Football Blocking Footwork: Stance and Step

Offensive line footwork is the key to good blocking. An offensive lineman has to be able to move his feet in order to be an effective blocker regardless of the type of blocking scheme that you implement. If they cannot move their feet, they cannot block!

The problem in youth football is that we neglect basic fundamentals that are necessary for our players to be effective blockers. Then we try and implement a blocking scheme and they struggle with it because they cannot move effectively. A lot of times, at the youth football level, the coach will take the biggest and slowest kids and throw then on the line of scrimmage and expect them to be able to block because they are big kids. In some cases this works but overall, without good footwork, they are exposed by a swifter smaller defensive linemen or linebacker, become frustrated, and lose their confidence.

It all begins with a good stance. As a youth football coach you must make sure that your linemen have a good stance. Practice it patiently step by step. Have them set their feet, and then get in their stances; feet should be about shoulder width apart and slightly staggered. Check their head position, make sure its back. Now check their back, it should be nice and flat and their butts should be down with their front hand just slightly touching the ground for balance. A lot of times the youth football player will put too much weight on their fingers. As a result they are slow getting out of their stance. Make sure to coach them up to absorb their weight in their legs, like a coiled spring, and then on the snap of the football to use this coiled energy to explode out and into the defender. Once they have their stance down pat. Teach them first step out of the stance. The first step should be a short six inch "power step" followed by a second "engagement of defender" step. Make sure they don't stand straight up as they engage the defender and make sure they always move their feet. Repeat as many times as necessary until they get Stance and Step down pat.

Offensive linemen have to be able to move in order to be effective blockers. Footwork drills are just as important as blocking drills and must be done every practice. These footwork drills are usually done in the individual group work session of your practice plan and should be a series of agility footwork and change of direction type drills. Begin all footwork drills out of a stance so as to make the drill as effective as possible. Good footwork will compliment your blocking scheme, give the big kid confidence now that he can move and not be beat by the smaller guy and as a result effectively use his size to drive out the defender.


Cheers!

Youth Football Blocking Tips

Adjust your splits for Run Blocking:
Once you have established your blocking scheme for your youth football team and your offensive linemen are confident in their assignments perhaps it time that you tweak your run splits a little bit to try and gain some slight advantages. One thing that you can do as a youth football coach initially is get your offensive linemen to slightly increase their running splits on the hole that you plan on running the football through. You'd be surprised what an extra couple of inches does in regards to a run split, it opens up that running lane just a little bit more for your running back to run through.

But be careful as there are some pretty sharp middle linebackers around that will pick up on your run splits and know right away where the football is being run. Just be crafty in your approach and like anything else don't go to the well with it all the time, otherwise those middle linebackers will blitz the hole and kill your play. Probably at the younger youth football levels they won't pick up on a slight increase in your split on a running play. If they don't adjust, then run it that way until they catch on, then back-off a few series and try it again. Coaching in football sometimes requires that you become a little crafty at times, this football tip is just one example.

Cheers!

Youth Football Blocking Rules

Once you have established your basic football blocking rules as you introduce your football system you can tweak and adjust the rules for certain plays and formations. For example, with a fullback orientated offence you may want to double team the defensive linemen at the point of attack and have your fullback go down to the second level and get the middle linebacker. Sometimes this adjustment in football blocking rules would be necessary in order to block a solid defensive lineman that has created havoc inside the box and cannot be blocked using your basic football blocking rules with one offensive lineman. Adjustments are a big part of football especially on the offensive line where changing fronts and stunts can create a lot of problems for your running game.

Between series you would discuss with your offensive linemen the defensive front and who is able to handle their block by themselves so that you can double team that pesky defensive linemen and have the fullback go down on the middle linebacker.

Another strategy in youth football is if you do not have a fullback in the backfield would be adjust to what we refer to as a "double team and chip" block. That is to have two of your offensive linemen double team a defensive linemen at the point of attack, and once you get this guy moving downhill that one of the offensive linemen would "chip off" the block and go down to the second level and get the middle linebacker. This is commonly done in the zone blocking scheme. The double team would get that linemen moving out of the box and then once momentum is established by the double team, one slips off to get a block on the linebacker.

The most important thing for you to do as a youth football coach of these offensive line adjustments is that you would have already practiced these aspects as part of your football practice plan. The message would be to your offensive linemen that if the basic football blocking rules are not working that these are the type of adjustments could be made. Again, it's important that you already would have practiced these adjustments in practice.

Cheers!

Football Blocking Rules

Football blocking rules vary from coach to coach. Basically, the type of offence you run and the football players you have on your roster will usually determine the blocking rules that you use. My experience with youth football blocking rules is to keep it simple as the sky is the limit as far as blocking rules in football are concerned.
At the younger youth football levels I like to  coach up what I call " Straight up Blocking". In the straight up blocking system your players will be taught a shoulder drive blocking technique. Basically, they learn to step towards the defender with their near foot, keep their head on the playside of the defender,and drive the defender away from the running hole, using their shoulder as point of contact to drive their man out of the running lane. Now some coaches at the youth football level don't like the shoulder drive block for whatever reasons but I have found that it is simple and an effective technique to teach our youth football players. Once they learn how to drive block in practice the next step would be to coach them up in how to double team using the same shoulder block technique.
Once they are fundamentally sound on the shoulder drive block technique we teach them their basic football blocking rules. Now the blocking rules are fairly simple to follow and lets remember now that at the youth football level the simpler, the better! Our blocking rules are three words: Inside Gap,On, Over or to make it simple we call it "Goo" blocking. Now in Goo blocking its important first of all that your offensive linemen know where the ball is going. In other words what hole you are running the ball through. Once thats established the offensive linemen will apply his blocking rules knowing first of all where the ball is going and then secondly checking the alignement of the defensive front and applying the football blocking rules in relation to where the defence is lining up. The offensive linemen is coached up in the "goo" blocking scheme to make sure that his head is always in the hole. So once the play is called in the huddle, the offensive linemen lines up on the line of scrimmage and begins to apply is basic blocking rules. First of all, he checks to see if a defender is aligned on his "inside gap". If there is a defender in this gap then that is his man to block. If there is no defender in that gap,then, he checks off the second part of the football blocking rules which is "On". Now if there is a defender aligned right on him, down in a stance on the line of scrimmage then he knows that this is his man to block, again keeping in mind to keep his head on the playside of the defender. If there is no defender "on" him then he refers to his final rule and that is " Over". Now in " over"  the defender would probably be the linebacker. This would be his man to block!


Again, football blocking rules are like any football system. That is, they are the personal philosophy of the coach that is implementing them. We all have our own preferences of what  football blocking rules should be and this is just one example.

Cheers!