Three fundamentals - posture, tight feet, and tight hands – are critical in an offensive lineman’s technique.

We operate on the notion that all actions on the football field are based on fundamental skills that we can learn, practice and improve. In order to do this, we have worked hard to understand what exactly is fundamental to the action that we coach.

I have spent a good portion of my career examining fundamentals. While I cannot say that my examination was always sound, it never stopped me from searching. I feel that we have identified some sound fundamentals for offensive line play. We have extended some of these fundamentals to other positions - tight ends, wide receivers and running backs.

If you really look at the methods we preach and practice, you will see that everything we do is based on 3 principles or fundamentals:

    1.  POSTURE
    2.  TIGHT FEET
    3.  TIGHT HANDS
   
“POSTURE” is an attempt to lock out the weak muscles in the back so that they do not diffuse force. Consider a guy squatting. He has 500-600 pounds on the bar. By mistake, when he lowers the bar, he lets his head drop. The big muscles in his hips and thighs become useless because the bar is no longer over his feet – his base – but rather somewhere in front of his toes. To compensate, he sticks his butt out even further, trying to draw the bar back over his base and he now resembles a “folded jack knife”, losing his balance and getting crushed. If he had kept a big chest by tightening his upper back muscles, his head would have stayed up and he could have kept the bar over his feet. The big muscles would have done the work.

When we say “TIGHT FEET”, what we mean is that we try never to take big steps. Big steps affect our base in a negative way. Imagine a guy with 300 pounds on his back, the weight of a good 3 technique. Imagine that this guy has to “fireman’s carry” that 3 technique up a flight of stairs. He has a good wide base, with both feet on the floor. He tries to climb the stairs and, as you can imagine, must narrow his base to balance as he takes the big steps required to climb the stairs. He tries to thrust himself up the first stair, but as he removes one foot from the floor, he loses balance and gets crushed. The “normal stride” basically removes half of his base from the surface.

You cannot apply force without resistance. The surface (floor) and the weight on his back are two ends of resistance in a “kinetic chain”. He is the force between those points of resistance or the middle link of that chain. His legs are “posts” that not only bend but support the entire mass of him and the 300-pounder he is carrying. The big stride removes one “post” and he topples as if he had a broken leg.

What if, instead of having to climb a staircase, he was asked to walk up an incline? What if he took little steps? What if they were 6-inch steps and just quick, little steps. What if he moved his foot before the weight had a chance to move? He moved his foot so short and so quick that he was able to maintain his base. Then he took another, then another, until using these little 6-inch steps. He then got the 3 tech right up that ramp. If you can picture what I am describing, you now understand the notion of “tight feet”.

Big steps have too much “air time” with your foot in the air too long. You cannot hope to maintain balance unless you carefully shift all of the weight to the posted foot. Playing on your toes rather than on your whole foot is another part of “tight feet”. When on your toes, your foot absorbs some of the force you are trying to generate. We want the entire foot in contact with the surface, the force going through our insteps.

The “BIG TREE” base is also a big part of this equation, described as such because your legs and feet are spread like you are climbing a big tree, your hips close to the “tree trunk” to keep from falling. This keeps your hips in a line with the two points of resistance – the surface and the opponent. Your feet are positioned “ten to two” at divergent angles, knees spread to shorten thighs, and the feet spaced wide for stability.

If we position our feet as if we were climbing a big tree trunk, it would follow that our hips would be close to the trunk and in line with our feet.

“TIGHT HANDS” or “UNCOUPLING” is the third fundamental.

I always ask players this question. I stand in front of them in what looks like a boxer’s stance except that I am holding my hands wide so that my face and chest are obviously exposed. Then I ask them this question:

“What do you call a boxer who boxes like this?”

The sharp ones always answer, “knocked out”.

I then show them my version of a proper boxing stance, with my hands held so that they are in front of my body, protecting me from direct blows and giving me a chance to throw a jab when the opportunity presents itself. A good boxer moves around with his feet “uncoupled” from his hands. His hands are the weapons and they are always ready to take advantage of an opening to throw a jab. If he were to move from place to place swinging his arms, he would be flailing.

By flailing, he adds timing issues to his ability to strike. It takes too long to recover a striking position when you flail. You will miss or your timing will be so off that you won’t transfer any force if you do get a hit.

We know that, very often, dropping your head during a block will cause you to lose balance. But by getting your hands on the guy you are hitting, you can push your head back, maintain your balance and finish your block, or defeat stalemates.

A stalemate is like a bridge, where two players smash into each other and form a bridge at the point of contact. Each player is half of the bridge, holding up the other. Each guy has his feet back, not under him. If either player moves his feet first, he will lose his base and will collapse. When you are engaged in a stalemate against another player and dangle your foot in the air, you lose contact with the playing surface. This diminishes your ability to resist.

In order to break the stalemate, you must add force to the stalemate. We use an upper arm lift – elbows in adds upper arm lift, elbows out just adds push – to add force to the stalemate. This upsets the bridge. As soon as you add force, be ready to move your feet.

There are three ways your body can produce force keeping elbows lower than shoulders to affect upper arm lift:

1.  Pull (like a sumo wrestler)

Your opponent is pulled toward your base pull up, a lift out of the ground. If the pulling force opposes gravity, then the surface acts like a platform. The lift brings your feet so that resistance is under you and that the kinetic chain is shortened.

2.  Push (like a boxer)

Push sends the feet back and the opponent is driven away from your resistance. You must stagger and brace to engage resistance. The surface acts like a block – a sprinter’s block – and resistance is behind you so that the kinetic chain is lengthened.

3.  Torque (like a judoka)

Using the lift generated from one arm, your opponent is pulled across your resistance. The surface is like a pitcher’s mound. Use the forward foot in a staggered base to generate torque. Resistance is alongside of you and the kinetic chain is swung.

In order to use these three ways to make force, hand placement is critical – You must have your hands on your opponent.

People say that “the devil is in the details”. I say that the details are useless without fundamentals. None of it makes sense if you can’t keep a base (tight feet), can’t apply force (tight hands), and can’t keep your balance (posture). I believe that if you can coach these three fundamentals, then you will coach with success.

About the Author:
John Strollo recently joined the staff at Penn State as Tight Ends Coach. He previously worked with PSU Head Coach Bill O’Brien while both coached at Duke. O’Brien was the Offensive Coordinator and Strollo was the O-Line Coach. Now in his 32nd year a college coach, Strollo has also had stints at Elon, Cornell, Maine, Lafayette, Northeastern, Massachusetts, and last fall at Ball State.