Low Balls
By
bending the knees low, receiver can easily catch low balls. He shouldn’t bend
from the waist, but from the knees. “Be lower than you think you need to be”,
so that the ball can be easily received as you are lower.
The
receiver tries to scoop the ball up but they end up batting the ball down
instead several times so getting low for catching the ball is the key to
receiving low balls.
If the
ball is at the side and low, then receiver needs to set himself up aligning the
ball ahead. Catching the ball from the side is difficult and it has low rate of
success. So, only as a last option, receiver should catch the ball from the
side instead of aligning himself up ahead.
Most of
the times, the ball is thrown far at the side due to which the receiver should
keep his arms highly extended. It then helps to scoop up instead of batting
down. After receiving, receiver must turn to his side, which protects him from
getting knocked out of breath. It also helps to keep the ball hitting away from
ground just in case he doesn’t get a grip on the ball. As the referee cannot
have clear vision of it most of the times, the receiver should practice holding
the ball up to demonstrate the control of it.
Balls Thrown Behind the Receiver
Quarterback
trainers spends hours training quarterback to lead receiver when the football
is thrown.
Balls
are generally thrown just behind the receiver in such a way that he’s forced to
get his body back to catch the ball. The regular high- and low-ball rules hand
position in this catch is followed. Despite of this kind of catch being
difficult to catch it’s frequently drilled. Including these as warm-up before
games is essential. Getting those hips flipping and up is important.
As a
fade route versus man to man coverage, some passes are thrown purposely behind.
Defender being in a full speed he doesn’t see the ball. So, to receive the
ball, the defender gets his hand behind quickly.
Over-the-Shoulder Balls
Hand
position is pinkie fingers together and palms upwards to catch an
over-the-shoulder ball on routes like the post, corner and fade. The receiver’s
eye must notice the trajectory as the ball gets to him from the shoulder and
above. He should bring the ball straight to the body as he moves the ball to
the tucking position. One key point to be insured is that he should keep his
hands up only at the end. It slows down the receiver and there is high chance
of overthrown ball when his hands are out.
Adjusting to Off-Target Balls
Looking
for pass just over his inside shoulder a receiver might run deep, Just to
realize that the pass will come over his soldier. One good example is a
deep-post ball which quarterbacks overthrows outside but not leading the
receiver towards the middle in the field. The receiver should quickly know how
to adjust his path of football
.
In case
the ball is just off the correct path, the receiver should adjust his angle of
route the catch should be made as planned above inside his shoulder. It’s
called “adjusting to the ball.”
In case
the ball is off the path by too much then another kind of catch should be made.
This catch looks beautiful though. The receiver should splashdown to the area
to catch the ball by turning as quick as possible and should get his head
around fast with his eyes on the ball as well.
Sideline Balls
Most of
the times receiver will have to make a catch as he’s running on sidelines or
end of zone. In this kind of situation receiver has to make sure he has control
of ball and should catch the ball with one foot inside but both inside NFL. He
also should be juggling the ball at that situation. Receivers should mentally
have feelings of the boundary and should keep them inside.
Receivers
should also practice running on the sideline and making use of it. Rising their
toes and running also helps to reduce the stride length. This kind of drills
should be practiced a lot. It is necessary because receivers usually end up
looking at the line than the ball.
Also,
the balls that are thrown far are to be caught by stretching out. Also, making
sure to practicing toe-drag a lot helps.
