Post by Coach Campbell on Feb 1, 2020 23:42:35 GMT
The Offensive Line the Heart and Soul of The Offense
It is my belief that the heart and soul of any good offensive football team is its offensive line. An offensive line coach if he is to get the necessary technique and skills developed, he must be provided adequate practice time prior to going into group and team periods to give his players the necessary tools for success. There is no position in football that requires more discipline or technique than being an offensive lineman. The success of an offensive football team hinges on its ability to control the line of scrimmage. To win consistently, you must win in the trenches, and that means playing on your opponent's side of the line of scrimmage and not yours.
My approach to coaching the offensive line is to out execute our opponent's. This is a lot easier said than done! To take this approach and to believe in this philosophy means a great deal of time must be spent on understanding fundamentals and blocking technique as it applies to the type of athlete being coached. I feel that an offensive line coach must understand what he is teaching and how it applies to the offense. Don't introduce a technique or drill if it doesn't apply to your offense and only teach what you know how to fix.
Remember, strive to keep your blocking rules simple and consistent. By keeping your line calls and rules simple, it will give you the coach a better chance to perfect your technique and drills. You want your offensive linemen aggressive not confused. Whatever your offensive line starts they must be able to finish.
To be a good offensive line requires more than just discipline or good blocking technique, it requires
"PRIDE" in yourself, your group, and your team. A team with "PRIDE" is a hard team to beat because they are willing to do the "LITTLE THINGS" that most teams are not willing to do. No detail should be overlooked, regardless of how non important it may look on the surface to you as the coach.
The difference between SUCCESS and FAILURE often lies in your ability as a coach to prepare. Prepare your offensive linemen for the unknown; what I mean here is make sure that your system of calls and rules will apply to sideline and half-time adjustments if needed.
Not every offensive lineman that you coach will start, make the all-district or all-conference team, be an all American, play in college, or play in the NFL, but every player you coach can hustle and practice hard and be a good team player. It is your responsibility as their coach to give them the drills and blocking schemes to help them be successful and they must understand that you care about them.
It is my approach, like many other line coaches that we out - execute our opponents, this is a lot easier said than done! My primary goal as I prepare our blocking schemes is that they be simple and that they have a basic rule that can tie them all into one another. Thus, I try keep the rules and line calls simple, it will give us the chance to perfect our techniques and perform them in an aggressive manner.
The more techniques an offensive lineman can learn and master, the easier it will be to cope with various situations. Repetition must be accepted as a way of life for an offensive lineman, success can only be brought about with tremendous confidence in one's ability. Concentration, self-discipline, communication, and the willingness to pay the price are part of being a respected offensive lineman.
Determined, intelligent, and aggressive blocking is an indispensable quality of a great football team, from both a technical and psychological standpoint. It is difficult for a team, to have outstanding morale, confidence, and enthusiasm when it lacks the ability to sustain a great ground game or provide adequate protection for the passer. As an offensive line coach, you must reinforce daily to your players the importance of controlling the football. A goal for any football team should be that whenever they start the game with the football, they must make a first down in both the first and second half of the football game, this sends a message to your opponent that they are in for a long night and builds confidence in your offensive line and their teammates.
“So Goes the Offensive Line, So Goes the Offense
This manual is designed to take you through the early begins of the great game of football and how offensive line play and the rules that govern got it has evolved in how we coach it today. My manual will introduce terms, definitions, technique and drills which will give you a foundation for which to build your Offensive line fundamentals. The blocking schemes included in this manual are built around the use of zone and man blocking schemes as well as dropback and sprint out passing game protections. A few coaches I meet, say why zone blocking over man blocking rules! This manual will explore both zone and man blocking rules and concepts for the running game with implementation of pass protection schemes and alerts.
I have had the great pleasure to have coached in several different states in this country with each state with its own influences. I have found through my experience that trying to gain advantages by controlling the number of defenders a defense puts in the box can be done by formations, motion and type of offensive philosophy you use that influences the type of blocking schemes that a coach might consider implementing into his offensive approach.
Coaching football is a very complex task. Football is a game that requires physical strength and great psychological conditioning. Thus, a successful offensive line coach must understand about factors contributing to the development of physical strength and football athleticism his linemen possess and the understanding the physical demands interior linemen face. Football is a team sport therefore, an offensive line coach needs to know how to manipulate the psychological factors, which influence individuals to interact for a common goal (moving the football and scoring). Since football is a game of movement, the coach must understand the physical mechanics of blocking with extended arms, hands and forearms which involve zone blocking as well as man rule schemes that contribute to quick body movement. Because football is a game of physical body contact, an offensive line coach needs to know how to create practice and playing conditions that offer the greatest success and safety for his players. Do not force a player to learn a certain technique or skill that he physically cannot do.
Inasmuch as football involves many physical skills in the offensive line, it is necessary for a coach to understand the physical limitations that some players have. It is as important for a coach to understand the techniques for success, as it is to build the size and strength of his players. Only coach what you know how to fix versus worst case scenario.
As we all know for the most part offensive linemen are perhaps the least publicized but, play the most difficult position in football. It is hard to convince some players who are suited to play up front offensively but prefer playing in the defensive line that great stress is applied more today than in the past because of the need to play players with advanced skills such as speed and strength. Therefore, it behooves all coaches to develop a basic philosophy about offensive line play in general and about interior offensive football players.
As an offensive line coach, we must be able to convince our offensive linemen that their job is as important as any other part of the game, and he must constantly stress the value of the offensive line. As line coaches we must be able to talk to our players in a positive fashion about offensive line play a term that I use is to remind our offensive linemen is " So Goes the Offensive Line So, Goes the Offense." What needs to be instilled into an offense and especially your offensive line is the feeling that whenever we get the ball we will score, and we can score only if the offensive line does their job. As I have already mentioned one of my number 1 goals going into a game is to make sure we get a first down on any first offensive series in the first and second half of a football game, this builds confidence in fact that we can move the ball on our opponent.
Coaches must also develop an approach to the game in terms of the kind of football he wants his team to play. Coaches can use either the simple method and try and keep the offensive plays and line blocking to a minimum or he can use a variety of offensive series and blocking schemes. The one answer coaches search for constantly, what is the best play or method of blocking? It usually appears that every coach has a favorite play or blocking style depending upon his philosophy and the type of players he has on his squad. But there is no unanimity as to what the best way is so, only coach what you know how to fix versus worst case scenario. I never underestimate what our athletes can do if I as their coach have a systematic way to teach them thus, I know they will have a systematic way to learn. So, it becomes obvious that a coach must have a variety of ways of doing things and must present his own patterns for the offensive Line.
The following Chapter will give you a Historical overview on offensive line play and how techniques and strategies got its start.
The First Football Game Looked More Like Soccer
If you think that the 1869 rules made the game look more like a soccer match than a football game, you are right. The rules by which Rutgers played were based on the 1863 London Football Association’s rules. Gridiron football developed by combining these rules with rugby football rules to evolve into the collegiate football games we see today.