JAMBO Practice - Hand Shields and Drills

It is hard to imagine a modern training in any kind of sport without equipment. Great investment or a large space is not always essential for an effective training and comprehensive development.

As a very complex sport American football draws training's inspirations from practically all sports' disciplines, from martial arts to tennis. The key to the great psycho-physical development  of any athlete is the variety of different sports, techniques and training methods.

Hand Shields are absolutely versatile and universal training aid and a good economic solution, which can be used during training, at any position in the American football.

You can find here a very simple exercise that combines physical coordination, that requires an absolute concentration on the details.

To do this exercise you will need:

Divide the Hand Shield into several zones clockwise or counter-clockwise. Each zone should have its own number –  from 4 to 7 zones (zone 7 is exactly the middle of Hand Shield).

The main goal of the athlete facing the coach in the 2-point stance position is to hit or touch (the technique  depends on the position and expectations) the numbered zones, according to the combination given by the coach.

You should start with the 4 numeral combinations, for instance: 3142 or 2314

The exercise should be performed continuously  until it is stopped by the coach. When the player makes a mistake during this exercise, he must return to the specified combination as soon as possible. Exercise is replaced by a new combination when the competitor has mastered the previous one, performs it automatically  and achieved the level of concentration that we expected.

Due to the player's development, we can add the next zone (zone 5,6,7) or increase the amount of combinations, for instance 41324 or 21231 and so on.

This exercise does not require a lot of time , 3-4 minutes, 2 times a week and will give excellent results after about 2-3 workouts, compared to the first workout. I recommend athletes to record the first, third and fifth training session to observe how quickly they have improved their skills of:

-  the  speed
-  the accuracy of an impact
-  the improvement of target's concentration techniques and exclusion of external stimuli

After exercising regularly you will see the biggest improvement in the rate of Defensive and Offensive linear reactions in direct combat.