Coaching Football Defensive Side

Coaching Defensive side of a football team can be a challenging job. Most of the time, when a defense fails, it is usually lack of discipline on part of one or more players as well as poor tackling techniques. About 80% of defensive failures are caused by either poor tackling or a player not knowing his responsibilities or abandoning his responsibilities. It is important to run a play again and again during drill until every defensive player gets comfortable with his responsibilities and how to carry them out on the field. It is also important to make sure that all football players understand that they are not allowed to do their own “things” instead of taking care of their assigned responsibilities on the football field. Remember, football is a team sport and a defensive player who does not understand “Team” concept needs to find another sport. If a player continues to abandon responsibilities, you can either discipline the player in question or replace him with one who is more competent and obedient.

In the game of football, tackling is a skill that must be learned and practiced on a regular basis. That means that as a football coach, you must use a large dose of drilling to get them to do it right. Also, any defensive tackling drill should require all defensive players and any player who used poor technique in scrimmage should be forced to leave scrimmage for remedial tackling practice. That should help fix the problem.

Football defense requires discipline. All gaps must be plugged and all receivers must be covered. Another component of defensive breakdown on field is caused by defensive players assuming that play is not going to target their area of responsibility. One good example of this failure is a fake run play that draws safety to line of scrimmage and opens up the middle for wide receivers.

A good football defense coach always understands that important elements of a good defensive team. He spends less time on traditional drills and more time on tasks that matter. For example, tackling and defensive line pursuits are two critical components of any defensive side. A good defensive team must get better at these before attempting to run additional drills since this is what will fix the root causes of their defensive failures.