Having some experience using Wide Receiver Drills at multiple levels of football, I have a pretty good idea of which ones fit the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly categories.

Maybe you can see the same things I do with these wr drills.

So it’s always entertaining for me to read the answers on social media or sites like CoachHuey when a newer coach asks for some simple wide receiver drills they can run with their players.

That’s what gave me the idea to write this post and share some of my thoughts on the drills that were suggested.

Wide Receiver Drills: #1

I’m going to go with a “bad” suggestion or drill that I don’t like first.

If you have ever run this drill, please don’t be offended; I’m just going to give you my opinion on this.

The “Arms around a pole drill”:

This drill is described as finding a post for the player to stand up close and straddle. Then, the coach will throw balls at them to catch with his arms around the pole.

The reason for the drill is simple:

“It’s great for teaching players to catch with their hands away from their body.”

One other coach says, “We do this until each player catches 50 balls.”

The reason I think this is a bad drill, is not necessarily because you are catching around a pole.

It’s more because of the statement, “We do this till each player catches 50 balls.”

If you’re the coach, and you’re throwing it to them, how many, how long is going to take you to have all your receivers and running backs, or even just receivers, catch 50 balls around a pole?

Especially if you are insisting that they actually have to catch all of them?

Because they’re probably going to drop a few of them.

The logistics of it is what really makes this a bad drill…because you want drills in practice that you can get a lot of repetitions in a short amount of time…quality repetitions.

A coach throwing a ball at each player 50 times and then switching to the next player, or even if you do five at a time or ten at a time – is going to take forever.

You’re going to have a lot of players standing around waiting their turn to catch a ball around a pole just to do that drill.

My question is why do this when there’s so much else you could be doing or other ways you could accomplish this task?

How do you get players to catch a ball away from their hands?

And does it really take a pole to make it happen?

I have found that you can teach this well without using a pole.

You just have to emphasize it and teach players to actually do it.

You have to teach the proper hand placement first.

Next, you have to teach them to be able to overcome the fear of the ball coming at their face.

They should see the ball as their friend!

Don’t move their head to the side or back.

I think you can accomplish that a lot quicker if you just do this simple drill.

Do This Instead

It’s called a catch and tuck drill with a partner using a double whistle.

You could do this with just one coach throwing at each player if you don’t have a lot of guys.

With a ball, two guys will face each other. Player number one tosses it five yards to player number two. When they catch it, they have to catch it in front of their face or wherever it’s thrown, out away from their body with arms fully extended.

Let me dispel the myth of soft hands in football.

As a receiver, you do not need soft hands. Using soft hands is a baseball skill. You don’t want soft hands in football because you want to catch it out far away from your body and pull it in quickly.

If you try and catch it and have soft hands, it’s going to give the defender a chance to knock it away because you’re bringing the ball in without having fully secured it in your hands yet.

So, you don’t want soft hands as a football player, you want it to stick in your hands away from the body and then pull and tuck it in. It’s also easier to catch it this way.

Most athletes that try to use the soft hands approach end up catching it in their body instead.

I see a football catch much more like a basketball catch. Basketball players don’t use soft hands technique either. They catch it away from the body in the hands and then take it straight to a shot, dribble or pass.

A football is much closer in size to a Basketball anyway.

If you want your receivers to “Moss” their defenders, teach them to catch the ball in their hands away from the body.

Double Whistle Coaching Tip

On the first whistle the players will throw and catch away from their body and hold it out in the position of catch frozen.

Then, on the second whistle, they tuck it in quickly.

Every single receiver drill you do with your players should involve a catch and a tuck, whether it’s queued or un-queued.

And if they don’t tuck, to me that’s as bad as a drop, that’s how seriously I am that they have to tuck the ball.

And they don’t just tuck the ball by tucking it, they also have to tuck it and look it in.

I absolutely have to see the head bob down and the eyes follow the ball till it’s all the way in.

And when your guys get trained in that way, you will see them making catches under contact that they would not make normally.

It has to be ingrained. So again, that’s what I would do.

Wide Receiver Drills: #2

The next drill I want to discuss from this post is described as this:

“The Coach passes to each player one at a time in a line.”

Typically you see this drill in warm ups. Or it’s kind of a pre-game warm up drill.

I don’t think this drill is horrible and you can do this sometimes, but keep this in mind.

If you don’t have too many receivers, and you’ve got somebody who can catch the ball that the receiver throws back to you and you can rapid fire throw it is ok.

But if you can’t rapid fire throw this drill and have more then 7-8 guys in your group, don’t do it.

Also, I think it’s better to get your quarterbacks to throw to your guys as much as possible.

Then split them up into small groups for this. You will have to coach the tempo. You always have to coach the tempo.

That’s the biggest thing I see happening that is a problem is when a coach will have 15 or 20 receivers catching balls, and he’s throwing one at a time to them.

You are going to end up catching about one ball every minute.

That’s just a horrible number of practice reps you’re getting in per player.

Do This Instead

Again, get more footballs and partner them up or get them in groups of three, anything you can to get more catches.

Partner catches equal way more reps.

Lastly, you can change the kind of catch you want them to make. Have them work around the clock to catch every possible kind of ball.

If you’re worried about it being a bad throw, it should be a bad throw because they need to catch bad throws also.

Wide Receiver Drills: #3

This next bad drill that I’m going to throw out there is one that a lot of coaches are probably going to say, “Yep, I’ve done that one.”, or, “Yeah, I think it’s worth it.”

This one is the good old one-handed catch drill.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I still despise the one-handed catch drill.

Here’s why. Any time you allow a player, or a player allows himself to catch the ball with one hand, I think you’re allowing them to not battle to catch a ball with two hands.

So, if a defensive back is on them and he’s got a hold of his arm, or he’s hindering them, they’ve got to battle with both those hands to catch it with two hands.

This is going to show that they deserve pass interference because they’re fighting through the defender.

Whereas, if they don’t fight, they just stick one hand up and try and catch it with one hand, they’re probably not going to catch it and it doesn’t show that there should of been pass interference because they’re not fighting for it.

Do This Instead

Fight for the ball!

Go get it with two hands and don’t be complacent and allow yourself to catch it with just one hand.

I’m not convinced that it helps teach you how to catch any better than two hands.

It’ll help you be a better one-handed catcher, but the best one-handed catcher you can ever be is still not as good of a two-handed catcher that you can be.

So why practice it?

Just my opinion.

Again, don’t waste time on one-handed catch drills, because they’re going to drop most of them and it is a waste of good practice time in my opinion.

Wide Receiver Drills: The Ugly

This next drill is the Ugly.

So with this one I can’t even believe somebody put this one up.

Here it is:

“Put two cones in a straight line, 10 yards apart. Player one places a towel over his head and runs at full speed on the first whistle. Then on the second whistle, he whips the towel off his head and catches the ball that is thrown just before the second whistle. This drill is good for ball skills and quick reactions.”

I’m seriously hoping that this was a joke, and somebody who put this in here was like, “All right, I’m just going to play with these guys and see if anybody says anything.”

This is the most absurd drill I have ever heard!

Placing a towel over your head and sprinting at full speed on one whistle? Then you are whipping it off and catching it at the second whistle? You’ve got to be kidding me, right? In no way is that going to help you with your ball skills and quick reactions.

If you want to practice quick reactions catching a ball, here’s what you do.

Get a partner. Turn your back to him and tell him to throw you the ball and say, “Ball” the second they throw it, so when you turn around, the ball is in the air and you catch it.

That’s all it takes.

It definitely doesn’t take putting a towel over your head and running at full speed.

That’s absolutely absurd.

So, when I heard that one, I just had to list it in this article.

But that’s what I was saying. There’s stuff up on CoachHuey and other social media sites – even stuff by self-proclaimed guru’s – that’s good stuff, bad stuff and ugly stuff.

You just have to use common sense to figure it out.

Do This Instead

My criterion for good wide receiver drills is simple.

Have a drill that has a singular focus to it.

Don’t expect your players to be able to focus on multiple things and achieve much progress. Just do one.

This means that either you are focusing on reaction time or you’re focusing on hand placement or you’re focusing on the tuck and following it in with your eyes.

Second, your drills should be efficient. Are they getting enough chances to make a difference.

If your drills passed those two criteria, then you’ve got some good to great drills because most other coaches drills aren’t going to fulfill even one, let alone both of those criteria.

If you’re doing this, your players are going to really develop their skills faster.

One pet peeve of mine is the saying; “We did it when I was a player.”

Who cares what you did when you were a player?

Unless of course some incredible coach coached you that really knew his stuff.

And the problem is, we kind of think we all were.

So stop and think about your drills before you just cut and paste what your coach did back in the day.

Conclusion

How can you actually coach football and be way more efficient? And smarter about it, so your kids can get a lot better.

If you want to get an advantage, then by learning more and doing things better you’ll be in a much better situation every year you coach.

Take these wide receiver drills suggestions and try them out. Maybe they will help and maybe even you will find a way to make them even better!

Additional Study

Finding good resources on Wide Receiver Drills is tough – I have pretty high standards. But here’s a great deal on training from four great D1 Coaches:

Virtual Camp – Receivers