Coach -

Spring practice is where your offensive line gets built or rebuilt. You might have 15 or less sessions to install everything your five need to play as a unit. That means fundamentals. Not new schemes. Not trick plays. The base-level mechanics that every rep for the rest of the year will be built on.

Three OL coaches broke these fundamentals down in their clinics, and each one attacks a different piece of the puzzle.

Today we're going over stance, contact, protection.

Video: Mike Hallett - Developing the Offensive Line Stance

Triangulation of Base: How To Build the Stance

Coach Hallett teaches ground-based mechanics, and everything starts with the feet.

At Toledo, offensive linemen set a 45-degree angle from their inside foot to their outside foot. The intersection point of those angles lands about eight inches behind the tailbone. Coach Hallett calls this the triangulation of base.

A quick way to get players to find it: have them stand with all their weight on their inside foot, lift the outside leg, and fall open. That landing position is the base.

Then one small adjustment. Take the inside foot and turn the toe out one inch. Coach Hallett doesn't know why the biomechanics work the way they do, but that one-inch toe turn makes a measurable difference in pass sets and run angles. He's seen it consistently enough to make it a non-negotiable.

Two-Point to Three-Point

From that base, he coaches the two-point stance to have the knees inside the feet, back arched, elbows tight, and hands framing the kneecaps. The transition to a three-point is just putting the outside hand down. Not white-knuckled into the dirt. Light enough to pick up and move without falling over. The inside hand loads out in front, ready to strike.

Centers Are Different

Centers can't stagger. They align parallel and rotate their toes out 22.5 degrees each, which creates the same 45-degree angle from a balanced set. The offhand cocks and adjusts based on the defensive technique aligned on them: shade to the snap hand, shade to the offhand, or head-up.

Coach Hallett revisits stance checks with his players once a week. He says most recruits who visit can't remember the last time anyone coached their stance. Eighth grade. Sixth grade. Coach doesn't let the standard slide because the season started. Coach Hallett walks through the full breakdown with his players on film in the clip above.

Video: Ron Crook - OL Leverage Drill and Run Blocking Fundamentals

The Leverage Drill: First Contact, First Step

Coach Crook builds everything around a single idea: your drills have to show up on film.

His leverage drill is the first thing his offensive linemen do on Day 1 of spring ball. It's also a conditioning drill. The blocker starts as if he's already taken his first step out of a three-point stance. Right foot forward. He's in a fit position on the defender with his eyes on the play side number.

On the cadence, the blocker fires his back leg through the defender and accelerates his feet for 10 yards. The goal is about six seconds of sustained drive. That's how long a play lasts.

The Physics of Contact

Here's the coaching point Coach Crook hammers. When mass meets mass, there's a moment where nothing moves. Whoever fires that second step first wins the block. The drill is built to train that exact moment.

Coach Crook puts his foot behind the blocker's front foot to eliminate the false step. The blocker can't cheat backward. The only option is to fire the back leg forward and drive. If that back leg kicks up where you can see the bottom of the cleat, he's not driving. He's waddling. Coach Crook shows the difference on film in the clip: one lineman running off the ball and driving his knees, getting real movement, and another one waddling with his feet kicking up behind him. The push difference is obvious.

Video: Pat DelMonaco - Pass Pro Fundamentals

Four Rules of Pass Protection

Coach DelMonaco has coached pass protection from college through the CFL, and he teaches four rules that never change regardless of the scheme or level.

1. Never get beat inside. That's the shortest path to the quarterback. Every pass rusher wants that lane, and every offensive lineman has to take it away first.

2. Never let a defender get to your hip. Inside hip or outside hip. Once a rusher reaches the hip, he has leverage to bend the corner or spin off. The hip is the point of no return.

3. Keep defenders off your body. Coach DelMonaco believes in striking. Jabbing with the hands. Creating separation. Defensive linemen want to use the offensive lineman's body as a lever point. They want to lean in, use the blocker to keep themselves upright as they bend or spin. Separation takes that away. Hands control the rusher. Body contact gives the rusher something to work with.

4. Never let anyone run free. Pass protection is five men working as a unit, not five one-on-one battles. If the center comes free, he works to help his partners. Those are opportunities for pancakes, for knockdowns, for making defensive linemen feel the offensive line at all times.

Coach DelMonaco is direct about this: everything in pass protection is five-on-however-many-are-rushing. The quarterback and running back make it six or seven. The receivers have their hots and built-ins. But the five up front have to work as a connected chain. He goes deeper on the mechanics and application in the clip above.

Three coaches. Three phases of OL play. All built on the same principle: fundamentals aren't something you install in August and assume. They're something you train, check, and hold to a standard every week. Spring is where that standard gets set. Coach Hallett checks stances once a week. Coach Crook builds his drills to replicate game film. Coach DelMonaco drills the same four rules whether a player is a rookie or a veteran.

Your five don't need more plays this spring. They need better feet, a faster second step, and a shorter path to the right technique.

Always be growing,

Coaches Clinic Community of Coaches Helping Coaches

P.S. Each of these clips comes from a full clinic diving into a TON of fundamentals and how to coach them -- perfect for spring.

Link: Mike Hallett - Offensive Line Fundamentals

Link: Ron Crook - OL Run Game Fundamentals

Link: Pat DelMonaco - Pass Pro Fundamentals