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Hoop Drill: The Football Bend Drill for Pass Rushers

Updated · Fact checked

The hoop drill teaches a pass rusher to turn the corner without drifting wide. You run around a circle laid on the ground, leaning in so your path stays tight to the line. In a game, that circle is the arc around the offensive tackle to the quarterback. At the NFL Combine, Mike Mayock said running the arc mattered even more than the pass rush moves.

Scouts call the finished skill cornering. In the demo, Tim Kish, then the University of Arizona linebackers coach, runs his linebackers through hoops for body control.

Hoop Drill Video - Drill of the Week.wmvYFBCA

How to do it

  1. Set up

    Get into your stance about a yard outside the circle.

  2. Burst

    On the signal, explode out of the stance and get onto the circle.

  3. Bend

    Lean in with your inside shoulder low, rip your inside arm up and run as close to the circle as you can.

  4. Finish

    Stay on the circle until you come out of the turn, accelerate out of it, then run the other direction on the next rep.

Sets and reps
Up to 4 runs of 15 yards, max effort, 120 seconds rest; lighter and in-season weeks drop to 2 or 3 runs.
Equipment
A hoop: a painted circle or tubing laid in a circle, A ball or cone as the snap signal (optional)
Muscles and skills
Ankles, Hips
Used in these 440 plans
Defensive Line

Coaching cues and common mistakes

Coaching cues

  • Lean into the circle, inside shoulder low
  • Stay on the balls of the feet
  • Rip through with the inside arm

Common mistakes

  • Standing tall
  • Wide running path

Lean in and stay low

Lean into the circle with your inside shoulder low and your weight on the balls of your feet. Those are 440's cues for the drill. Scouts grade cornering by how well a rusher carries the body low to the ground while running the arc at high speed, so the lean is the whole point.

Standing tall and running a wide path are the two errors to fix. The circle makes both easy to see: if your feet drift off the line, you're running wide.

Which arm rips

The rip is done with your inside arm, the one closest to the hoop. In a game that is the arm nearest the blocker. Dip the inside shoulder and drive the inside arm up through, as if you were ripping through the blocker's armpit and up to the sky. That is how Coach Jerry Campbell's rip-through and speed move drills and the NFL Combine's dip and rip drill describe it.

Your outside hand reaches toward the quarterback. Furman line coach Kevin Lewis teaches that reaching hard with the outside hand as you release off a block points your hips at the quarterback, and his long-arm progression finishes on a hoop to train that bend.

Take it to the game

Don't start bending at the snap. The Scouting Academy's cornering example is Von Miller in Super Bowl 50: he attacked upfield with pure speed first, then cornered once he had the depth to attack the pocket. Pair the hoop with the swim and rip move so the bend comes right after the hands win, and with the get-off drill so you reach the edge in time. The full plan is on the defensive line training page.

FAQ

Which arm do you rip with in the hoop drill?

Your inside arm, the one nearest the hoop. Dip the inside shoulder and rip that arm up, the way you would rip through a tackle's armpit, while the outside hand reaches toward the quarterback.

What does the hoop drill teach?

It teaches bend: running the arc around a blocker with your body low and your path tight instead of drifting wide. Furman line coach Kevin Lewis uses a hoop to simulate that bend, and coaches also use hoops for body control with linebackers.

More defensive line drills

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Sources

  1. Combine Preview: DL And LB (Feb 28, 2010, quoting NFL Network's Mike Mayock), Philadelphia Eagles (philadelphiaeagles.com)
  2. ITP Glossary: Cornering (Pass Rush) (Dan Hatman, Jun 22, 2016), The Scouting Academy / Inside The Pylon
  3. Defensive Line Jet or Speed Move Drill (Glazier Football, August 20, 2021, courtesy Coach Jerry Campbell), Glazier Clinics
  4. Defensive Line Rip Through Drill (Glazier Football, August 11, 2021, courtesy Coach Jerry Campbell), Glazier Clinics
  5. A Teaching Progression: Mastering the Long-Arm Pass Rush (May 13, 2026), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA)
  6. Hoop Drill Video - Drill of the Week (YouTube description, uploaded 2012-03-20), YFBCA (YouTube)

Program numbers (benchmarks, sets, reps, loads, protein targets) are 440 Football's own prescriptions. For athletes 13 and older; check with a physician or a registered dietitian before major training or diet changes.