Drill of the Week: Wide Receiver Drills
After taking a quick break from Drill of the Week, we’re back with a look at how you can become a better wide receiver. While we do love our athletes to be as fast and strong as possible, it’s often the fluidity and footwork that creates the best at their positions. You could be the fastest athlete on your team, school, or district, but if you don’t have your routes, footwork, and hand-eye coordination down well, you won’t ultimately grow as a receiver. Like we always do on Mondays, we’ve linked to the main article from our Training Center and included one of our favorite parts of the piece. You can find more articles on improving at wide receiver over there as well, along with a bounty of other football resources! However, without further ado, here are our tips, tricks, and drills for becoming a better wide receiver. The more you master, the more you’ll dominate on the field.
Stance
When learning to play the wide receiver position, the athlete must learn how get in his stance. A wide receiver’s stance is not like a batting stance in baseball or a free throw stance in basketball. Those routines can vary greatly and there’s generally no wrong way to stand. However, every wide receiver should utilize the same stance as there is a right and a wrong way to prepare. In a broad sense, wide receivers should be balanced and steady with one foot out in front of the other. By keeping your shoulders square to the line of scrimmage, it’ll be easier to place his center of gravity over the toes of his front foot. Finally, the receiver should have a straight back in a relaxed, but ready to explode position. This way, the athlete won’t give away their route, but will be ready to go as soon as it’s snapped.”
In the full article, you’ll find tips for hand placement and route-running as well — but now, let’s get into some drills. Another one of our football articles details many of these activities and workouts, so be sure to read that one too! To get the blood flowing, check out our favorite bits from that entry here:
Over-The-Shoulder
Place two cones five yards apart, positioning your coach at cone one, ball in hand. On the coach’s signal, sprint toward cone two and catch the ball over your shoulder. Then, repeat. For additional variance, try switching it up and use just one hand, just your opposite hand, or while jumping. You never know what will happen during a game, so prepare beforehand with extensive training here.
Pro Tip: To help develop hand-eye coordination even further, perform the drill with a tennis ball, racquetball, or golf ball — a smaller ball requires greater focus.
Four-Corner Catching
This is a particularly excellent team or solo drill that develops quick hand-eye reaction. Place four cones five yards apart in a square and have a different teammate stand at each cone with a ball. On the signal, sprint to a cone and catch the ball tossed by the teammate. Drop the ball and sprint around to the next cone yelled out. Then, repeat. Like the preceding drill, this can also be performed with a smaller ball.”
There’s one other fantastic drill included in our article on Drills for Wide Receivers, but we suggest you head over there to find it! Yes, we know that the Superbowl was just last month, but there’s always time to improve and prepare before next season. Remember, the work that you put in now will make the biggest differences come next September. What are you waiting for?
If you’re ready to become an explosive, lethal, and technically sound wide receiver, come find your coach on CoachUp. Once you’re scoring touchdowns and leading your team to victory, you’ll be happy to have a CoachUp coach by your side for every step of the way.
