As an offensive lineman, you play a crucial role in the success of your team. To be an effective player, it's essential to use the spring season to prepare for summer workouts and the fall season. Here are some key things you should be doing this off season to improve your performance.
Build Your Strength: Strength is essential for offensive linemen. To build strength, focus on compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, and bench press. These exercises work multiple muscle groups simultaneously, which can help improve your overall strength and power. Focus on using proper form and gradually increasing the weight you're lifting over time to avoid injury.
Olympic lifts are an excellent addition to any strength training routine for offensive linemen, and they can help build explosive power and overall strength. Be sure to work with a coach or trainer who can help you learn proper technique and safety protocols.
Here's some additional information on how these lifts can benefit offensive linemen.
Improve power production: The power clean and the snatch are two Olympic lifts that can help offensive linemen develop explosive power. These lifts require you to generate force quickly and explosively, which translates well to blocking and pushing defenders off the line of scrimmage.
Improve overall strength: Olympic lifts are compound movements that work multiple muscle groups simultaneously. They are excellent exercises for building overall strength and can help you develop the necessary power and endurance to play your position effectively.
Improve technique: Olympic lifts require proper technique and form, which is essential for offensive linemen. Proper form and technique help you transfer your strength and power efficiently to your blocking assignments on the field.
Improve Your Agility: Agility is another essential component of being an effective offensive lineman. You need to be able to move quickly and change direction on the field. Incorporate drills that focus on footwork, lateral movement, and change of direction, like cone drills, ladder drills, and shuttle runs. To add an extra challenge, try doing these drills while carrying a medicine ball or wearing a weighted vest. This will help you develop greater coordination and control when moving on the field.
To further improve your agility, you can also work on your balance and coordination by incorporating exercises like single-leg squats, Bulgarian split squats, and lateral lunges into your workout routine. These exercises will help you develop the stability and control you need to move quickly and change direction with ease. Here are a few other things you can focus on to enhance your agility:
Footwork drills: Offensive linemen need to be quick on their feet to move laterally and change direction quickly. You can improve your footwork by performing cone drills and ladder drills, which involve a series of quick movements in various directions.
Change of direction drills: Offensive linemen must be able to change direction quickly to block defenders effectively. You can practice this by incorporating agility ladder drills, shuttle runs, and 5-10-5 drills into your training routine.
Plyometric exercises: Plyometric exercises can help you develop explosive power and quick movements. Examples of plyometric exercises include box jumps, hurdle jumps, and medicine ball throws.
Stair drills: Running up and down stairs is a great way to improve your agility and footwork. Find a set of stairs with several flights and run up and down them quickly, alternating between taking one or two steps at a time.
Balance and coordination exercises: To be an effective offensive lineman, you need to have good balance and coordination. Incorporating exercises like single-leg squats, stability ball exercises, and yoga can help improve your balance and coordination, which can translate to improved agility on the field.
Remember to focus on proper form and technique when performing agility exercises to avoid injury. Incorporating a variety of drills and exercises into your training routine can help you become a more agile and effective offensive lineman.
Improve Your Technique: Technique is critical for offensive linemen. The off season is a great time to improve your craft. Make sure you get some people to help you out, even if it’s just to film your work. Here’s a few ways to work on improving your technique
Film study: One of the best ways to improve your technique is by studying film of yourself and other offensive linemen. By watching game footage, you can identify areas where you need to improve your footwork, hand placement, and blocking technique.
Practice good hand placement: Proper hand placement is critical for offensive linemen. Make sure your hands are positioned correctly on the defender's chest or shoulders to maintain control and leverage during a block. Work on placements for multiple run block techniques as well as pass blocking. You can practice this by using blocking pads or bags during drills.
Work on your footwork: As an offensive lineman, you need to have quick and precise footwork to move effectively on the field. You can practice your footwork by doing ladder drills, cone drills, and other agility drills.
Practice your pass sets: Practice your pass blocking skills by working on your kick-slide, hand placement, and footwork. Depending on the OL position you play, work on the types of sets you will use the most. Examples include standard set, short set, vertical set, 45 degree set, and posting back to the inside. Make sure to work first steps as well as multiple steps.
Focus on your body position: Your body position is critical to your effectiveness as an offensive lineman. Keep your hips low and your back straight to maintain a strong and stable base. Keep your head out of the block. Practice getting into the proper position quickly and efficiently.
Receive feedback: To get a better understanding of your technique, ask your coaches or trainers to observe you during drills and scrimmages. They can provide feedback on areas where you need to improve and help you develop a plan to enhance your technique.
Develop Your Mental Toughness: Mental toughness is what separates good offensive linemen from great ones. There are several ways that you can work on developing your mental toughness.
Set goals: Setting clear and specific goals can help you develop mental toughness by giving you a sense of purpose and direction. Set short-term and long-term goals, and create a plan to achieve them.
Embrace challenges: Embracing challenges can help you develop mental toughness by pushing you outside of your comfort zone. Embrace difficult drills and workouts, and use them as an opportunity to develop your mental toughness and resilience.
Stay positive: Maintaining a positive attitude is essential for developing mental toughness. Focus on the things you can control, and try to maintain a positive outlook, even in the face of adversity.
Learn from failure: Failure is an opportunity to learn and grow. Use failures and setbacks as an opportunity to reflect on what went wrong, and develop a plan to improve your skills and technique.
Push yourself: Mental toughness is developed by pushing yourself beyond your limits. Challenge yourself to work harder, run faster, and lift heavier weights. This can help you develop mental toughness and improve your overall performance.
Remember, mental toughness is developed over time and requires consistent effort and practice. Embrace difficult workouts and drills as opportunities to push yourself and develop your mental resilience.
Stay in Shape: Offensive linemen need to have a good balance of strength, agility, and endurance. Make sure you're incorporating conditioning exercises like sprints, hill runs, and other cardiovascular exercises into your workouts. Focus on maintaining a healthy diet and getting enough sleep to support your overall fitness goals. No matter how good your technique and Football IQ is, it won’t help you if you are on the sideline sucking wind during the game.
Remember, the off season is very important to your performance during the season. Even if your team isn’t able to have practices in the spring, you can still be working on and improving your craft as an offensive lineman.
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