How to Train a High School Lineman
At any level of football, the fitness and ability level of offensive and defensive linemen is paramount to a team's success. Training the linemen is a difficult yet rewarding task. Linemen are your biggest and most powerful players, yet they are often the slowest and least coordinated players on your team. Finding drills that enhance power and agility is necessary. Remember also that these are high school students you are training and their confidence level will rise and fall with their success in the training and the amount of praise and criticism from their coach.
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Instructions
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Training ideas
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Set a weekly training schedule with your linemen. Do not overwork your players. Allow for water breaks at least every half-hour during your practice sessions.
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Have five of your linemen line up in a three-point stance in front of your blocking sled with their right hand on the ground and their legs shoulder width apart. Blow your whistle once and require each lineman to fire out of their stance and hit the pad in front of them quickly and powerfully. Make sure each lineman has his back arched and is not hitting the sled with his head down. Rotate through quickly until each player has five turns. Line up your initial group and require them to hit the sled on your whistle and push the sled 10 yards. Stop the drill once each player has gone through three times.
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Pair up each of your linemen and give each group its own medicine ball. Require one lineman to lay with his back to the ground with his arms extended above his head while holding the ball. Blow your whistle and have the lineman perform a sit-up while throwing the ball with two hands to his partner. Make each lineman do this 10 times and then rotate partners.
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Ask the players to line up in front of your training ladder, which is a ladder made out of rope with at least 10 rungs that lies flat on the ground. Require the players to quickly run through the ladder, twice each, without missing a space using quick choppy steps. Continue the drill by asking them to run through again while running with high knees. Have them go through one last time by hopping through each space in the ladder.
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Tips & Warnings
Training a single lineman is possible with a coach. However, the sled-pushing activity can't be performed.
It is imperative that your linemen are kept hydrated during any practice session. Heat-related deaths have occurred in both professional, amateur and youth football.
