OFFFENSIVE LINE REQUIREMENTS
Jeff Fryar
ATTITUDE You must be businesslike and never let emotion cause you to deviate from your technique. Emotion does not win football games. Proper execution, consistency, smart mental approach, and hard work win football games. You must be unselfish, the team is more important than you are. You must demand of yourself and your teammates. You must possess volition. Your mentality should be described as fiery patience. If you possess the proper attitude, you will attempt to FINISH every block. As the whistle blows, you give the defender one last shove. You must try to put the defender on his back every play. This will ultimately lead to your total domination of the defender.
DESIRE There is a quote by Vince Lombardi that states “Mental Toughness is essential for success” and we will abide to that belief. We must all posses the desire to be the best at everything we do. We must want to win in everything we do on and off of the field. You must attempt to win every individual battle, we must attempt to dominate every defense, you must attempt to win in every class with an A and when you get knocked down, get back up. With the proper desire and attitude you will find success in everything you do.
PROTECTOR Our job is to protect the skilled position players on offense. You will not allow cheap shots, or unnecessary contact displayed on any of your teammates. We get our guys out from the bottom of the pile, off the sideline and back to huddle.
- We have to be the closest group on this football team in order for the team to have success. We will do whatever is necessary for the team to achieve success.
"Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence”
DEMEANOR
BODY POSTURE You must maintain a certain body POSITION on every block, run, or pass. Your feet should be under your armpits. Always bend at the knees; never bend at the waist, to help maintain the proper power angles in your knees and ankles. Your shoulders must be behind your knees putting a slight arch in your back. Always keep your eyes and head up.
NASTINESS Offensive Linemen need to be the most physical, most nasty players on the football team. With that in mind we will play with class & at the same time we will be sure to dominate the man across from us. It takes a special type of person to play offensive line. I believe there is no other position on a football team that is more blue collar than us and we will take pride in that. You must take it as a personal challenge that the 11 men across from you are trying
STANCE
THREE POINT STANCE
FEET The feet should be a little wider than your armpits or slightly wider based on body size. Your feet should be parallel to one another or a slight stagger with your outside foot. No more than toe to instep. Your stance should be balanced enough to be able to pick up your hand without falling forward. You must keep your knees aligned with your hips and toes pointed forward to maintain proper power angles.
DOWNHAND All fingers and the thumb should be touching the ground in a claw like form. Place hand in the spot where you would have to pick up your eyeball if it fell out of socket. Maintain a slight bend in your elbow.
UPHAND Keep the elbow of your up hand outside your knee to keep your shoulders square to the L.O.S. Hand should be relaxed.
EYES You must see the defense by looking through your eyebrows with your neck slightly bulled.
CONSISTENT Your stance must be the same on every play. We cannot allow the defense to gain an advantage by reading our stance before the snap. No leaning!
STEPS
The following steps are all shown with the right foot. They are the same with the left foot.
LEAD This step is straight forward, toes pointing up field. A Lead Step is short and fast, the heel of foot should replace where the toe use to be.
REACH This step should be short and quick at a 45 degree angle, elbows back on first step. Depending on play called, aim point is either defender’s hip or crotch. The Backside foot remains pointing forward until taking 2nd step. The 2nd step will gain ground, and you will deliver a blow with 2nd step. If your backside knee finishes in front of the crotch of the defender, this block will be a success.
LATERAL Step is short (6-8 inches) and quick to the play side, same length of step as a lead step but you are slightly gaining ground. - As you are taking the first step, your shoulders must remain square to line of scrimmage. On the 2nd step (gather step) should also gain ground (6-8 inches).
FLAT PULL Mentally shift weight to backside leg. As you are taking the initial step, throw pulling side elbow back. Play-side foot / toe should be pointing in intended direction. You must maintain a low position (common problem is blocker popping up as he takes step). If pulling to the right, trap with right shoulder and forearm. If pulling to the left, trap with left shoulder and forearm. Your head needs to be on the inside at point of contact. Most importantly, run through the defender, not to him.
PASS PROTECTION FUNDAMENTALS
FEET The feet must be flat with your weight on your insteps. Toes will point forward to maintain the power angles. Our feet will be no narrower than our armpits and no wider than slightly outside our shoulders. This will give us the best combination of balance, strength, and the ability to move quickly. The feet will be even to a slight toe to instep stagger. Only the outside foot can be staggered. The inside foot must be up at all times.
KNEES It is necessary to keep the knees bent. Our knee bend will enable us to move quickly and react to the movement of the defender. Knee bend is the way we lower our center of gravity, which is essential in all of our blocking.
WAIST We can never bend at the waist. When linemen get tired they begin to straighten their knees and so they bend at the waist to stay low. However, this does not lower their center of gravity. It does not matter how low your helmet is, it is your center of gravity which is important. Bend in the waist makes you more susceptible to being pulled forward and beaten. No bend in the waist will keep your chest up and form a slight arch in your back.
ELBOWS We want our elbows rolled inside. From behind, you should not be able to see your elbows. This will help us to get inside hands and keep the defender from getting into our chest.
HANDS Hold your hands chest level in “ice pick” position. When defender comes near we deliver a blow and continue to deliver blows until we hear the whistle. Keep hands moving like a boxer. The #1 problem I see by linemen in pass protection is dropping their hands after the initial punch
SHOULDERS A linemen's shoulders must remain parallel to the L.O.S. for as long as possible. If they are not parallel you will not be able to stop the defender from getting up field. Turning your shoulders will also shorten the path to the QB. So often a tackle has a fast speed rusher to the outside. He is afraid he will get beat around the corner so he turns his shoulders thinking this will help when actually it aids the speed rusher. If the defender makes a move back to the inside when you have turned your shoulders you must drop your inside foot back which opens the door to the QB. Keep your shoulders parallel.
CHIN Pull your chin in against your chest when you punch. This will help prevent you from overextending.
MOVEMENT You must be able to move and change directions quickly and at the same time maintain your demeanor. For example, if you are moving to
your outside to cover up your target and you take a step with your right foot and then your target moves back inside your next step cannot be with your left foot. If it is, you will have to drop your left foot back, opening the door to the QB. Your footwork must be right , right, left, and right. If you move to your outside to cover up your target by taking a right step then a left and your target moves back to the left your next steps would be left, right or you will narrow your base to much. Remember we must always step parallel to the L.O.S. when we move to the inside. We can give ground to the outside particularly at the tackle position but never give them the inside path to the QB. Depending on scouting analysis, we may widen the tackles splits for certain types of protection.
TARGET We must have a target on our pass protection. Most of the time, our target will be a small area above the inside the jersey numbers of the defender. This will enable us to cover up the defender keeping him from getting up the field. By moving our target slightly off the midline, we eliminate the potential to be beat with a quick move to that side. Below is a visual of the intended target area.
PUNCH The power from our punch must come from the Lats. The punch itself will only travel six inches. Make contact with the heel of the hand instead of a flat palm. Your hands should be around 5 inches away from each other (imagine having handcuffs on). The heel will serve as a more penetrating punch. If you pull your chin in against your chest it will keep you from lunging. The punch should travel slightly upward in direction. Once you punch, you want to snap your hands back to you as quick as possible and NOT drop them. The tackles should use one hand on a wide rusher.
OFFENSIVE LINE DRILLS – DAILY MUSTS!
The following are offensive line drills we've put together to help you develop a cohesive offensive line blocking unit that'll be the basis for your championship team.
We always hear the debate over what's more important to a team's success - great skill position players or great offensive line play.
As kids, we heard about the lesson Knute Rockne taught his famous "Four Horsemen" backfield. The Four Horsemen were getting too full of themselves because of their press releases. Their offensive line were nicknamed the "Seven Mules". During a game, Rockne took the Seven Mules out for awhile and the Four Horsemen struggled mightily.
It's obvious that without strong offensive line blocking skills, your offensive stats won't look good. That's why you need to use the line drills you'll find on this page to help develop solid offensive line play for your team.
Tip - Teach blocks slowly at half-speed at first. Allow your players to understand first how it feels to be in a proper stance, how to take the first step with proper leg drive and "fit" into the defender.
Line Drills
1)Stance & Start Drill
Objective - Teach linemen the correct way to "start", or fire out from their stance.
Action - For this offensive line drill, position your linemen along the line of scrimmage. At the coach's signal, have the offensive linemen "fire out" of their stances.
Coaching Details - In their stance, linemen's feet should be shoulder-width apart and pointed straight ahead. Teach offensive line players to step out with the back foot to maintain their base as the first step out replaces their down hand. The head should remain up, the back flat as they take quick steps out. Be sure your players stay low as they roll over the up foot with the knee pointing to the ground.
2) Fit Drill
Objective - To teach the straight ahead base block.
Action - Align three or four defenders in the standing "fit" position with three or four offensive linemen in front of them. The linemen should be set in their stances. At the snap, have the linemen explode either right or left into the defenders as they perform a basic drive block.
Coaching Details - Watch for good stances and leg follow-through during this offensive line drill. Make sure players' backs are arched, butts are down and their heads are up "seeing" the defender's jersey number. On contact, the elbows should be in with palms near the bottom of the defender's shoulder pad breastplate.
3) Fit Follow-Through Drill
Objective - To teach proper follow-through when blocking.
Action - Instead of lining your linemen up in their stances, have the offensive line drill start with them already in the "fit" position against the defender. At the coach's signal, the offensive line players will roll their hips and accelerate forward. The idea is to teach the players to drive the defenders back until the coach blows the whistle.
Coaching Details - Watch for proper hip roll and foot acceleration. Don't allow your blockers to over-extend and
lose proper leverage during this offensive line drill.
Sled Offensive Line Drills
Line Drill #1
One-Man Drive
Objective - Improve leg drive.
Action - Get your linemen into a single file in front of a one-man sled, with the first player
about 1 yard away from the sled. On the coach's signal, the first lineman performs a base
block (with explosive power) into the sled. On the next signal, the player then does a seat
roll and sprints ahead five yards before going to the end of the line. Repeat offensive line
drill with next player in line.
Coaching Details - Be sure each lineman is in a good stance and takes a correct first step
out with an explosive motion. Make sure they're moving the sled ahead in a straight line
with power-based, short steps.
Offensive Line Drill #2
Hip Roll (2-Man Sled)
Objective - Develop the hip roll.
Action - Divide linemen up into two lines in front of a 2-man sled, with the first player in
each line about 1 yard from the sled. On the coach's signal, each player, without moving the
feet, moves the sled ahead with the forward thrust of the hips. On the next signal, the
players then do a seat roll and sprint ahead five yards before going to the end of the line.
Repeat offensive line drill with next players in line.
Coaching Details - Be sure each lineman is in a good stance and takes a correct first step
out with an explosive motion without the feet coming together.
Offensive Line Drill #3
Drive and Roll (2-Man Sled)
Objective - Improve leg drive.
Action - Line up blockers like in Drill #2. Also, position a player on either side and about 5
yards beyond the sled, each holding a blocking dummy. At the coach's signal, the first
player in each line explodes their inside shoulder into the sled and drives it straight ahead.
At the next signal, each player performs a seat roll and explodes forward to block the
lineman holding the dummy on their side of the sled. The two players who just performed
the offensive line drill, now become the dummy holders while the original dummy holders
now go to the end of the lines. Repeat offensive line drill with the next players in line.
Coaching Details - Be sure each lineman is in a good stance. Make sure they're moving the
sled ahead in a straight line with power-based, short steps. Emphasize "explosion" out of
the stance.
Offensive Line Drill #4
5-Man Drive
Objective - Improve start and drive block with the 5-man sled.
Action - Have the first unit line up in front of the 5-man sled. On the coach's signal, have all
five blocker's hit the sled with the same shoulder and move the sled forward. On the next
signal, have all players sprint out laterally to the side. If they hit the sled with the right
shoulder, they should move out to the left and vice versa. The next unit repeats the
offensive line drill as soon as the group in front of them has moved out of the way.
Coaching Details - Be sure each unit has a chance to block with each shoulder. Be sure each
lineman starts out of a good stance, then uses proper blocking technique.
Offensive Line Drill #5
5-Man Reach Drill
Objective - Improve proper reach block.
Action - Start everything like Offensive Line Drill #4 except that now each blocker is lined