Im, an OLB... Im having trouble.. any good answers are welcome?

Question

Im 6'2" and its pretty hard going against guys shorter than you... ive been having trouble after i break the tightend block i still normally have a fullback to go through and the fullback keeps on graving me by my chest and pulling me to the floor.. the problem is getting past that.. i need to know proper techniques and any good advise from you guys will help.. specially since im going against people shorter than me and its fairly easy for them to get me offbalance

Answer 1

First thing is pad level. Are you playing with proper pad level? That means when you are on the line do you have your knees bent, have a slight forward lean, and eyes up? Make sure that you have proper pad level. A 20 degree knee bend and hands in a ready to strike position. And keep that pad level! If you raise up; you are sacrificing over 50 percent of your power and leverage. You need to keep that knee bend the entire TIME you play football. Low player always wins...if you stand straight up you have no power in your legs, arms, and hips; not to mention you give your opponnent a nice big target to hit. So lower that pad level...Next Keep your hands on your thigh pads or if you have to hold them close to your stomach and ready to strike.

I'm assuming you are the Sam. Since you said you have the tightend. That means ussually one of three things are going to happen. The TE will try to reach you and the play will be going to your outside. The TE will downblock or release to the next level and leave you on an island for either a pulling guard or for a full back to outblock. Or the TE will outblock you and the play will go just to your inside.

You have to get hands on the TE in every case. If the TE downblocks get your hands on the TE and knock him off his route to his block...take one step across the line of scrimmage and find the person who is trying to block you; and attack them! Don't just stand there like a loaf or your going to get run over. If the fullback is coming after you run at him and take him head on and fight to get your hands to the inside and your helmet and inside arm free. Or aim low (helmet to his thigh pads) and cut his legs out from under him. YOu would be sacrificing yourself from making the tackle but it will cause the running back to have to bounce it outside and not in the hole where he wants to get. If you are taking on a pulling gaurd the same concepts apply. You want to attack the blocker coming towards you. Low pad level, and use your hands to keep his arms off you.

If the TE tries to reach you, you need to try to push him 2 yards back into the hole; and fight to keep your hat on the outside and his body to your inside. You have to be careful though because if you make a move to quick to the outside, he will just wash you the way that you want to go and you will cause a huge gaping hole. You want to stone him on the line of scrimmage; find the ball carrier and shed the block.

If the TE tries to outblock you, you want to fight pressure with pressure and try to push him back into the hole. Again fight for hat position and try to get your hat and outside arm to his inside.

The Key to playing linebacker is BE AGRESSIVE. Attack blockers...don't try to avoid blockers...and know your gap responsibilities. You will be responsible for C gap. That means anything from inside to outside the TE. Fight to keep that gap clogged up and under control; either by forcing the TE to stay in that gap or by controling that gap yourself. You have to keep your head on a swivel; you have to keep the outside contained.

If you are going to make a mistake make a mistake going fullspeed. Love to hit. And love to hit blockers. Kids try too many times to avoid contact or to go for a ball carrier and forget about their gap assignments.

So Attack blockers...Control your gap; find the ball carrier and go full speed and know your pursuit angles.

Answer 2

the advice given is good. i am an inner-city guy who consistently dominated the 2 eventual NFL guys who used to come to our field to play in frogtown (saint paul, Mn.). this means that i am not the best one for technique advice, but i will do my best to explain what i did to get into the backfield against a 300 pound guy with 19" calves.

if he is literally grabbing and pulling you down (backwards), then he is holding and it is a penalty because of it being an unfair technique. until your opponent has the officials stop such behavior there are a couple things you can do.

first, against someone reaching and grasping you/your jersey, you can often sweep his arms up and off of you, especially if you are stronger. you'll want to look for his reaching and begin the sweep before he even begins to get a grasp on your jersey. it is also best if you can minimize the area he is grasping at by turning your torso a little so that the side your sweeping arm is on is a little forward of the other side. you'll basically sweep an arm upward into his arm/arms when he reaches, keeping him from getting a solid grip on your jersey. if he's really just one-trick ponying you with a hold/pull like that, you should be able to consistently beat him from that alone.

further, in general, keeping a good base as described above is always very important in any sport (I was a top national hockey prospect at one point); balance is huge. getting lower than him is most desirable, but at 6'2", a fullback will typically have the advantage there. if that's the case then the best thing you can do is build up your leg strength, particularly your strength with knees bent. do exercises which build up your strength and mobility with bent knees (duckwalking with weights, squats and agility drills were used in my days, but i am willing to bet there are more modern techniques which would be more effective). if you are often finding yourself off-balance then you probably need that kind of work more than any other.

you cannot accept someone being able to put you off-balance as a fact of your relative sizes, you have to do something about it and the good news is you can put in work that will directly help you there. first, however, do NOT accept anyone being able to put you off-balance as a matter of fact because that is the same as accepting losing. no matter how often it happens you cannot accept it as the way it is. work until your leg strength and co-ordination allows you to apply your strength to him, instead of vice-versa. once you are over the hump on this balance issue there really isn't anywhere for the fullback to go. his only hope is to get under you and take away your center, once you have done enough work to be able to keep him from doing that he will get beaten by you repeatedly and there won't be anything he can do about it.

when in doubt....work.

Answer 3

i played DE and LB in high school and had a chance to play SMU before i broke my kneecap...u need to keep youre head up, looking right at the guy that is fixing to make contact with you, dont get tunnell vision with the qb, if you have to clog the hole that doesnt mean to just go after the ball...head up and eyes on, you could either A) do what i did and wait till he is about to block you and ducks his head then blow him up B) when he makes contact get leverage and push off of him or spin off...usually when you have a good run on someone standing still you can get them out of the way, it depends on how much you weigh...i was 255 what was your weight...also to keep your balance when you make contact keep your feet at least shoulder width apart and keep your butt low, get a good center of gravity...you can practice this by getting in a position and having someone text your balance, you have to find a good strong comfort zone

Answer 4

I'm not worried at all about your ability to overcome this problem. What a sweet problem to have..."I'm too tall for my opponents". What we have here is a coaching problem. If one of my boys was on yahoo answers looking to fix a technical flaw he has on the field I would lose it. Where is your coach in all this? Have you went over it with him? Does your team have a Defensive Coach? Even if you dont, someone coaching your team has to show you physically, not in words, how to (easily) take advantage of your height advantage and improve at your position. Good luck.

Answer 5

Make sure you never cross your feet, stay low with your hands in front of your chest. For a smaller player the obvious choice is forcing them down. Fend off with your hands in front of your body, and use a "swim" move... it's hard to describe in this forum.