Many young defensive players allow receivers to get behind them and catch the "long ball." This technique will immediately improve the defensive player's ability to keep up with and defend any receiver. Simple principles for players of any age. Great for coaches, parents, or players to facilitate.

Objectives:

• Get the posture right
• Stay low
• Look forward at the WR and QB
• Swing arms (controlled)
• Build speed
• Fluidly turn INSIDE and run to stay with the WR
• No-one behind you!

Transcript:



Hi everyone, this is Coach Dwight with an awesome drill for our DBs, the ones who are guarding our wide receivers. Now, a couple of key principles before we get started. Our wide receivers are going to be all over the field. Now, we want to make sure that a wide receiver is never behind us. We always hear that: don't let anyone behind you. Why do we say that? Because if a wide receiver is behind my defensive back, well, then they're gonna score that touchdown. That ball goes over my head, I'm running as fast as I can. So, number one, don't let anybody behind you.

Number two, watch the quarterback and the wide receiver. They're handing it off; you want to be able to go after that flag right away. Alright? If they're going for a long ball, you want to adjust and be able to do that, right? So, first thing that we're gonna do is I'm going to show you how this is set up. I'll show you what that means. First thing we need to talk about is the DB stance. My defensive backs, they're gonna need to either go forward or back at any second. The first thing I want to do is I want to put my dominant foot up front, and I want to have a flat back here, and I want to stay low. I want to keep my arms nice and flexible; I don't need them up here.

With this, we're gonna be backpedaling, and the one thing I want you to do is use your arms as you backpedal. I want them to go with you so that you can drive momentum and build that speed. Let me show you how this works, and then we'll talk.

A couple of key things that we're doing here: we're backpedaling with our wide receiver. If I'm doing man-to-man and I have to stick with this wide receiver, there's no way I'm just gonna start running like this. I want to be backpedaling so that I can keep my eyes on the wide receiver and also the quarterback. I want to watch the quarterback's eyes. If they're gonna be throwing my way, I don't want to have my back turned and try to be doing this. I want to have my eyes on another thing that I'm watching for as I'm watching for the run. So, if all of a sudden I need to run up and catch that run, I can easily jump up and do that.

There's a great exercise for that: nobody behind you. You'll see it in almost every single game—a wide receiver runs right past that DB, and they're like, "Oh no," and then the ball is thrown, and there's a touchdown. All you have to do is... The wide receiver is running a deep post or fly pattern, and that baby's gone. Then I need to start running with them, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn and start running with that wide receiver.

So, this is the backpedal drill. I would run this over and over and over. If you keep getting beat with that long ball, and your defensive back continues to have someone behind them, this is the perfect drill for that. So, enjoy this, have fun with it, and shift it up a little bit. What I also like to do is put a wide receiver on a fly pattern to that wide receiver and see if that DB can do some real magic. So, mix it up, have some fun, but this will get your DBs where they need to be.