Youth football wide receivers must be taught how to release from the line of scrimmage against the press technique as there seems to be more and more defenses who are using the press technique to disrupt the timing of pass routes. Your passing game will be a wild scramble if your receivers are not where you want them at the time you want them there The first thing we teach to our receivers is to make sure that they have almost all their weight directly over their front (inside for us) foot with the knee bent at ninety degrees. This is done to help prevent the receiver from wasting steps while getting ready to release into his route.

Most of our opponents are teaching the press technique with the defensive back aligning slightly to the inside of our receivers. The footwork for our receivers is first to step with the outside foot. This is also the first step we use when asking our wide receiver to block that defensive back to the inside for our sweep play. Next we ask our receivers to get their hands on the defensive back as quickly as possible. We want the receiver to make the first hand contact and this must be done before the receiver’s second step hits the ground.

From the hands-on contact we teach two techniques and both are similar to what you might already teach your defensive linemen when they pass rush the quarterback. I would suggest that you teach all of your receivers the “swim” (inside hand stays in contact with the defender while the outside hand and arm swing over the defender’s inside shoulder and the “rip” (again, inside hand stays in contact while the outside hand and arm rip up under the defender’s inside arm pit). Both techniques can be also taught (just reverse the hand placements) when you desire to have your wide receivers release to the outside (fade route).

Some of your receivers may like one technique over the other, but will need to be proficient at either to escape from the good “pressing” defensive back.

Related Sites

• Football Drills for the Wide Receiver – Wide receiver drills should emphasize taking the proper stance, getting off the line of scrimmage quickly and cleanly, running pass routes that are precise and well-time, and blocking, according to football drills expert Tom Bass …
• Youth Receiver Drills – The two most important fundamentals for a youth football receiver are the ability to get open and the ability to catch the ball. In order to consistently get open, a receiver needs to be quick off the line, run the correct routes, and be able to accelerate explosively after creating space.

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