Thread: Need some help learning mechanics of OL/DL

Originally Posted by Dagan81

Help! LOL. I keep on hear all this stuff in the threads about foot work and hand placement on the offensive and defensive lines. Can someone tell me about this stuff, like what to look for, what it means, etc?

Pass Blocking

Post Foot: Your inside foot [Leftside-Right Foot and vice versa] which is closest to the QB must always stay ahead of your outside foot and must remain inside of the rushing players inside foot.

Kick Slide: When you pass block you kick with your outside leg and then bring your inside foot maintaining your base and keeping your post foot up. In a perfect world you would stop the edge rush with a kickslide that beats the defensive player to the edge.

Base: You should keep your feet at shoulder length and you should never bring them together they need to move at separate times [1 then 2] so that you have a foot on the ground at all times.

Hand Punch: The hand punch should be thrown when the defensive player comes within the outer perimeter, which is your arm extended minus your hand. You aim for the chest plate of the defender and controlling the defender is more important then a monster amount of force. You want to protect the inside arm because if you give away the inside arm is opens you up to the inside rush.

Head Out: Throughout the entire movement you need to keep your head out of the block as it will pull you off balance. When you punch you should look up to make sure that your chest and jersey cannot be grabbed.

You also want to keep your shoulders square to the line as long as possible before you open and attack with your hands. You should also kick back and not out as that gives the defender an 1 step advantage.

Originally Posted by WindyCity

Pass Blocking

Post Foot: Your inside foot [Leftside-Right Foot and vice versa] which is closest to the QB must always stay ahead of your outside foot and must remain inside of the rushing players inside foot.

Kick Slide: When you pass block you kick with your outside leg and then bring your inside foot maintaining your base and keeping your post foot up. In a perfect world you would stop the edge rush with a kickslide that beats the defensive player to the edge.

Base: You should keep your feet at shoulder length and you should never bring them together they need to move at separate times [1 then 2] so that you have a foot on the ground at all times.

Hand Punch: The hand punch should be thrown when the defensive player comes within the outer perimeter, which is your arm extended minus your hand. You aim for the chest plate of the defender and controlling the defender is more important then a monster amount of force. You want to protect the inside arm because if you give away the inside arm is opens you up to the inside rush.

Head Out: Throughout the entire movement you need to keep your head out of the block as it will pull you off balance. When you punch you should look up to make sure that your chest and jersey cannot be grabbed.

You also want to keep your shoulders square to the line as long as possible before you open and attack with your hands. You should also kick back and not out as that gives the defender an 1 step advantage.

Thanks Windy!

Originally Posted by Dagan81

Wow, that's a lot to remember. Were you a football player in high school? I was just a band geek who loved to watch football, but had no clue as to the mechanics of the game other than some of the playcalling.

Thanks for the information. I will try to be more cognizant of this stuff as I observe offensive linemen in the future.

Also, one more question about one technique that I have always heard about: are offensive linemen ALWAYS supposed to keep their eyes on the chest of the defensive linemen and not into their eyes? I seem to remember that I watched Anthony Munoz say that once in an interview once upon a time, but I am not for sure.

No, not until you're engaged with him in the block or beyond the point where a head fake can cause you to lose him. You have to be aware of head slaps and swim moves and you'll miss that if you're initially looking only at a guys chest. The idea is probably based on the same thing that has tacklers watching a guys waiste. Initially the head can go in a different direction than the feet but the waiste or the feet will lead the basic direction the ball carrier intends to go.

I'm not a football coach but those are some of the basics I learned during a very short HS career when I played ST's.

Originally Posted by Dagan81

Thanks, Paul. This is all kind of confusing, but when I actually see some of this stuff in practice, I will understand it better. I will probably go on YouTube sometime and observe some of this stuff.

One more though for you. There are a couple of guys on here who have played Oline and coached it. Why don't you get some input from them. I think Butka is one of them.