TWO FOOTBALL DRILLS FOR INCREASING PLAYER SPEED AND AGILITY

Gerald Mayfield

INTRODUCTION An avid sports fan, Gerald Mayfield played both

baseball and football as a high school student. As an adult, Gerald Mayfield has donated his time as a youth coach for local baseball and football teams. In football, coaches sometimes underestimate the importance of speed and agility, which gives teams both offensive and defensive advantages.

Defense often involves a speed transition from backpedaling to sprinting. For practice in this skill, coaches can place four cones in a square shape with five-yard sides.

FOOTBALL DRILLS Players begin at one cone and backpedal to the cone

behind them and then sprint to the diagonal cone before again backpedaling down and sprinting diagonally.

Offensive players benefit from a fast, conditioned sprint. Coaches can condition players by setting up a 50-yard space with markers at the 30-yard line. Players gradually increase speed from the starting line to the 30-yard mark, at which point they should be at an all-out sprint, which they continue for the final 20 yards. Several repetitions at each practice help build the muscles needed for a powerful sprint.