6 Defensive Line Drills to Improve Your Players’ Skills

Today we’re going to talk about various types of defensive line football drills to help enhance the athlete’s performance throughout the season.

Defensive Line Wave Drill

During this drill, your player will pop up, do a lateral shuffle, and burst past you, the coach, five yards.

The commands are “up” – he’s going to come to the line; “feet” and he’s going to start buzzing his feet; and then we’re going to move a lateral shuffle and you’ll say “out of here” and he’ll run by you.

After you’ve done that, do the drill again at a reverse angle.

Another way to change this drill up is to use the same commands but have your player do a seat roll, which means that he’ll do a forward roll and burst past you.

High Knee Drill

With this football drill, remind your players that it’s not a race. They should try to pace themselves. During this drill, you want to look for good arm action. Your player will raise his knees up and coordinate some rhythm. They’re looking to strengthen those muscles and work on flexibility.

We usually do this for 10 yards.

The next thing we do, coming back, is what we call a quick step. With this, you’re looking for the same thing, but now you want to see violent short arm actions with nice quick feet.

Again, this is a pace, not a race. We’re going to see how many times we can pitter-patter our feet. This is great for coordination and rhythm.

Four Corner Cone Drill

This drill will take your player from one skill to another in a hurry. It’s great for endurance, flexibility, and body control. Your player will start with a bear crawl, then do a shuffle, a karaoke, and then a sprint.

The most important thing in this drill is sprinting past the cone.

20-Yard Cone Drill

This is a competitive drill that’s fun for the kids. It gets them used to distributing their weight in a good football position to change in directions, reaching for a target. Now you may want to use a higher cone so they don’t have to reach as low to get the ball.

Your players are going to run, touch, change directions, run and touch, and reach for their target–and see who gets to the ball first.

Lateral Shuffle Drill

This football drill involves some tennis balls. You’re going to roll the tennis balls on 45-degree angles. Your player will shuffle back and forth, taking the time to pick up the ball, find his target, and throw it back to you before he shuffles to the next ball. This is great for the quadriceps and really good for lateral change in directions.

Cat Drill

With this drill, you’re going to place a cone with a tennis ball on top five yards from your players. This is another competitive drill of getting up off the ground, bursting to the football, and reaching for a target–seeing who can get to the target first.

These are just a few of the football drills that can help your defensive linemen amp up their athletic skills and be the best they can be on the field. Which one of these drills do you think your linemen will benefit from the most?