Chad Wilson
August 6, 2024
Training in the offseason as a defensive back can be intense and involves a lot of elements. From foot placement, getting out of breaks, changing directions, backpedaling, and training eyes, the tasks can be plentiful. However, there is one element that is often undertrained, and it’s costing defensive backs when the season comes. Have you guessed what it is? Ball Skills.
The name of the game for us in the secondary is to take the ball away. The more times we can steal a possession from the other team and give it to our offense, the better chance we have of winning the football game. That’s simple math. For us to be able to do that consistently, we must have a knack for getting interceptions. The first part is having the know-how and physical ability to put our body in position. The final element is executing when the ball arrives.
Here are four elements to having ball skills as a defensive back that you need to possess.
1 – Catching with Your Eyes
When a guy has a hard time catching the football, people say he has bad hands. The truth of the matter is that you catch the ball with your eyes. There are very few instances in my training where I see guys with a hands problem when it comes to catching. Sure, some guys have smaller hands, a weak grip, or poor positioning of the hands when the ball arrives, but far more have an eyes problem.
Many defensive backs take the catch for granted. This means that as the ball is just about to hit their hands, they look elsewhere. They either look beyond the ball up the field or don’t track the ball above their head or below their waist. In other words, they assume the catch. You can’t do that.
If you do not track the ball all the way into your hands, there’s a good chance it will hit the wrong part of your hand or won’t even hit your hands at all. How many times has the point of the ball hit your palm? That 100% happened because you took your eyes off the ball.
Make it your aim to train your eyes to track the ball into the web of your hands. I often tell my guys to freeze their eyes on the football when it hits their hands for 2 seconds. This forces you to track it. Try it the next time you are having an issue catching the ball in practice.
2 – Train Your Grip
As I said previously, sometimes the problem is your hands. It’s rarer than an eyes problem, but nevertheless, let’s make sure that is not your problem. The truth is, sometimes that ball is traveling at a high rate of speed, and even your eyes on it can’t stop it from splitting your hands open.
If you don’t have a naturally strong grip, get a tennis or racquetball and start squeezing. Carry it around with you all day and train your grip. You will be amazed at how fast you can improve your grip strength with this. Also, Amazon sells grip strength devices at a low price. Make the purchase and add that to your daily routine.
Finally, a few exercises at the end of your upper body workout to improve your forearm strength (wrist curls, reverse wrist curls) will definitely improve your grip.
3 – Look for the Ball
Seems simple, doesn’t it? Think about how many times guys don’t look for the ball at defensive back. Perhaps you are one of those guys. If you aren’t a guy that naturally looks for the ball, then you will have to train it.
I am here to tell you that if you don’t look for it, you won’t catch it. Too many defensive backs won’t look for the ball out of fear that they will either misjudge it or when they look, the ball will be right there and pass them into the receiver’s hands. Get over that fear now.
When you have put yourself into position against the wide receiver, look for the football. If it’s not there, you can always get your eyes back to him and continue to track his hip. Close out the space between you and the WR. Get your head around and prepare to make a big play.
Practice this after practice. Simply go through your press steps, run through a couple of routes, and look for the ball as someone throws it to you.
4 – Tracking the Football
This is specifically for the deep ball (corner, post, and go routes). Some guys simply struggle in this area. You will do everything right, turn your head around, and misjudge the football. This is a function of inexperience.
Outfielders in baseball have to “shag fly balls” constantly so that they get used to judging the flight of the ball so they can get under it. Guess what you are going to have to do?
If you struggle in this area, then spend some time lining up in press against air, running go routes, post routes, and corner routes with someone throwing the ball to you. Learn how to judge the ball and smoothly get in position.
As a rule, the higher the ball, the more you need to run and the deeper you need to get. The ball will take time to come down and most likely travel a further distance. Use that time to get deeper down the field, allowing yourself the chance to come back in should you need to. A ball on the rise requires you to run. A ball on its way down means you can slow down unless it’s right above your head, in which case, you are in trouble. Keep running.
A low ball (i.e., a line drive throw) will typically cover less ground unless it’s thrown by Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. A low ball means you can throttle down some. You can typically jump and stretch out your hands on a line drive if you have not reached the spot yet. The height of the ball matters. Keep that in mind.
5 – Attacking the Football
One of the biggest things I notice with many young DBs when I begin training them is the desire to want the ball to get into their body when we are doing ball drills. If that is you, end that now.
9.5 times out of 10 when you are trying to catch a ball in a game or in practice, a receiver is right there next to you doing the same. Guess who gets the ball? The guy with hands extended the furthest. Guess who practices catching all day? The receiver. Guess who is going to extend their hands to catch the ball? The receiver. Guess who also needs to extend their hands if they want the ball? You got it.
Make it a habit to try and catch the ball with your hands FULLY extended every time it is thrown to you in training or in practice. Get comfortable doing that. Failing to do this is like going to war for the army not knowing how to shoot.
I would much rather you drop footballs in the beginning trying to extend your arms to catch them than set up this false sense of security by body catching them with success. You will get robbed on the football field if you are a body catcher. Don’t let that be you.
In conclusion, you can improve your ability to catch the football and force more turnovers by focusing on using your eyes to catch the ball, training your grip, turning your head around to see the ball, improving your tracking, and attacking the ball. Improvements in any or all of these areas will result in a bump in your interception total.
For more information and drills to improve your ball skills, join the All Eyes DB Camp Member’s Area. Over 200+ videos on upping your knowledge and improving your game. Click here for more info.
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.
