Developing a Dominating Run Blocking Technique

Castleton State\'s Rich Alercio\'s Heel-to-Toe Philosophy on the Secret of Man Blocking
by: Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer, American Football Monthly
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Talk to any football coach worth his salt and he’ll tell you that you win or lose up front. Playing the offensive line at any level, is a high risk-low reward job occupation with an image encapsulated in grunt work, doing the bear essentials to help your team win.

Perhaps nobody possesses that element more than Rich Alercio, the first head football coach at Division III Castleton University, in Castleton VT. Alercio and his 22 years of football coaching experience were hired last February to be the first head coach in school history. Standing not a shade over 5-10, and possessing a prototypical O-line coaches grunting vocals, Alercio played the position at Ursinus College and was fortunate enough to learn from a disciple of Jim McNally, who most consider to be the quintessential offensive line guru.

An offensive line coach for the last 15 years at D-III College of New Jersey in Trenton, Alercio’s name has become synonymous with teaching offensive line play throughout the east coast. This is evidenced by the hordes of kids that flocked to his Big Man camp every summer. And why wouldn’t they? Good, sound, instruction of fundamental offensive line play is hard to come by. “Offensive line play is under coached and the truth of the matter is people can’t find enough quality guys out there to do it,” said Alercio. “So they bring them to me and my clinics.”

He’s been a “lunch pail” type guy his entire life, and you better believe he’s taking his scrappy, hard-nosed approach to the game to upstate Vermont. But before he left, this self-proclaimed tough guy was nice enough to share some of his top concepts of man blocking with American Football Monthly. If you like what you see, he’ll be following it up next issue with his zone concepts.

Creating Balance with the “Heel to Toe” Philosophy

Whatever run play is called, Alercio’s offensive line will be executing one of five possible man blocking techniques – the base drive, the reach, the angle step, the bucket or the pull. But before we get into the specifics, and we mean specifics, of man blocking schemes, Alercio feels that it is all predicated on a distinct ‘heel to toe’ philosophy.

While watching a high school game, ever bear witness to these top heavy kids who, when trying to execute a run blocking scheme, lose their power and over-extend themselves? You see some of the brawniest linemen get pushed around by lanky linebackers who surrender close to fifty pounds. It happens all the time. But according to Alercio, the problem has nothing to do with body position and everything to do with footwork. “The most important step in offensive line play is grounding the second foot,” he says. “We never get a kid in high school that gets the second step down on contact. In fact, many college kids can’t do it. So it becomes the college coach’s job to teach that. It’s all about getting your feet under your hips and creating power angles. If you have that one big step – that many kids do – you have no more power angles. But if you can take two steps before contact you’ll have your legs underneath you by that second step and you’ll maintain your power angles at the point of contact.”

Alercio practices what he preaches and he establishes power angles by focusing on the heel to toe philosophy. “In any man blocking scheme it is down right imperative that upon taking that first step off the ball, the heel of the second step must NEVER pass the toes of the first.” Sound simple? Maybe. But it’s the base premise of all run blocking that gets neglected. So to add in some clinic talk – if you get nothing else from this article, retain that simple fact; the heel of the second foot must NEVER pass the toes of the first. Reason is simply over-extension and keeping a strong, firm base. Alercio is so meticulous about it that at the start of every practice he runs what he calls his Birddog Drill where players line up shoulder-to-shoulder on a yard line. Remember the old framing point for run blocking used to be taking a six-inch power step? Alercio has re-defined it. “We use yard lines because they are such an easy measuring tool for the first two steps when measuring the depth. It can’t be inches anymore because if you’re a freshman in high school with a size 7 foot or a senior in college with a size 13 foot you will not take the same size steps. It just is not specific enough,” says Alercio. So throughout the course of the drill, on every execution of the following run steps that we will describe, the main coaching point is simple: the heels of the second foot will NEVER pass the toes of the first. Got it? Good. Now let’s talk about the fundamentals and the top five run blocks.

Core Fundamentals

Whatever the blocking scheme, Alercio stands in front of his players so that he can see their exact footwork. He’s checking for the position and distance of each step as well as hand contact. As far as hand contact, he stresses cocking the elbow back, not the hands. On the first step, a lineman’s hands should go back to his chest between his shoulder and his knee. He doesn’t mention that term “six shooters” or “getting hands in holsters” as so many offensive line coaches do because the further you cock back, the more inviting your chest will appear to a defensive lineman. “Guys that reach back too far takes too long and it exposes your chest to the defensive lineman,” said Alercio. “Guys are way too quick for that now. You need to deliver a punch to shock that guy and set him back right away. That’s just like saying a boxer is going to deliver a punch in a fight and reach all the way back and deliver a roundhouse. You’ll get punched 25 times a round if that was the case – you’re not protected well enough.”

Base Drive Block

Alercio teaches that the defender’s alignment, not necessarily run scheme, predicates which type of block to execute. A base drive block is used anytime the defender is shaded to the backside of an offensive lineman. Whether it is the backside of an iso scheme or some type of inside zone scheme, a drive block is used to hold off the defender from getting across the offensive lineman’s face. According to Alercio, the key to the block is firing out straight ahead, without necessarily stepping play side. If a player has his toes on the line, on the first step, the heel replaces the toe and on the second step (the contact step) the heels of the second foot never pass the toes of the first (Diagram 1). Stepping to the play side, again, may cause your body to over-extend, losing those essential power angles that we spoke of earlier. “The aiming point is straight ahead, more specifically, the cage of the facemask. We are staring at the Schutt of the facemask where the vertical and horizontal cage meets,” said Alercio.

Diagram 1

Alercio doesn’t talk much about getting that second foot to the cylinder of the man. He would rather coach the eyes. “We’re always staring where our eyes are going,” he says. “You must get that second foot up and down while the punch comes with the second foot. But again, that heel of the second step cannot pass the toe of the first. We always want to keep our feet underneath us and underneath our armpits because it is the same width that it is in our stance. We must initiate contact on that second step.”

Reach

Usually when thinking of a reach block, those long exaggerated steps come to mind trying to out-leverage a defender. Though Alercio will have his offensive linemen execute a “reach” block when running an outside zone scheme, it’s interesting that he refers to it that way, because in actuality it isn’t; rather, it’s more of a longer drive block. While many coaches preach getting to the outside number or outside armpit of a defender to properly execute a reach, Alercio tries to keep his players shoulders square.

“We will never out step the play side toes of the defender. The step is going to be the same vertical distance as the base drive – heel replaces toe – but we will also gain ground to the play side (Diagram 2). I’m just trying to get nose to nose. I don’t want my head being play side of his head on the first step. If it does, it’s much easier for him to ride me down the line of scrimmage. We need to stay vertical and stay square to the line of scrimmage,” said Alercio. As for a visual aiming point on the reach, Alercio coaches his players to look at the center vertical bar. The purpose is to hit exactly where the mouthpiece would be and climb upward on the point of contact. “We won’t stare at a number because that’s where our eyes are going, and that would be too low.”

Diagram 2

Angle Step

On the backside of any zone or stretch (outside zone) run game, Alercio will teach the angle step. Used primarily as a block to cut off a scraping linebacker, most uncovered linemen will need to climb to get to the second level. The first step is a heel replaces toe on a 45 degree angle to the play side – which in this situation the aiming point is the outside armpit (Diagram 3). “We’re trying to bite the play side armpit,” says Alercio. “We’re trying to punch and run through that play side armpit. That second step can be a little more aggressive. Once your first foot turns on that 45 degree angle, if you draw a straight line across your toes, it’s now a further distance for that second step to follow. That is why it is the longest of all the steps in man run blocking because you have to cover more ground.”

Diagram 3

Essentially on the angle step, an offensive lineman’s body should be on a 45 degree angle toward the line of scrimmage, but the heel will still not pass the toes of the first foot. The eyes will stare at the play side helmet corner, which would be the same as the base drive. But because a lineman would be out-leveraged, he would need to take a longer step. It’s important to note that Alercio would use the angle step mainly on interior blocking, where a guard has to handle three techniques. It’s a much safer situation then having a tight end execute the same block on a nine technique, for fear that any type of inside move by a quicker edge player can disrupt the play.

Bucket Step

The next step is the bucket, which is essentially a down block. Any time a tackle has to protect for a guard pulling to the play side or a center has to protect a backside guard pull, the bucket step is utilized. When Alercio works this on the Birddog Drill with the heels on the line, he has his players turn on a 45 degree angle and drop the toe to the play side on the line. The shortest step is the second step because of the play side foot coming back (Diagram 4). Most coaches teach some type of attack step on a down block but Alercio believes that in order to block most penetrating defenders at the point of attack, a drop step is necessary.

Diagram 4

“It sounds like a passive block, but we’re just looking to cover him up and shield him off because plays like the counter, power and trap are going to happen behind our back and where he is may not be good enough,” said Alercio. “Because the second step is so short you’re in a position to block that guy whether he crosses face or goes backdoor. The aiming point for the eye is the ear hole. We look at that ear hole to see if it penetrates or not. If the ear hole stays, he’s not a penetrator and we push him down the line. If the ear hole tries to cross my face, we’ll vertically drive block him. If the ear hole comes right at me, I’ll block him straight up just shielding him off so he doesn’t get to the play side.”

Pulls

Alercio breaks down the pull into two types: a flat pull and a lead pull. Flat pulls are used primarily for kick out purposes, particularly at the line of scrimmage. On a flat pull, Alercio teaches his linemen to get their shoulders to the sideline right away by throwing the backside hand on the first step and retracting it back on the second step while getting his chest to the sideline. Despite the type of pull, the first step is the same with the intent to clear the line of scrimmage. “With heels on the line, we want our foot back behind the line. Where we point our foot will determine whether it will be a flat or lead pull. If it’s a flat pull we point our toe at a 90 degree angle to the sideline (Diagram 5).

Diagram 5

On a lead pull, used when linemen are pulling through a hole to block a second level player such as a counter or power play, Alercio doesn’t talk about getting his lineman’s chest pointed to the sideline or getting squared. Instead, he stresses getting turned and immediately getting a look at the linebacker he is responsible for. “If the player is inside the tackle box, our guys will look like they are pulling flatter, but if the LB is outside the tackle box he’ll get an ‘out’ call and then he’s going to be on a little more of a 45 degree angle,” (Diagram 6) said Alercio. “He doesn’t want to be flat and have that backer come and take the C gap immediately and blow up the play. Essentially it looks like an angle step. Our feet don’t need to be squared because we’re not making contact on the second step. Most defensive guys will teach their player to attack the puller before he gets his shoulders squared. We don’t want that to happen.”

Diagram 6

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