During spring and summer, when your team is not in pads, teams seems to put a lot of effort in 7-on-7 competitions and might overlook line work. Yet, you always hear coaches saying “the game is won on the line”. Spending time in spring and summer working on getting off the ball will make an enormous difference come fall. Working these drills will make your players faster off of the ball and knocking the offensive line back.
Getting Off the Ball
One key to getting off the line of scrimmage is being quicker and faster than the man standing across the line. As we all know, you can not count on always having guys that are faster then the O-line, unless you work on it. Training keys to work on are triggering aggressively on movement, staying low, and knocking the offensive line back.
Defensive line drills should be started with some sort of movement trigger. We want to condition the D-line to react to movement and not sound. We like using a ball to start many drills. We also will incorporate a generic cadence in the drill so the players can work on tuning out the sound.
An example of this is 5 yard get-offs on ball movement. Two players at a time will help create competition to win the drill. Have them line up in a stance and see who goes 5 yards the fastest.
Tennis Ball Get-Off
In this drill, players go one at a time. The coach is three yards from the player. The player will start in a stance. The coach will hold a tennis ball out to the side. When the coach throws the ball down it will bounce back up. The player gets off the ball as low and as fast he can when the coach throws the ball, trying to get the ball before it hits the ground again. It is okay for the linemen to dive for the ball because they are working on first step explosion. You can move back farther from the line as the players get better at the drill.
Belly Busters
This drill is done on a multi-player sled. All spots on the sled are covered by players. The remaining players form a single file line at one end of the sled. The players covering the spots on the sled will start in a stance. The coach will begin the drill by giving out a random cadence. On ball movement (having a football on the end of a stick really works well for this drill) the players explode out of their stance as low and hard as possible. They take their first two steps driving the sled back with their hands. As they knock back the sled, their arms and body will become extended. They will then land on the ground on their bellies. The player on the end of the sled will now go to the end of the line. The other players will move over one spot and the next player in line is on the first spot. This will create a rotation with multiple reps and ample rest. Coaching keys are to watch their steps, making sure there are no false steps and that they are coming out low.
Having a fast, aggressive, and low get-off will give you a nice edge on the line. Playing on your opponent’s side of the line of scrimmage will greatly disrupt blocking schemes such as pulls and traps. Good get-offs makes it difficult to be reach-blocked.
About the Author: Eric Gerlach has been the recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach for Cabrillo College since 2001. He played professionally as a D-lineman for the Hildesheim Invaders in Germany. Gerlach played in college at both Cabrillo College and California State University Heyward.