As coaches, we know that off season training is when you make or break your team for next year’s campaign. It’s when games are won or lost and it takes a great deal of focus and commitment from your athletes to avoid “backing off” of workouts and avoiding the “burnout” factor. So, finding a drill that is competitive in nature and that adds some “excitement” to work-outs making this time something to look forward to is a big plus. As coaches, we are always looking for drills that will reinforce football-specific movements and fundamentals while adding team building and some fun into workout routines so they don’t become, well, routine.
The Command Redirect drill is great way to incorporate football-specific movement at full speed into one drill while emphasizing correct stances, steps, eye contact, athletic movement, hand-eye coordination and quick horizontal and lateral change of direction. This drill is set up to be done two at a time with one coach giving the command both verbally and with his hands. The drill is also an excellent team drill where you can divide the groups, as shown, by ability and can compete relay-style as a changeup (always have the athletes divide and setup as shown so they do not know if you are doing relays or not). You can go through the drill once with a group and, if time permits, throw in a couple of relays, having the losing team do push-ups or mountain climbers for 15 -20 seconds or another quick exercise. Athletes love this drill because it varies in the pattern used and specific movement used (if you desire) every time it is used. Plus, they are competing against each other whether it’s a team relay style or not. It emphasizes team work and strict adherence to football position and football-specific movements. The difference between this drill and other “Box” type drills are that it puts athletes together, pushing each other. It can be varied each time in the types of movements executed and the team relay adds an intensity factor for team building.
Items Needed:
Eight cones or flat discs plus a flat surface with space to set up the drill area.
Typical distances (you may compensate for your available area), include three cones are 15 to 18 yards apart with the center split evenly with a cone or round disc. Middle cones are set in the direct middle of front and back set of cones at a 45-degree angle at seven yards. From the front cone to the back cone is 15 yards. Inside you can shorten the distances dramatically for this drill to make the point of emphasis on shortened, quick movements which help to fire quick twitch muscle fiber.
Operating the Drill:
The coach stands in the front of the cones to left of the center cone. Two athletes are center mass on the most left outside cone and the middle cone, both have their eyes on the coach and their ears tuned in to his commands. First they buzz their feet (quick chop) then the coach gives a direction along with the command. In the illustration above the command is shuffle as coach points to the two cones the athletes will shuffle to. Then he can use any of the following movements and add to them, but remember to keep the commands the same for each group.Usually the drill ends with the athletes having to gather themselves from a sprint, getting their hips down and coming under control to a break down” position – buzzing their feet quickly until the coach says “OUT!”. This changes if you are doing a relay race. Some of the movements:
• Backpeddle
• Open (open hips to the cone, head on the coach, crossover run at a 45-degree angle)
• Open & Swivel (Same as above except when athletes reach center cone they turn their hips, keeping eyes on the coach and crossover run to the next cone at a 45-degree angle)
• Sprint
• Carioca
• Bear Crawl
• Turn and Sprint
• Tapioca (quick feet tap movement)
You can add others as you find appropriate. These are the basic ones which we use but every coach will have their own types and patterns that they prefer.