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Click here to see the video: Football Defensive Back: Backpedaling Basics

Jason Levitt: Now we are going to work on our backpedal. We always have to start in a good stance and we take our read step. Once we read the offense, we establish that we have to go backwards. That is called a backpedal. So what we are going to do, is he is going to stay in his good stance, the ball is on his right, so his right foot is forward, he's in his good stance, he takes his read step just do a few of those, it's a quick gliding step. Once he took his read step and he knows how he has to backpedal, it's very similar where you keep gliding your feet, except it is normal strides like you’re kind of running forward.

The main part of this is that you need to maintain a forward lean as you're in your backpedal. As he's in his backpedal, he also needs to pump his arms just like he's running. Just do it in half speed. Please, go. That's good, come back one more time. You don't even need to look at his feet, all you need to do is listen.

The key to this stance is that his head level should always stay the same. If he has a forward lean, and he is backpedaling, his head should never move. Go ahead, come back, good job. Now we are going to do our basic backpedal drill, when we are going to use a line and we want the DB to stay on the line during his backpedal. The drill begins when I move the ball, the DB gets into his backpedal. We'll have four guys demonstrating this drill. Good. Now let's have the left foot be the inside foot. Good. Good read step. We showed you are basic elements of backpedal and a basic drill that we do with the backpedal.