Coaching the blocks

Coaches,
Something that I learned from Coach Deforest at OSU (in the Complete Guide to ST's book) is that he has the player first stand at the blockpoint (off to the side a bit) and have him shoot his hands at the foot of the punter and block the punt (the punter does not punt it at 100% but maybe between 50 and 75 % strength). This allows the kid to get a feel of what it is like to block the punt and mentally take away the fear of the ball smacking their hands. then he has them take several steps back and run up and learn how to shoot their hands and gain body control in the movement. Then he has them line up at the LOS and take off and rush the punter, putting everything into work.
Another thing that is important is the stance and takeoff. The players should be in a sprinters stance, i/s hand down and i/s foot back with o/s hand up like a sprinter in a one hand stance. At the snap the player takes one step, turns his body towards the ball (getting skinny), club with the outside arm and quickly swim with the i/s hand on the blocker at the LOS. This tech allows the players to get off the ball and make them elusive as possible with the least amount of redirection.

That's a great drill. It is important I think too to have a coach watch the player's eyes as he makes the block. I don't want kids who are afraid and turn their head or close their eyes. Whatever drill you use, I think it is vital to practice blocking punts. I heard a statistic a while back from George Allen I believe, that when a team blocks a punt they win the game 90% of the time. The way I look at it, if you have an offensive play that if you score a touchdown on it, you win 9/10 times, you are going to practice the hell out of it so that you score everytime.