T hank you for the opportunity to repre-
sent all of the fine California communi-
ty college coaches at the 2002 AFCA
national convention. The purpose of this
presentation will be to introduce a teaching
modality we use at Reedley College to
maximize our individual and cross group
periods.
I will use the installation of a basic
Power play as an example of how the posi-
tion coaches here at Reedley College
might introduce and/or maintain one of the
most basic plays in our offense. Again, the
emphasis will be on how we use the grid as
a teaching tool rather than the power play
itself. Below is a diagram of the power play
with the player rules following.
Diagram 1
Skill Position Blocking
Assignments for Power
• PSWR: (Z) Stalk MDM Outside
• BSWR: (X) Cutoff (punch and pivot)
• FB: (or A replacement) Fire block EMLOS
• QB: Reverse Pivot on midline, 2nd step
adjusting to H.O. finish with roll passaction.
Know your opposite key!
• TB: Ball carrier. Drop step (from I) to
midline and insert yourself in the “cheeks.”
Favor the down block,shy away from the fire
block.
Offensive Line Blocking Rules for
Power
• PST: Read Down
• PSG: Read Down
• OC: Away
• BSG: “Sycle” pull, eyeballing PSILB from 1st
step to last.
• BST: Inside Set to MDM backside
• TE: (playside) Read down
Each position coach has an assigned
“grid” to be used as “home base” for his
players. The “grid “ is simply nine five-yard
cells created by painting lines parallel to
one of your sidelines at five yard spacing.
What you end up with is a 15-yard by15-
• Proceedings • 79th AFCA Convention • 2002 •
yard working area for each of your position
coaches to call “home.” In it’s simplest
form, think about how much time each of
Maximize Your Practice
Time With a “Grid”
your coaches use collectively just to say ,
“OK, you line up here and you line up
here,” etc. When we transition from warm
ups to individual “gridwork,” each player
runs to their little corner of the “grid!”
Vertical and horizontal lines are already
created for you for drill set up.
Diagram 2
Each cell
is 5 yds x
5 yds.
Total grid
size is 15 x
15 yds.
Let’s use the Down Block Right skill for
the offensive line as a first example. With
the offensive line coach standing in the
middle of this “grid” cutout, four pairs of
offensive linemen are working on a “pull
start” left at “three o’clock”. Each offensive
lineman preloads his right foot and pushes
off with a left foot “recovery step” (shaded).
The beauty of this “grid” teaching tool is
Michael White
that both the player and the coach can use
the vertical and horizontal lines as refer-
President, California
ence points for this step. There’s no more
Community College Football
“your step is too long”, or “you stepped in
Coaches Association
the bucket”. Instead, we simply say “check
it out”, which means the player can look
Head Coach
down at his left foot and expect to see it
parallel with the horizontal line of the “grid”
Reedley College
while his heel has cleared the vertical line
for width.
Reedley, Calif.
On a second command, the player will
take another step to re-establish his base
and find the horizontal line splitting his
crotch. We believe that this visual land-
mark allows our players to understand
how important the first two steps are in the
game of football. After having said that,
we finish each drill with a third or final
command of “finish”, which tells the offen-
sive lineman in our example to accelerate
his feet through the next vertical line. The
bag holder releases the player once his
heels cross this “finish line” with the word
“break!”
When first teaching a skill, we obviously
have each pair of players work one at a
time. If we are in a maintenance mode, the
coach simply turns to each pair to set them
off, making short “word picture” coaching
points. He then turns to the adjacent pair
doing the same, and so on. When he
returns to the original pair, the players were
to have rotated and are ready to go again.
Diagram three depicts the next offen-
sive line skill inherent in the power play,
the Sickle Pull. In this grid cutout, two
players (it may be more) align with their
respective right foot in the junction of the
grid. The left foot is preloaded (shaded)
and the first “recovery” step with the right
foot is simply a pull start at 3:00 p.m. We
Diagram 3
emphasize the width of this step and
want to see the heel of the right foot well
past the vertical landmark.
We “eyeball” the play side inside line-
backer from this step to finish. Steps two
and three are for depth as we coach our
linemen to keep their toes “east and west”
until they plant off the instep of the third
step and square their shoulders to the hole.
The guard should be about two yards from
the horizontal line (LOS) at the top of this
path. On the fourth command the guard is
square to the hole and begins to re-estab-
lish his pad level on the backer. As is
always the case, “finish” is the last com-
mand and the guard accelerates through
the hole, “covering” the linebacker. “Break”
again releases the guard from the drill after
“duckwalking” past the next horizontal line
five yards ahead. The coach and bag hold-
er can vary the tempo and defensive reac-
tion as the offensive lineman becomes pro-
ficient with the “sickle” pull skill.
The third and final offensive line skill
necessary to run the power play is the
Inside Set. Here, two pairs of linemen work
to “kick start the motorcycle” on the first
Diagram 4
command (non-shaded foot). We want to
• Proceedings • 79th AFCA Convention • 2002 •
see the vertical line appear in the crotch of
this backside tackle.
On the second command we again lose
ground (shaded) and maintain our inside
relationship to the defender with the line
still in our crotch. As the third command is
given and the inside foot is planted, we ask
the tackle to “shot-put” the defensive line-
man up the field with his right (inside) hand.
He steps four, pivots just as a shot putter
would do in the ring and on the fifth com-
Diagram 5
mand of “finish” we will accelerate the bag
and finish crossing the horizontal line five
yards behind the start point (Diagram 5).
Once the offensive line coach and his
players become comfortable with the “grid-
work” for the power play, imagine a setting
where all three are taught at once! With the
coach positioned where he can see those
vital “first two steps of football,” you may
have the Down Block Right skill at one cor-
ner, across from that, the Inside Set for the
backside tackles and working in the other
direction, on the opposite side of the “grid”
are the guards working their Sycle Pull skill.
The coach centers himself within the “grid,”
makes quick “word picture” coaching points
and turns from skill to skill. Within a 10-
minute period a lot of quality work can get
done! But again, both the offensive player
and the bag holder must appreciate their
starting points on the “grid” in order to
maintain their relationship to the landmarks
created by the “grid”.
During the same “gridwork” period, the
runningback coach and his players have
sprinted to their respective “grid” and with
the command “Fire Block Right” each play-
er steps into a junction with his right foot.
Bag holders align “catty corner” from the
blocker some three yards away. On the first
command the blocker pushes off the left
foot and recovers with a fire step right. The
right heel should be in the adjacent corner
at a 40-degree angle with the chest on the
thigh and his head, shoulders, hips and
knees in the same direction. The second
step re-establishes his base as he “stomps
the inside foot” of the bag holder. This is the
inside-out block under which the ball carri-
er will run. The drill ends with the “break”
Diagram 6
command by the bag-holder as the block-
er’s heels have crossed the corner oppo-
site his starting point (Diagram 6).
As the ball carrier, the tailbacks work in
the other direction on the same grid work-
ing on their tracks. When the coach turns
his attention to this group and gives the first
command, each player will take a drop step
with his right foot (non-shaded) and on the
second command a lead step in the same
direction with the left foot. This second step
should be on or near the vertical line as we
ask the ball carrier to begin to establish
their track to the hole.
While there are no linemen in this drill,
we ask the ball carrier to visualize the
“cheeks” he will see as he receives the ball.
We ask the tailback to “insert himself”
between the inside butt cheek of the full-
back’s lead block and the outside butt
cheek of the sickle pulling guard. We
preach patience because most ball carriers
lose this relationship and end up ahead of
the pulling guard or outside of the fullback.
On the fifth command of “finish,” the ball
carrier has received the imagined hand off
and “presses the line of scrimmage,” mak-
ing one solid move on the bag. (We may
also include a “sniper” behind the bag. This
“sniper” makes one aggressive attempt to
knock the ball out of the ball-carrier’s
hands, thus adding a ball security element
to this drill.)
The football is not added to the running
back “gridwork” until the quarterback coach
has spent time on his respective grid work-
Diagram 7
ing the hand-off footwork. Again, we go
without a football first, in the belief that
many a drill is “screwed up” by the football!
It is important to note here that the quarter-
backs will always start one yard off the hor-
izontal line and with the vertical line split-
ting their crotch. This represents the posi-
tion the quarterback takes relative to the
center has he takes the hand up from the
line of scrimmage.
In the Power play, the quarterback pre-
loads his play-side foot and pivots to reverse
out on the first command. The imaginary ball
is “stabbed” into the quarterback’s belly on
this turn and on the second command he
continues to work away from the line of scrim-
mage with the vertical line in his crotch (non-
shaded). We tell the quarterback to “check
out” this step when he over-rotates across the
vertical line, explaining that he cuts off the
vision of the ball carrier when he does so. The
third command is the adjustment step to the
ball carrier that may vary slightly from tailback
to tailback.
The ball is now extended on this step as
the fourth step continues past the ball carrier
and the quarterback’s empty hands are
“pocketed” away from the defense for decep-
tion purposes. The “finish” command tells the
quarterback to continue with the flow for a
Diagram 8
“Brett Farve” roll pass action. He should carry
out this fake, avoiding the bag holder, past the Diagram 9
original line of scrimmage (Diagram 8).
Finally, the wide receiver coach has his
players positioned on their “grid” during the
same period working on the STALK and
CUTOFF BLOCKS. In one direction, he
may have the flankers working in pairs with
a good stance and first step start on the
command. Steps two, three, four, and five
are first verses “air” as we teach “fast feet
off the line of scrimmage.” We then incor-
Diagram 10
porate the bag holder who retreats, then
plants and drives to the ball. (On occasion
we have the bag holder just continue to
retreat, coaching the wide receiver to react
by running him off.)
We explain that the timing of the block is
much more critical than it’s ferocity! We don’t
want to have to block the defender forever,
but instead block him when the ball carrier the safety to prevent a clipping penalty, finish-
arrives. The defender himself will tell you this ing with the blocker’s heels crossing the next
with his reaction. Once recognizing the plant vertical line (Diagrams 9 and 10).
and drive reaction however, we ask out wide It is not until all of the position coaches
receivers to “stop when he stops and slough have “coached up” this “gridwork” that we
off 2-3 steps, gaining leverage. We say, come together as quarterbacks and running-
“block a number!” If we want inside leverage, backs on one grid, or quarterbacks, running-
we block the inside number and visa versa. backs and offensive linemen on a “grid.” We
As the play-side flankers work the Stalk, will again go without a ball for the first few
the split ends work the backside Cutoff in reps, until the coaching staff is happy with
pairs. The first step is a Pull Start, crossing the basic skills involved with our Power play.
the vertical line for width. Steps two and We then progress into working as many play-
three continue on this path behind the line of ers as possible on several grids and then
scrimmage. This is the same path we take finally verses bags and a scout defense.
when cracking the second level, so there is Thank you on behalf of Reedley
some carryover for our players. College and the California Community
On the fifth command of “finish,” the receiv- College Football Coaches Association for
er continues to climb up the field, meeting the this tremendous experience. Please feel
bag-holder, who represents the safety. We free to contact me at (559) 638-0369 if
obviously want to get “across the bough” of you have any questions or comments.

NCAA Rule Regarding Tobacco Products

NCAA Bylaw 11.1.7 Use of Tobacco Products. The use of tobacco products is pro-
hibited by all game personnel (e.g., coaches, trainers, managers, and game officials)
in all sports during practice and competition.

Uniform penalties (as determined by the applicable rules-making committees and

sports committees with rules-making responsibilities) shall be established for such
use.

(Adopted: 1/11/94 effective 8/1/94; Revised: 1/10/95, 1/14/97 effective 8/1/97.)

• Proceedings • 79th AFCA Convention • 2002 •

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• Proceedings • 79th AFCA Convention • 2002 •