Ten minutes before every practice, our offensive linemen do a series of hip mobility drills over and under six hurdles.

Typically done by track athletes, the drills increase hip flexibility. This is a crucial trait for an offensive lineman.

Being able to bend is key. It’s something that college coaches look for on film and in summer camps to identify the players who can compete at a high level.

At the NCAA Division III level, we do not have the ability to work with our athletes during the summer. They head home and do the workouts that our strength coach prescribes. I added hip mobility drills to that list, but when they come back, I also want to spend time every day ensuring we are improving this component of their athleticism.

After warming up as a team, the linemen head down to their spot with me, and we do a few drills that resemble defensive back drills. Linemen start in a backpedal, then flip their hips while remaining on the same line they were backpedaling on. After that, we do a shuffle drill in which they flip their hips on my command.

I want them to remain low and stay on the line while moving as fast as they can.

The last drill is one I picked up this summer from Cornell University offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Roy Istvan.

As seen in the video below, the linemen assume a four-point stance. While this might look like a resisted bear crawl, there are some key coaching points.

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Each lineman providing the resistance will coach the other player. Look for flat backs with the butt down so backs are parallel with the ground. The knees come up to the chest, much like we coach in our hurdle drills.

We do not want to see the knees coming out to the side. Forcing these positions helps to develop the movement we are looking for in other offensive line movements.

We spend a few minutes on these drills every day, and I watch them closely, monitoring our lineman for progress and improvement in hip mobility. Working a little each day will pay dividends through the course of the season.

The second part of the things we do every day establishes our culture of “hustle.” We want our lineman going to the whistle in executing their assignments, then at the whistle we want them sprinting to the ball. To establish this, we do exactly that in all of our drills.

Our lineman execute every drill to the whistle.

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As coaches, this is something we pay attention to and keep our end of the bargain by blowing a whistle to stop every drill. On the whistle, the linemen sprint back to their starting points, and then we allow them to relax. They will either go to the back of the line or perform their next rep.

This level of effort is what we want in the game, so we establish that mentality in practice. An example is shown in the video below.

While the drills our lineman do and the effort and hustle they give are simple things, we feel these are important details. We focus on them every day. Our linemen understand the expectation and hold each other to high standards.

Keith Grabowski has been a football coach for 26 years, currently serving as an offensive assistant and technology coordinator at Oberlin College in Ohio. He previously was a head coach at the high school level for eight years and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Baldwin Wallace University. Grabowski serves as an advisor for several sports technology companies. He is a columnist for American Football Monthly and writes his own blog at thecoachesedge.com/blog. He’s the author of “101+ Pro Style Pistol Offense Plays” and five other books available on thecoachesedge.com and operates Coaches Edge Technologies. Follow him on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.