How To Become a Great Player On Defense

 How To- A Great Defensive Player

    How to become a great football player is tough and requires so much time and experience that's why making the NFL and having dreams of getting paid to play football are not easily accomplished. However, we still see thousands of people every year do it and even more so throughout High School and College get good opportunities to do so. It's attainable and not out of reach but extremely difficult. Making it to the position of being in the NFL or getting paid to play football is hard enough but becoming a Great one is just that much more demanding. So what does it take? I'd be lying if I said it didn't take some God-given athletic ability but this isn't the only necessary requirement nor is it a 'end all be all' if you don't have it. We see so many examples of players in high school, youth leagues and even the best universities that are extremely gifted but just can't make it to the league or fail to have any success in the league. We also have seen just as many cases of not very physically gifted players having so much success in the NFL so what is the secret. It's hard work. Obviously! But what does that hard work look like and where should the energy be placed to get better and better is the question. 

    How to become a great on the defensive side of the ball requires some mental fortitude, real toughness, a different kind of drive, and a desire to take people down. If you don't want to get ball carrier on the ground with everything you have, they probably won't let you; and tackling another man running at you full speed willing to do anything to score isn't an easy task but if you want to bury him as bad as he wants to score you should like your odds. You have to have some of those mental traits because if you don't you'll probably end up on offense. I'm not saying you don't have to be tough to play offense because you have to be all those things to play football at the end of the day but there is a difference between running away and avoiding people coming after you, and running straight at someone like a heat seeking missile with the intent to bury them. But lets get into the details now. Tackling! You have to able to tackle now not all tackles are the same nor do they have to be pretty or highlight reels every time you make them. Just make the tackle get ball carrier down. 

    How to tackle- 1. Keeping your head up and out of the tackle. Too often do players lead with their head and either get a concussion or knocked out or hopefully not but hurt their neck or spine, get a penalty-it does no good if your flagged and ejected from the game, or whiff and miss because their eyes aren't up and they can't see what they are hitting.  2. Lowering your shoulder/ Tackling behind your pads/ Using your shoulder pads 3. Wrapping up. You have to wrap up on contact when you hit a guy with your pads but don't wrap up usually they just bounce off the hit and keep going. A strong clamp after leading with your pads usually results in a tackle. 4. Driving through with your feet after your clamp or taking more steps. Don't stop your feet on contact but keep them moving that way after your clamp your stopping and opposing the ball carriers momentum instead of letting him continue to drive his feet. All of those will help secure a tackle but how to approach a tackle or the approach of the ball carrier that way you can use all the prior steps given. Those steps don't help if every time your approaching the ball carrier you miss. You have to take the fight to him you cant stand there and wait for him to get to you. You have to beat him to where he's going or go meet him where he is at. Where should you aim to be in proportion to him or what path should you take to him.  Aim for his near hip. His hip nearer to you would mean his backside hip or the hip opposite the direction he's running to. Taking this path will not allow for the ball carrier to cut back inside or juke you. If he attempts to he runs right into you and you will probably have a highlight tackle and you will also close the space on him if he keeps running away from you till you get to the point that you can make the tackle. But either way once you reach him you keep the 4 steps in mind and should make good tackles.

    That's just the basics tackling and toughness are just the 2 basic necessities but what else goes into it. Well it's time to talk about excelling in the intricacies. The things that take players from good to great, because a lot of players have enough athletic ability as well as mental toughness and good tackling but they don't all go to the league. Lets Start. Play recognition the ability to see a offenses play before or while it's developing and know what it is and what you need to do to stop it is an insanely good trait and probably 1 at the top of the list. Formation recognition, knowing personnel, knowing down and distance, reading your keys and using all this information to help you see what's happening as the ball is snapped is apart of play recognition. For example if the offense is in 10 personnel meaning 1 running back and 4 wide receivers giving an empty look on 4th and 3 well this one is quite easy there's only a couple things you know you can get- and you narrow those down based on the offenses tendencies which you find out through watching film we'll get to that - like a pass possibly quick slants, out routes, hitches, rub routes some thing quick short and easy that way you can convert a big 4th down or if the offense likes the look in the "box" (the players lined up within 5 yards of the offensive line) because the defense is short and spread out due to the empty look they may try a QB draw while this is dangerous if the offense has a mobile QB its pretty effective. But these are all things you have to understand going into the play to let you have good play recognition and play good defense. Watching film goes into play recognition, the reason you need to watch film is to be able to play with good play recognition during the game. Watching film allows you to recognize plays based on all of these keys.

Understanding your position. If you do everything stated above and know your position. Your assignment on said play like what to do, do you cover on this play do you rush the QB do you drop to a zone or do you fill a gap. If you know your position and what you are suppose to do and use the information stated throughout all of this article you will be a great football player on the defensive side of the ball.

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