Recently, I was part of a daylong Twitter chat that started with a simple poll on the usefulness of the Oklahoma drill.

It quickly became evident that many coaches have the mindset that is entrenched in the culture and environment in which they grew up. For most, that is an era when the game was played primarily between the tackles.

Board drills, Oklahoma drills and other head-to-head drills were the norm. At that time, there was not the same understanding of safe and proper techniques.

In the decades since, the game has greatly evolved, and so has our knowledge of health and safety. Still, some coaches insist on running these drills that put their players in the way of helmet to helmet contact.

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Many of the coaches in the Twitter conversation know and admit that the Oklahoma drill does nothing to teach fundamentals, techniques or system, so why use it?

A wide variety of answers were offered, but common themes revolved around getting the juices flowing, weeding out the weak players and “making men.”

Those are poor reasons to run any drill. And think to yourself: Are those answers I would offer to my parents or administrators, much less in a courtroom?

Unfortunately, in watching several college spring ball “hype videos” on social media, many lead the Oklahoma drill or something similar. As a coach we need to be more responsible in promoting the right way to play the game. Glamorizing these drills does not help the future of our sport.

In researching safety during the past year, I am encouraged by the amount of work being done by doctors, scientists and entrepreneurs – along with USA Football – to make our game safer. It is evident that the sports is important to many.

However, true change will only come through coaching. The safety of our players and the future of our sport is 100 percent in our hands as coaches.

Here are seven ways we can make the game safer:

• Remove the head as a tool for contact. Review every drills you run and techniques you teach that requires the head to be placed in a position in which it is utilized to initiate or be integrated in contact. Then change it.
• Find time for more technique practice, not less. The rules limiting contact are a stopgap reaction to the problem. Spending less time to practice and perfect technique does not make the game safer. Speaking with former NFL player, Scott Peters, he used an analogy of the Navy SEALs. They are the best because they train extensively with great detail. It’s not because we give them the best equipment. We can and should continue to work on equipment that will be safer, but an untrained player is more dangerous to himself and others than poor equipment. For our game to be safe, spending less time on technique will not help. Develop non-contact or light contact drills in which you can teach technique.

SEE ALSO: Take these drills an incorporate them into your practice plan

• Eliminate the mentality that we need to make our players tougher through drills. Toughness and confidence come from being trained properly. Drills such as those shown in the video below and the hits that occur should be eliminated. This goes back to the importance of great coaching. These are examples of very poor coaching.

• Teach in a progression for every skill. A skill may look simple, but it can be broken down into the steps necessary to execute it. The steps should involve creating muscle memory for the position that the body needs to be in to execute a technique properly. For example, a block requires the feet, hips and hands to be in certain positions. Each of those can be broken down into a drill that trains the feel of those positions.
• Teach a progression for every play concept. Whether it is how a run is fit defensively or how a blocking scheme is executed, there are a limited amount of scenarios that will happen on a given play. These scenarios should be the framework of drills that are set up with the technique being executed within the drill.
• Live scrimmaging is reserved to test scenarios. Rather than the place where they are taught. Scrimmage includes live blocking and tackling. It is not a time to be teaching anything.
• Utilize technology to teach technique. With a small amount of investment in time and money, every coach can be high tech. The answer is in each of our pockets on our smart phones. Apps allow us to video and even place video of correct technique next to the video of our player. Feedback is immediate and visual.

Keith Grabowski has been a football coach for 26 years, currently serving as an offensive assistant and technology coordinator at Oberlin College in Ohio. He previously was a head coach at the high school level for eight years and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Baldwin Wallace University. Grabowski serves as an advisor for several sports technology companies. He is a columnist for American Football Monthly and writes his own blog at thecoachesedge.com/blog. He’s the author of “101+ Pro Style Pistol Offense Plays” and five other books available on thecoachesedge.com and operates Coaches Edge Technologies. Follow him on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.