Drills for Receivers When You Don’t Have a Lot of Time – Repping fundamental drills with an emphasis on focusing on the proper technique and catching the football will improve the overall play of your wide receivers.

Repping fundamental drills with an emphasis on focusing on the proper technique and catching the football will improve the overall play of your receivers.

In spread offenses, the receiver’s play is critical. However, in other style offenses, the receiver gets little attention. These drills are what I use once a week to drill the catching process. It includes hand strengthening exercises incorporated with drills where the receiver will get 46 catches in 20 minutes without using a lot of space.

After warmups, receivers work on a specific catch that can be contained inside a space of 15 yards. We will work on catches facing the QB, running away from the QB, after cuts, sidelines catches and bad ball catches. These drills are used as part of a weekly progression that includes a combo drill with the QB.

Fundamentals of the Catch:

We teach a couple of techniques that help to convey coaching points on the catch. When facing the QB, we teach that the receiver should “take a picture.” Thumbs are together and fingers are spread as wide as they can. Eyes should be behind the hands as if the receivers were taking a picture holding a camera.

We stress thumbs up and an athletic stance (See Photo 1).

Photo 1: “Take a picture”

When running away from the QB, we teach crossed pinkies, elbows up, and running the chest through the front point of the ball. We tell our receivers that they should concentrate on the “cross hairs” of the football. That is, the place at the tip of the football.

We emphasize that they should not jump unless necessary. It changes the level of sight, making catches inconsistent. This is especially true of young receivers when on the run; they tend to jump on perfectly thrown balls. We try to emphasize keeping eyes steady to catch more consistently.

Rules for the drills:

We have rules for the drills that we think increases concentration.

These rules are:
•   10 push-ups for every dropped ball or bobble.
•   Bobbles are not catches.
•   Receiver must palm one-handed catches.
•   Thumbs are to be together when facing the QB. Pinkies should be crossed or thumbs together when running away from the QB and spread fingers as wide as possible.
•   If there are no bobbles or drops for an extended period, we aren’t working hard enough. We then give push-ups.

Progression 1: Warm Up: 5 minutes

The warm up includes a series of hand strengthening exercises as well as some fun concentration drills.

Warm-up Drill #1: Strengthening Hands Drill (Photo Series 2)

Photo Series 2: Semi-circles - Slam the ball and pull away

We will start by palming the football with one hand and placing it over the receivers head. His other hand is at the belt buckle with it rigidly at the middle of his body. He will then semicircle the ball and slam it into the stationary hand. The stationary hand then palms the ball and pulls it away to back over his head. We practice this 10 times with each hand.

Pair Up: Count of catches starts here with each one of these counting as 5 catches (Diagram 1).

Diagram 1: Pair Up

Warm-up Drill #2: “Take a Picture” Drill: Vertical Chest Pass

Receivers hold the football vertical and chest pass it to their partner. Receiver catches the ball with thumbs together and up, fingers spread, and in an athletic stance. Make sure the receiver is moving his eyes behind his hands to catch the ball. Do not let him reach for it.

Warm-up Drill #3: “Take a Picture” Drill: Horizontal Chest Pass

Hold football horizontal and chest pass it to receiver’s partner. Receiver catches the ball with thumbs together and up, fingers spread and in an athletic stance. Make sure the receiver is moving his eyes behind his hands to catch the ball. Do not let him reach for it.

Warm-up Drill #4: One handed catch: Right Handed

The receiver palms the bottom point of the football overhead with the right hand and flips the ball to his partner. The receiver has his right hand fingers spread with thumb up and catches the ball with his right hand by palming it. No spirals are allowed.
 
Warm-up Drill #5: One handed catch: Left Handed

The receiver palms the bottom point of the football overhead with the left hand and flips the ball to his partner. The receiver has his left hand fingers spread, thumb up and catches the ball with his left hand by palming it. Again, no spirals are allowed.

Warm-up Drill #6: Ball handling

The WRs do a ball handling sequence that is meant to fool their partner. It includes between their legs, figure eights, around their backs and then they flip the ball to their partner, trying to fool their partner into a bobble or drop. They actually sit and think of new ways to trick their partner.

Warm-up Progression: 25 catches in 6 minutes

Progression 2: Catch Drills: Catch drills try to incorporate the catches they are going to have to make. Each catch is done while moving away from the coach and is done up and back. On the one hand drills, don’t let the receivers cradle the ball in. They should be palming it (Diagram 2).

Diagram 2: One Handed catch: For hand strengthening and concentration on the run.

Catch Drill 1: Inside Hand: The receiver spreads the fingers as far as the he can and catches the ball with his hand closest to the coach. Elbow and thumb should be up and the coach tries to put the ball on the helmet logo as they trot away to the other side (Photo 3).

Photo 3: Inside Hand

Catch Drill 2: Outside Hand: The receiver again spreads the fingers as far as he can and he catches the ball with his hand closest to the coach. Elbow and thumb should be up and the coach tries to put the ball on the upfield shoulder (Photo 4).

Photo 4: Outside Hand

Two Handed Catches:

Catch Drill 3: Turn the Hips Over: The receiver trots out, coach throws the ball on the hip away from the coach on the away half of the receiver. Receiver must turn hips over after making the catch (Photo 5).

Photo 5: Turn the Hips

Catch Drill 4: Run Chest through the Point: Receiver is trotting away from the coach, crosses pinkies and gets his elbows up, and works to run his chest through the point of the football. Coach throws the ball over the top on the inside shoulder (Can catch with thumbs together if catch dictates it).

Catch Drill 5: Fade: The receiver is trotting away from the coach, crosses pinkies and gets his elbows up, and works to run his chest through the point of the football. Coach throws the ball over the top on the outside shoulder. Don’t teach your receivers to turn their heads around and lose sight of the ball in flight. We teach to keep the ball on the inside shoulder. We also like to work the sideline on this one.

Catch Drill 6: Sideline outs: The receiver takes the foot closest to the coach and steps up the field one step and out, spinning his head to get his eyes on the coach. Thumbs are together and catch is made as if the receiver is facing the QB for an out pass. We also work the sideline, meaning the receivers are going to get up on their toes and chop their feet to stay in bounds when catching the ball. They work two feet in bounds even though the rule is one foot in most states (Diagram 3).

Diagram 3: Outs

Catch Drill 7: Bad Ball Catch Drill: The receiver line is now facing the coach and he has them hold their hands up in front of them, thumbs together and fingers spread. Receiver is in good athletic stance. Coach is two to three yards away in between the sideline and the hash. This drill we only do one way. The coach throws a low ball, knees or lower, as the receiver moves through different agility drills to catch the ball. The WRs must flip their hands to put pinkies together to catch the low ball. The coach should slip in a good pass to keep them honest (Diagram 4).

Diagram 4: Bad Ball Catch Drill

Agility 1: Shuffle - Shoulders square to thrower.

Agility 2: Carioca - Shoulders square to thrower

Agility 3: Run - Shoulders perpendicular to thrower.

Catch Drill Progression: 15 Catches in 7 minutes.
Total: 40 catches in 13 minutes.

Progression 3: Cut Drills: We emphasize that on each cut the receiver should lower his body to get into the cut by “going down the steps”, plant the outside foot and cut. Make sure the receiver stays on the lines. Coach throws the ball as they come out of their cut on the yard line the coach is positioned on. Do these drill both ways. We use the sideline as our pass catch line (Diagram 5).

Diagram 5: Cut Drills

Cut Drill 2:  Cut drill with a distraction: Have half the line go to the other side and align one yard in front of the sideline stripe. Cutter goes and the defender waits until the cutter comes out of his cut. Defender flashes in front of the receiver and tries to distract him without touching the ball. They should not run into each other if the cutter is on the line and the distractor is one yard in front of the line (Diagram 6).

Diagram 6: Cut Drill 2

Cut Drill 3: Double Cut: The same drill can be performed as a double cut drill (Diagram 7).

Diagram 7: Double Cut Drill

Cut Drill Progression: 6 Catches in 7 minutes

Total: 46 catches in 20 minutes

These drills enable the receiver to get a lot of repetitions in a short amount of time. They incorporate all possible catches a receiver has to make in a twenty minute period. You can add the QB if you wish to help them work with the receivers. We would then go on to combination drills with the quarterbacks and then to patterns. These drills are purposefully crafted to help young receivers with hand strength and concentration.

About the Author: Ned Panfine has been coaching football for 32 years. He has been at Mendham High School (NJ) for 30 seasons. Panfine has served as defensive coordinator, wide receivers coach, special teams coordinator, assistant offensive line coach, and defensive line coach. During his tenure at Mendham, he has been a part of six conference championships.

More like this:

Advanced Wide Receiver Drills, Part I – May, 2013
Advanced Wide Receiver Drills, Part II – June, 2013
Drills Report: A Multi-Purpose Wide Receiver Drill – April, 2010