Impact players can change the course of a game in one play. Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry is such a player. And when he impacts a game, the opposition feels it. That’s because Berry has a knack for laying the wood in the open field. The source of those bone-jarring hits? Berry’s exceptional short-range explosiveness and closing burst on the ball.
Berry’s playmaking prowess starts with his tailor-made Two-Step Break technique. He says, “I was very confused in college coming out of my breaks.” So he scrapped the textbook T-Plant and Bicycle Breaks in favor of his own Two-Step Break. “I turned it into two steps, so when I get ready to break, it’s ‘one, two and go,’” he says.
In contrast to the T-Plant, the Two-Step allows Berry to keep his hips turned in the direction of the play at all times. And opposed to the Bicycle technique, the sudden burst required of the Two-Step involves no wasted motion as Berry comes out of his break.