SCOOP BLOCKING: Part 3 - Drills

DRILLS

There are 3 main SCOOP drills that we do.  We also do 2 other drills to get the OL used to the type of pad level and "get off" that we're looking for in all of our blocks.  I work almost all of our drills in the chutes (bascially two 10' X 10' squares of pipe or steel tubing joined together to form a 10' X 20' chute with six 4' legs).

TRAINING DRILLS:

1. BEAR CRAWLS - This helps to improve the shoulder strength of our OL and also get them used to the type of forward lean we're looking for when they come out of their stance.  We run our Bear Crawls down the long part of our chute (20') and go with 2 guys at a time.  It usually becomes a race (loser does 2-5 up-downs).
2. 3&3 DRILL - OL will come out of their stance and sprint for 3 steps and then Bear Crawl for 3 "hand" steps and then try to sprint the rest of the way to a bag or dummy lying on the ground.  The biggest key is that they OL need to feel like they're constantly falling forward on this drill, almost out of control.  This drill will be in the short part of the chute (10') and we'll go 2 guys at a time (left square of chute first and then I'll move over to the right square).  OL will start with their body outside of the chute, hand even with the edge.  This is also usually a race.  First guy to touch the bag wins.  Loser does up-downs.
3. SCOOP 3&3 - Same concept as the previous drill, but now we are going to take Scoop steps with it instead of straight ahead steps.  It would be 3 Scoop steps, 3 Bear Crawl "hand" steps and then sprint to bag.  We do these in our chute.  See the picture below for drill setup.*****Drill Setup for Scoop to the right:  Two lines of OL.  One OL on Middle near leg of chute (inside of it) with butt cheeks on the chute leg.  Another OL on the Left near leg of chute (inside).  Short board placed at a 45 degree angle towards the Middle far leg of the chute for the Left OL and towards the Right far leg of the chute.  Stepover bags will be placed outside the far end of the chute at the edge.  The should be placed 5' or so from the Middle far leg and the Right far leg.  At the far end of the stepover, we will place a hand shield (ours will standup on their own) right inside the stepover (between the stepover and the chute leg).

SCOOP DRILLS:

1. Hand Shield - We put a defender on the outside edge of the chute with a hand shield.  The defender holds the hand shield in one hand and lifts both hands away from his body 45 degrees extended.  The OL begins the drill in the chute, aligned on the defenders empty hand.  On the snap count, the OL will take the 45-60-90 steps past the defender’s body and then try to tunnel upfield through the hand shield.  I want them to throw both hands and their body upfield like Superman.  If they hit the ground, I want them to bear crawl out of it and get running.
2. Towel Drill - A lot of people run this drill outside the chutes, but you can also do it inside the chute.  You can do it with 2 or 3 OL at a time.  Navy has some cutups of them using 3 OL (Center, Guard, Tackle) working together on it.  Towels that have been taped up are used for players to grab with their backside arm as they rip on their 2nd to 3rd step.  Under the chutes, we normally work the drill with 2 OL at a time.  We'll work them both sides, alternating as they rip thru and pick up the towel.  You could do the drill with 3 OL at a time, but I'd probably only go in one direction at a time.  If you run 3 at a time, then the Center would align on the middle leg of the chute, Guard on the middle of half of the chute and Tackle would align on outside leg of chute.  Players would Scoop towards the interior of the chute.
3. Cut Drill - For the Cut scoop, we work a cut drill in the chutes, as well.  We place a cut bag on top of a stepover bag.  We lean the cut bag against the edge of the chute so it stands up by itself.  The OL line up in the chute and on the snap count they execute the Cut steps.  For tight scoops, we usually work those in a group drill outside the chutes where we can go over certain defensive looks.  Again, we work very hard to ensure both OL are making contact through the hip to thigh area.  This helps to cut down on hi-lo calls and it also helps us get more movement on the DL.  Our lead man on the tight scoop also has a better chance to come off to the next level when staying lower.