Use this quick drill to improve flag pulling and shuffling abilities to pull more flags and shut down the offense. Simple flag pulling and shuffling principles for defensive players of any age. Great for coaches, parents, or players to facilitate. Find more flag football drills here

Transcript:

Hi everyone, this is Coach Dwight with an awesome drill for flag pulling. This one we're gonna work on two key principles that we talk about all the time. Number one is shuffling. We shuffle this way and that way. Most of our kids a lot of times are chasing flags, etc. Well, this one's called the shuffle pull, and the first thing we're gonna work on is shuffling left to right.

Number two is we're gonna work on proper flag pulling technique. Now, how many times have our kids grabbed for the flag and just flown off of it, right? And that runner goes right past them and scores that touchdown. What we talk about all the time in our practice is grabbing onto the handle, which is at the very top of their belt, right? Not only am I watching their waist and their hips as they move, but I'm grabbing on right here at the top, where even if I don't grab the flag, I'm pretty much holding on. But I really want to focus on this handle right here, and how easy is it then to pull that flag?

All right, so as we set this up, let me show you. We have a zigzag formation of eight cones. All right, we have one, then zigzag, two, then three, then four, then five, then six, then seven, and eight. Let me show you how it works, and then we'll come back and talk.

On each cone, I'm gonna have one of my players standing there with their flags just like this. Over here, I'll have another one. You can have them face this way or this way; it does not matter, but I want their flag to be inside right there, ready to go. I have a player on each one of the cones, and on my whistle, my defender is going to start on that back cone, and I'm gonna show you what it looks like.

All right, look at that shuffling! A couple of key principles that we're looking at is we're staying low, right? And we're going shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. And then what I would do is I would have them go back, have the kids turn around. Each one was like this; now they have another flag like this. I'll have that same defender go back, work on the shuffle, getting big, right?

So, on defense, we want to make sure that we're breaking down, getting big, shifting side to side, not chasing and trying to grab the flag like this. We want to grab it with our outside hand, boom, outside hand, boom. I tell you, rapid over and over doing that, you're going to see an amazing increase in your pulls. Again, don't let them grab here. Have them focus on grabbing on the handle at the very top. Do that over and over. After your parents or your other coaches, put flags back on and do it as fast as you can. This one's called the shuffle pull. We'll see you in the next video.