In Defense of "Duck Walking"

I’ve been asked a few times over the past months what the value of “duck walks” were for offensive linemen.  A few people even called me old fashioned or said that teaching that particular technique was out dated.  I think, however, that for high school offensive linemen, one of the most important things that you can teach them is the importance of duck walks or what I call “demeanor” drills.

The most difficult thing to teach young offensive linemen is how to "move like an offensive lineman."  This movement is what I call "demeanor."  Demeanor is the movement and body position that is most conducive to sustaining blocks and creating drive on a defender.  Most young athletes are used to "running" everywhere they go in sports.  However this is the first thing we have to teach young offensive linemen NOT to do.

Why can't I run?

If you were to put any athlete in front of a van and ask them to push that van down the street, they would most certainly not "demeanor" that van down the street.  The first thing they would do would be to lean over, shoulders over their toes, and push the van and do that on the balls of their feet.  This pushing would also be accompanied by a very narrow base with the feet like a sprinter in the 100 meter dash.  This works really well for pushing a big heavy object and would seem like it would be the best way for an offensive lineman to "push" a defensive lineman.  However, the van can only move in one direction.  A defensive linemen getting "pushed" will likely get "pushed" back off the line of scrimmage initially but will soon use the forward lean and momentum of the offensive player to throw him off of the block very easily.  The weight of the offensive lineman is not evenly distributed and while he is pushing with great force, he is not doing it in a way that will allow him to sustain that block for any length of time.  If you are a veer running team and expect the ball to hit the line of scrimmage within a split second of the ball being snapped, this technique may actually be the best blocking style for you.  However, if you are running a traditional gap or zone scheme, offensive linemen must typically sustain their blocks for at least 2 seconds before the ball carrier has passed them up.

So the next question is, how do I sustain my bock and still get push from the offensive lineman?  The answer is to have a wide base and DO NOT RUN!  The "demeanor" of an offensive lineman starts with the feet.  Once contact has been made with the defensive lineman, an offensive lineman should have all of his cleats in the ground.  If you have coached offensive line for any length of time, you have most certainly heard this statement before.  However, you may have not really questioned, "why?"  Having all of the cleats in the ground helps to balance out the weight of the offensive player.  Think about a chair.  If you were going to make a chair, you would need to find a balance between the right height of the chair and the correct width of the legs to keep that chair balanced.  If the chair is too tall and the legs are too narrow, it won't be a very stable chair to sit on.  The same is true for a lineman base.  If the lineman is up tall and on his toes when drive blocking, he is much more likely to get thrown off of the block and become off balance.  By keeping all the cleats in the ground, the lineman is more likely to be stable and sustain the block.

The feet should also be turned slightly out and the majority of the weight should be on the inside portions of the feet or arches.  This will also help to keep the knees inside of the ankles in the base.  This is a critical part of the lineman base in his "demeanor."  The knees should be inside the ankles to create "power angles" that are conducive to generating force from the ground, to the feet, through the legs, and into the hips which are the most critical part of the drive block.  

I have seen many line coaches who try to get their players to move their feet as fast as possible in their "demeanor" drills.  This is one of the biggest mistakes I think coaches make when teaching young linemen how to block using the proper demeanor.  Ask any 9th grade lineman to move his feet as fast as possible from one end of a board to the other and you will most certainly get what I call "shuffling" of the feet.  Instead of generating force from the ground through the legs etc., that young lineman will simply shuffle his feet as fast as he can from one end of the board to the other.  No power will be generated in this type of demeanor.  Furthermore, when the young athlete tries to use this technique when actually blocking a defender, he will get pushed back every time.  What will he revert to?  Running.  He will do the drill one way and then attempt to block in the game a different way.  The key to teaching demeanor with the feet is not asking the young man to move his feet as fast as possible, but to ask him to move his feet as fast as possible while pounding the inside of his arches into the ground.  Will he be able to do this as fast as he could when he was shuffling?  Absolutely not.  But he will generate way more force by pounding the feet into the ground quickly.  We call this "angry feet."  We never want to sacrifice power for speed.  Power is a combination of how hard we can generate that force AND how fast we can do it.  But never sacrifice the power for the speed.

The duck walk or demeanor also allows a lineman to "unweigh" a defender.  With the prevalence of zone and gap blocking schemes in today's game, there is a much higher priority on sustaining blocks than their is on driving a defender 5 yards downfield.  Think of your typical zone play from the shotgun.  Most of the time, the running back will pass the offensive line 1.5-2 seconds after the ball has been snapped.  That's an awful long time to sustain a block against a defender that is likely more athletic than the offensive lineman.  Unweighing the defender is critical to sustain a block.  While I never want a lineman to think they don't have to fire out with a good flat back and knock the defensive player off the ball, I don't want them to do that at the expense of sustaining the block.  We teach our linemen to generate that force upwards on a 45 degree angle.  Our end goal is to get our hips as close to the defender's hips as we possibly can.  Try it.  Get a partner and try to push him and ask him to throw you off the block.  He will likely do this pretty easily.  This time, assume a wide base and attempt to "lift" the defender and press your hips to his hips instead of "push."  Now how hard was it for him to get off the block?  Much harder.  Why?  You have raised that person's center of gravity.  They have no way to generate enough force to get you off of the block.  On zone runs, I would much rather see our linemen press their hips to the hips of the defender on or in front of the line of scrimmage than I would see them drive the defender 4 yards back within the first 1 second of the block.  

Demeanor allows a lineman to do all of these things with the best of both worlds.  You may not be able to push that van down the street faster using demeanor, but you will be able to sustain your blocks longer while not sacrificing too much drive.  Keeping a good wide base and generating power while staying balanced is why we teach demeanor to our kids every day.

If you are interested in any drills we use to teach these techniques, feel free to email me at gabriel.fertitta@gmail.com