By Sam Gooding, Offensive Line Coach/Special Teams Coordinator, Dakota State University
It is no secret that progressions are a proven, effective way to teach any essential football skill or concept. At Dakota State, we use teaching progressions as the basis for learning every type of block and skill for the offensive line. These progressions break down the most essential elements of each block to focus on the specific steps, hand placement, body position, etc. needed during each phase. For the run game, everything starts with our Base Block Progression. From there, teaching every type of block is a variation of this teaching progression using the same principles with different steps, aiming points, etc. These teaching progressions form the basis for our individual drill time throughout fall camp and into the season.
Phases of a Block
To develop our progressions, we must first break down the phases of a block to isolate the specific skills and coaching points on which we must focus. We like to break down the phases of a block into the following:
1. Approach: This covers all movement from stance leading up to contact, but we like to focus especially on the first two steps. The mantra we repeat is “first step sets your angle; second step sets your base.” The first step should be quick, not gaining much ground. Just pick it up and put it down. The purpose of this step is to aim your body at an angle that will take you to your landmark. The second step should be a “stab” step, setting your base up for contact. Most of the time your goal is to get the second step in the ground before contact is made when covered by a defender.
2. Contact: In most instances, we want contact to occur with the lineman in perfect fit position. We talk about striking with facemask and hands simultaneously (NOT with the crown of the helmet). You must see what you hit. Losing sight of your aiming point could mean a lunge and a miss, or injury. Striking with arms overextended means keeping separation and therefore giving the defender an advantage. The offensive lineman should punch on the rise, with tight elbows and tight hands, thumbs vertical and parallel, avoiding “winding up.”
3. Stalemate: Unless there is a major mismatch, a stalemate will almost always occur on contact. This is where maintaining leverage, power angles in the body and feet digging is crucial. The two types of leverage that we talk about are “vertical” leverage and “horizontal” leverage. To achieve both types of leverage, we stress getting eyes under eyes and hands inside hands. Power angles must be maintained with a “Z in the knees” to get drive through the legs. Steps should not simply be choppy, but digging and gaining ground (meaningful steps).
4. Finish: The finish is key to completely negating a defender on a play. Once movement is achieved, the blocker finishes the block by sinking his hips into the block and finishing with the defender on his toes. Stressing the eyes up will help bring the hips forward, as the blocker cannot sink his hips with his head down. Finish, like all phases, should be violent.
Base Block Progression
With the main phases of a block in mind, we use our base block progression as the primary building block for all our individual instruction. To drill the different individual skills, we use the following drills and their variations:
Approach: Step Progressions
–Equipment: Boards (agile bags can be substituted)
–Drill: We drill the first two steps extensively, as these are the most vital part of the block. Starting in a 3-point stance, we work on stepping on a snap count. The lineman should line up the outside of his playside foot with the outside edge of the board, with his toes at the edge of the board. He will take his first step, freeze, then reset. He then follows the same pattern, taking two steps, freezing, then three. Freezing after each step allows them to evaluate their steps and correct them on the next progression.
Coaching Points: To push off quickly in either direction, the weight should be on the insteps of the feet. Keeping the knees inside the ankles helps to force the weight to the inside of the foot. First step should be a short, lateral step, just wide enough to clear the board. The second step can gain some ground, but should not narrow the base. The focus should be on the speed of the first two steps. Pad height should not change much out of stance.
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Contact: Punch Work
– Equipment: Boards (agile bags can be substituted), Hand Shields or Medicine Balls
– Drill: We work on our punch with a variety of equipment, including hand shields, medicine balls and sleds. The most common way that we work the punch is by combining it with the first two steps. The lineman begins in the same position as the step progression, but with a defender holding either a hand shield or medicine ball about one yard away, straddling the board. On the snap, he will take his first two steps and strike the hand shield or medicine ball violently with the heels of his hands.
-Coaching Points: We will alternate between using hand shields and medicine balls. The medicine balls give us a chance to emphasize punching on the rise as the player must strike underneath the ball. One of the goals is to get the first two steps down at least simultaneous to contact. The lineman should be punching on the rise, with tight hands and elbows, thumbs vertical and parallel, being careful not to wind up. I emphasize bringing the hands from stance to strike quickly, like pulling guns from holsters in a shootout (“shoot the guns”). The punch must be violent but controlled, with a tight near number aiming point.
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Stalemate: Fit and Drive / Fit and Refit
-Equipment: Boards (agile bags can be substituted)
–Drill: The offensive lineman begins fit up into the defender, who is straddling the front edge of the board. On the snap count, the defender will give resistance as the lineman drives him off the board. A variation that we use involves putting the lineman in an out-leveraged position and he must reset his hands and drop his hips before he can get movement.
-Coaching Points: The lineman should begin in a perfect fit position, with tight hands and elbows, Z in the knees and all cleats in the ground. Each step should be digging in the ground, careful not to get up on the toes or overextended. Steps are meaningful, not simply choppy or running in place. Pads should not rise up at the start. When refitting, goal should be to get hands inside hands and eyes under eyes.
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Finish: Fit and Finish / Hip Unlock
–Equipment: Boards (agile bags can be substituted)
-Drill: The lineman begins in the same fit position as before, but moved up so he is straddling the board too. On the snap, he will drive the defender off the board, simultaneously rolling his hips into the block, extending his arms and finishing with the defender on his toes.
–Coaching Points: Exaggerating eyes up will help to bring the hips into the block. The base should not immediately narrow when the lineman unlocks his hips. Finish should be violent, with the goal to lift the defender off the ground and eliminate his leverage completely. Think “low to high.”
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Combining Phases of the Progression
Once we have isolated each of the aspects of the block, we start to combine elements of each drill and progress toward a full base block, from stance to finish. As individual time gets cut down during the season, we are forced to get creative and combine elements of drills to practice more efficiently with limited time. The full progressions that we can work through during camp are usually not realistic for the timeframe of an in-season practice.
The reduced version of the progression that we go through on Tuesdays during the season (sometimes during pre-practice if there is not enough individual time) consists of: two steps/punch, fit and finish, full base block. We use these same three drills to work other block progressions as well during the season as it usually does not involve much more than changing the angle and footwork to switch focus to a completely different block.
Applying Progression to other Blocks
This progression forms the basis for all our individual work during fall camp, spring ball and the offseason. Obviously, we cannot spend all our time working on base blocks, but we use these basic progression drills and modify them to fit other blocks. For instance, to work down blocks we will just turn the board at an angle and modify the footwork and landmarks. To work blocking at the second level we can back the defender off to linebacker depth and use the same drills while focusing on our demeanor. We do not always work through the entire progression for every block once we get into the season and often will combine different elements of different blocks in one individual practice to address our specific needs. A typical individual session for us during an in-season practice could look like this:
– Two steps/punch
o Base block angle
o Down block angle
– Fit and finish
– Full base block
– Full down block
– Climb to LB (full)
o Straight
o Angle
o Angle w/ reach
Obviously, this is just an example, but it illustrates how we would cut down on the full progression and only practice the parts of it that we need the most. We also combine some drills to practice more efficiently in a limited time span. We will also work on different block types simultaneously, not necessarily blocking off a certain segment to work on base blocks, a certain segment for down blocks, etc. If we are working on first two steps and punch, why go through the full progression only to return to that drill later with nothing different other than a board that is turned at an angle now? This again allows us to be very efficient with our practice time.
Conclusion
Breaking these skills down into progressions allows us to focus on the isolated skills and coaching points before putting everything together. The progression that we have is logically sequenced, with each phase being built upon the previous. For example, your footwork out of your stance sets up the contact phase of the block. Without proper footwork, you will never be in position to initiate contact. After that, the stalemate is usually won or lost based upon who had the better footwork and initiated contact with better leverage. Finally, you can only finish if you have won the stalemate and gotten movement. In this way, each phase builds on the previous, so the logical progression allows us to stress the most important aspects early on in camp.
By using these principles and this progression we have seen a great deal of offensive success. In 2016 Dakota State finished the season averaging 422.6 total yards per game and 25.4 first downs per game. The offensive line produced two 1st Team All-Conference players and one on the 2nd Team as they paved the way for 1st Team All-Conference running back Robert Johnson who finished 9th in the nation with 1274 rushing yards. 2016 also saw DSU achieve its first national top 25 ranking in school history, peaking at #18.