O-Line Tips: Proper Technique for Run & Pass Blocking

So let's talk about contact. You're one of the best ever in terms of contact. The Pancake Man himself. You know, we know about all that. In pass pro, as I engage you, you talked about the hands, right? Now, what are you doing with your hands here as I start to press you?

How—

Still got it.

A little bit.

As I start to press on you, what are you now doing with the hands? Are you letting the elbows flare out or are you pulling the elbows in?

What I'm doing is kind of pulling the elbows in a little bit. I don't ever want to be out here block.

Okay, so why is that though?

Because you don't have any power. Okay. When you're here, you try to do a bench press here opposed to doing a bench press here, because you get a lot more power. So I'm here, and I kind of like to hit with the palms of my hands a little bit. I feel like it gets more power. So I'm here and I'm striking. I got a slight bend in my elbows here, so as he's approaching me, I can strike him right here, right? So it gives you a little pop and it gives you a little jolt. Like a lot of guys— it really depends on the rush too.

Going back to those elbows, when you let the elbows flare, one thing I just noticed right here is your shoulders start to come forward a little bit. Yep. But as you— exactly.

So you always want to roll back. Yeah. So this, this is a— for me, this is so natural. We talked about posture.

Yes.

You go back to posture, still the shoulders roll back, but my hands are here, right? And that's just a good striking strong position here where I come in, I can hit you with the heels of my hands a little bit right there.

Another thing that I noticed with that position right there, it's going to help you keep your head out.

Yep.

Because if you're now in a position where your elbows are flared open and I make contact into you, you're going to be more prone to come forward.

Absolutely.

That's accurate.

But if I'm here and I'm striking, my natural reaction is to keep my head out, right? Yeah. So that's the key. If I'm— if I— once I take my set and I got you here and I hit, like, and I hit you, if you got your shoulders back, then you're natural, your head's out of the game.

What about the run game? Run game, run game. So now let's say it's a Cut-off or backside, backside cut-off. So let's just say you were the right tackle now, just for the sake of angles here.

Right.

You come in here. Are you letting this elbow get open?

No.

Or are you torquing it in?

I'm torquing it in right here. This is where we're kind of— we talked about this before. The secret sauce. Right. Because one thing you realize when you're inside here and you got that hand, you're so much stronger.

Yes.

Yes. You're so much stronger. Yeah. You can't, as an offensive lineman, you can't do anything with your hands out here. Out here. We're tight and we're here and we— 'cause we're stronger as we work that backside block.

So you wanna get that hand nice and screwed in.

Yep.

In terms of pass protection.

Yep.

You wanna get it screwed in, in the run game. Yep. 'Cause as you talked about in the approach, you cannot control the opponent that way.

Control them there.

Out here, I can't control my body, so I can't control yours.

Absolutely. If you let a man who controls your chest, you know, obviously he can do whatever he wants with you. So that's why I think it's imperative, number one, to have tight hands come through. And then one thing I used to do in college a lot is I, as I'm approaching the guy, I got my hands on him. I used to pull him closer to me. Oh, OK. That's how we kind of got the pancake block a little bit, right towards the end.

Oh, so that's the secret.

Yeah, that's a little secret there. Well, if a guy's trying to reach on the block, as soon as he tries to go make the tackle, boom, finish it. Finish it.

A little bit of a push-pull-torque.

Absolutely, yeah.

What about tight hands? I heard you say the tight hands twice. Now, a lot of young athletes misinterpret the concept tight hands. You know, you go hands, some kids are here, and then you tell me at 14, 15 years old tight hands, it means you want me somewhere in there. I can't control you in that, can I?

No, no, no, you want to be right on the pecs.

On the pecs.

Right on the pecs. I'm right here. Right here.

So I come this way.

Yep, yep, yep, yep. I'm right here. I got you. Lock in. Either way. Either way.

So tight hands don't necessarily mean Right down the middle of the chest.

Right. And I was always told this, they'll never call holding if your hands are inside. If they're out here, they're gonna call holding.

Right.

So I've learned that secret. Well, it's not even a secret. It's just the way I've been taught. Tight hands, you control the man and you can go. But the first thing I would say, you gotta put yourself in position. Right. I can't do a base block if my footwork isn't right.

Correct.

If I don't get that second step down quick enough, I gotta be in position if I'm doing a base block. Get that second step down and then I can get tight end.

Mm-hmm.

You can't do any of that unless you're not in position.

And it all goes back to posture.

It does. It does.

You gotta be in a proper stance to get the proper contact and the contact face.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

What about the motion? So in the run game, I'm coming off the ball. Am I swinging arms back and then jabbing them forward? No. How am I taking my hands from the ground to the pump?

If you don't learn anything else on this session, it's nothing but no wasted motion.

Clean.

Clean. You don't want any wasted motion in your footwork. Or in your hand. You hear defensive linemen are so good now, if you cock your hands back, they're straight to your chest. So it's imperative to go straight from your stance up. Boom.

So I got a drill here that we're gonna call it the Orlando Pace backside hand. And all the drill is gonna teach Orlando is what you did throughout your career. That torque, that tight hand, that torque, that lift, that drive. But it's very difficult to teach. So we take something very simple. It can be a towel, it can be a t-shirt, and all you're gonna do is spin it, spin it, spin it, spin it. Get your little device right here, little slingshot. Have your athlete put the hand in there, lock it in. Now the key thing is this, what you don't want to have happen to Lando is you have it on the outside, 'cause if I pull here, now I put the shoulder in a compromised position. That's no bueno.

Good point.

You want to make sure that this slingshot device here is inside the armpit and outside of the arm. And here, I'm gonna give a little bit of resistance. Just bring that hand down like you're in your stance. Relax, relax. Right there. Because as you drive, I want you to drive it in there into that opponent's pec. Here we go on the first one, about 50%. Don't pull me out my shoes. Here we go. Set, hit. Perfect. Good. Now let's go to pass. Set your hand on in. Common mistake in the run and pass, athlete gets the elbow flared. And as you can see here, you can square yourself up a little bit more. There you go. Elbow flared a little bit, man, not that much. There you go. What ends up happening is the athlete can't control the hip, but by just simply screwing this shoulder in, and as Orlando said, thinking about pinning that elbow, pinning that armpit, we now create more strength, more stability, and a much better opportunity to keep the head out of contact.

And the great thing about this drill is you can do it at home, right? Yes. It takes a— you can do it to a t-shirt on your own. You can do it, or you have a buddy or somebody just hold that towel and you're just working your drill. Yes. Because obviously offensive line, there's so many— so much technique that goes into it, you know, that's probably sometimes not coached. You can do some stuff at your home. So that's why I think It's great. This way to play is a great way to help young offensive linemen, you know, do some technique and work at home.

The game is evolving. We grew up in an era where the helmet was a common coaching cue. So if it's myself and it's a frontside reach, you know, get the head across. Or we heard common vernacular being hat in hands. Yep. How important is it in your— from your perspective, forced to evolve our coaching language?

I think so. I think obviously the game has evolved and obviously we're trying to make the game safer. And, you know, now that we're retired, we kind of see, you know, big picture. Big picture. Yeah, we can look at it. We're not into it, in it as much. But obviously there's some concepts that we could use because obviously, like you said, if I'm doing a reach block, so I'm going to be here and yeah, normally they would say get your head across. Right. But now you can just change the terminology and say get your shoulder across.

That's it.

That's the key, right?

You wanna coach from here down.

And you're accomplishing the same thing. You're just changing, you know, the terminology of it and you can still get your point across, but it changes the mindset of the player.

Bingo.

You know, we're not—

So this is a backside cutoff.

Absolutely. Same thing, correct? Same thing. I'm just trying to get my shoulder across.

And when that happens naturally, you kinda create a nice little pillow there between the head and the helmet, or the helmet and the opponent's helmet.

Absolutely.

Because if it's me, And I'm coming here and Coach O has told me, "LB, I want you to take your backside shoulder and rip it across to this opponent's outside shoulder." What I'm gonna now do is I'm gonna drive here and get myself here, and I'm gonna have a nice little buffer.

Absolutely.

As opposed to, "LB, I want you to rip the helmet across." Yep. And now, swing it there, and now we're colliding.

'Cause that's exactly what we do. Get your helmet across. So, all right, well, maybe I'm still trying to get my head, you know.

Yeah.

No, let's work on it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Every athlete is a literalist. Yeah, absolutely.

In a good way and a bad way.

In a good way and a bad way, absolutely. But yeah, I think that's the key point. Just change your terminology. We have shoulder pads for a reason. Ripping those shoulder pads and you're still gonna make the block. You're gonna be a— if you accomplish what you're gonna do, it's just changing the terminology.

It's about owning angles and leverage.

That's it.

And if that's what we're trying to establish, we can get all that we need from here on down.

Absolutely.

And keep it above them.

And keep it. Yeah, absolutely.

I'm telling you, guys, be diving at that.

Knees.