Ball Security Refresher Course

It's all Ball Security these days!  Perhaps you need a refresher course!

Thanks to Chris at Smart Football for giving me a refresher course with this article link.  After reading the article I realized, "I was wrong!  There is a better way to hold on to the football!"  Let me show you the old way that I learned from a national championship coach:

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I have two hands on the football in the picture above and this is not awful, but I have both an upward force and a downward force on the football.  Tyrone Willingham has a RB video that talks about the instability created by having your arms work against each other with the football in the middle.  Below is the way that LSU RB Coach Frank Wilson describes from the above article link that I believe is the best way to hold onto the football:

Besides the superior picture quality of my new laptop vs. my old laptop, the new method has some advantages over the old method.  First, both of my arms are working to press the ball upward against my chest.  This helps to keep the football tighter to my chest (Fundamental #3).  Second, and even more importantly, this method helps to keep my wrist above my elbow (Fundamental #2) unlike the previous picture where my top hand is pushing my wrist down to where it is almost below my elbow.  I re-did the video and added the corrections.

Fundamentals of Ball Security - Barry Hoover from Barry Hoover on Vimeo.

This link should allow you to download this video.  To download any Google Drive file from this website, go to the top left of the page, click on File then on Download.

Fundamentals of Ball Security:

1. Two Finger Claw
2. Wrist Above Elbow
3. Ball Tight to Chest
4. Tuck Elbow In
5. Opposite Hand Over Football on Contact
6. Keep Pads Low

Fumbles - I from Barry Hoover on Vimeo.

This Sports Science video with Rudi Johnson has MMA guys trying to knock out the football in an old-fashioned gauntlet drill.  To see how they do actually knock the ball out, go to the 7:00 mark.