May 28, 20197 yr Following a forum hosted by the NFL in Atlanta on April 17th, which invited past and present NFL owners, trainers, coaches, and players to attend and discuss training camp drills, Roger Goodell has confirmed that the league has now issued official recommendations to teams that will effectively ban 4 old-school traditional drills due to consistently reported high rates of concussions during the early portions of training camp, when the drills have traditionally been most frequently utilized. The drills include the Oklahoma Drill, Bull In The Ring, the Half-Line Drill, and the Nutcracker Drill. OKLAHOMA DRILL: [video=youtube;i1-Kn5-c1qw]
May 28, 20197 yr How much do these drills really happen in the NFL any longer? Not saying it is right or wrong, but the players have practically negotiated out much of the daily contacts we associate with football. There are already limits with the amount of practices you can have in pads. Beyond training camp, I am not sure there is much physical contact the remainder of the season outside of Sundays.
May 28, 20197 yr Soft. How are the players to learn how to handle those situations in a game if they don't practice them? On the high school level - from my experience - there was nothing better than those drills to get a team fired up and cohesive. The video had a different "bull in the ring" than what I recall. The version we did had one player in the middle of a circle consisting of maybe 12-15 other players with the radius being about 6-8 yards. The players in the ring would run at the guy in the middle who had to ward them off---with forearms and shoulders in those days. Sometimes the guys on the circle would charge in order - like the movement of the hand of a clock. Other times, to make it more interesting, the coaches would assign each ring player a number, and then randomly call out a number, e.g., "6" , "1" , "11" , etc. It would be up to the guy in the middle to turn quickly enough to take on the charging ring player. His success depended in part on how fast the coaches called the numbers. I don't know if those were the good old days or not but bull in the ring was an exhilarating experience.
May 28, 20197 yr I didn't realize the NFL even practiced in full gear any more. But in all seriousness, I don't get getting rid of the half-line drill? I liked the Oklahoma drill, because at least it had some merit to a realistic play in football (ie goal line) but the only hitting the NFL will do will be on Sunday's. There professionals so I guess they can get away with as little practice as possible when it comes to contact.
May 28, 20197 yr Soft. I agree. We did all of those drills in high school. Thinking reflectively, those drills could be pretty rough and I honestly I felt a little bad for some others at times. Back to the NFL, I wonder what they do in place of those type of drills?
May 28, 20197 yr HALF LINE DRILL: [video=youtube;v83-tboWUeo] I really don't see anything wrong with this drill. I don't see anything wrong with any mentioned in this thread to be honest.
May 28, 20197 yr I really don't see anything wrong with this drill. I don't see anything wrong with any mentioned in this thread to be honest. The half line drill is useful. The nutcracker and bull in the ring really serve no football purpose other than have kids run into each other. Those two drills were often used in the old days to "toughen" up kids. Bull in the Ring especially could be cruel, especially to the less talented kids. Any contact drill can be dangerous if you're not managing the matchups properly.
May 28, 20197 yr The half line drill is useful. The nutcracker and bull in the ring really serve no football purpose other than have kids run into each other. Those two drills were often used in the old days to "toughen" up kids. Bull in the Ring especially could be cruel, especially to the less talented kids. Any contact drill can be dangerous if you're not managing the matchups properly. One just has to be prepared before going on that football field or one could get hurt. If you're the weaker link on the field, opposition will definitely take advantage of it.
May 28, 20197 yr One just has to be prepared before going on that football field or one could get hurt. If you're the weaker link on the field, opposition will definitely take advantage of it. You can get hurt if you are prepared. There’s a fine line between preparation, and being beat up. Too often with these types of drills, they are done simply for the sake of having contact, and done for too long and/or not managed properly. Even worse, sometimes these drills have been done to teach kids a lesson, as punishment, or end up as form of bullying the “weaker link”, to “toughen” them up. I understand that your opponent will take advantage of your weaknesses. Putting a kid through Bull n the Ring though isn’t going to make him a better football player physically or mentally. That’s not coaching kids up...that’s beating them up.
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