OLine Pride Weekly- Hand usage and placement

Logan Tuley-Tillman

January 18, 2022 @ 08:08 AM

Pass Protection Anytime while in the process of taking a pass set, I remind all of the linemen that I train to have and maintain a WuTangForLife hand positioning. I use this funny term/phrase to help them to remember to have their hands up with the fingertips of their thumbs together making a W. It’s imperative for linemen to always have their hands up and be ready to strike and replace. I compare offensive linemen in pass protection , to boxers because if they ever drop their hands the rep has a chance to be over. Throwing up the WuTangForLife gives linemen a simple phrase and mental cue to remember how to keep their chest protected. I always ask my players what happened to Tony Starks in the Avengers? Before they can answer, I always interrupt them off and emphatically remind them that “he dropped his hands and got bull-rushed! This funny story helps the linemen create a mental picture of where to hold the hands. When holding up the WuTangForLife hand positioning, remember to keep nose and spine back with the tips of the thumbs heart level, ready to strike. Run Game - There are many different ways to teach hand positioning in the run game but the easiest that I’ve found is the double under. For example, if I am a right guard blocking a 3 technique defensive tackle on inside zone right my footwork should be to step with my right foot to him, then step through them with the left foot as fast as possible followed by a double under. When executing a doubling under block, you want to think of having your palms flat up to the sky with the pinkies together. You want to have the elbows tight to the ribs and pinky fingers together to unlock the hips and forklift the defender out of his body lean. One thing to think of that we want to accomplish here is gaining horizontal displacement. Vertical movement is lovely if it can get obtained but to remove most 3 technique defensive linemen from their gap, you have to first stretch then distort their leverage. The footwork of right tackle on inside zone right vs a 5 technique is to first step with the right foot to the defender, then step through the defender with the left foot. The point of emphasis here is to get the hips first on the defender's track, then running through them with hat speed, while keeping the backside elbow tucked to the rib and getting the backside hand to the defender’s inside armpit. Once the tackle has come off the ball and set his backside hand and pads into the defender he has to fight for stretch and displacement. There are many other interesting ways to accomplish the blocking assignments that we talked through but these coaching cues emphasis using and carrying the hands correctly! For more information on the specifics of how to utilize the hands or for more offensive line training material follow me on Instagram @LoganTT72, or Twitter @LoganTillman, or Facebook Logan Tuley-Tillman or LT2 Football Academy.