How to Plan Your DB Drill Sessions

Planning DB sessions is something I get asked about a lot these days.  Between athletes and coaches,  many would like to know what kind of things they should be doing in their sessions.  How many times per week should they do the drill work and how long should those sessions be.

I thought it would be a good idea if I shared my thoughts on this and try to give you guys some guidelines so you could go about planning your own sessions.

I am not here to tell you how many times per week you should be doing DB drills.  The reason I won’t do that is because I am not aware of your time schedule and that is what your sessions will depend on.  I do think,  at a minimum,  you should be doing DB drills in the offseason twice per week.  How long you do those drills depends on how many sessions you are having.  While you have heard me say that practice makes perfect and being consistent brings results,  that does not mean overdo it in drills and get injured to the point of messing up your season.  There is such a thing as doing too many drills believe it or not.

So,  I do have a video at the bottom of this post that breaks it down for you but let me give you some of the important points from the video.  Your sessions will be broken down into 3 segments:

(1) Core Drills
(2) Weakness Drills
(3) Strength Drills

Your drill work will fall into those categories.  I also like to use a formula for how much time you will spend in those 3 areas:

(1) Core Drills (35% of time)
(2) Weakness Drills (45% of time)
(3) Strength Drills (20% of time)

Core drills are the drills that are important to you in your defense.  It is the moves that you will execute the most while out on the field playing your team’s defense.  Put together 4 to 5 drills that are consistent with the kind of defense you play.  If it is a lot of zone and off man then back pedal, weaves and breaks should be an important part of your core drill work.

Weakness drills are drills designed to work on a weakness you may have.  Are you not very good in press?  Then you need to do some press man drills like kick slide,  3 releases and jam work.  Put together a list of important drills from all of the drills videos in this member’s area and fit them into your allotted amount of time.  Check the drill sections in this member’s area for help with that.

Strength drills relate to things in your game that are a strength.  What you are good at you should continue to be good at it and this means you are required to practice them ever so often.  The old saying applies here,  if you don’t use it,  you lose it.  Make sure your strengths continue to be your strengths.

So,  how many times per week?  That’s up to you but as I said,  twice is minimum.  If you are going to go twice per week then you sessions should last about 1.5 hours.  That’s enough time to get some good work in without running into pesky soft tissue issues especially if you are also lifting and running during the offseason.  If you are working 3 times per week then sessions should be 3 hours.  If it’s four times then 45 minutes would be fine.  If you are doing drill work 5 or 6 times per week then 30 minutes working on one specific skill would be best.

Once you know how many times per week you are going to do drills then determine the amount of time for each session based on what I said in the previous paragraph.  Then you apply the formula I spoke of (35% core, 45% weakness and 20% strength)

So for example:  You are going to do drills three times per week for 1 hour:

20 minutes (35% of 1 hour) – Core drills

(1) Back pedal
(2) Weave
(3) Hip Flips
(4) 180 turns
(5) Kick slide

25 minutes (45% of 1 hour) – Weakness Drills
(if weak in press)

(1) 3 releases
(2) Slide N Get up
(3) Kick slide mirror
(4) 4 cone Top of the route drill

15 minutes (20% of 1 hour) – Strength Drills
(if strong in zone and playing off)

(1) Read the 3 step drill
(2) Pedal – shuffle – break

You can alternate drills within that weakness and strength group.  Add some and delete some as you go along.  I have a ton of drills in this member’s area.  Determine what your weaknesses and strengths are then use the drills to improve or enhance the skill.

This all involves some time on your part.  You have to self evaluate.  You have to find the drills and match them with your objective.  You then have to plan this all out.  It’s all worth it and it’s what successful people do.  Successful people plan.  Elite people execute.

For more on this,  check out the video below that I made for YouTube.  I hope you enjoyed this.  If you have any questions or feedback,  feel free to email me at: cwilson@alleyesdbcamp.com – Thank you for being a member.

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alleyesdbcamp

Owner at All Eyes DB Camp

Chad Wilson is the founder of All Eyes DB Camp and a former standout defensive back for the Miami Hurricanes. After an elite collegiate career, Wilson spent a season with the Seattle Seahawks before transitioning into coaching. A 3-time Florida state champion defensive coordinator, he has spent over 20 years developing the "All Eyes" blueprint that has produced NFL All-Pros and stars like Xavien Howard, Patrick Surtain II, Tyson Campbell, Minkah Fitzpatrick and more. His coaching system is proven at the highest levels—his own sons, Quincy and Marco Wilson, both excelled as starters in the SEC before being drafted into the NFL.

Chad is the author of "101 DB Tips"—The Ultimate DB Reference Guide. You can find more information on the manual and how to order your copy in the sidebar and footer of this page.

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