The players love doing this drill that we call the Big Man Duel. It is a great way to improve both the offensive and defensive line players and at the same time, incorporating a competitive influence.
Big Man Duel
EQUIPMENT-You need one stand alone weighted tackling dummy, 1 football, and 4 players.
ALIGNMENT-Two offensive linemen stand 7 yards in front of the dummy with roughly 5 yards between each lineman, essentially making a triangle. We then put 1 defensive lineman directly in front of the offensive lineman.
EXECUTION-The coach calls for an outside rush or an inside rush so that both D linemen are using the same pass-rush technique.
The offensive Line simply pass sets and works them to their “outside” regardless of whether we call an inside or outside rush for the defense. I want the O line feeling as though they are taking their guy to the outside each time regardless of whether it is to their left or right.
On the snap, the defenders are in pure pass rush mode and the first player to make a TACKLE, not make contact with an arm, on the dummy, wins. The 2nd player owes 5 pushups or up downs, depending on the coaches pre-drill preference. The Offensive line then subs out to the back of the line, the defenders become the OL.
I do not always use a conditioning penalty of pushups or up downs.
To change the drill you can place a football on top of the dummy so that the first player makes the Tackle, and the 2nd recovers the fumble without any sort of penalty for being 2nd.
RESULTS-This drill has improved our DL handspeed, made our pass rush more effective, and helped with players finding the ball on fumbles. Our OL gets to rep the pass drops and pass blocking while both sides benefit from the 1 on 1 competition, and the players have fun motivating each other and cheering on their peers.
To end the Drill we always take the 2 rushers who performed the best during the days drill and have one final rep against our best 2 OL of the day, and the players make their bets on who will win, the winning side gets to determine if the losing side does 5 updowns or pushups.
One final note, the updowns or pushups are tallied and done in full at the completion of the drill, rather than having 1 player do 5 at a time throughout the drill itself.
