Catching a football comes naturally to some, while it looks clunky for others. Receiving the football is a skill, and it needs to be trained as a skill.
In this article, we’re going to show you how you can train the skill of catching a football with your players.
How To Improve Catching Ability
To improve your wide receiver’s catching abilities, you’ll need to put them through a series of drills.
We like to build the progression so players can gain confidence and feel comfortable attacking the football, no matter where it is.
First, you’ll want to practice and demonstrate the types of catches that your wide receivers are going to commonly see. We’ve made a list of them here.
Practice Catching
The best way to practice catching a football is to catch a football.
While the belief that tennis balls will help with hand-eye coordination is true, we’re not catching tennis balls in a game. We’re catching footballs. So while it can be helpful in that scenario, it doesn’t translate to the football field as well as catching an actual football will.
The first drill is to stand 5 yards away from your receiver and lightly throw him the football. The aiming point for each throw should be above their head, at their head, and below their thighs.
As a stationary target, the receiver should be as romantic as they can when they bring their eyes to the football. Overexaggerate each catch and watch it all the way in. Do 10 throws at each target and make them catch the football, and tuck it away. Every catch should always finish with a tuck.
Next, turn their body to the left and right so they only have 1 eye on the football. They will still be stationary. But this will train the body how to track the football from the side. The shape of their hands will change as they catch from a different location.
Train 10 throws high, 10 at their head, and 10 at their thighs, so they have to change hand location.
Once they feel comfortable catching the football, have them move side to side at 90 degrees, training the same angles.
Last, turn their body so their backs are to the quarterback/coach. Work 10 throws over the shoulder from both the left and right. Similar to how we trained the other throws, do 10 stationary, then 10 on the move. Switch sides and do the same.
Once you’ve gone through this progression, the player will have seen over 100+ catches at different angles. After practice, our receivers will do this just to ensure they are seeing footballs come at them from every angle.
Inside our membership vIQtory Pro, you’ll find exact instructions and tutorials on how to turn average wide receivers into dominant targets that can win vs any coverage.
To learn more about wide receiver techniques, read these articles next: