BLOG

By: Chad Wilson – All Eyes DB Camp

We are smack dab in the Internet era and furthermore,  knee deep in the social media movement.  As such,  there isn’t anything we can’t see online from people anywhere and everywhere. One of the biggest things existing on social media are trainers.

You can get trained to do just about anything on social media these days.  It’s up to you to believe whether or not the guy who says he can teach you can actually do so effectively.  I am not a trainer.

Before I took on this endeavor of teaching defensive backs from far and wide how to play the position,  I played it first.  After I played it,  I coached it.  After I coached it,  I taught others how to coach it.  There’s something different about coaching and training,  especially when it comes to football and defensive back.  First of all,  there’s something to be said for having been in some of the situations I am trying to teach athletes to excel in.  Someone who has not actually been in the shoes you are in is going to have a limited knowledge of what you are experiencing and how to handle it.

Despite that,  I am not saying that it is impossible for someone to coach you if  they have not been exactly in your situation.  However,  I am saying,  for them to overcome the fact that they have not had that playing experience they are going to have to do many hours of studying and many more hours of coaching others that have been in that situation to actually get good at doing that.  A majority of “trainers” you find on social media don’t fit this category.  They “think” they have an idea but they really don’t.

Now,  let’s move on to the coaching aspect because that’s really where the gaps get filled in.  One thing I found myself saying over and over when I became a coach was “I wish I knew this when I was playing.”  It is amazing to flip over to the other side as a coach and view the player.  Many of the things you thought as a player were just flat out wrong.  It’s crazy to realize that.  Had I had the knowledge of a coach,  while operating as a player,  there’s no telling what I could have done.

All the knowledge I speak of is not just in movement,  drills and technique.  It also exists in how a coach views a player as a whole.  It means how a coach determines if he can trust a player and who is actually going to play on game day.  The view of how that works is vastly different as a coach than it is for the player.

So in teaching a player how to play defensive back,  I bring along with knowledge of the techniques,  an understanding of how things should be done to excel in virtually every situation that the player may find himself in.  Playing the position is not simply about how you move,  it’s also how you think,  how you react,  how you affect those around you and how you fit into the entire schematic puzzle.  Some of these factors rarely ever visit the mind when you are a player.  Part of my job is to make you realize them so that the movements you make have more purpose.

When you have coached a 6 year old who knows nothing,  all the way to a 28 year old that is very experienced and getting paid handsomely to perform the tasks,  you get a rather unique perspective on how skills are developed and applied to achieve success.

All of those long Saturday afternoons and intense Friday Night Lights coaching account for something.  They allow me to give the athlete a perspective that is valuable to the people actually in charge of teaching them a team’s scheme and giving the player playing time required for them to shine.  That person is the athlete’s actual coach.

If you are considering becoming a trainer,  give coaching a try first.  The perspective it gives you is invaluable.  It is important to know how the individual athlete piece fits into the whole team puzzle.  If your interest is in just teaching someone how to move their feet then so be it but understand,  it has it’s limitations.

Want to learn how to play defensive back at a high level?  If you are in the South Florida area,  drop me an email for information on coaching cwilson@alleyesdbcamp.com.  If you are out of the area,  I have an outstanding member’s area that defensive backs at all levels and from many areas of the country are using to excel in their game.  Join it now by clicking here.

For more on Chad Wilson – click here.

The GOAT,  Prime Time, Deion Sanders,  Neon Deion was an elite DB,  we all know that.  However,  this new generation may not know what position he played in high school.  Yes, you guessed it,  quarterback.

In my time of coaching and training,  I have found that many of my best pupils were former quarterbacks.  Here are three reasons why former quarterbacks make great DBs.

Great Hands

Only one person handles the football more than the quarterback and that’s the center.  Quarterbacks have an intimate relationship with the football.  It’s a sin when playing quarterback to let the ball slip through your hands.  They bring that same mentality to the defensive back position.  Sometimes when you are raised as a defensive back and only a defensive back,  knocking the ball down becomes ok.  Former quarterbacks don’t bring that mindset.  If the ball is not caught when it comes their way then it’s utter failure.  Former quarterbacks turned DBs,  attack the football.

Solid Footwork

To throw a football effectively,  you have to have solid footwork.  What’s going on down below must matchup with what’s happening up top.  Quarterbacks do a lot of work with their feet believe it or not.  Through that work,  they develop a good amount of proficiency and efficiency with their steps.  As it turns out,  this is a key ingredient in being successful at defensive back.  Change of direction is a big part of the tasks for guys in the secondary and a quarterback has had his fair share of work in that department.

If they were a running quarterback,  then it goes without saying that they come over to the secondary with good feet.  A big part of their life was getting in and out of trouble and dodging defenders.  You don’t do that very well if you don’t have good feet.  Now that they are defensive backs,  they use those feet to go find trouble or cause it.

Knowledge of Offense

This would be the most obvious advantage that a former quarterback would have.  After spending all of that time as a signal caller,  a quarterback turned defensive back gets a pretty good understanding of how the offense moves.  They bring to the table a solid understanding of how WRs run their routes and what is going through the mind of the quarterback that they are now trying to intercept.  This solid knowledge of how offensive plays are supposed to work,  gives them the instincts they need to get the jump on a play and get into the passing lanes.  There’s no doubt that knowledge of what the offense is going to do is valuable and who knows that more than a quarterback.

I didn’t tell you all of this for you to go harass your coach to become a quarterback.  This article was written for you to learn from the things that make a quarterback a good defensive back a lot of the times.  Improve on the areas where they are strong.  Work on your hands,  it is important to convert the turnover opportunities that come your way.  Put an emphasis on taking the ball away.  Continue to work on your footwork.  Being efficient in your steps will get you to the ball faster.  Finally,  up your overall football IQ.  Quarterbacks not only have to know their plays but what the defense is going to do.   Why not know your defenses and what the offense is going to do?  Makes sense right?

One of the big ways you can up your knowledge is by studying film and also acquiring knowledge from people who are sharing it.  This is definitely my biggest aim in my member’s area.  Not only do I show you drills but I break down technique and coverages.  A combination of knowledge on these things are guaranteed to put you on the road to being elite.  I strongly suggest that you consider joining today.  Click here to sign up.

There is one potential draw back to a quarterback trying to come over and play defensive back.  Many quarterbacks don’t spend much time getting hit and are thus not all that physical.  Those guys can go play wide receiver.

When you enter a pro football training camp as a rookie you are on high alert.  You analyze everything going on around you and assess it all as either and aid or a threat.  Jimmy was a fellow cornerback  in the Seattle Seahawks camp and he was my roommate.  Jimmy ran a 4.2.

When we are all scrambling for roster spots as free agents,  Jimmy’s 4.2 was a threat or so I thought.  I could run but not a 4.2. With our team’s first round pick Joey Galloway sporting a rumored 4.18 forty,  Jimmy might look real good covering that guy everyday and that was going to bode well for him capturing the limited amount of roster spots.  However, Jimmy was gone with the first cuts in training camp.

I was obsessed with speed then and Jimmy’s quick release from the roster was the beginning of an eye opening.  Jimmy was ok in his back pedal, less ok turning and running and very limited in his football IQ.  All of his speed could not overcome what he lacked in these other important areas and so he was a step behind everybody including the WRs that ran 4.6.

The NFL combine is upon us and it’s that time of year when the masses and the decision makers get obsessed with the physical numbers like height, weight, speed, etc.  Falling to the back in all this will be the things that really matter when the bullets start flying on the gridiron.  How smart a player are you? How in tune are you to your craft?  How well do you execute the various movements that will take place on the field 100’s of times per season? Finally, how solid is your overall mental approach to the game?

To further emphasize my point,  I grabbed some numbers for you to digest.  Here are the fastest 40 times for DBs from the 2014 NFL combine.  These players would have completed five years in the NFL and to this point,  given us a fairly good idea of what they are.

1. Justin Gilbert 4.37
2. Phillip Gaines 4.38
3. Bradley Roby 4.39
4. Jaylen Watkins 4.41
5. Brandon Dixon 4.41

Without going into exact detail because I’m not here to single out players, three members of this group are already out of the league.  As a whole,  this group of five had produced 15 career INTs,  an average of 3 per player over four years and none of them have made a Pro Bowl.  There are a couple of solid players in this group but as a whole,  their production underachieves the 40 times if you are inclined to believe that speed is everything.

Here are the top 40 times for DBs from the 2015 NFL Combine.  These players would have completed their fourth season in the league thus giving us a fairly decent look at who they are as players.

1. Trae Waynes 4.31
2. Justin Cox 4.36
3. Ronald Darby 4.38
4. Josh Shaw 4.44
5. Craig Mager 4.44
6. Charles Gaines 4.44
7. Doran Grant 4.44

There are seven guys on this list because four guys tied with a time of 4.44. Four of the seven guys on this list are currently out of the league.  Between the seven of them,  they have 13 career INTs with Waynes and Darby accounting for 12 of them.  No one on this list has been selected to a Pro Bowl as of yet.

There could be a number of contributing factors to the outcome of the players’ careers that I have listed.  However,  the point being made here is that speed does not conquer all.  As Jimmy learned in Seahawks’ mini-camp and I have observed over the years,  there are a number of equally or even more important factors that go into the success of a defensive back.  Speed is critical component in a defensive back’s make up however,  it’s not the only thing.

As players set out to improve their speed and other physical aspects of their game,  they must be mindful of balance.  Speed will only get you noticed but being able to last will depend largely on your knowledge of the game, mental approach and technique.  Young players will pour an overwhelming amount of their time into what the stopwatch says and do so to the detriment of all of the other skills that matter.  When they do so, their careers end faster than you can say four four forty.

For more information on some of the fastest 40 yard dashes ever run,  check out The Fastest 40 Yard Dash Ever.

If you are a baseball fan like I am,  you know where the subject line of this blog post came from.  The late Yankee great Yogi Berra was a man of odd speech and humor.  He coined the phrase that “80% of the game is half mental”.  It is true in baseball and also true in playing defensive back.

I was recently having a discussion with a young athlete in my direct messenger for Instagram and he was having trouble seeing the importance of watching videos to help learn how to play defensive back.  This really struck home to me just how much this current generation feels that they can just physically drill themselves into defensive back greatness.

The rapid growth of the Internet and social media is likely to blame for this thought process.  Much of Instagram’s popularity outside of it’s IG models comes from the fitness and training community.  Account owners have developed massive followings by posting workouts and drills on their pages. From this,  followers have come to believe that they can just duplicate the drills / exercises and success is right around the corner.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

When it comes to playing defensive back,  ignoring the mental aspect of the game will render all of the physical work useless. My most successful clients have made consistent use of the educational material that I post in my member’s area along with their physical training.  Some live in my area and can make it to or schedule sessions with me for the physical training.  They do so while also soaking up the knowledge provided about playing the position that I provide not only in sessions but online in my member’s area.  Others who can not make it to sessions,  grab the knowledge provided in the member’s area and apply it to the physical work they do where they live.

The strongest and fastest defensive back can be a liability if he does not know the intricate details of executing a movement or more so when to apply it. Football is still a game of scheming X’s and O’s to gain an advantage over your opponent.  If you’ve learned nothing else from watching the New England Patriots win 6 Super Bowls,  please learn that.  In virtually all of their 6 wins,  the Patriots were the less physically talented team.

By no means am I down playing drills or the physical work that is necessary to compete.  What I am trying to drive home is that the most important component involved in becoming a master of the position is mental proficiency.  The smartest players with physical talent are the ones that succeed the most.  Knowledge is most definitely the key.  It is the major reason why I created my member’s area.  30+ years of playing and coaching the game has driven home the point that without a well trained mind an entire body can not succeed.  Go Lock down your day.

I was a high school running back and truly enjoyed playing it.  Everybody wants to score touchdowns and be the center of attention.  However,  my future was not carrying the football.  Because I was a good athlete,  my coach would tell me “go play defensive back” and so I would.