Dip & Rip Drill
Setup
Assign two to four people to hold blocking pads and evenly space them out in a staggered line upfield from the starting line.
Purpose
The purpose of the Dip & Rip Drill is to teach defenders how to avoid blocks as they make their way up the field. The Dip & Rip is a particular technique a defender uses to rip through blocks and get to the ball carrier. This drill helps to develop that skill so that the defenders will have this technique in their toolset for game time.
Drill Description
A defensive player will traverse this drill at about 75% speed when running upfield in order to focus less on speed and more on building the muscle memory for the Dip & Rip technique.
As the defensive player approaches a blocker, he will need to prepare to implement the three stages of the Dip & Rip. 1) Dip shoulder down and across to the middle of your body. 2) Rip arm through your body and in front of the blocker. 3) Sidestep to the side that you are dipping and ripping to.
By implementing this technique, a defender makes it hard for the blocker to make a clean block. Dipping your shoulder down and ripping your arm through gives the blocker very little room to initiate the blocking contact. If timed properly the blocker will only be able to contact the side of the player’s shoulder resulting in a slight shove to the side instead of a major blow back to the chest.
The defensive player repeatedly practices this maneuver by making his way up the field and dipping a ripping through each of the blocking pads in the drill.
