You will always start at Cone 4 or 6, with your first shuffle being to Cone 5. From there, you react to whatever cone your partner points to or calls. Any pattern called should include three to five cones; always sprint to and from final cone. The following instruction is for a 4-1-2 pattern, which is illustrated in the diagram below.

• Start at Cone 6
• Shuffle to Cone 5
• Shuffle to Cone 4
• Jog to Cone 5
• Shuffle to Cone 1
• Jog to Cone 5
• Sprint to Cone 2
• Sprint back to Cone 5

Coaching Points

Body position
Keep your butt down, chest up and chin up so you can watch the ball; squeeze your shoulder blades together. Don’t let your knees rotate inside or outside your ankles; that’s a sign of knee instability and can lead to injury.

Technique
Work on technique through fatigue. When you begin to tire, don’t let your hips pop up or chest drop down. all outs For the younger athletes—freshmen and sophomores— we point to the cones, because they’re still learning the drill. For our older athletes, we call out patterns—like 4-1-2—so they have to think: shuffle to 4, jog to 5, shuffle to 1, jog to 5, sprint to 2 and back to 5.

Rest
Base your rest on the number of cones in the pattern. Early in the off-season, we use five cones per rep, and we rest five times longer than it takes to do the drill. If we use four cones per rep, rest is four times longer.