How Football Players Can Improve Their Skills Through Utilizing Training Done For Other Sports

Sports stars often times utilize cross training techniques in other sports to help them in their primary sport. When athletes are younger playing as many sports as possible can allow a child to learn skills that can help them across different sports. Football players are no different as many are great athletes in the NFL who played other sports in high school and even college for a select few. Improving on a facet of athletic ability can have a big impact on your game or even a slight improvement that makes a large difference. The following are ways that football players can improve their skills through training done in other sports.

Boxing For Conditioning And Hand Speed

There is a lot of fighting for position and punching out balls for receivers as well as those playing defense in the secondary. Boxing is debatably the best sport for conditioning as hitting a punching bag for even a minute can tire out some of the world’s best athletes. Jump roping can be a good way to get into condition and can help a person be fast off of the line. This does not mean that you have to spar but rather focus on the conditioning that boxers often do as it will make you tougher as a football player both physically and mentally.

Basketball For Conditioning And Explosiveness

There are countless NFL players that were also elite basketball players from Tony Gonzales to Randy Moss. Basketball and going up to catch a ball are very similar with many receivers having elite athleticism on the basketball court as well as the football field. Odell Beckham Jr. has be videoed dunking the ball in ways that a decent percentage of NBA players cannot even do. Basketball is great for football whether it is a rebounding drill or using the change of direction in football that many players use in basketball. Even elite basketball players like LeBron James played wide receiver at a high level and would have played football if basketball was not only more profitable but he could have gone pro after college…plus he was much better at basketball.

Help Keeping Weight Down Through Swimming

A great lineman can do a much better swim move if they actually get into the pool. Swimming workouts allow a player that could be vastly overweight to exercise without impacting their joints in a negative way. The fact that swimming is low impact on the joints is the reason that so many players rehab injuries in the pool. Difficult footwork can be done in the pool as well before on land to reduce the chance of injury. There are certain sweeping blocks that a player might have to make that could test their abilities. Practicing this in the pool before on land can reduce the chance s for a mistake during a live action play in practice.

Try A Few Wrestling Workouts

Understanding leverage is important for anyone that is going to block and grip strength is as well. Wrestling is a perfect example of a sport that can help an offensive lineman or a receiver that has had trouble blocking in the past. Being able to wrestle an entire match will get a football player ready for a very intense game. While these are very different sports wrestling includes rounds that are minutes long while football is played for seconds at a time. Being able to go with full effort for an entire game can allow a player to make one or two plays that can impact the outcome of a game. If you are an athlete that frequently come into the season out of shape, have them doing wrestling type workouts to keep their weight in check.

Soccer For Various Reasons

Soccer can help with conditioning for obvious reasons but also footwork. Running backs utilizing soccer can allow themselves to use jukes that are not always seen in football as they are primarily done on the soccer pitch. Linebackers doing goalie drills might be able to improve their reaction time when swatting at a ball that is quickly thrown by a quarterback. The right soccer cleats will be necessary if playing but if only doing goalie drills normal football cleats could suffice. Kickers at times have soccer backgrounds and soccer balls can be controlled far easier than footballs. Take the time as a kicker to master kicking everything and anything as you never know how the wind will impact a kick so get your leg ready for anything.

Being the best athlete possible is important in all sports and this is often lost for many athletes. No coach is going to be upset that you used other sports practices to improve your conditioning or strength. All a coach cares about is improvement and performance of their players.