IN THE TRENCHES: 5 Keys to DOMINATING the Line Of Scrimmage

Defensive line play is about 1 thing, PENETRATION. Over the years I've been involved with American Football as a player 1st, a coach secondly & currently as a strength & condition specialist, 1 thing holds true. Penetration wins!   No matter what scheme you run, or what kind of players you have, if your Defensive line gets penetration you're teams chances of winning are dramatically increased.

All off-season we train our players (here @ KEY 2 SPORTS) to be strong, powerful, explosive, better conditioned and mentally tougher, so that when they reach the grid iron they can dominate their opponent play after play for 60 minutes (and beyond if need be). Lifting heavy weights, running sprints, and brutally challenging conditioning circuits serve1 purpose and 1 purpose only........that is to DOMINATE.

This article is about the basic fundamentals of how to do what we call "create a new line of scrimmage". This phrase "creating a new line of scrimmage" simply means to take an entire offensive line and to a man move them all backwards. The job of the offensive line is to either move you (the defender) backwards to get to the second level (linebackers and or corners & safeties), or to position you as to give the ball carrier an open lane with which to execute an offensive play. By doing the opposite and creating penetration, defensive lineman alone can create blocking problems for offenses' and allow for penetration of defensive help players thus leading to a breakdown of an offensive play.

The 5 most important factors for establishing and re-creating this line of scrimmage are as follows:

SET A CHARGE! - It gets no simpler than this. In order to win the battle in the trenches, defensive lineman have to set a charge. This means to attack the LOS & or the offender in front of them with tenacity and urgency causing a collision. Plain and simple, defensive lineman MUST have an attitude and a mindset that is willing to destroy anything that stands in front of them. Its the only way to play the game.

 You may ask how do we accomplish this? Glad you asked.  The answer may be a bit simpler than you imagine. I'll discuss one simple thing here first. Then the rest of the article will explain how to accomplish this task of setting a explosive charge.

There are many ways to develop the power and drive it takes to move another human body hell bent on doing the same thing to you. But for the sake of this article we'll discuss a short list of options that will allow us to set a charge properly.

• Proper stance. Believe it or not the best way to give yourself the edge in "getting off the ball" is a proper stance. Many times you will see professionals and high level collegiate athletes in a completely inappropriate or unsound stance. This is because their level of ability may be higher than the average individual and therefore allows them to "get away" with it. I'd suggest NOT watching professional athletes if you're looking to perform better, but rather a well coached High School team or even a lower level (albeit successful) college team. Reason being is that these institution are not driven by athletic egos and coaches salaries. They rather are sticklers for fundamental football and would be a great source of teaching for 90% of the population. 
• The stance I advocate is to simply placed the hand either directly under the shoulders, or slightly (5 degrees) behind the shoulders. Back and hips flat or slightly higher than the shoulders and feet tucked underneath the butt & hips. Off set arm should be elongated, NOT coiled or using any excessive movements (wiggling the fingers or anything like that). Our eyes & heads are to remain neutral. We don't want the head cocked way back. Likewise we don't want the head down either.We keep our neck and shoulders neutral and prepare to deliver a safe but sound blow! Our main point of emphasis here is that we don't want the athlete to be too comfortable in the stance, rather we want the stance to be uncomfortably comfortable. Catch my drift?? We want them to feel the necessity to explode out as soon as possible while feeling somewhat comfortable with the stance they are using. 

1st STEP! - Its a race to see who can get their first step in the ground first. The 1st step is vital because it is that step that allows you to deliver the initial blow that will create the type of collision we are looking for. I believe more so than leverage, more so than hip drive and even more than hand placement, the lineman's 1st step is the most important piece of the equation. You can have great hand placement, great hip drive and great leverage. If you don't move your feet you have NOTHING. 

PROPER PAD LEVEL - Any Defensive lineman worth his salt will know and agree that your leverage will be the thing that takes you the furthest in creating a new LOS. No matter how big & strong you are, if someone gets under you with good solid leverage you WILL LOSE. Period. A lineman's ability to not only assume a lower body position (relative to the lineman you're currently facing) but maintain that low pad level will win his battle almost every time. This is so important it cannot be over addressed. Coaches use sleds, chutes,  bags, tunnels, etc to address the problem of maintaining leverage on your opponent. IN order to set the type of charge that will cause penetration and create a new LOS, you must have good leverage.

HIPS & HANDS! - This is the where the real battle is. We've talked about our primary goal which is to SET A CHARGE. We know that this must be accomplished 1st and foremost by an explosive first step. Secondly we know that our leverage will position us accordingly, giving us the best chance to succeed at creating a new LOS. Now we go to battle! HIPS & HANDS is where the fun is. Its where all the work from the off-season comes to fruition. Its mano y mano! Once you have your feet properly established and your leverage confidently set, now you have to have great hand placement and explosive hips. 

Hands- hand placement will vary depending on the scheme being taught and or the position played. (Ex: Dwight Freeney's hand placement will be dramatically different as a "rush end" than say.....Richard Seymours', who happens to also play defensive end but in a totally different (3-4) scheme.) 

Regardless of position your hands should be positioned approximately mid to upper chest/shoulder. Its should be high enough to actually grab & control the offender while not losing leverage. Likewise, it shouldn't be so low as to cause you to fall forward. We usually shoot for the upper half of the number and control of 1 shoulder (gap scheme). 

From the side view our body should look similar to this picture here.  The athlete here has a flat back, hands about the chest/sternum area and is full attack mode. 

Our next area is hips. As we bring the hands its important to remember to bring your hips too! The drive of the legs along with the placement of our hands means little with out the follow through of the hips. The hands allow us control of the offender while the hips allow us to get him on his heels! 

In our teaching progressions we actually teach hands and hips as ONE drill because the two go hand in hand. 

DRIVE & GET SEPARATION! - Once you've established your feet and leverage & attacked with your hips and hands, then its time to drive your feet and get separation. This simply means to separate yourself from the offender by using that leverage, hip and hand placement aggressively! The reason we want separation is because we can't make plays unless there is space between us and the blocker. The offensive line want to stay in close to us and grab (hold) anything they can to prevent us from running free. The way we finish off creating this new LOS is to separate our bodies from theirs and run our feet with tenacity and urgency.

So there you have it! If you or your lineman will learn to perfect these 5 not-so-simple but very teachable things, you will enjoy the success of creating havoc play after play and week after week!

NOW GO MAKE PLAYS!!!!