Defensive Football Drills – Fumble Recovery Drill

These defensive football drills will help your team to work on fumble recovery. In my opinion being ready and able to recover a fumble can be a key point to turning around any football game. There are lots of ways to practice recovering fumbles, but its important to keep in mind that fumbles are unique and almost never happen the same way twice.

Fumble Recovery Drill
You can not predict when the ball is going to come loose and which way it is going to bounce, which is why I like this drill so much. It keeps the kids on their toes and their eyes on the ball. This is one drill I make sure the defensive line practices every day.

* Line up 3 to 4 tackling dummies about 2 to 3 yards apart from each other.
* Lay the football on top of the last tackling dummy (the “Quarterback”).
* Have the players line up about 10 yards from the first dummy and one at a time they are to run full force, weaving in and out of the dummies.
* They are to hit the last dummy as if it were the quarterback.
* The ball is “knocked loose” and it goes flying in the air (usually not that far) and it is now a fumble.
* The players are then supposed to jump on the ball as quickly as possible, hence recovering the fumble.

An alternative way to do this drill to make it more realistic is to use players instead of the tackling dummy or have people holding the tackling dummies and they are to hit/push the defensive player as he is weaving toward the “quarterback” (the last tackling dummy).