Drills you use to train footbag skills

If your club uses drills outside of game play to increase skill development, this is the thread in which to describe them. A separate thread in the videos sub-forum will allow you to see these drills in action.

Over the Top (not the Stallone movie)

# players involved: 2
Optimal # of footbags used: 5-7

Explanation:
2 Players stand4 feet apart, facing each other. One is the tosser, one is the kicker. The tosser throws 1 footbag at a time directly over the kicker's head, with a high arch and a depth of about 3-8 feet behind the kicker. The kicker uses good footwork (many small backpedal steps) and kicks with an outside kick at the hips OR a few steps and a back kick. The kicker attempts to kick the ball with a similar arching trajectory back into the tosser's hands If successful, the tosser should toss the same footbag a second/third/fourth tijme, as a reward to the kicker for accuracy. Continue the drill until the tosser runs ouf of footbags to toss.

Variations:
This drill can be modified in a number of ways: for speed, the kicker has to backpedal, kick, then sprint back into position for the next toss. For footwork, the tosser can concentrate on landing the ball between 10 to 15 feet behind the kicker, forcing the kicker to use more small steps. For targeting specific kicks, the tosser can toss footbags over the kicker's head but to either the left or right sides of the kicker. "Cheating" by the kicker to his best kick should be looked down upon in this drill, since the point would be to increase skill of the weaker kick.

Make "Em Pay:

# of players: 3
# of bags optimally: 10
(requires a net to be set up)

1 player, the tosser, stands on the opposite side of the net, very close to the net. His job is to toss 1 bag at a time over the net simulating a dink. The 2 other players are positioned ito simulate a front-back "defensive" position, with the front player's job being to get any dinks. The front player attempts to bump the dinks from the tosser backwards to his setter with a nice hig arch, giving him enough time to turn around and face his setter. This is the perfect "backed-in" position. The back defensive player, who is now the setter, sets the bags for his teammate, who attempts to spike the shit out of the bag. I emphasize spiking the shit out of the bag because, after a good defensive play, you want to end the point with the spike you're hitting. Practice the uber crush! Go through the drill with all 10 bags, at the pace of the digger/spiker. Count the number of completed dig-set-kills. Rotate through the dril so everyone has a few turns.

I was just introduced to how you guys do Monster







holy Fuck!

Monster? or Power?

I think monster is the same everywhere, where as our power with 3 players is in a "v" formation. This must be what you're talking about?

One aspect of my game that needs help asap is my serve returns. Is there a drill that would help me out there without just being the other guy during someone's serve practice? Lately I've been noticing myself cheating at this by doing a half-jump to hit the deeper bags. I can see this as habit-forming and detrimental to my domination of the sport. Any advice?

Hey Josh,

Sorry its taken a while to respond. I have been thinking about this and I feel like service return is almost EXACTLY like our circle drill, with the exception of the orientation of a player's hips when in the "ready" position. I have seen plenty of players who are O.K. at circle try to return serves with minimal footwork , great muscular effort, and big kicking motions. The key to good service return, after seeing the ball's trajectory, is quickly setting your feet in motion to achieve the perfect contact point relative from and to the level of your hips. If you approach service return with the same or greater level of effort you put into circle drill, your service returns will improve tremendously. Dont forget the tactics you employ when covering the entire court while you are covering your side while returning.

One drill that I really like, which I believe we have done before, is having a server, a returner, and a cross-court target to which the returner is bumping the bags. The role of the server is to serve with a consistency of at least 90% while serving just hard enough to challenge the returner. If the server tryes to ace the returner, the server will miss more serves and the returner will have fewer serves at his/her level to practice with.

Another drill I used to do requires only a server and returner, and aims to improve footwork and footspeed. The returner finds his typical service return position and moves 5 feet forward from that position for this drill. The server's goal is to lob serve consistently within 5 feet of the back line. The returner, who knows the server is serving deep, waits until contact is made and sees the trajectory of the kick before using a quick backpedal to cover the backline with his backkicks.
I feel this drill is important because the best players force a server to serve to a specific portion(s) of the service box, trusting that their footwork is good enough to cover that spot while minimizing the server's ability to hit the undesired location (i.e., cheat). This drill increases a player's ability to cover the desired court (the outside kick/back kick area) while minimizes the chances a server will ever try to dink you.

What do you think?