Coach? How do I play safety? I remember asking my dad this question when I first started playing football. I wanted to play the safety position from day one but I had no idea what I was doing. Imagine my confusion when my father answered my question with another question, "do you want to be a strong or a free safety?" My eyes grew round and I sputtered out a "uh.. uh... I dunno". My father laughed and he made me sit down.
"A free safety is the QB of the defence, he knows all the plays and coverage's. He is the last line of defence, he sits the furthest back and attacks when he knows where the ball is going. A strong safety on the other hand is more of a physical animal and is counted on to help out with the run game and sometimes to cover the tight end. You need to be fast and have quick feet to play either position but you also need to be big enough to tackle and drag down other players."
Being a brash 10 year old boy I knew I wanted to hit people so I set my mind on becoming a strong safety. One of the first things I learned was that I had to discover what the strong side of the play was. Typically the side with more players on it is the strong side, if it's a pass then more wide outs will be on that side and if it's a run then you will see more blockers on that side. There are traps and pull plays that are designed to move the strong side after the snap to catch the defence off guard. Once I learned how to do that I got better at figuring out what plays the other team was running and I was able to decide whether to cheat down into the box to stuff the run or whether I would back pedal into coverage.
A nice tip I was taught was to watch the tackle on the end, if he sits low and tries to move his defender out of the way it's probably a run but if he pops upright or steps back then he is dropping into pass protection. Do not take this as gospel however as a good coach will have trick plays up his sleeve to fool your eyes. When covering a receiver make sure you watch his hips as that is the best indicator you have of where he is going. Where his hips go so too does the rest of him.
If a receiver is your responsibility make sure you keep a good cushion of about 3-4 yards between you, if he starts to eat up your cushion then you need to pivot and start running as you can bet your ass he can outrun your back-pedal. Another very simple but overlooked is when you cut under receiver and go to make a play on the ball don't use your downfield hand. What I mean by this is use your hand closest to the line of scrimmage to swat the ball while keeping your other hand up on the player you are defending. If you use the other hand and miss the ball then your player is going to run the ball to the house and your coach is going to staple you to the bench.
One thing that you hear a lot is watch the QBs eyes. While that is useful what I have found is you are better off watching his shoulders. A good QB will look off defenders but he his shoulders have to lead the ball or else he will throw a shitty pass and it will get picked off. Watch the QBs reads and learn his tendencies, know what he will do before he does and you can get into his head and win the game.
As a defensive back your back-pedal is your life, work on it every day and never stop trying to get better. I start and end each practice with different drills to keep my legs in shape. Last thing I want to get tasked with covering a receiver late in the game and have spaghetti legs as he blows by me for the game winning score. The other drill to do every day is the classic tip-drill and no I ain't talking about that banging Nelly track. You get the DBs to line up in pairs and have your coach throw a ball, the first one tips the ball into the air and the second tries to catch it and then next time around you switch roles. I like this variation because it will turn your defence into ball hawking bad asses and teams will learn to hate playing against you.
My final piece of advice is the most important. DO NOT GET BEAT! ALWAYS BE THE LAST GUY BACK!
GRADED
"A free safety is the QB of the defence, he knows all the plays and coverage's. He is the last line of defence, he sits the furthest back and attacks when he knows where the ball is going. A strong safety on the other hand is more of a physical animal and is counted on to help out with the run game and sometimes to cover the tight end. You need to be fast and have quick feet to play either position but you also need to be big enough to tackle and drag down other players."
Being a brash 10 year old boy I knew I wanted to hit people so I set my mind on becoming a strong safety. One of the first things I learned was that I had to discover what the strong side of the play was. Typically the side with more players on it is the strong side, if it's a pass then more wide outs will be on that side and if it's a run then you will see more blockers on that side. There are traps and pull plays that are designed to move the strong side after the snap to catch the defence off guard. Once I learned how to do that I got better at figuring out what plays the other team was running and I was able to decide whether to cheat down into the box to stuff the run or whether I would back pedal into coverage.
A nice tip I was taught was to watch the tackle on the end, if he sits low and tries to move his defender out of the way it's probably a run but if he pops upright or steps back then he is dropping into pass protection. Do not take this as gospel however as a good coach will have trick plays up his sleeve to fool your eyes. When covering a receiver make sure you watch his hips as that is the best indicator you have of where he is going. Where his hips go so too does the rest of him.
If a receiver is your responsibility make sure you keep a good cushion of about 3-4 yards between you, if he starts to eat up your cushion then you need to pivot and start running as you can bet your ass he can outrun your back-pedal. Another very simple but overlooked is when you cut under receiver and go to make a play on the ball don't use your downfield hand. What I mean by this is use your hand closest to the line of scrimmage to swat the ball while keeping your other hand up on the player you are defending. If you use the other hand and miss the ball then your player is going to run the ball to the house and your coach is going to staple you to the bench.
One thing that you hear a lot is watch the QBs eyes. While that is useful what I have found is you are better off watching his shoulders. A good QB will look off defenders but he his shoulders have to lead the ball or else he will throw a shitty pass and it will get picked off. Watch the QBs reads and learn his tendencies, know what he will do before he does and you can get into his head and win the game.
As a defensive back your back-pedal is your life, work on it every day and never stop trying to get better. I start and end each practice with different drills to keep my legs in shape. Last thing I want to get tasked with covering a receiver late in the game and have spaghetti legs as he blows by me for the game winning score. The other drill to do every day is the classic tip-drill and no I ain't talking about that banging Nelly track. You get the DBs to line up in pairs and have your coach throw a ball, the first one tips the ball into the air and the second tries to catch it and then next time around you switch roles. I like this variation because it will turn your defence into ball hawking bad asses and teams will learn to hate playing against you.
My final piece of advice is the most important. DO NOT GET BEAT! ALWAYS BE THE LAST GUY BACK!
GRADED