When the calendar flips to August, coaches usually start tossing and turning at night. Sometimes we lie awake as different schemes and drills occupy our minds, trying to dream up practices that will maximize our time on the field. Only days away from meeting a new team, one that will never again have the same collection of players, coaches, and staff, the importance of building a good team dynamic is definitely a primary focus and yet another cause for anxiety.
Additionally, we always know that the remaining summer heat will make it difficult, and sometimes dangerous, for us to push our players in the hopes of conditioning them for a long fall of weekly battles. My favorite special teams drill, which is easily adaptable to accommodate teams in all age ranges or talent levels, helps me sleep better at night because it tackles all three of these common worries. We try to run it at least once a week. We run it in spring practice, we run it during preseason camp, we run it through the season, and we actually ran it the week before a playoff game last November. We use it in place of conditioning, usually at the end of practice or after a competitive team session, and it goes beyond giving the players a good workout. What it really does for us, is bring our players together. That’s right, it is most valuable as a team-building or camaraderie boosting activity. We call it “Punt Downs.”
The drill is simple and competitive, and it teaches players an often overlooked but valuable skill. It involves everyone on the roster, and forces offensive tackles to work with (or compete directly against) defensive backs. The drill is run from near midfield, and, depending on the size of your roster, you can run a single drill using half the field, or run two drills simultaneously back-to-back using both halves of the field. Set up the drill by placing a snapper with a punter between the numbers and the hash marks on each side of the field. Split the remaining players in half (we usually do offense vs. defense, but during camp it is fun to do new players vs. returners, or in the middle of the season you can spice it up by doing starters vs. non-starters) and put them into lines, with two lines on each side of the snapper.
On a coach’s cadence, the snappers snap, the punters punt, and the four “coverage players” on each team charge down the field to try to down the punt. We award two points for a punt downed inside the 5-yard line, and one point for a punt downed between the 5 and 10-yard lines (zero points for anything else). Play to a set number of points and keep track until you have a winner! Our guys love it and get VERY competitive. You can add to the fun by allowing each team one or two “blockers” to impede the progress of the other team’s coverage or hurry the punter. Good luck with the drill and have fun out there!
