Handoff relay

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American football drill · Under-6 and up

Conditioning that is a race is conditioning young players will actually run, and this one teaches a football skill on every leg. Each runner carries the ball round a cone fifteen yards away and back, and has to give the next runner a proper handoff, into a pocket, before they can go. A fumbled exchange costs the team the race.

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Time
8 minutes
Players
6 or more, in two or more teams of three to five
Equipment
  • 1 ball per team
  • 2 cones per team

Setup

  1. Put a start cone for each team, ten yards apart, and a turn cone fifteen yards in front of each.
  2. Each team lines up behind its start cone, the first runner holding the ball.
  3. On the whistle the first runner sprints to the turn cone, goes round it, and runs back.
  4. The next runner in line makes a pocket and takes a handoff, then sets off. No throwing, no pitching.
  5. The first team whose last runner gets home wins. A dropped ball goes back to the start cone.

Coaching points

  • Carry the ball high and tight in the arm away from the cone as you go round it.
  • Waiting runner: make the pocket early, inside elbow up, eyes forward, not back at the ball.
  • Runner coming in: slow down enough to put the ball into the pocket, not at it.
  • Cheer for each other. A relay that nobody shouts in is just running.

On the run sheet: Ball high and tight on the run, round the cone, make the pocket, put the ball in it, then go

Progressions

  1. Change the carry at the cone: the ball must switch to the outside arm on the way round.
  2. Make the handoff a fake: the waiting runner shows a pocket on the wrong side, and the runner coming in has to find it.
  3. Have every player pull a flag from a cone on the way back, as a flag-pulling rep at speed.

How it runs

Each team stands behind its own start cone with a turn cone fifteen yards ahead. The first runner sprints out with the ball, goes round the turn cone and runs back, and the next runner in line is already waiting with their pocket made. The ball goes into it, the new runner sets off, and so on down the line until the last runner is home. The animation shows the first leg of one team with a runner from the other team racing alongside in the next lane, and ends on the handoff into the next runner's pocket. Every team has its own ball; the animation only draws ours.

It is a game, so keep it short and loud, and run it near the end of practice when legs are tired, which is when ball security slips in matches.

Why it works

Young players will run much harder in a race than in laps, so it is conditioning they put real effort into. Making the exchange a proper handoff means the skill from the handoff mesh drill is practised again, this time at speed and with the pressure of a team waiting. And because a dropped ball costs the race, carrying it properly matters to the players for once, not just to the coach.

The mistakes to watch for

Runners swinging the ball loose as they go round the cone. Waiting runners who turn round to grab the ball instead of making the pocket. And handoffs thrown from two yards out, which the rule about no throwing is there to stop.

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