3 Fundamental Youth Football Offensive Line Blocks
Teaching offensive line play is a bit of a science at even the higher levels of football. When you are tasked with getting it done for a youth football offensive line, it just got more challenging.
Trust us when we say that most kids play football because they have watched football. When they watch football, they normally watch that player with the ball or the one who is making the tackle.
When you ask an eight year old to put his or her hand in the dirt for the first time you better have a detailed plan of what you want to teach. There is a variety of sound defenses you will need to block. Today we want to look at three essential, fundamental youth football offensive line blocks to teach your young offensive linemen.
1. Down Block
For our money this is a better place to start with a young offensive lineman than a base block. Why? It’s because a down block is easier. You have leverage and the goal is to maintain the leverage without allowing penetration.
Since this block is often at the point of attack the degree of difficulty should be low for a young player. This is going to allow the player a chance for success. It is also going to allow your play to have a chance for success since this block is at the point of attack.
2. Pull Technique
When you begin teaching young offensive linemen your choices of schemes are not going to be that vast. Teaching pure zone schemes and motion schemes to young players is hard.
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Most youth football coaches quickly realize that in order to get any play to the perimeter they are going to need some version of a Down-Down-Around scheme. The pull technique comes into play when you start teaching the sound part.
3. Cutoff Technique
Some of you may be asking “Coach, what’s the difference in teaching a cutoff block and a reach block?” You would be correct in as much as the blocker has to gain leverage on the block that they do not have on the snap.
The difference is that a cutoff block is backside. That is a huge difference to a young player. There can be an over emphasis on winning play side with little harm if the defender was behind the blocker. The ball is normally gone but that point in the block.
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We have put together a short video that goes into a little more detail about these three fundamental youth football offensive line blocks. This will help you get started.
