Parting the Waves

Tulane's Separation Drill
by: Steve Bird
Wide Receivers Coach,Tulane University
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The single most important ingredient of a receiver is football intelligence. The skills and abilities required to become a good receiver can be learned and developed to be a complete receiver.

"Getting open" requires numerous skills such as reading coverages, running stems, getting in and out of the cut (separation techniques of the route) and bursting full speed away from the defender. While all these skills are requirements to becoming a top receiver, for the purpose of this article, we will focus on separation techniques.

People often talk about receivers who can separate from defenders and how speed is what gets them open. Experience has shown me that great speed is good to have, but not always the reason a reciever gets open. Pat Tilley and Steve Largent proved that theory wrong many times. What both did have was the ability to separate from a defender very well.

I played with Tilley (St. Louis, 83-84), and this experience provided me a great deal of knowledge in teaching receivers how to separate, by getting into and out of the "cut" effectively. At Tulane, we use drills each day to teach specific techniques in a small, focused area and develop the receivers confidence. These drills are the Square and Triangle drills.

The Square Drill

The purpose of the drill is to teach and develop proper techniques of getting into and out of the horizontal cut.

Diagram 1

To run the drill, we set up the cones in a five yard-by-five yard square with a fifth cone exactly in the middle intersecting all four corners. The ball can be positioned in either L-M-R with a manager pulling the ball as a center does a snap. The coach is positioned down field where he can see the receiver as a defensive back would and can coach the techniques (See Diagram 1).

The first key to this drill is to have a disciplined stance. We place our inside foot up. Our coaching point on the stance is toes pointed down field with front knee bent over the toes. The back foot is in a narrow base extending back (distance is usually equal to one walking step) with knee bent. The weight distribution is 80% on the front foot and 20% on the back foot. Our chest is over the front knee bending at the waist to hide our numbers. We turn our head inside with eyes focusing on the football.

Diagram 2Diagram 3

Diagram 4Diagram 5

On the snap of the football, the receiver will explode vertical off the line (from cone A) putting his eyes down field on the coach and simultaneously rolling off the front foot. We stress hiding his numbers from the coach on the vertical push. At the top of the route (cone B) we explode into and out of the cut hiding our numbers going outside the cone. We also stress getting our eyes on the ball (the ball represents the quarterback). The drill finishes exploding underneath the next cone (cone C) for the dig cut (Diagram 2) or the out cut (Diagram 3) depending on ball placement in the drill. Or (cone E) curl cut (Diagram 4) or comeback cut (Diagram 5) again depending on ball placement in the drill.

Our coaching point at the top of the route is very vertical and we have found the best way to describe the receivers actions is to teach certain command words. Here are a few examples we use for communication:

"Good" or "Perfect." Tells the receiver he did it the right way.

"Helicopter." Tells the receiver his arms are not tight to his body, but flying out to wide.

"Too High." Tells the receiver he is not hiding his numbers.

"Baby Steps." Tells the receiver he is taking too many steps to stop and break out of his cut.

We repeat each route on both sides using full speed and high tempo. In doing so, the receivers get a high number of repetitions in a short period of time and work on each cut from both sides.

As receivers get better and more confident in the drill, we will add passing to the drill, but do not start throwing passes until your receivers have developed the techniques you are coaching.

The Triangle Drill

The purpose of this drill is to teach and develop proper techniques of getting in and out of a cut back to the quarterback.

Diagram 6

To run the drill, we set up the cones in a triangle. Cone B is five yards up and five yard out from cone A. Cone C is five yards up and five yards out from cone A (opposite direction of cone B). See Diagram 6.

We use the same stance and start technique as the square drill.

Diagram 7

On the snap of the football, the receiver will explode vertical off the line putting his eyes down field on the cone (cone B) and simultaneously rolling off the front foot. We stress to the receiver to hide his numbers on the vertical push. At the top of the route, we explode into and out of the cut hiding our numbers going inside and around cone (cone B).

The receiver then works around the outside of the starting point (cone A). To finish the drill the receiver will go inside and around the cone (cone C) hiding his numbers and exploding outside starting point (cone A). See Diagram 7.

We will repeat this drill a total of four repetitions. Two from cone A, B to cone B and two from cone A, B to cone C. Again our receivers get a high number of repetitions in a short period of time on cuts to both sides.

Over the last four years, the square drill and triangle drill have been very valuable to our receivers. I have been fortunate in those four years to have one receiver a year to get drafted or make a roster in the pros. Therefore, I really believe these two drills can help develop a young receiver, boosting intelligence and skills for running routes.

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