EVERYONE HAS HEARD the old saying “speed kills.” While I believe that is true to a point, a more appropriate saying for football is “quickness kills.”
The average play during a football game lasts 5 to 6 seconds. The average distance traveled is between 5 to 12 yards. Obviously, if you are running in a straight line for 5 to 6 seconds, it will take you much further than 5 to 12 yards.
Football is not a sport that can be played in a straight line only. An athlete must have the ability to change directions quickly. In our program, we stress quickness and not speed to our players.
It doesn’t matter if a player is faster than another player in a 40-yard sprint if he is tackled within 5 yards of the start of the sprint.
Too many coaches put too much emphasis on the 40-yard dash time of a player. Realistically, how many times will a player — including backs and receivers — run 40 yards in a game? Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have guys on our team that run 4.5 in the 40, but we don’t so we try to work smarter in the speed training of our players.
Get Into The Pit
— The Sand Pit!
We design our players’ training protocols based on how the majority of the game is played. Ninety percent of the game is played within a 10- to 15-yard box from each player, depending on his position. The most efficient way to stress quickness is through sand drills. We’ve built a sandpit adjacent to our weight room that is 15 yards by 15 yards. During the off-season, our players “live in the sand.” If possible, we’ll incorporate any drills that we do on a regular field into sand drills.
When looking at our schedule, most every team we play has more speed than we do. Our staff truly believes that our training regimen of sand work is a big reason that we compete with these teams.
Sandpit Drills
We have our players perform three types of drills in the sandpit: plyometric drills, quickness drills and mental toughness drills.
PLYOMETRIC DRILLS:
Î Bounding Drill. An aggressive movement that is an exaggerated running movement where the athlete emphasizes upward movements rather than linear movements.
Î Skater Drill. The movement of this drill simulates a speed skaters motion where the athlete emphasizes side-to-side explosion.
Î Double-Leg Hops. The athlete performs broad jumps consecutively and works for as much height and distance in each jump.
Î Knees-To-Chest Drill. The athlete jumps as high as possible on each individual jump, pulling his knees to his chest.
QUICKNESS DRILLS:
Î Quick Hops. The athlete stands with his feet together in the sandpit and hops as fast as he can over an imaginary line, front and back or side-to-side.
Î Bag Drills. Any form of bag drills will work, 2 legs in each bag, 1 leg in a bag, shuffle through bags, zigzag through bags, etc.
Î Cone Drills. Any form of cone drills that emphasize changing directions quickly — such as a four-corner cone drill, star drill, T-drill, etc.
Î W-Drill. This drill works on opening at 45-degree angle, planting and then sprinting forward to the next cone at a 45-degree angle.
MENTAL TOUGHNESS DRILLS:
Î Tug-Of-War Drill. Have your players compete in a tug-of-war competition in the sandpit. Make it competitive by having position against position, offense against defense, lineman against lineman and any combination where a single athlete or group of athletes that play together compete against one another.
Î Harness Drills. Strap a harness on two athletes who are facing opposite directions and have them pull against one another. The sand makes it hard for players to get a footing and it makes for a very difficult drill contest.