the sled

We are a midline and triple team, and I hit the sled once a week. We have individual sessions on both hard practice days (tuesdays and wednesdays). On tuesdays I do drills that focus on our main attack that week other than the option game (Iso, double Iso, trap, etc...). It has been my experience that sometimes OL lose their aggressiveness of the l.o.s. in the option game because they are always trying to remember who not to block. Then when you run a power scheme, they do not get the desired vertical push on the first level defenders. That being said, I drill our veer release technique (used to avoid optioned defenders on the l.o.s.) every day. True, the sled is not very good for Zone schemes, but for pure explosiveness off the ball and keeping them aggressive, it is a good tool. You can also use different blocks on the sled. Use a 1 man sled to practice a double-team. Practice a pull and trap on a 1 man, or have all linemen doing it at once on a 7 or 5 man. In other words, use it for a purpose. Don't just hit it because it is there.