The Drills Report: Auburn’s Running Back Drills

We practice a number of drills for running backs on a daily basis. These include ball leverage drills; movement and bag drills; decision-making drills; pass blocking drills; and pass catching drills. For this article, we’ll include our five ball leverage drills: A. Strip Drill-Side: This is protecting the ball from defenders trying to strip the ball in a crowd – usually linemen and linebackers – (See Diagram 1). Diagram 1: Strip Drill-Side Procedure: Align running backs side-by-side with one having a football in the right hand. On command, run 15 yards with the other back stripping the ball from the side. Switch to left hand coming back. Coaching Points: Make sure your backs are running about 3/4 speed and the back stripping the ball is giving great effort to get the ball out. The RB with the ball should have proper technique leveraging the ball close to his body with no air