Football Training Equipment You Need For Success

Football is a physically demanding sport that requires a combination of skill, strength, and endurance. To excel on the field, players must have access to the best equipment for football training. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced player, having the right equipment can help you improve your game and achieve success. But the question is, what equipment is the best equipment? Is some equipment unnecessary?

In this article, we'll discuss some of the essential equipment you need for football training, as well as the best ways to train for football on the field.

What is the BEST equipment for football training?

There are several pieces of equipment that are essential for football training. Here are some of the most important (in order):

Footballs - Having a quality football is essential for practicing your passing, catching, and throwing skills. Unless you play offensive line, you need to be able to catch. When you get a chance to make a play on the ball you need to make the play if you want to play Division 1 or professional football.

Cones - Cones are used to mark off areas on the field for drills and exercises. There are thousands of drills you can do with just cones. You can use cones for basic speed drills, positional drills, or even advanced agility drills. Cones should be the very first piece of equipment outside of cleats and a football in your arsenal.

Agility Ladders - These ladders are used for footwork drills to improve speed and agility. Even though a speed ladder’s on field benefits aren’t super apparent, you need to have advanced footwork ability to be an advanced football player. Having great footwork will also help you stay healthy and uninjured on the field. Building coordination and fast feet is a necessary component to becoming a better player.

Hurdles – Hurdles are a great tool to teach you how to pick your feet up. If you’re a player who stumbles on their own feet the hurdles can help you develop. You can use hurdles for lateral speed, change or direction, or even teaching yourself good run form.

Resistance Bands - Resistance bands are great for building strength and improving flexibility. Just like in the weight room resistance on the field is important too. Bands are also great for warming up and cooling down which is necessary for longevity on the field.

Training Sleds/Parachutes - Training sleds are used for resistance training and can help improve speed and power. You should try to run with resisted training at least one time a week. You can use a parachute, sled, or pull a weight behind you when running. Not highly necessary, but beneficial.

What is the best way to train for football? 

There are several ways to train for football on the field, but the most effective methods involve a combination of speed training, conditioning, positional training, and combine speed training.

Speed Training - This type of training could be linear or directional speed training. In the game of football it’s important for you to be fast forwards, backwards, side to side, and on a radial plane (meaning curved line). You should so this type of training with max effort two times a week.

Examples of this type of speed training are, push-up sprints, 40 yard dashes, backwards runs, lateral kneeling 10 yard get-offs, and weaving sprints.

Conditioning – Conditioning is something you should be doing at the end of your workouts. Or select one day a week to do it by itself. If you do it this way make sure you emphasize run form before your conditioning. This style of training should involve high intensity interval training like sprints. Running long distance is not beneficial for football players.

Examples of this type of training could be, shuttle runs, 100 yard sprints, rapid fire agility drills with little rest.

Positional Training – The most important style of training for football players is positional training. These include a vast variety of drills, footwork, and catching. Positional training can involve speed training, conditioning, footwork, and change of direction. It’s important to perform these drills two times a week. Drills will vary depending on your position and what your team specifically runs. Ideally, practice what you would do in a game situation so on the field you can make big plays because you’ve repped it many times. It’s HIGHLY important if you are a skill or big skill player to catch as much as you can.

Examples of this could be pass drops for a linebacker, a 5 yard out route for a tight end, a deep 3rd drop for a defensive back, lateral reaction training for a running back, or quarterback accuracy drills.

Combine Speed Training – Combine speed training is something you are going to be running at camps and combines in the summer as a high school football player. If you have aspirations to play professional football you will also run these drills at your pro day or the NFL Combine. These drills are ran to test your change or direction speed and overall ability as a football player. Performing these drills in your training will benefit you greatly as a football player.

Examples of this are the 3 cone drill, 20 yard shuttle, 40 yard dash, vertical jump, and broad jump.


A good field split you can follow is…

Day 1: Speed Training
Day 2: Positional Training
Day 3: Speed Training + Positional Training
Day 4: Light Footwork

What equipment do NFL players use?

NFL players use a variety of equipment to train for football. In addition to the equipment mentioned above, they also use specialized gear for advanced training which is likely not necessary for you right now. If you are reading this you must continue to work foundational movements. NFL Players see professional trainers to continue to refine their ability which is likely unproductive for you.

They also use technology to help improve their performance, such as GPS trackers to monitor their speed and agility, force, velocity, and more. Again, they must work to finely refine their ability while you have a far way to go. So keep it simple and keep it max effort.

In conclusion, football is a challenging sport that requires dedication and hard work. By investing in the right equipment and following a well-rounded training regimen (5 Star Football Package), you can improve your skills and achieve success on the field. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, remember that the key to success is consistency, hard work, and perseverance.