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AFM Magazine


Creating Turnovers Through Ball Disruption

by: Dave Marean, Head Coach
Wayne Central High School (NY)
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As a head coach for 11 years, I have also worn the title of the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, and even though I am an offensive coordinator by heart, I realize more and more in this profession how important your defense is to your program’s success. As a defensive coordinator, one of the things I like to do after every season is review each game film and try to see what made us successful and what hurt us each game. Defensively, the main things I like to focus on while watching film are: our alignment, assignment, tackling, team pursuit and ball disruption (turnovers). Recently I started to look at our results from season to season to see if there were any continuous traits that were not allowing us to be successful defensively. Some years it  could be as simple as we just did not have the “Jimmys” and the “Joes”, but more often than not it came down to our ball disruption and causing turnovers.

Five years ago, I stepped down from being the offensive coordinator and I took over our defense, as I felt we were not accomplishing what we needed to do defensively. One of the biggest things I wanted to do was get our kids to understand on defense you can score. I wanted them to not look at our defense as “defending” our own end zone but attacking our opponents. I wanted them to get the mindset that we are going to score on defense and if we cannot we will at least get the ball back so our offense can.

In 2010 we went 7-0 in the League and finished 8-1. The most regular season wins our program had ever had prior to 2010 season, was 2 (since starting varsity football in 1998). As a team we had 31 turnovers (18 interceptions and 13 fumble recoveries) in 9 games. In 2011 we went 6-1 in the league (6-2 overall) and we had 26 turnovers (10 interceptions and 16 fumble recoveries) in 8 game. In 2012 we went 3-4 in our league (4-5 overall) and created 9 turnovers (4 interceptions and 5 fumble recoveries) in 9 games. In 2013 we went 4-3 (6-4 overall) and made it to the Sectional Finals for the first time in the program’s history. We had 22 turnovers (10 interceptions and 12 fumble recoveries) in 10 games (8 turnovers occurred in the last three sectional games). In 2014 we created 18 turnovers (8 interceptions. and 10 fumble recoveries) with a record of 4-3 league and 4-4 overall (See Chart 1).

Year    Turnovers    Interceptions    Fumble Recoveries
2010    31                      18                13
2011    26                      10                16
2012      9                        4                 5
2013    22                      10                12
2014    18                        8                10

After the 2012 season, I quickly realized that defensively we were not getting as many turnovers in recent years as we did in 2010 and 2011. Looking back at our practices that year, we also got away from our turnover stations in any part of our practices, which by the 2012 data, you can see it affected us on Friday Nights. So when the 2012 season finished I realized we needed to continue to implement some type of turnover stations in our practice plans.

The big thing is that doing turnover stations by itself is not enough. You must incorporate some type of turnover work within your individual periods and group periods. This is something that you have to get your staff to “buy” into as well. I will actually put on our practice plan: “Turnover stations  last 5 minutes” of each individual and group period. I have a great staff and they want to take advantage of every minute they have during their individual or group period, so I have to make sure I stress how important it is to have 5 minutes of turnovers mixed in. We may add more time to the whole indy and group period so they get covered what they need along with making sure some type of turnover work is accomplished.

Most of our original turnover stations and philosophy on turnovers came from Rutgers University back at the NYS Coaches clinic we attended in 2009. Over the years we have added and subtracted some of them or simply “tweaked” how we run them to better fit our kids and our program. Most recently though we have added to our stations and our philosophy of turnovers based on a lot of what Syracuse University does. Their concept of ball disruption is something we have taken on and we try to drill this into our player’s habits of disrupting the ball. Our belief now is that if you are causing ball disruption on defense that, in turn, it will create more turnovers. We talk to our players a lot about attacking or disrupting the ball more than anything else we do on defense. I think kids today need to attach words with drills that will help them understand what we are trying to accomplish. If you ask any of our kids what are key words that describe our defense they will say, ‘attack and disrupt.’

Our defensive fronts (based on our personnel) have changed a little over the years but our philosophy has always stayed the same. We want our players to focus on five main components (Chart 2).

1.    Ball Disruption - Find a way to disrupt the ball
2.    Attack the Ball - Pursuit to the ball at the proper angle. The measure of our effort is how many people are around the ball carrier when the play is over.
3.    Great Tackling – Be a great tackler and use the proper tackle for the situation.
4.    Alignment - Be in the proper position before the snap.
5.    Assignment - Know your job based on the call and the game plan.

    In chart 3 you can see our turnovers compared to ball disruption. Since implementing this past season some of the ball disruption concepts to our defense, you can see we actually forced a lot more fumbles and interception opportunities then we have had in the past two seasons. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t always bounce our way. So one thing we will be doing next year in practice is incorporating ball disruption drills with in our pursuit drill.

On film a lot of our missed opportunities to turn a ball disruption into a turnover, was the lack of effort in pursuing to the ball, especially on fumbles. The majority of fumble recoveries are not recovered by the person who caused the fumble, so everyone must pursue the ball because the next person is the one who will get the ball. The same goes for interceptions. If someone breaks up the pass, the caught tipped ball usually is not the person who broke up the pass.

    Year    Ball Disruption    Turnovers
    2010    33    31
    2011    29    26
    2012    14      9
    2013    24    22
    2014    26    18

When we talk about ball disruption drills, we break them up into four categories 1. QB Ball Disruption, 2. Ball Carrier Ball Disruption, 3. Ball in Air Ball Disruption and 4. Ball on the Ground Ball Disruption. We will have every position go through every ball disruption drill. This way everyone will be prepared for every opportunity to turn a ball disruption into a turnover. Here are some of our main Ball Disruption drills that we use:

Ball Disruption Drills:

 Affecting the pass (in this progression order)

1. Match Hands - used when you cannot get a sack. Get your hand up in front of the QB’s throwing hand, basically mirroring or “Matching” the hand in hopes of knocking the ball down or affecting the flight path of the ball.

2. Break Arm - used when you are too close to match hands but not close enough to sack the QB. Coming from the front side of the QB, you match hands first and then “chop” down on his elbow as he throws to affect the flight path of the ball.

3. Tom-a-Hawk - used when you are not close enough to sack and coming from the back side (basically a back side version of Break Arm). Coming from the back side of the QB, you “chop” down on the QB’s elbow as he throws to affect the flight of the ball.

4. Sack - as you are sacking the QB, try to do everything to get the ball out.
QB’s are normally not known for being great with ball security (so every sack opportunity we want to turn into a fumble).

Ball Carrier Ball Disruption Drills:

1. Second Man in “Lawnmower” - this is done by the second man in on the tackle, like starting a cable-pull lawnmower.
 
2. Double Clamp and Punch – this is done simultaneously with one hand on the opposite side of carrier’s body wrapping the other hand “Punching” on ball – upward or downward. This can be done from behind and near side off ball.

3. Double Clamp and Rip – this is also done simultaneously with one hand on opposite side of carrier’s body wrapping and other hand “ripping”on the ball. This can be done from behind and near side off ball. While ball carrier is going down, pop or jab ball out too. That is when ball carrier is most relaxed.

Ball in Air Disruption Drills:

1. Tip Drill - while defending player with one hand, tip ball to teammate or swat down.

2. Highest Point - catch ball at highest point, while teammate takes out intended receiver.

Ball on Ground Disruption Drills:

1. City Ball - when there are many players around the ball, dive on ball and recover ball in “fetal” position.

2. Country Ball - when no one is around the ball, scoop ball up (two hands together like shoveling snow and “scoop” under ball - do not try to pick up) and score.

Additionally to ball disruption drills that are used within our indy periods, group periods and/or pursuit periods, we also practice a Ball Disruption Station Circuit.

Ball Disruption Stations - (always done at the beginning of defensive practice) The stations are set up in a circle, so when they are done with one drill players sprint to the next drill. We usually run this last for about 5 minutes. Here is the sequence:

1. QB - Match hands (not being blocked and being blocked - throw ball or simulate throw).

2. Ball Carrier (Second Man In) - Lawnmower (ball carrier holding ball leaning on sled).
 3. QB - Tomahawk Chop and Wrap/Break Arm and Wrap (Velcro ball to arm of pop up dummies).

4. Ball Carrier (First Man) - Wrap and Rip/Wrap and punch (run behind carrier ball with far hand).
 
5. Country/City Ball - Country Ball (coach rolls ball toward player - coach doesn’t attack ball - scoop and score) and City Ball (coach rolls ball toward player - coach attacks ball and player recovers (Country means more space to scoop ball while city does not mean as much space to scoop ball).

6. Ball in Air - Interception and tip.

To motivate our players and create more ball disruption and turnover opportunities for this season, we will be implementing a grading point system into our defensive game/practice film breakdown. Each week we do our Defensive Pursuit Drills and we will do as many as the LOE (Lack of Efforts) we had from the previous game. A LOE is any player seen on film not hustling to the ball before the whistle blows for the end of  the play. This is our Weekly Point System:

Weekly Point System:

1. Lack of Efforts (LOE) - Every LOE in the game counts as 1 negative point.
 
2. Definition - An LOE is anyone player seen on film not hustling to the ball before the whistle blows for the end of play.
 
3. Ball Disruption - Every Ball Disruption in a game counts as plus 2 points.

4. QB Altered/Affected - Pass counts as ball disruption ONLY if pass is incomplete.

5. Turnovers - Every ball disruption that turns into a turnover is worth 4 points.

6. Practice  Pursuit Drill - For every LOE’S and take 2 points off for every ball disruption and 4 off for every turnover.

There are so many important aspects that go into making a team successful on defense. One of the most important aspects we feel that can greatly increase your team’s opportunities for success is creating ball disruption and getting turnovers. You have to get your team in the mindset that on defense they are trying to score and not just defend. We have 6 ways  to promote more opportunities for ball disruption and turnovers:

6 Ways to promote Ball Disruption opportunities:

1.    Ball disruption stations
2.    Ball disruption during Group Periods (inside run or 7 on 7)
3.    Ball disruption during pursuit drill
4.    Point system for each game (used towards L.O.E.s)
5.    Ball disruption during Indy periods
6.    Ball disruption signs in locker room

About the Author: Dave Marean is the head football coach and a physical education
teacher at Wayne Central High School (NY). Prior to his taking over the program in 2004, Wayne Central had not won more than two regular season games in any season. Over the last five year’s Marean’s league record is 24-11.







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