Gauntlet Drills and Football Middle School Team Practices

Gauntlet Drill for Ball Security

Ball security, preventing fumbles and turnovers is perhaps the most important skill the offensive team can have. Quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers should work on this skill constantly. One drill that has been used several times to improve ball security is called the gauntlet drill. The point to the gauntlet drill is to have a player run through several opponents that try to dislodge the football. The opponents can line up in any scenario, the most common being two lines and the ball carrier must run through them. Make sure to take the drill slow at first, and to also have the ball carrier hold the ball in several differing positions.

Strength and conditioning: Up Downs

The popular conditioning drill known as “up downs” is a very effective way to increase cardiovascular activity and endurance. 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. From time to time the coach will signal to the players, by whistle or a command, to get down – meaning that they drop down do a push up and get back up as quickly as possible to run again. Because this drill can be very taxing, it is important to increase the time spent at this slowly over time as the player’s strength increases.

Prevent fumbles with strong techniques

One of the fundamental aspects of running with a football is ball security. Football teams have lost many games because a couple of players were lax in there ball carrying and fumbled the football. A great way to teach tight ball security is with four points. The first point is the claw, meaning that your fingers are wrapped over the tip of the football. The second point is your forearm wrapped around the ball and shielding it from the defense. Third point is to have the ball held tight against the bicep to prevent defenders from punching up through from behind. The final point is keeping the football high and tight against the ribcage. Run a couple of drills were the ball carrier runs through a pack of defenders to practice. As your ball carrying continues to improve you will insure less turnovers and greater success on the field.

A great Handoff Drill

Running backs should constantly practice the hand off. 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. At the coaches signal player A leaves line A running with the football 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. This drill should perform in a seamless motion. Practice this drill every day to ensure that your running backs are effective on their hand offs.