After watching what has widely been panned as an uninspiring kick-off to College football, I thought it would be a great time to review a few FITLIGHT® drills that could help football players get game ready and possibly avoid some embarrassing mistakes. For this post, let’s focus on the QB position.
QBs have arguably the crucial need for excellent spatial awareness, reaction time, inhibitory response and visual motor accuracy. They study routes and learn to anticipate where their targets should be and when, but also have to act on the fly when their field is covered in a sea of the opposing colors and moving targets. Here’s a few QB drills to get the cognitive wheels turning. My favorite set up for QB drills is in the field house with FITLIGHT® stretched across the back wall. If secured well, the QB can throw a ball at full speed to deactivate the sensors.
Reaction and Choice Discrimination Drill
The ball is hiked and the sensors begin to light up. The lights will flash on and off again in different colors and the ball is only to be thrown at one specific colored target. It won’t be lit (open) for long before the light is gone. QB 1 must accurately complete as many of the target lights as possible in a given sequence. For comparison and competition, QB2 will have his shot to outperform him in the next round.
Route Remix Drill
In order to visualize a given route, the ball Is hiked and the sensors will be timed to light up at the time the designated route should be engaged. Several sensors may be near the designated target, but beware of the wrong color targets that may show up, causing the QB to choose an alternate open target when his target light appears somewhere else. The idea is to be ready for the unexpected and have impeccable accuracy.
Pass Rush Pressure Drill
To add a simulation of defensive pressure and pocket presence to any accuracy drills, place two lights (on stands, tackling dummies, etc.) on the line of scrimmage representing the left and right-side pass rushers. Starting on the hike, time one of the lights to flash red, indicating a pass rush, which signals the QB to roll away from the rush while completing the drill. He can run any of his FITLIGHT® drills with the added pressure of needing to find his open target before the defense finds him. This is a great way to add footwork and dynamic vision development to any other drills you may be running.
The idea here is that we can have engaging cognitive drills without the need for the rest of the team, and also give the same drill to multiple QBs for reps and comparative analytics. We all love a good QB competition!
Better have at least 2 sets of FITLIGHT® available, because speaking of pass rush pressure, Offensive Lines that need to do a better job of protecting their QB may want to do some reaction time drills as well!
Here’s to more impressive performances coming this week. Here’s hoping your team can SEE THE LIGHT!
Charge on,
