Defensive Football Drills – Angle-Pursuit Drill

This is one of the defensive football drills I use every year.   It is a basic, no- frills, angle-pursuit drill–very simple, but very effective for any age group.

It teaches the defender about proper angles, timing/adjustments, and good form/technique. I’ve been coaching youth football the past 6 years..starting with 1st graders and use this drill with all ages.

The offensive ball carrier learns about ball security, pad level, delivering a blow, and speed adjustments to set up a defender and make it to the corner of the end zone.

Lots of coaching points in one simple drill.

Angle-Pursuit Drill
Drill: Good for any age.

Set up 4 cones… 3 in a right triangle formation. Top cone is approximately 15 yards above corner cone. Lower leg end cone approximately 10 laterally from corner.     Place 4th cone 2 yards to the inside of top cone.   This is your goal line.

Start defender from inside lower cone;   start ball carrier from outside lower cone.

On coaches signal, ball carrier either receives hand off or catches a pass and runs for the goal line in upper corner.

Defender must take proper angle and make stop before the football carrier can score.

I know it’s simple, but it has worked every year to make my kids both better tacklers and runners.

We’ve had 10 defensive shutouts in 14 games the past two seasons.   The kids can tackle and this drill has helped a ton.

If you liked the drill, give me a shout-out on Twitter or Facebook using the buttons below. And check out this article on football conditioning drills – I think you’ll like it…