Part of Tackle Block Drill % Advanced Blocking Drills for Youth Football
One of my favorite blocking drills for youth football is the Part of Tackle Block Drill. It is one of my advanced blocking drills for youth football in my Offensive Line Drills eBook. I am not sure where I heard the phrase become part of the tackle but it stuck with me, especially when I saw an NFL O-lineman push off a tackler and the ball carrier scored. I knew I had to develop a drill around this phrase.
How many times do you see your offensive lineman just watching the play in their two foot circle on the line of scrimmage? If you are like me too many times to count. We keep harping on the youth football O-linemen to block their man off the LOS and then find another bad guy downfield to block.
So many tackle seasons ago when I was preparing for another youth football season, I developed a few advanced offensive line blocking drills to get our players off the line of scrimmage and helping with downfield blocking. The Part of Tackle Drill is one of those drills to get our linemen more involved in the play.
Purpose of Drill
The purpose of this blocking drill is to teach young offensive lineman to become part of the tackle to knock off tacklers from the ball carrier and be mindful of downfield blocking. Even though this is a OLM drill, everyone on your Offense should become part of the tackle if needed.
Part of Tackle Drill – Advanced Blocking Drills for Youth Football
Set Up of Drill
Set up one or two blocking stations like shown above. You can use agility pads, cones or ropes to mark off area. One or two Coaches can run the stations.
Drill Process
The Running Back / Ball Carrier and Defender / Tackler will be set up in a tackle position like shown in diagram above. The RB at ¼ speed tries to run to end zone away from the Tackler holding on to the ball carrier. The Defender just holds the RB up not letting him go in an upright tackling position. The OLM will try to block / shove off the Tackler from the Ball Carrier, so the RB can score. The Tackler should allow the Blocker to knock him off the Ball Carrier after a few shoves. This is not a tackling drill, so do not let the Tackler just hold on.
The drill is done about 1/4 to half speed to simulate knocking off a Tackler from the Ball Carrier and becoming part of the tackle. You can add another Tackler to the mix and Offensive blocker and also just have a coach be the Ball Carrier and talk through the process.
Coaching Points of Drill for Blocking
Make sure the OLM do not block the Tackler in the back or low below the waist. They want to block / shove the Tackler off from one side. They cannot grab the Defender either. Just push him off the ball carrier. Also this is not a tackling drill so tell the Tackler to release after the blocker makes some effort to block / shove him off.
One key point we have been emphasizing is to make sure the OLM always know where play is going; Hole# / Path. Block your man 5 seconds then hunt downfield and become part of the tackle if needed. And please help up our ball carriers after the tackle.
Drill Add-on / Extras
You can add more OLM and Defenders into the drill. You can also separate the Tackler from the Ball Carrier a bit to have them simulate the grab tackle and have the lineman come from the LOS and pursue the tackle scrum to simulate the lineman’s LOS to open field transition to the Ball Carrier.
Other top Blocking Drills for Youth Football
What are your favorite Blocking Drills for Youth Football? How do you teach blocking? Do you block with hands are you shoulder blocking? What are your blocking calls and rules?
Let me know I would love to hear from you. Contact me anytime. I love to talk coaching youth football and new Blocking Drills for Youth Football.
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Remember, Play for Fun and Winning is Funner!
Good Luck this Season,
Coach Parker
Keller, Texas, DFW, Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas
PS: Stay Safe!!
