Non-padded ol/dL 1 on 1s

I think it’s ridiculous

In  OTA Dropback Pass Pro only (they wear only those little rubber pads).  Joe Bugel video on youtube SHOWS this.  It helps teach the use of the HANDS, & teaches arching the back to keep the head out of the block.

Pros
-can work on foot work, leverage, hand placement
-injects a little competition

Cons
-OL at huge disadvantage in my view i.e. DL knows it's drop back, can't really jump set (for a change up)a guy with no pads
-At the high school level, one bloody nose can get somebody in hot water.

I like it in pass pro.
OL works on footwork and their punch.
DL works on swatting hands.

I do not like it in run game because the aim points are not realistic. If you are shoulder blocking your surface area is much smaller, you are putting your head low near flying elbows and knees.
DL can not get a quality push/pull especially when they are all wearing T shirts.

That is awesome!

This might sound crazy, but I’m not really a fan of 1v1 drills in general. Specifically ones where it’s two guys with the whole team watching. It’s not only inefficient (lots of guys standing around) but it’s also not a great indicator of who’s bad and who’s not. I wonder if there’s any other ways to build competition.

Anybody who knows anything about high school kids knows that they have massive insecurities and usually aren’t confident about themselves. It might not always be the best thing to constantly put them in situations with them on the spotlight and expect the light to come on eventually. It’s like having a soft team and thinking doing Oklahoma’s and bull in the ring all day will help. It is one of those things that’ll just make people hate football if you’re not careful.

Maybe it’s because I’m kinda scarred from my OL coach in high school. He’s a better coach today, but he was a young guy who never coached OL before. I didn’t learn a thing about OL that year. Every practice was 1v1s and on Thursdays we walked through plays. I was very frustrated because I was awful at 1v1’s. I just simply choked with all the spotlight on me and it ruined my confidence. I was much better during team, mainly because I knew the plays and how they worked and used proper technique that my previous OL coach taught.

It was infuriating to have to tell every other dummies starting alongside me their job every play. They didn’t start because of technique or knowing plays, they started because “DEM BOYZ GOOD AT DEM ONE ON ONES!” and we had multiple more talented guys having to come in about midway through every second quarter because the board drill champs weren’t cutting it.

But that’s enough about me. I probably sound crazy but that’s how I feel about these things. I maybe wouldn’t mind if it was like EVERYBODY doing these things at the same time about once every other week or so as a fun change up but I’ve never been a fan of board drills/pass rush/etc

it is stupid and wouldnt exist without these d@mn millennials and their instatwittergrams

it is the most one sided drill in sports... it is really easy for a DL to rush the passer with no run threat/responsibility, they can line up in a wide 9000000 technique
and they have nothign to grab on to 

also, they always say "no bull rush" but every clip i see almost always has a bull rush 

just once, i would love to see an OL show a pass set and CUT, blowing out the defender's knee/hopes/dreams 

I hate the camps that focus on these 1on1s and not on actual drill work to get better 

Rant over

1-on-1's in camps is stupid.

I hated the drill for years as our DL coach would come over every day in the offseason and demand we do it. We got our butts whipped every day, until I had an epiphany. 

   ****I realized the DL coach never once acknowledged the result of the rep to his kids****

Everything was form, technique, angles...all the little stuff.  I was worried about my guys getting beat, the DL coach would rip into his guys if they took a lazy rep and easy win against one of my puffs. It changed my entire outlook on the drill. 

Now, I dont hide the snap count or who is the one going. I dont make it a competition. I dont get mad when my gets give up a sack. I only jump their chit when they take a lazy set or stupid angle. I TELL my linemen that they have every disadvantage in the drill. I WANT them to know they should be getting beat in the drill. I WANT them to be focused on their set-up, their demeanor, their steps and angles (we also never spend time working on "punch" as a group, its all just footwork) We now spend the majority of the offseason doing unpadded 1-on-1's.  We are a Wing-T team, yet our pass pro is some of the best I've ever been around. The attention to detail in their own technique in the middle of a game, and the adjustments they make in their sets, is really quite impressive. 

Sure, we still get bullrushes. The insecure older kids who suck will pick on a young kid, then get cussed out by BOTH line coaches for being unsafe and lazy.... just another character-building, team-edifying teachable moment!! 

I was coached via the result of the play for a bulk of my college career. It was terrible. It's why I hated 1-on-1's for the first chunk of my coaching career. My perspective changed, tho (see my above posts)

Whether we like it or not, OL are in the spotlight every single play. There just happens to be 5 dim spotlights that all get overshadowed by the BIG spotlight. It's impossible to hide on an island, but that was never taught to me as a player. My kids know from day 1 that they are in the spotlight, yet I show thru my coaching that the result of the play is not important.


--If they follow the prescribed technique, they get praised.
--If they veer from technique, they get corrected.

Most kids have a hard time at first, but the upper classmen I have end up with more confidence as a HS player than I ever had as a senior in college

Most of our blocks are doubles with shoulder blocks or down blocks so 1 on 1 's aren't valuable to us. Some 2 on 1's or more often 3 on 2's help us more....on both sides.