THE LOBSTER PAD scrum is a great team drill that isolates blocking assignments at a live tempo without giving your players the bumps and bruises of full-on contact.
The drill gets your whole team involved, as the entire offensive unit faces off against a particular defensive formation. The only equipment you’ll need are oversized forearm shields for the defense.
One of the advantages of this drill is that your defense can be mobile and aggressive by using the light forearm pads.
Starting The Scrum
Step 1: Line up the defensive formation that you think you will face that week. Have your offense huddled up. Show a picture card of the particular running play vs. this defense.
Step 2: Walk the offense to the line of scrimmage and walk through the play. Each blocker steps to the proper defender. The ball carrier should locate his key read or lead block.
Step 3: Run the play at full speed. The blockers should fire out and strike the defenders shield hard and drive him out. Purposely be late on the whistle to emphasize to the offensive players that they must finish off their blocks. The ball carrier should run a full 30 yards to a cone set down field and should execute a fake every 10 yards.
Each position coach should be in position to make coaching critiques of his assigned players. The defense should be encouraged to flow hard to the ball and “tackle” the runner by tagging him with the shield.
Coaching Points. Run the play repeatedly until you know that your players have it down. Be sure there’s no hesitation on any assignments and mix the defensive fronts to test the offenses’ knowledge of blocking rules and schemes.