I run a company called All Eyes DB Camp, so that just goes to show you how important I think eyes are when playing the position of defensive back. If you’ve been coaching for any amount of time, then you are in the same boat with me. The question is: how do we train players to use their eyes to their advantage every chance they get? I will cover that in this article.
The first thing you’re gonna need to do is incorporate drills that focus mainly on the eyes. Virtually every drill that you do that involves breaks should have an emphasis on eyes. Most coaches make the feet the main focus, and that’s totally understandable. However, most foot mistakes can be corrected by training the eyes.
If I put you on a track to run a 100m dash and told you to look up in the sky while you do it, chances are you would not run correctly. I am 100% certain that your form would be better if you looked straight down your lane to the finish line. This simple fact is overlooked when doing drill work. I have this saying that goes, “You will run to what you look at.” When a player’s eyes are a mess, so too are their feet. So as you craft drills and start running them, the first and most important thing you want to correct or emphasize is what the eyes are doing.
Furthermore, you may want to break a skill down in segments, and the first segment should be eyes training. For instance, if you are teaching press, a good drill to start off with is having a receiver move side to side with the DB directly in front of him, shadowing his movement while keeping his eyes focused on the receiver’s hips. In such a drill, we are doing nothing else but mirroring the movements by using our eyes. We’re not shooting our hands, and we’re not focusing so much on our feet. Rather, we are emphasizing that the eyes stay locked on the receiver’s hips.
Creating drills that specifically train the eyes and breaking down skills into segments that begin with eye control will help us reach our objective.
The next thing you’re gonna want to do is build zone drills that focus on eyes. Having the correct focus with our eyes is more difficult in zone than it is in man.
Oftentimes in zone coverage, our focus needs to shift from one key to another. This could mean reading the end man on the line of scrimmage and then shifting eyes to the backfield. Or it could be reading one receiver, then shifting our eyes to another receiver based on what route is run.
With that being the case, create zone drills that focus on the initial read. So for instance, if you have coverages like Palms that require a cornerback to read number two, then create the following drill: Have your corners line up in their outside spot without a number one receiver in front of them. Have a slot receiver line up and run various routes. The outside corner can put his sole focus on reading number two and then reacting. Removing the number one receiver from in front of the corner eliminates the distraction of what the number one receiver is doing while the corner is learning to read number two. Once he has mastered reading number two and reacting, you can introduce having a number one receiver in front of him while he’s reading number two. The same can be done for a safety who plays quarters or any other coverage that involves reading. Start off with drills that have him reading his key and only his key without other routes to distract him.
If we agree that the eyes are the most important thing in these coverages, then we must train that first and completely before moving on to anything else. Try crafting drills like this to improve the skill of reading your keys.
The third thing you can do is create focus drills. This is something that can be extra. Perhaps you can have these types of drills in pre- or post-practice.
In my training sessions, I will often use a lacrosse ball. The lacrosse ball forces the players to narrow their focus on the object to complete the catch. Since the lacrosse ball is much smaller than a football, the athlete’s brain is triggered to focus better on the object they need to catch. Performing drills using smaller objects builds up an athlete’s focus skill. This is similar to baseball players taking swings at golf balls or Wiffle balls that move a lot. Using those items forces the athlete to focus. Any time you can develop that skill, you increase your athlete’s ability to read their keys.
Finally, it is important to film your drills. If you aren’t filming practice or training sessions, you are missing the chance to speed up development.
In this day and age, with all the technology that is available to us, there is no excuse to not film your drill work. If full-scale filming of your indie drills is not part of the practice regimen, then find a way to have someone film it with a smartphone. However you go about it, filming the drills and having the players watch it shows them what their eyes are doing. Training the eyes can be very difficult because quite frankly, you just can’t see your eyes. It’s hard to feel your eyes also. The only way to see your eyes is when you watch them on film. For most athletes, seeing is believing. Sometimes they think a coach is just picking on them. That is, until they see what they’re doing on film. This is especially so when you are telling them about their eyes.
In conclusion, reading keys is the essence of becoming a playmaker. If those are the types of players you want to have in your secondary, then reading keys will have to become primary. By incorporating drills that focus on the eyes, building zone drills that have an emphasis on the eyes, creating focus drills, and filming all of your drill work, you can develop your athletes’ ability to read their keys to an elite level.
For more on developing an athlete’s ability to read keys, improve eye discipline, and become a playmaker, pick up a copy of my book 101 DB Tips or join my rapidly growing community in the All Eyes DB Camp Members Area.
