AS A SECONDARY coach, I want to work on three fundamental principles each day. On most days we only have about 30 minutes of drill time and are forced to break our drills into the
following three sessions.

¯    Tackling Drills. In this session, your defensive backs work on the proper fundamentals for both form tackling and angle tackling.

¯    1-On-1, Man-Coverage Drills. This phase of the drill session incorporates DB drills that are intense, physical and competitive.

¯    RABS — Reaction, Agility, Ball Skills. This phase is made up of drills that are more skill specific and are usually the last aspect we’ll work on each day.

Tackling Sessions
Poor tackling is probably the single biggest sign of a weak defensive secondary. When an offensive coach sees a secondary that displays poor tackling, it’s usually a tell-tale sign of a physically weak, undisciplined group that can be exploited offensively.  The following drills are great for working on DB form tackling.

DIAGRAM 1: Form-Tackling Drill.
This is a great warmup drill to begin your tackling sessions. Place your ball carriers and tacklers across from one another, spaced 2 yards apart. On the coach’s whistle, have the ball carrier and tackler make contact at one-half to three-quarter speed. Keep the tacklers and ball carriers off the ground during the early parts of this drill. The coaches must closely watch and critique each tackle, making sure that each tackler is utilizing proper form and technique.

Practice the drill twice with the ball in the right hand of the ball carrier and then two repetitions with the ball in the ball carrier’s left hand. After four repetitions, have the ball carrier and tackler switch jobs.

DIAGRAM 2: Angle-Tackling Drill. Place the ball carrier 4 to 5 yards from a tackler. Place the tackler between two cones spaced 5 yards apart. On the coach’s whistle, have the tackler move his feet (using buzz or chop-feet motion).

After a few seconds, the coach blows the whistle for a second time. On the second whistle, the ball carrier runs at three-quarter speed either left or right, while staying inside the cones. The tackler must hit the ball carrier, wrap him up and continuously drive his feet, pushing the ball carrier backward.

The tackler should make good, solid contact, but must also try to keep the runner from hitting the ground. The coach blows the whistle to stop the action.

1-On-1, Man Coverage Sessions
During this session, your wide receivers and DBs will go head-to-head in 1-on-1 coverage. This works extremely well for our team because many of our DBs also play WR. So in essence, it allows your players to work on two positions simultaneously. In addition, it also gives your QBs a chance to throw during a defensive session, and it’s a highly competitive drill that challenges your players.

DIAGRAM 3: 1-On-1, Man Coverage Drill. Before the play, the QB tells the WR the route to run. The WR and DB line up facing one another just as on a play with man coverage. On the coach’s whistle, the QB drops back and throws to the WR at the designated route. The DB plays tight coverage and tries to break up the pass.

We’ve found this drill to be very competitive, with many of our players getting fired up and encouraging each other. It’s also a really tough drill on the DBs because they have no pass rush and the QB has ample time to throw. You can tell your DBs that if they can cover in this situation, they can cover in any situation.

RABS — Reaction, Agility, Ball Skills
The last activity we try to work on each day are called RABS (Reaction, Agility and Ball-Skills) or what some people simply call ball drills. We vary the drills each day, but stick to a core group of drills that are used regularly.

DIAGRAM 4: RABS Drill —
“Verticals.” This zone drill works DBs on keeping a cushion and getting depth when two WRs run verticals in his zone. At the snap, the CB gets depth and keeps his eyes on the QB. He reacts to the vertical route when the ball is thrown by trying to intercept the ball at its highest point.