How to Take a Hand Off in Football

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson, for Expert Village. We're working here with our running backs in the proper way to take a hand off. You have to make sure you take the hand off in the proper way for a couple of reasons. One, you're not going to get the right way to wrap up the ball if you take the hand off in the wrong way. The second way is that it's going to be harder for the quarterback to give you the ball if you're not opened up the proper way. If you have your hands reversed and he's trying to give you the hand off on the wrong side and you have your elbow out there, chances are you're going to hit with your arm and you're going to knock the ball loose from the quarterback. So, we want to make sure that when a running back comes through he wants to be low, he wants to be open and ready with his inside hand to the quarterback. His inside arm has to be open, not down. It has to be open so the quarterback can slide the ball in. Once the ball goes inside he wants to wrap the ball up tight and cover it with both tips over the ball. It's going to look like this (video demo). Running back is going to open up, he's taking it low, you see he's covering up both tips and he's still staying low and staying forward as he comes through. So, remember, when taking a hand off; don't take the hand off with your hands down low. You're going to open up, the inside arm is open, the ball's going to go in, you're going to cover the ball with both tips, and hold on to it tight, staying low in order to explode through the hole."