Football Fitness Running Back Drills

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson, for Expert Village. We want to work with our running backs. This is one of the best drills you can do for a running back that's having a little trouble holding onto the ball. When they come through the line they're going to get hit a lot, they're going to have a lot of guys swiping at the ball. So, it's very important for them to cover that ball up and not fumble or let somebody strip the ball. This drill is called the gauntlet drill and it helps them hold onto the ball and not have it stripped away from them. Normally, we would have these two guys lined up across from each other with about 10 guys lined up here rather than just the three guys we have today. We're going to show you how this drill will work. Our running back will start in a football position. He's going to cover the ball up with both tips, hold it as tight as he can, and he's going to run through what we call the gauntlet. They actually make a piece of equipment that looks just like this that you can have your players run through. It has arms on it that knocks the ball loose. We're going to simulate that. We're going to have our back walk through and we'll have these guys try to rip in and rip that ball out of his hands. We don't want them to grab him and hold him up and then slap the ball. We want them to reach in and try to strip the ball loose like they would if they were a lineman. Let's walk through what it would look like if you were running through the gauntlet. (Video demo) They reach in and try to strip the ball from the running back as he comes through. That's called the gauntlet drill."