How to Catch a Football

Video Transcript

"Coach Rudy, Big Ten Alumni. Let's talk about how to catch a football. There's a few different techniques that we use when catching a football, based on our waist being the dividing line of the location of the ball. If the ball is below our waist, our fingertips are pointed towards the ground. Okay, couple really important things. We always catch the ball away from our body. That way, we can catch it, and tuck it, in expectation of a collision, because we're going to get hit. If we allow the ball to get to our body, and try to catch it, chances are we'll be getting hit at the same time the ball comes in--you see it all the time in little league and college, and sometimes in the pros. People try to catch the ball on their body, they get hit at the same time, and the ball pops out. No good. Always try to catch the ball with your hands, and then tuck it away. The second technique is if the ball is above our waist, then our fingertips are pointed towards the sky. For instance, the ball's here, fingertips are here. Now, catch it away from our body, and tuck it. What I mean by tuck it is, I've got my fingertips over the tip of the ball, so when I get hit the ball doesn't come out. You can come over and punch the ball, and punch the ball, try to knock it out, it's not coming out. Same thing on this side. I catch it with my fingertips, right, away from my body, and I tuck it. I put my fingertips over the edge, if the helmet hits, it's still good. Sometimes they come in--a good defensive back will try to make a collision and strip the ball at the same time. So they'll put their shoulder pads into you, and try to strip the ball at the same time, and that's not--we're not, as a good receiver we're not going to let that happen. We're going to catch the ball with our hands, we're going to tuck the ball, take the hit, no strip. All right, very important. Just to review, ball below the waist, fingertips towards the ground, ball above the waist, fingertips towards the air. Ball towards the sideline, fingertips toward the sideline, ball towards the sideline, fingertips toward the sideline. Catch the ball with our hands, tuck the ball, take the collision, no strip, no strip. Receivers, catch the ball. You're going to get hit. Tuck the ball. Don't let it get stripped. That's what a good receiver does."