Field Session: The Technician
A full set menu, redirects that survive counters, climbs that arrive under control, and a brain that answers fronts fast. Contact stays at practice; craft lives here.
Duration10 minEquipment2 cones
Deep squat holds (30 seconds, heels down), hip airplanes, lateral lunges, and two rounds of low lateral shuffles between cones. Then six stance pops and ten air hand-strikes with the standard shape. Linemen live in flexed hips; mobility is not a nicety at this age, it is the difference between a six-inch power step and a stumble.
Coaching Cue
Cue: "Own the bottom of your squat and you own your stance."
Block 1: The Set Menu · 18 minutes
Duration10 minEquipment3 cones
The menu, on air, keyed to your calls: QUICK (one aggressive kick, inside threat), VERTICAL (three to five kicks straight back, standard edge), JUMP (an immediate square-up two-step for a tight threat), 45 (angled set splitting the difference for a wide-but-fast picture). Twelve calls, mixed, each finishing frozen with back flat, hands ready, feet under. The menu exists because rushers vary; a lineman with one set is a lineman with one answer.
Coaching Cue
Cue: "Four answers, one shape at the end: square, low, hands loaded."
Duration8 minEquipment2 cones, 1 QB-spot cone
The mirror drill at a jog now (still no contact, hands still behind your back): you attack an edge, counter inside, sometimes counter twice. The kid sets, sinks, redirects, and keeps their frame between you and the QB cone, finishing each rep still square. Five 30-second rounds. The grading axis is recovery speed: how fast weight sinks and the slide reverses. That number is the position at this age.
Coaching Cue
Cue: "Counters are coming. Sink first, slide second, panic never."
Block 2: Run Game Footwork · 18 minutes
Duration10 minEquipment5 cones
The double-team-to-linebacker footwork that modern run games live on, drilled solo on air: two power steps through a first-level cone (the imaginary double), eyes up, then a controlled CLIMB off it to a second-level cone (the linebacker), arriving low, square, and under control rather than lunging. Eight reps, alternating sides. The climb is the rep most young linemen have never practiced alone, and it shows immediately when they have.
Coaching Cue
Cue: "Leave the double with your eyes, arrive at the backer with your feet. Never dive off."
Duration8 minEquipment4 cones
Three pull shapes, two reps each direction: the KICK pull (short trap track, square up through a tight gate), the WRAP pull (longer track around a cone, square up downfield through a second gate), and the SCREEN release (flat sprint, then climb to a spot and settle under control, feet buzzing). All on air, all graded on arriving square and balanced. Pullers who arrive under control block people; pullers who arrive as missiles miss.
Coaching Cue
Cue: "Sprint the middle of the track, arrive under control. Control is what hits the target."
Block 3: Front Recognition · 14 minutes
Duration7 minEquipment6 cones
Cones now build full fronts (even, odd, overloaded, walked-up backers, a mugged A-gap). Ten pictures, five seconds each: declare the front's family, the man or gap by rule, the likely stunt threat, and the first step. Then execute two steps of the answer at full speed. This is install-week fluency practiced year-round, and it is precisely the trait coaches promote linemen for.
Coaching Cue
Cue: "Name the front, claim your work, step. Every answer under five seconds."
Duration7 minEquipment4 cones
You trace stunts slowly with two "rushers" (walk one cone-to-cone path crossing another imaginary rusher's track, calling it aloud: "TEX! Inside man goes first!"). The kid executes the answer footwork on air: stay square, pass off the crosser with eyes and a call ("SWITCH!"), catch the looper with a redirected slide. Six stunts. Talking is mandatory; silent linemen get stunted into the ground, at every level, forever.
Coaching Cue
Cue: "Stunts beat silence, not technique. See it, SAY it, slide."
Conditioning With a Point
Duration5 minEquipmentcones
Four play-length efforts, thirty seconds' rest between: a full-speed pull-and-climb, a five-second set-and-redirect, a track-and-climb, and a ten-yard sprint finishing in a perfect frozen fit position. Line conditioning is repeat-effort, not distance; four honest ones with quality held is the whole assignment. End by naming today's best rep out loud, coach-style.
Coaching Cue
Cue: "Quality on the last rep is the rep that gets recruited."
What to watch today: the finish position of every rep. At this age fatigue reveals the truth: reps that end tall, narrow, or leaning would be losses in pads. The standard that every drill ends square, low, and balanced (even the conditioning) is the standard that transfers on Friday nights. Hold it kindly and hold it always.
