Good Evening Coaches and welcome to tonight's #swarmfbchat Tonight we visit with the DL gurus! So, get comfy for the next 30+ minutes. Intro yourselves and follow someone new. Be sure to use the hashtag in all responses. Like and RT for max exposure.
Q1: What do you preach when it comes to stance - which hand goes down? Where is the off hand? Balanced vs Staggered feet? Flex in which areas of the lower body? #swarmfbchat
A1 I have always been a man Hand down. In terms of stance a lot depends on what you are asking them to do slant and move more balanced, and pressure up field can be a little more staggered #swarmfbchat
A1: Biggest points are shade hand down, staggered stance for odd techs and even stance for even techs, off hand should be in front and ready to go but for sure off the leg! Butt in the air #swarmfbchat
A1: My old man gave me some good advice...unless it is causing an issue, don't spend too much time on which hand is up/down or the feet. However, the down hand must be extended in front of the helmet and the off hand should be a good 6 inches away from the facemask #swarmfbchat
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A1
I am an advocate of the balanced stance. It allows the players to explode in either direction while reacting to the block. The SINGLE most important thing is that you balance the players comfort with ability to execute.
A1: Honestly, I'm not married to any particular stance. Whatever makes the player comfortable while still being able to play low with powerful hands. #swarmfbchat
A1: Run Stance: Feet shoulder width apart; Toe to Mid Foot Stagger. Butt up with a flat back. Off hand out ready to strike. Good knee bend with your weight going forward. #swarmfbchat
I am not too big on particulars when it comes to stance other than all my guys must play right and left handed due to the power hand being down. The power hand splits the crotch of the offensive lineman depending on what side of the ball #swarmfbchat
A1) Shade hand ideally, not too worried about it. I like the stance pretty compact, slight stagger. I want the up leg knee under the chest and taking as much of the ball as we can. All offside by a couple inches is perfect. Off hand ready to punch, loose and low #swarmfbchat
A1: Pass Stance. Narrow Stance (Track Sprinter Stance). Toe to Heel Stagger. Off hand out ready to Slap/Club/etc. I teach them to gain as much ground as possible with staggered foot (replace down hand). #swarmfbchat
Ex. 3 tech to the left of the center will have right hand down. Opposite hand out in front. Feet are even since we are a read front. Legs in what we call Z look. We stagger on Jet and if we play head up, either hand down works #swarmfbchat
Q2: When coming off the ball/out of your stance, what are you teaching as far as footwork, hand placement, eyes? Any good drills to share (and coaching points)? #swarmfbchat
A2: We want a quick step with our inside foot. Hands hitting aiming points, inside hand to chest plate, outside to bicep. Second foot going in the direction of gap gaining ground in the direction of our movement and getting back in the ground ASAP. #swarmfbchat
A2) Our singular focus is getting our hand placement. If we get off hard and fast focused on hand placement, we play base, down and reach far better. #swarmfbchat
A1: near hand down and deliver with same hand same foot. Have toyed with off hands for some skill sets. Stagger in stance want to be able to drive off plant foot #swarmfbchat
A2 Hands on chest and bicep, aim small miss small, foot placement is based off mirroring their key read. We use @TonyAcito mirror drill a lot for this! And lev sled for firing the hands with great hips. #swarmfbchat
A2: The Key is the near hip of the OL. We read the hip & react based on the type of block. Hand Placement changes based on type of block. (Ex: Base Block we punch w/Inside hand on the sternum & outside hand under arm pit; grabbing cloth & lockout). #swarmfbchat
Q2: When coming off the ball/out of your stance, what are you teaching as far as footwork, hand placement, eyes? Any good drills to share (and coaching points)? #swarmfbchat
A2: The Key is the near hip of the OL. We read the hip & react based on the type of block. Hand Placement changes based on type of block. (Ex: Base Block we punch w/Inside hand on the sternum & outside hand under arm pit; grabbing cloth & lockout). #swarmfbchat
A2: depends on tech. In our tough or hands on tech we replace gap hand and get second step down as quick as possible (angle tech) we are almost Zone stepping and attack inside gap, eyes key guards outside shoulder #swarmfbchat
Q3: How do you work drills that help with transitioning from playing the run to a pass rush? Is it a pre-snap read? Part of down and distance stance/alignment? #swarmfbchat
A2 Target man we're shaded on. If target shows, strike and extend, hips in gap. If target disappears, bend. Target pass sets, attack. I want to play FAST, play with low pad level and ATTACK #swarmfbchat
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A2
1: Get your second step in the ground! It's where all your power is
2. VIOLENT hands. Preach violence before accuracy or aiming points and preach the GRAB! For some reason they'll want to smack instead of grab. Pisses me all the way off.
3. Eyes on key
Am I the only guy who doesn't get made when his line jumps, as long as the fire their hands? I come unhinged when a kid can jump off and not touch the Oline....HOW IS IT POSSIBLE?!?!!?
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A2: We do a lot of Key Drills early on in the Summer. Read & React. A lot of walk thru / 50% / 100% Progressions. Film study also helps with reads. Having the kids understand WHY we play reads with different techniques really helps with their progression. #swarmfbchat
A3: we need to get better at this!!! Really good at playing run but bad at transitioning, do we need to focus on more hand fighting and counters ? #swarmfbchat
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A3
I want my kids worrying about playing the run at all times. If we want to get to the quarterback we will bring an extra man. Stop the run.
We have a call for when I think they are going to pass that tells our kids it's time to go and to play pass first.
A3: We have our front 90% run stop mode. Once they recognize pass, clear the hands, and go. When we do want pass rush, we give a "razor" call getting the ends wider and butts higher up in the air with forward lean. Use Tosh Lupoi's teaching when at Cal. #swarmfbchat
A3 We stress the V of the o lineman...4 directions...right left which put us in run phase at 1 yard down the line (gap expansion) a 0 read is when o lineman comes straight off the ball this equals single gap responsibility #swarmfbchat
A3 Work key reads over and over and over and over! Target can do one of 3 things, come at me, disappear (block away) or pass set. It's a personnel group and down & distance thing. #swarmfbchat
A3) Again, get off!!! Best get offs have the quickest transition. Don't look, don't think, FEEL blocks, pass sets feel like pass sets, play pass. Base feels like base, play base #swarmfbchat
A2: foot replaces hand to keep everything level eyes through the outside v of the neck to see through the blocker hand placement in the offset of chest and cuff #swarmfbchat
A3: I want my guys to play the run first all the time. But through the week we work tendencies, d&d, and always rep screens, even if the opponent hasn't shown it on film. There is nothing worse in life than getting beat on a screen. #swarmfbchat
A4 spill for sure, trap the trapper and make the run bounce out but it must be violent! If we catch when trying to spill, it kills the defense #swarmfbchat
A4)Spill. This year we were skinny but athletic, best job or wrong arming and getting vertical thru it. Tip of the cap to our kid and DL coach. They wrong arm everyday. Gotta love the dirty work. #swarmfbchat
A4: 34 our dl spill and OLB squeeze/ box (dl) will wring arm or rip under thigh board of block, our dl coach does a great job of repping the crap out of this on bags, OL are getting better at a quick punch and then clear ok trap though #swarmfbchat
When you are getting rid of hands, it needs to be violent. We say break the elbow. Then clear your inside hand through with a punch or rip to get your hip cleared through the gap and square up to the LOS to get to QB. #swarmfbchat#violent
A4 Spill at 1 yard. We wrong arm but try to work through the spill. Never trade 1 for 1. We also have Sponge which means to spill over the top and force the back underneath. We use this in sprint out or when in automatic contain #swarmfbchat
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A4
We "slow play" and spill pullers. If the end notices hes being read he'll slow play and eliminate the gap. If he isn't being read he finds the puller and spills it.
A4. Squeeze. Our DE’s are rarely Contain players. They Read Down Block & Squeeze OL. They play flat down the LOS (Fighting for Inside Leverage) & Wrongarm (Dip outside arm & rip across) the pulling OL. After Wrongarm, I teach them to get vertical. #swarmfbchat
A4 cont: One stance I was taught by @RmaCoachP that I'll continue to use in the future is to put the ends in a 2 point stance, butt to the sidelines so that he can see everything from the get-go. #swarmfbchat
Always a pleasure to bring you the Tuesday night #swarmfbchat Thanks for joining in and sharing. I get way too distracted to answer my own Qs, but I love to look back and steal ideas!
A4. Spill. Our DE’s are rarely Contain players. They Read Down Block & Squeeze OL. They play flat down the LOS (Fighting for Inside Leverage) & Wrongarm (Dip outside arm & rip across) the pulling OL. After Wrongarm, I teach them to get vertical off OL’s Hip. #swarmfbchat
A4: We are a squeeze team. Hit your aiming points and drive him into the gap, leaning with your inside arm. Stay square to LOS. If you can be square and OL gets turned towards the sideline, we have won, but work to get OT compressed down into inside gap. #swarmfbchat
A4. B-gap players spill 4 us. C-gap players "box" it. Spill tech is rip thru i/s armpit and climb. Box tech is squeeze the down blk, anchor o/s leg and bang the outside half of puller. #swarmfbchat
A1: I used to be concerned with which is proper stance based on the side of the line you were. Here recently, I’m more concerned with player comfort. I want them to play fast. As long as they are doing their job and playing fast, I don’t mess with it much. #swarmfbchat
A4: really depends on the ends I have on which one I like. Bigger slower ends I like to wrong shoulder and spill. T STEPS down push him down look for pull. Faster smaller ends read first step and go! Step down tighter angle step out get outside angle. #swarmfbchat
A2: We teach hands and near foot through the near “V”. Eyes go through that “V” to the ball. We really focus on this with our DEs. Interior lineman may change week to week. #swarmfbchat
A3: We are run stoppers first! We react to pass 2nd. UNLESS we get a hard tendency by formation or situation (down/distance;certain player alignment; etc). We may also see a change in stance by OL. #swarmfbchat
@rmacblue A4: We teach spill. This year we started focusing on this a lot earlier in the preseason than normal. Repetition is key. Simple formations at first, then get more complex. We harp initial step to the “V” and spill trap ASAP! (Scheme thing) #swarmfbchat
#swarmfbchat Thumbs up, elbows locked, eyes on the key (near HIP). Aiming point with hands is the key (Hips). Which means they will truthfully get their hands around the bottom of the numbers. Expecting a “Block to” every time and pushing pressure back where it came from.
