Do you have the correct stance?

Offensive line play is one of the hardest positions in sports to truly master because of the amount of technique that is involved with every movement during a play. When coaching OL one of the most important parts of coaching OL is having a great stance! It goes back to the old saying, “if you start wrong odds are you are going to finish wrong.” What I will go thru in this blog is my key points on having a great stance.

Foot Angle

Gone are the days from Pop Warner where you were taught to have your toes pointing straight up the field! Let’s talks about a Right Handed stance; the left foot should be slightly opened, point towards 11’oclock. The right foot is a part of the prop leg, the foot should be more angled at approximately 2:00. This will allow you go get your whole back foot in the ground!

 Neutral Height in Stance

People think lower is better which is not true all. I will say this, the lower you can play the better your going to be. Some people’s anatomy won’t let them get to a certain depth. One way to figure out how low you should be in you stance is to simply come off the football. If the hips moves jagged then you’re too low. If the hips move nice and smooth, then you are perfect. I always teach this to my guys so they understand what goes into building a base.

Stagger of Stance

Pop warner coaches teach toe lined up in the instep. Anatomy wise it really doesn’t make sense; it doesn’t allow you to open up your hips and play with power. The easiest way to figure out how much stagger to play with is this simple test. Stand with your feet just outside shoulder width. Have someone gently give you a nudge, when falling backwards catch yourself with the foot that goes back in your respective stance. Wherever that foot falls is where it should be, in relation to your post foot This is just the basics of how your stance should operate, I could go on about this for hours, but I wont! Like I said before, “if you start wrong, you will finish wrong.” Please put time and effort into your stance and base, it’s the most important aspect.

If you would like to learn more about OL play come to our big man camp starting February 4th!

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