At Morrilton High School we believe you can teach effective offensive line play using Newton’s three laws of motion as a reference to situations a lineman will encounter during offensive plays. This will include general situations during the course of a game.
The laws, themselves, are synergistic; they work together, and we often use all three laws on any block. Let’s examine three areas in which we use Newton’s laws: block sustainment, physicality and understanding defensive movement.
Newton’s first law states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. We use this law to teach block sustainment. Movement of the feet is essential to good offensive line play. We reference this law while teaching our linemen to keep their feet moving when they engage a defender. The offensive lineman is the object in motion and the defender is the outside force. Often, when linemen engage defenders, they stop moving their feet, proving Newton’s first law. We want them to understand and use this law to their advantage by keeping their feet pounding to sustain the block.
Newton’s second law is force equals mass times acceleration (F=ma). This is physicality, how physical are you, and how much force you are bringing. We reference this law in our initial movement off the ball, in our pulls on counter plays, and on our zone double teams. We have to remember that to be successful with this law on these blocks, we must understand Newton’s first law.
We teach our linemen to keep their feet in perpetual motion. So, on our initial movement off the ball, we teach them to get their second step in the ground very quickly, to cock their hands on the first step and punch and set hips on the second. We reference Newton’s second law in doing so. The force (F) they bring off the ball is equal to the linemen’s weight (m) and his acceleration (a) off the ball.
We also reference Newton’s second law in our pulls on counter plays. The amount of force (F) our linemen can apply to defenders depends upon their mass (m) and acceleration (a). We want our linemen to be as physical as possible with all blocks, but this specific block on a pulling play affords them an opportunity to be very physical because of the acceleration factor. The synergistic part here is to keep the feet moving on contact with the kick block.
This law is again referenced on zone double teams. We try to create as many double teams as possible when we run the zone play. We believe and teach our players that any two of us can exert more force than any one of them. We pride ourselves on never losing a zone double team. We have to understand and use Newton’s first law to our advantage and bring our feet with us on contact.
Newton’s third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We reference this law when teaching our linemen that the defender often works off the opposite of our movement. The essence of defense play is reaction. For example, if a lineman is down blocking to his left on a defender, the defender knows the ball is going to the opposite direction of the block. We teach our linemen to understand this to allow them to stay on top of and sustain blocks. We teach this concept with all of our blocks. We must understand and use Newton’s first two laws when referencing this one.
We’ve found that using Newton’s Three Laws of Motion is a way to teach offensive linemen how to play. We are teaching concepts they will use on the field as well as in the classroom.
About the Author: For the past five years, Kent Chambers has served as the Offensive Line Coach at Morrilton High School (AR). He is also the Dean of Students at the high school. Chambers graduated from Missouri Southern College and then served as a graduate assistant at Southeastern Oklahoma State. Chambers coached at Knoxville College and two additional high schools in Arkansas before joining the Morrilton staff.