tempo
- Footwork
- Movement
- Reads
- Leverage
- Run support fits
For the entire article about how to run this drill and coaching points used, visit www.strongfootball.com
