Drills Report: The ‘W’ Drill - Offensive Line Style

The W drill is one of the oldest and most-used defensive back drills. It is a great way to teach defensive backs the proper body positioning and footwork necessary to excel. It teaches players how to keep their hips low, eyes up, feet within the framework of their body, and how to change direction properly. As an O-line coach, I teach my players to develop these same skills defensive back coaches do.
The drill requires as little or as much equipment as you find necessary, and can be used as a daily warm up drill. It is a great alternative to using the sled or chute, and can be done as fast or as slow as you would like. First, set up five cones in a “W” shape with three cones on each five yard line and two cones halfway between the first and third cones (See Diagram 1).


The drill is started by having all players begin on the far left cone. If you have a lot of guys to work in, simply set up two areas so your groups can rep simultaneously. Now that everything is set up you can go in a lot of different directions with this drill. You can use it to emphasize different types of footwork, run or pass, half speed or game speed, and you can even get out some boards and bags to use during this drill. For our offense at Archbishop Hoban High School, the two steps we most commonly use are the inside zone and the gap step. Our running game accounted for over 2,500 yards this year and I am sure that this drill helped our guys learn the proper run technique fundamentals. We can incorporate left and right steps into this drill.
The first player starts on the coach’s command, and executes a proper zone step to the right and “waddles” to the second cone. Waddle is the buzz word we use for a lineman who comes off the football and keeps a wide base with his weight on the inside balls of his feet, hips low, chest big, and shoulders square up field. This is an important point to emphasize in a zone blocking scheme for your players who will be blocking linebackers. Waddling helps put them in the right body position, and helps time up the block so they do not have to hold it for long.
Once the first player reaches the second cone, he turns around, resets in a three-point stance and zones left to the third cone. We could have the players repeat these two again to cones four and five, or have them execute a second step. I like to incorporate a second step to get as many reps as possible for all of our footwork. To execute a gap step left from cone three, the player will face cone five and then step and waddle to cone four, then gap step right to cone five (See Diagram 2).

Once your players have all finished on cone five, you can have them repeat the process back to cone one. The only thing that changes is that they start to the left instead of the right. To emphasize the waddle and proper foot width, you can place boards or agility bags between the cones.
I also like to have the players partner-up and drive each other to the cones. This drill is also a great set-up to practice the kick slide and proper pass set technique. Have the players face the sideline and kick back to their left to start. To emphasize keeping our eyes up I stand at the cone a player is coming toward and hold up either a palm or a fist. When they see my hand they have to call out what I am holding up. Using a palm or fist is much better than having players shout how many fingers you are holding up. Fingers are sometimes hard to see and you also want to avoid holding up the wrong singular finger.
This drill is a great way to combine all of the steps and techniques you work on in practice into a quick and easy format for your players to practice. I encourage you to be as creative as you can with W drills. It always keeps the players alert and can really reinvigorate those late season practices by putting a simple twist on a daily drill. u

Drew Spears recently completed his first season as offensive line coach at Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron, OH. He previously was the O-Line coach at Grove City College for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. A native of Canton, OH, Spears played outside linebacker for Walsh University and served as a graduate assistant there in 2006.