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The more years you coach, you start to recognize certain things remain the same. For myself, it is an introductory offensive line blocking system, known as Wall Blocking. There are some "gurus" who insist they are the founders (which is astonishing since I was implementing it BEFORE they began coaching), but no matter it is a mighty, uncomplicated and good way of coaching your offensive line. It teaches your players how to block as a unit. It is a variation of zone blocking.
This blocking has been the one staple in my over twenty years of coaching pee wee football, for my offensive linemen. Use it since it is simple to teach and works on a variety of grade levels. This style of offensive blocking has served me well with the older tackle kids as well as the younger flag players. It has been used with great success on my championship fourteen year old travel teams as well as the younger teams I have been a part of. Heck, I have even exploited wall blocking on my five year old flag football team.
The easiest manner in which to instruct wall blocking is to start the linemen with very tight splits. When we talk about a line split we are talking about the space between the offensive lineman. You instruct the entire line that on the snap of the football all of the lineman move united, keeping as close to each other as possible.
Teach this technique to both the right and the left making sure the lineman stay together "like a wall" as they move together in unison. The secret is making sure that all of the offensive linemen open up, seal, move in the same direction and at the equivalent speed. There will be multiple repetitions needed to make sure in the wall stays intact, especially when the players start moving in a direction. Keeping repeating it to the kids, telling them we cannot allow any holes, or penetration in our wall. Tell the kids the if there are open areas, or penetration against our wall, we will leak, allowing for the worst case scenario. The biggest problem is when a defensive opponent rushes into our running backs, stopping them for no gain.
We have a main goal and that is to hold together a compressed moving wall, in a single direction.
A few of the primary advantages of wall blocking include:
Not difficult to instruct It is successful versus any defensive alignment It neutralizes defensive blitzing It works both ways (left and right) It has been successful with every age group It has been successful with every kind of unique skill level It has been successful in making outstanding open areas for the running game
Wall blocking has been and always will be an crucial blocking plan I teach to every player, on every squad I coach. I always instruct this technique early in the season since we will use it all season. I understand the benefits it gives my team no matter which style of offense I am using this season.
