Defensive Linemen Drills - Making the Sack

Defensive linemen love to sack the quarterback, just ask Warren Sapp. Unfortunately, not enough defensive linemen train to specifically get better at sacking. Sacks come to those who are powerful, smart and tenacious. Use this drill to practice speed and tenacity and see your sack stats fly up next season.

The Set Up

Set up one cone and a sled 15 yards away. If you do not have access to a sled, set up a barbell for indoors or a bag of concrete for outdoors.

The Drill

Starting at the cone, bear crawl as quickly as possible to the sled. When you get to the sled explode up out of your stance and drive. Put the sled back and repeat until your legs and shoulders melt. If you use a barbell or bag, explosively clean and press when you get to it. This is a good drill to do in sets and reps. The reps one after the other will get you used to game time when plays are done without much rest. Try 2 sets of 5 and work your way up from there.

The Benefit

The first part of this drill, the bear crawl, will tire your legs, core and shoulders, just like trying to get off a block on the line. Doing it quickly will instill the urgency you will need to get to the quarterback. Quarterbacks are taught to release the ball in less than 4 seconds, so you need to move to get there in time. Exploding into the sled is when you finally get off of your block and hit the quarterback. Many defensive linemen believe that once they get a hand on a quarterback, they will go down. This is a surefire way to embarrass yourself on the field. Quarterbacks are getting bigger and more mobile, so defensive linemen need to work harder to make the sack. By exploding out of your stance and driving the sled, you will teach yourself to follow through on the hit so he goes down. Also, by exploding out of whatever stance you are in when you get there, you simulate game time, when you will probably not be in a perfect stance when you get to the quarterback.

Modifications

As stated, if you do not have a sled use a barbell or bag of concrete to clean and press when you get there. Make sure the concrete is well taped so it doesn't burst. You can also clean and press the bag out away from you to more closely simulate a hit. To make this drill more difficult, you can clean and press a barbell before bear crawling to simulate a swim off of a block. Or you can drive a sled to the next sled to simulate a bull rush.