Linebacker Drills to Stop the Run
Hi I'm Joe Daniel with footballdefense.com. Today I'm going to talk to you about linebacker drills for stopping the run.
There are two drills today that I'm going to use to emphasize the most important characteristics of a run-stopping linebackers and the first one would be to defeat blocks. We have to teach our linebackers they're going to have to defeat one block to make a tackle. Against a good football team were not going to run around tackles and guards.
The second drill I'm going to talk about is getting the linebackers downhill then fit them well on the ball carrier. Make sure that they're making tackle or force the ball carrier to bounce outside to where our help is.
First is our block destruct. The block destruct will be going to set it up two linebackers. We're going to have two guys holding shields. Now we do this to keep the wear and tear off of our kids. You have a line of kids ready to take the bag and the bag holder will hold after the linebackers for each reps.
Linebackers are going to be three yards off. He is going to have his inside foot up. He's going to attack the outside half on the back, his alignment can be tight. We're going to be right shoulder, he's going to take his right shoulder, right arm, right forearm, everything and drive up underneath that pad or underneath of that pads of the blocker and take the space away from him.
We will work on our way down to control not screaming down there will be no screaming on the other side of the ball on a run play. We're coming in control. And when we get there we're going to take him outside half of his bag and drive him back with our body.
We want to end up taking space and being where his heels where. Move his body and get off the block where his heels were. We can now redirect to make a play.
The front linebackers on your call coming down here and then the block destruct getting to the heels take the space away from the blocker and now curves can redirect is just point to the others for this guys a break and make sure that they are under control. We can add on to this. We could add ball carrier right here. If this guy comes through now it's going to go and make a tackle of the ball carrier on the downhill path. We can just expand on this drill to give you more time, because now we're getting on block destructing drill and tackle drill at the same time.
The second linebacker drill is called In-At-Out drill. In-At-Out drill is used to get linebackers working downhill. Regardless to what defense will run we're going to use a middle linebacker, 5 yards off ball. We are at 5 yards off the ball on the other side. You could choose to attack anywhere in this gaps, either in at or out.
The linebacker will take a read step and then he is going to work his way to the inside it in that marker. A marker would be here to represent a gap. You take his read step going through the inside hitting the ball carrier.
Again we want to keep the wear and tear off of our guys. The work down and tag the hips here when they come through his inside. And when he tag his hips with our hands, bring our hips, shoot our hips; shoot our hips as we come through simulating a tackle. We're not hitting off and hammer our guys constantly. We get a ball carrier going to the direction he wants. Here or simulate outside run with linebacker on the top and get there. These guys keep the pick when and where they want to go. Linebackers react to his movement and start to play.
Again this is a drill we can expand all we can put two linebackers in here. We can work 4-2-5 defense and we could work on fitting on downhill run. One linebacker piffling and the backside linebacker working his counter shuffle.
Same thing you can do with the 4-3 defense. And also we can also expand this on this by adding in a full back here. We added an outside linebacker here. We could now work alley press drill or linebacker taking the run through and our outside linebacker hitting the inside if his spill player, or to contain the play he's the box player.
These two drills we use frequently, at least twice a week in developing our linebackers. We may use it 3 times in season, but in camp we use it every single day.
Hope this will help you develop your linebackers to be great football players.
There are two drills today that I'm going to use to emphasize the most important characteristics of a run-stopping linebackers and the first one would be to defeat blocks. We have to teach our linebackers they're going to have to defeat one block to make a tackle. Against a good football team were not going to run around tackles and guards.
The second drill I'm going to talk about is getting the linebackers downhill then fit them well on the ball carrier. Make sure that they're making tackle or force the ball carrier to bounce outside to where our help is.
First is our block destruct. The block destruct will be going to set it up two linebackers. We're going to have two guys holding shields. Now we do this to keep the wear and tear off of our kids. You have a line of kids ready to take the bag and the bag holder will hold after the linebackers for each reps.
Linebackers are going to be three yards off. He is going to have his inside foot up. He's going to attack the outside half on the back, his alignment can be tight. We're going to be right shoulder, he's going to take his right shoulder, right arm, right forearm, everything and drive up underneath that pad or underneath of that pads of the blocker and take the space away from him.
We will work on our way down to control not screaming down there will be no screaming on the other side of the ball on a run play. We're coming in control. And when we get there we're going to take him outside half of his bag and drive him back with our body.
We want to end up taking space and being where his heels where. Move his body and get off the block where his heels were. We can now redirect to make a play.
The front linebackers on your call coming down here and then the block destruct getting to the heels take the space away from the blocker and now curves can redirect is just point to the others for this guys a break and make sure that they are under control. We can add on to this. We could add ball carrier right here. If this guy comes through now it's going to go and make a tackle of the ball carrier on the downhill path. We can just expand on this drill to give you more time, because now we're getting on block destructing drill and tackle drill at the same time.
The second linebacker drill is called In-At-Out drill. In-At-Out drill is used to get linebackers working downhill. Regardless to what defense will run we're going to use a middle linebacker, 5 yards off ball. We are at 5 yards off the ball on the other side. You could choose to attack anywhere in this gaps, either in at or out.
The linebacker will take a read step and then he is going to work his way to the inside it in that marker. A marker would be here to represent a gap. You take his read step going through the inside hitting the ball carrier.
Again we want to keep the wear and tear off of our guys. The work down and tag the hips here when they come through his inside. And when he tag his hips with our hands, bring our hips, shoot our hips; shoot our hips as we come through simulating a tackle. We're not hitting off and hammer our guys constantly. We get a ball carrier going to the direction he wants. Here or simulate outside run with linebacker on the top and get there. These guys keep the pick when and where they want to go. Linebackers react to his movement and start to play.
Again this is a drill we can expand all we can put two linebackers in here. We can work 4-2-5 defense and we could work on fitting on downhill run. One linebacker piffling and the backside linebacker working his counter shuffle.
Same thing you can do with the 4-3 defense. And also we can also expand this on this by adding in a full back here. We added an outside linebacker here. We could now work alley press drill or linebacker taking the run through and our outside linebacker hitting the inside if his spill player, or to contain the play he's the box player.
These two drills we use frequently, at least twice a week in developing our linebackers. We may use it 3 times in season, but in camp we use it every single day.
Hope this will help you develop your linebackers to be great football players.