The Art Creating Turnovers

THE ART OF...

Creating Turnovers

1 Creating Turnovers

“The opportunities are everywhere, you just have to learn to recognize them.�

Creating Turnovers

The opportunities are everywhere Probably the biggest kept secret in youth and high school football is the art of creating turnovers. Oh sure, everyone knows what a turnover is, but only a rare few teams actually teach how to recognize the opportunities to create them.

Creating turnovers is simply instilling the proper mentality in the players. You don’t just talk about it. You have to show your players how important it is to actively practice turnover techniques.

Consider this, the ball hawking, havoc-wreaking, 49ers lead the NFL in 2013 in takeaways. Here’s a clue for their success... the 49ers' defense still holds a "Takeaway Thursday" session in which secondary coach Ed Donatell goes over each player on the opposing offense and his tendencies.

Linebacker Patrick Willis said that preparation helped him force a costly fumble

by Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald that stopped a Cardinals drive deep in 49ers territory in the third quarter Sunday.

Reid recovered, adding that play to his impressive day that included an interception.

San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid (35) runs past Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15) after intercepting quarterback Carson Palmer in an NFL football game in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

We define these opportunities as conscious maneuvers to directly take the ball away from the opposing offense. We will break this into five categories:

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1. Caused Fumbles: We feel that this is the greatest area in which our defense can gain an advantage and the most important ball disruption. Below are the different types of fumble-causing maneuvers that should emphasized and worked on each week.

Hit Hard: The first and easiest of these concepts is simply to punish the ball-carrier on every play. If he is concerned about pain or his safety, he isn’t thinking about ball security.

Helmet on the ball: Coaches sometimes use the phrase “bit the football.” We specifically drill it. We want our players to put their facemasks on the football as they run through the ball carrier on head-on tackles. A “crash pad” or high jump mat is effective in minimizing ground impact, but emphasize body collision.

Two on One: We drill this concept at least twice a week. Two defenders form a triangle with the ball carrier who attempts to score through an end zone about 10 yards away.

Both defenders hit the ball carrier. The tackler who makes initial contact should set the boundary/edge, and secures the tackle. The second guy in goes for the strip. As each of the defenders drives the ball carrier back, the second of the two punches or rips the football. We tell our players to hold the ball carrier up for just a second, and the ball should be free on the way to the ground.

Open-Field Tactics: A key to our success is our effort to simulate many of the exact situations and angles that occur in a game. In the open field, we always want to make a focused effort to strip the ball; we’ve already given up positive yards; we want to cause a turn-over to negate that gain. For a single tackler in the open-field, First- make sure to secure the tackle with the opposite hand away from the ball, Second- attempt going for the strip by punching the ball out using one of these Four main techniques (a – d). a. The Hammer: Also referred to as the ‘over hand club.’ If there is no space between the ball carrier’s body and his tricep, meaning we can’t see the ball from the back, or if he is swinging his arm, we want to bring down the hammer.

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Grab the collar with the away hand, violently yank the ball carrier back and strike down on the top of the ball, nearer to his fingers, with a closed fist.

Secure the away hand over or around the shoulder to grab the jersey on the carrier’s chest. Try to straighten his ball arm to his side so he can’t secure it. Always run the feet and never be dead weight. b. Punch and Rip: If we can see ball from behind - we call it “turtle head”, we want to use a similar technique with the away hand and throw a violent upper cut into the ball.

If the ball doesn’t dislodge, open the hand, twist the palm outward, grab the front of ball by the carrier’s fingers and violently rip his arm down and pull it behind his back as you run your feet. We teach our player to ride the carrier’s facemask into the turf. The entire maneuver should be as fast and violent as possible. c. Pry the Fingers: If a ball carrier is already engaged with a defender and is securing the ball tight to his chest, we want to secure his body with one hand and grab his fingers on the ball with the other. We “peel” or “pry” his hand down and away from the ball. d. Recovery: We specifically drill recovery tactics and strongly encourage you to do so also. You can only expect players to know what they’ve been taught. When we create a turnover inside the box (near the line of scrimmage),we fall on the ball. If we get a strip out in the field, we want to scoop the ball and score. Our defense is taught to capitalize on their take always.

We have a scoop and score station and use multiple players to simulate offensive tacklers and defensive blockers who escort the ball carrier into the end zone.

Finally, we work ground tactics when fighting for a ball. If two opposing players have their hands on the ball, one should roll into the opponent and use body leverage to separate his body from the ball by rolling onto his arms and wrenching the ball free.

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Of course we always teach people to fall around the ball, and keep their knees in a fetal position to protect the ball and the player.

We even coach the players not directly involved in the pile to habitually indicate that our team has the ball to help “sell” any unsure officials.

2. Interceptions and PassBreak Ups: After intercepting the ball, many players want to cross the field to return the interception.

We want to teach our players to stay "near Hash" to the side of the field you intercept the ball. We have all of our payers usually to the side the ball is intercepted. In addition, by staying to the near hash we eliminate the offense from being able to get angles on on the return. We have to get the QB and the intended receiver blocked. 90% of the time the intended receiver or the quarterback is going to make the tackle on the returner if they are not blocked.

We create a mentality in our defenders that a reception is never complete until the receiver becomes a ball carrier, at which time we will use fumble tactics.

This mentality allows our players to break up many passes that have been caught but not secured. We want receivers to have to “earn” their catches. Therefore, we never condemn a player who gets a pass interference call for being aggressive and playing through the receiver’s body to break up the pass.

There are five phases to this technique (A-B-C-D-E): a. Attack Angle: Our aiming point is the far, downfield side of the shoulder. We take a tackling angle first. b. Hands: Our top, or downfield, hand should grab the bottom of the jersey near the hip to secure the tackle (never reach; run the feet through the receiver). A common mistake is to swipe at the pass. We teach the players to “shoot” the arm nearest to the LOS, placing the hand in front of the receiver’s hands, palm out. We must use the proper hands; reaching with the top hand completely takes the defender out of position to make a tackle.

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c. Shielding: Once the above body relationship is established but the ball hasn’t arrived, the defender releases the downfield hand, rips it back around to join the other hand and accelerates in front of the receiver, tight to his body to shield him from defending the interception. d. Splitting the arms: If the receiver does catch the ball, the defender takes his outstretched front arm and hammers violently down on the receiver’s forearm, attempting to bring the arm behind his back. Simultaneously, the downfield hand releases the jersey and strikes upwards into the other arm of the receiver attempting to split and rip the receiver’s arms off the ball (think of a reverse “Gator Chomp”) as he makes the tackle and rides the facemask into the turf. e. Highest point: Naturally, on deeper, higher passes, we teach our defenders to shield the receiver and leap up and back towards the ball. A key to defending and intercepting deep routes like fades is to not look back for the ball if the defender is trailing. The ball is going to the receiver’s hands; focus on that, get there, and good things will happen. BallHawking DB’s are experts and reading the receivers eyes, which get bigger as the ball arrives, and the receivers hands, which reach out as the ball is arriving.

3. Implementation: You have to implement this ‘take-away’ attitude with some regular drills. Drill the techniques every week. Mix and match.

Return all INTs live to the whistle in practice. Our offensive players are well aware that they should keep their heads on a swivel, and we have a quick whistle to prevent injuries. Work pursuit drills with all players going for the ball. Teach them to be in position to take advantage of a caused fumble.

Set goals and rewards for your team. Our goal is three takeaways and one score as a result per game. Some teams give small helmet decals for stripped balls or INTs. What you recognize as a coaching staff, your players will pursue.

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Video of turn-over drills on youtube Movie 1.1 Turn-over Drills

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Video of turn-over explanation on vimeo Movie 1.2 Turn-over Explanation

Click the full screen icon for the best viewing.

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Drills: Create a turnover, takeaway circuit every week where you use these drills. a. Scoop and score. b. QB pressure. c. One-on-one recovery. d. Ground fighting tactics (start both players on the ground, facing each other, each having 
 a grip on the ball.) e. Helmet on the ball. f. Two on One Tag Team. g. Lateral pursuit, finger peel. h. Quarterback in pocket and on the run (hammer down on extended arm, bringing his arms to his side). This also reinforces ball security with our oensive players.

Incorporate a takeaway element into tackling drills. Takeaway should always be on their minds. Our team believes that our defense can get the football back at any time, in any situation. This proved true on countless occasions and won us games we may otherwise have lost.

Takeaways are the fastest way to change the momentum of a game and increase your position of winning. If you put your philosophy into practice and your players adopt it and then own it, you will add an entirely new weapon to your teams success.

4. Altered Passes and Batted Balls: The final two-ball disruption categories pertain mostly to defensive linemen or blitzing backers. An altered pass is any situation where a defender has forced the QB to change

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his arm angle, trajectory, or follow through. There are a few simple concepts for these two disruptions.

Condense the pocket: An offensive lineman’s helmet is just as effective as our hand to limit a QB’s follow through.

Opposite hand up: We want to rush the QB hard and put our left hand up and in front of the throwing lane in the case of a right-handed QB. Never leave your feet in this situation.

Both hands and jump: If, at the last moment before the QB releases the ball, a blocker is square in front of the defender, the defender should raise both hands and elevate like a volleyball block to obstruct the passing lane.

5. Scoring: Another part of our defensive philosophy is to score touchdowns. Most of these come from interceptions, but we try to take advantage of other opportunities like loose fumbles and blocked punts.

Here’s our basic philosophy on scooping and scoring fumbles; If a ball is loose and we are the closest player in an open-field situation, our players will get one chance to field the ball cleanly on the run. If it is bobbled or dropped, we tell them to get down on the ball.

On any return of a takeaway, the blocking is the key to scoring. The most important part of this is to first convince players that just getting the ball back isn’t good enough and everyone’s block could make the difference.

Secondly, the player with the ball makes a call so that all players are aware of the turnover and can block to score.

Many teams use BINGO or something similar. After hearing a BINGO, players have to get to the nearest numbers on the field. They have to establish a clean path between the sideline and numbers. We call it clearing the sidewalk for the president.

I hope these concepts and drills can help your team win more games. Thanks for reading!

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