Javon Charleston | Defensive Drills for Football
Javon Charleston - Every football defensive position coach needs to identify the 4 most important skills for their player to have. These skills need to be covered every single day in practice, and perhaps even during the pre-game warm-up. For us, these are position-specific drills and do not include the basics which all defenders must do. We will have a separate period for pursuit, or for tackling.
Javon Charleston says there should be no discussion of individual play calls during these periods. In fact, after Day 1 or 2, there should be no discussion during this period. Everything is a habit, everything is planned. This is not a time for creativity; it is a time for establishing great habits in the players.
After a warm-up using the Pursuit Drill (5 minutes), we will move directly into individual groups to work on those Big 4 skills. This period is no more than 10 minutes and will become less as the season goes on. Linebackers may perform a football drill for footwork, block destruct, blitzing, and pass drops. Defensive Linemen will need to Get Off & engage work, Escape technique, wrong arming, and pass rush moves. We understand that if a player is an expert, a natural, in his Big 4, he can play for us.
Javon Charleston - Never ask a player to perform a task that goes against his Big 4 football drills. Do not suddenly change those techniques in the middle of the season as a knee-jerk reaction to early-season failures. These are ingrained habits. They can be performed by the player without thinking, and without slowing down.
Be careful not to ask much more than that Big 4 out of a player. If a practice includes 10 minutes on the Big 4, and 20 minutes on other skill sets - you send the player the wrong message. They will get the impression, and rightly so, that the Big 4 football drills are only half as important as the other skill sets since the practice time of the Big 4 is half as long. Use the extra time for group work, installation, film, or weight room time.
Or, just get off the field. Your hard work and preparation have led to the players gaining great football defense habits. Let them benefit from it.
