Once offensive linemen understand gap responsibility, it’s time to progress to the next step: blocking schemes.

In the teaching progression we will use for this series, we teach zone principles followed by the application of those principles to gap schemes, then we finish with any man schemes we might add.

In designing our blocking system, we are intent on building a concept that allows our offensive line to play with confidence and aggression, because we would be able to effectively practice and drill every technique to the point of being proficient in all situations.

SEE ALSO: Read more of Keith Grabowski’s Building an Offensive Line series

SEE ALSO: Principles of gap responsibility

COMING NEXT WEEK: An overview of outside zone blocking

This article presents the materials and teaching progression that we use in a classroom setting, which we insist on being interactive. We have the players take notes and ask questions as the material is being introduced, but we also have them stand up, walk through footwork and hand work and verbalize their line calls at different points throughout the presentation.

The first step is teaching the offensive line identification system. We married our offensive identification system with what our linemen have already learned on the other side of the ball. We are not a two platoon team, so all of our players learn both sides of the ball. We also like this system because it was simple.

What a guard needs to learn is the exact same as what the tight end learns. Because technique is the same across the line of scrimmage for each position, theoretically, we can move a lineman to any spot on the offensive line when needed. Our identification system is illustrated in this video.

After teaching the three possible alignments, we explain what a defensive lineman is most likely to do in each alignment:

Most likely go to the inside gap

Can go either way

Most likely stay to the outside gap

In the initial meeting, our line coach has the players stand up and align as if they were at the line of scrimmage. Different fronts are aligned across from them, and they make a technique call. We conclude this short interactive portion by explaining that they will make a technique call on every play this year.

After linemen have a sound understanding of defensive identification and gap responsibility, we teach the line calls for our zone calls. Ace, Deuce and Trey are the calls for the play side linemen. Charlie, George and Tom are the calls for the backside linemen.

We explain that they will make a real call or a dummy call on every play. At first, they just make the actual call on every play, but as they grow accustomed to the calls, they start to have a lot of fun with the dummy calls made on pass plays. Eventually, and this is important for them to understand, the calls work as a security blanket, and after a few years in the system, our linemen admitted that they could block the play without the calls when needed, such as when a defense stems late.

Line call procedures and examples are shown in this video.

The next part of the teaching progression is to demonstrate landmarks. This should be done individually and not in combos. Inside, head-up, and outside technique are explained and demonstrated. Note that all are steps with the playside foot and are punching on head-up and inside technique only.

Landmarks are illustrated here.

At this point, we have not really ventured too deep into our schemes and concepts. We introduce our principles of gaps, defensive identification and covered and uncovered landmarks. With sound understanding of these principles, we can begin to build our schemes.