As a young athlete you spend a lot of time trying to improve your speed, quickness and strength. Those are necessary things to have to success in sport but where many fail to put the quality of amount of time in is at perfecting their technique.
Speed, quickness and strength are tangible things that can be measured and thus they become a little bit more fun to train. By tangible I mean that the results can be easily seen. At the beginning of the year you were running a 4.7 forty and now, at the end of the year, you are running a 4.5. Ten weeks ago you were bench pressing 225 lbs., now you are bench pressing 265 lbs. The results are easy to measure and see so that is where your focus goes.
With that said, even with improvement in those areas, a lack of technique will have you failing as a defensive back. Getting stronger and faster is only half the battle. If you are going to excel as a defensive back, you need to spend at least an equal amount of time in perfecting your technique.
All the speed in the world won’t help you if the turn out of your back pedal finds you two steps behind the WR every time. A 300 lb. bench press is useless on a misplaced jam on a WR in press. The quickest feet will not get you out of trouble if your technique lacks the necessart balance.
There is an art to playing defensive back. If there wasn’t then you could grab any world class track athlete and drop him into the line up on Saturday or Sunday with great success. We are in an era in sport where we have fallen in love with measurables (40 time, shuttle time, bench reps). Truth of the matter is that the technicians in sport and especially DB are the ones who tend to hang around because they seem to be able to make the most plays.
The road to being the technician you want to be, need to be, have to be starts with knowledge. It starts with knowledge not only on how to move but where to move to. Make sure that you are seeking that knowledge from someone who has been there and knows what they are talking about. Social media is loaded with a ton of “experts” on movement. Make sure you know where you are moving to and why.
Over 25 years of playing, coaching and researching has been poured into my training of athletes, this website, my Instagram account and my member’s area (where the good stuff is). If you are not local and can’t get to me for in person sessions, you are cheating yourself by not joining my member’s area. At the very least, know the real deal while you are trying to become the real deal. Life is short and a career in athletics is even shorter. There’s no time to waste or it can all be over fast.
Chad Wilson is the owner of All Eyes DB Camp and author of "101 DB Tips". He played college football at the University of Miami and briefly in the NFL for the Seattle Seahawks. Over his 15 year high school football coaching career, he tutored over a dozen Division I defensive backs and as a trainer has worked with NFL All Pros, first round draft picks, college football All Americans and Top 10 ranked high school football prospects.
