Building Better Linemen (7 pages, PDF)

Building Better Linemen is a Gridiron Strategies Special Coaching Report by Kirk Duncan, Defensive Coordinator, Kicking Coach and Defensive Line Coach at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It takes on a problem every line coach knows: your linemen already lift three times a week, but the weightroom on its own does not give them quick feet, explosive hips, or the low, wide-based posture line play demands. Duncan's answer is a supplemental three-day workout — Foot Speed, Power and Linemen School — done during or after the lifting sessions, rotating the point of emphasis each day to keep the work fresh. The report deliberately excludes weights, and it is written for a high school on a limited budget: nearly every drill uses equipment a program already owns, such as athletic tape, a bench, a box, cones, a wall or a row of lockers, weight plates, an Olympic bar, a medicine ball and an inflatable exercise ball. This is the digitised edition of the printed report — 7 pages with a searchable text layer, 35 captioned drill photographs and 2 diagrams.

What's inside

• Day 1: Foot Speed — Drills 1 through 9, built on 1-yard strips of duct or athletic tape: side-to-side quick hops, front-and-back quick hops, wide-feet quick hops over two tape strips set 2 1/2 feet apart, the Stutter Run, competitive partner-counted Step Ups on a bench, the Bench Bounce, the Maze Drill with its numbered tape pattern and four called combinations ("around," "diagonals," "up and backs"), and the Calves-Bounce Pyramid against a wall. Sets, work periods and rest are specified throughout — two 30-second sets with 20 seconds rest, 15-second stutter runs with 30 seconds rest, three calf pyramids with a minute between.
• Day 2: Power — 11 numbered plyometric drills aimed at exploding through the three "power" joints (ankles, knees, hips): wide lateral 2-foot hops, the Bounding Drill, the Lateral-Jump Run on a 15-yard course, Jordan Jumps with the "down" and "up" commands, Jordan Tucks, Split-Legged Jordan Tucks, Broad Jumps scored by fewest jumps to cover 15 yards, Jordan Pike Jumps, Single-Leg Speed Jumps, Chimney Hops onto a box just over 2 1/2 feet tall (super-set with the squat workout), and Box Rebound-Jumps between two boxes set a yard apart.
• Day 3: Linemen School — 11 numbered drills that mirror what happens on the field: the Exer-Ball Roll for the fit position and base leg drive, the Bar-Mirror Step-Slide with an Olympic bar held heart-high for pass-protection footwork, Wall Slides down a row of school lockers, Plate Punches, Wall Explosion into a held blocking pad with a 3-to-5-second hold in the power position, the Four-Corner Agility Drill (low shuffle, high-knee crossovers, carioca and backwards run around cones 10 yards apart), partner manual-resistance Arm Raises, Leg Raises and Neck Raises, Medicine-Ball Slams, and the Shuffle-Mirror Drill between cones 5 yards apart.
• Coaching rationale after each drill group — why the work matters: developing quicker motor function and imprinting short power steps instead of overstriding, improving knee, hip and ankle flexion, building the muscle memory of a crouched, wide-based pass-blocking posture, and strengthening the neck to reduce the chance of stingers.
• Cool-down prescriptions for all three days — dynamic stretching with leg swings, lunge walks and walking high-knee chest pull-ups concentrating on hip flexion after Day 1, core-targeted dynamic stretching after Day 2, and a mixed dynamic and static full-body regimen after Day 3.
• Coaching points and teaching cues — the opening phrase for Day 1 ("If you want your feet to move fast, you've got to move your hands and arms fast"), heels off the ground, feet that "sound like a fast drum roll," the "Step!" and "Slide!" commands, penalty push-ups for sloppy reps in the Maze Drill, and not counting bad reps in the bench competition.

Who it is for

• Offensive line and defensive line coaches looking for off-season work that adds foot speed, explosion and agility on top of an existing lifting program.
• High school coaches on a limited budget — the report says plainly that you do not have to buy anything expensive, and the drills use tape, benches, boxes, cones, lockers, plates and balls most programs already have.
• Head coaches and strength and conditioning coaches building a three-day supplemental rotation around lifting days.
• Youth and middle school line coaches — the Four-Corner Agility Drill is described as a must for young linemen still growing into their teenage bodies.
• It is an article-length workout program, not a blocking-scheme playbook, and it covers no weightroom lifting — the author excludes weights on purpose.

Delivery is a digital download: the PDF lands in your AFM Videos account as soon as your order is complete, and you can read it on a computer, tablet or phone or print it for the coaching staff.