With the majority of high schools across the country emptying out at the end of this month, it’s important to keep the football momentum rolling into the summer.

The constant battles of vacation, summer baseball and AAU tournaments rarely place our units in full attendance, so it’s imperative to keep the players that are there fresh and excited about playing football.

I realize that there are different philosophies on how much work high school programs should get done during the summer. I’ve been at both ends of the spectrum. I’ve been in programs where we’ve practiced in full pads for four days a week, which wore down players. I’ve also been involved with programs that rarely saw their players during the summer, which caused an enormous rift in the player/coach relationship.

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I’ve always felt there are two vital pieces in developing summers sessions: keeping players fresh and letting them have fun. Here are the five most important defensive components we need to do with our players in the summer to get them prepared in the fall.

Tackling in shorts

Teaching doesn’t have to be done at full speed. In fact, it rarely is. There is no better way to build fundamentals and perfect technique than to provide drill work that can be simulated without pads.

There are plenty of drills available that are limited or non-contact, including dozens at the USA Football video library.  Regardless of how your program teaches tackling, the following phases can be done during the summer on bags or on air:

• Teaching the breakdown phase where players get in an athletic position.
• Teaching players to close the distance to the ball-carrier when preparing for an open-field tackle.
• Teaching the rip phase of tackling on a shield, bag or practice dummy.

Pursuit

Teaching players how to run to the football is a premium, so I make it a point not only to introduce our defenders to the concept of running the ball down but to teach them the proper pursuit angles in doing so.

This is a 10-minute period that is part of every summer session.

In order to combat the monotony of running a basic pursuit drill, I often picked teams and put them on a stopwatch to get them to compete to see who finishes first. Two of the more common pursuit drills include:

• Rabbit drills. All defensive players take their alignments. The ball is pitched to a ball-carrier (rabbit), who runs down the sideline while defenders work to take proper angle and cut him off. The rule is not to cross the face of another defender.
• Cone drills. Similar to the rabbit drill but 11 cones are set up on either side of the sideline in five-yard increments. Now, defenders are assigned a cone to run to. We often put units on the clock on this one, stopping time when the last defender gets to his assigned cone.

Alignment period

Regardless of the defensive system you are running, it’s important to teach players how to get aligned to the formations they will see in the fall. This is another 10-minute, low-tempo period that can be done in the summer months.

We have two offensive groupings running back-to-back formations, forcing our unit to get aligned quickly. This is a scripted session where we focus on two seasonal opponents per session. We go through their top formations and motions and work through the coverages and checks we anticipate using during that game week.

It helps provide players with some early recognition so that that they are not seeing it for the first time during prep week.

Compete drills

This may be one of the more important things we do during summer sessions.

It’s important to keep your players hungry during what could be a long summer. Once 7-on-7 sessions are over, there is a significant interim before kicking the ball off in late August or early September.

In order to keep that fire burning, we will have some competition drills with our players. The possibilities are endless – we’ve even done thumb wrestling competitions in the past. Here are a few staples.

• Angle races. One offensive player aligns on the numbers at the 40-yard line with one defender five yards in front of him at the 35 and on the hash. On command, the ball-carrier sprints to the end zone as fast as he can while the defender has to tag him before he reaches the end zone. It’s a good way to teach proper pursuit angles.
• 50/50 balls. This can be done one-on-one or as a relay. Have both defenders start on their knees facing a coach. The coach rolls the ball out in front of them, simulating a fumble while defenders scramble to recover. Watch the pace and energy. Remind players we are in shorts, and the No. 1 goal is don’t hurt yourself or your teammate.

The fun factor

This is something we may not do every session in the summer, but typically during the latter part of a long week, it can be something to break up the monotony.  

It usually comes at the end of a session to provide players with that “feel good” feeling before they break for the weekend. Sometimes we’ll even provide ice cream to the wining groups. Examples include:

• Flag football. We like to use flags instead of touch because breaking down to grab a flag teaches defenders the proper leverage to make a tackle. We don’t play with offensive lines on this one. Everyone is a receiver. This also a good way to gauge athleticism for possible position battles in the fall.
• Kicking competitions. Players have fun with this one. We’ll separate the team into groups and have a place kicking for distance and accuracy competition as well as a punting competition.
• Ultimate Frisbee. Now you’ll really find out who is athletic. Kids love it.

The goal is to let your players have fun in the summer while they are improving their skills. After all, you want them to come back to you in the fall.

Use these activities to build camaraderie and momentum into the fall season.

Mike Kuchar is co-founder and senior research manager at XandOLabs.com, a private research company specializing in coaching concepts and trends. Reach him at mike@xandolabs.com  or follow him on Twitter @mikekkuchar.