O Line Skills

While attending the Atlantic City Glazier Clinic this Winter, a coach from Western New York came up and introduced himself saying he saw me speak several years ago and has followed my blog since.  He went on to say that the one he most enjoyed is the blog describing how we draft our own team every year around the same time as the NFL draft. He and his staff implemented the practice and look forward to the annual event.  

This week our coaches are given an alphabetical list of every eligible returning player on our team.  They are then tasked to play Mel Kiper and return the list to me with each player listed in their order of “Best Available Player.”  No other criteria is provided. Coaches are free to use whichever parameters they value to generate their list.  If I have done a good job in clearly defining the shared values of our culture, the lists should not differ drastically.  But coaches are human and they always seem to favor their position players.   

The NFL draft is a crucial part of the building of NFL teams.  It allows them to replenish their rosters with new talent and address areas of need.  For us it allows us to create a “Best 11” list which in turn helps us to determine possible personnel packages on offense as well as fronts and coverages on defense.  

We also address any outliers.  When most of the staff has a player listed within one or two slots of the others but another coach has that player considerably higher or lower, conversations must follow to see why that coach listed the player where they did.  This can clear up or identify any issues with players or staff members with ample time before Training Camp to address and rectify them.   

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

I was recently contacted by Darnell Grant, the highly successful Head Football Coach at West Orange HS in New Jersey.  When Coach Grant was the head coach at Shabazz HS in Newark, he and his players regularly attended the Alercio OLine Clinics at Kean University.  He wanted to know what it would take to get me to come down to West Orange to clinic his players.  After discussing some details, he asked if his brother Barris, the equally successful head coach of Hillside HS, and his players could also attend.   He went on to say that there are a lot of other coaches who would love to attend so we decided to host another New Jersey Alercio OLine Clinic.  I will be heading back to the Garden State and West Orange HS on Sunday 19 May for another iteration of the Alercio OLine Clinic.  

Coach Grant who is a Trustee of the New Jersey Minority Coaches Association will be promoting our clinic date at the NJMCA 3rd Annual Coaches Clinic he is hosting this Saturday 27 April from 9am-1pm on the campus of West Orange HS.  To show my appreciation for all the good work Coach Grant does, a percentage of every player’s registration fee at our 19 May clinic will be donated to the NJMCA.   More on the NJMCA Clinic here:

Before we close this week’s post, I’d like to offer a special thanks to my wife, Kim, for giving us the green light on this special Clinic. Kim works the registration desk at our OLine Clinics and is also our staff photographer.  The West Orange Clinic weekend is our anniversary, but she said “Go do what you do best, and I will help you do it.” How lucky am I to have such a loving and supportive “Teammate” for a wife? As I often note about teammates and the kind of culture we hope to create, my Teammate, Kim and I are far stronger together than either of us could be alone.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

This past Sunday nearly 200 young men gathered at the Hun School of Princeton, under sunny skies to learn and train their OLine Skills at the 22nd Alercio OLine Clinic. By all accounts, it could not have been a better day.  These aspiring student-athletes were attentive, focused, hardworking, and enthusiastic.  For four hours they learned new skills in a large group and then trained these tactics in smaller groups allowing their coaches to make any necessary changes in their steps, body positions, visual targets, or strike points.

I often hear in education that the one disadvantage of technology is that it has made the kids of this generation lazier, or at a minimum easily distracted.  With nearly 200 cell phones tucked away in backpacks and gym bags on the sideline, this generation of student-athletes was exemplary and would rival any of the best generations of the past.  The only cell phones seen were those of their coaches taking photos and videos of players for future training reference. I’m sure many will also provide players fond memories of a Spring day in the sun where common goals united a diverse spectrum of talents and backgrounds to prove just how potent teammates can be when they set personal interests aside for the good of the team. Those young men and their coaches have plenty to be proud of.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

This past Sunday nearly 200 young men and their Coaches attended the 22nd Alercio OLine Clinic at the Hun School in Princeton, NJ. Athletes and Coaches from all over the Mid-Atlantic came together to learn, train, and share the tactics, techniques, and procedures for success in the coming season.

In a historic milestone, viewership of the Women’s NCAA Championship surpassed the men’s final for the first time ever. According to CNN, the women’s game attracted an astonishing four million more viewers than the men’s, and the women’s semi-final drew a larger audience than any 2023 World Series game.

Such remarkable success is a testament to both the exceptional quality of play and the dynamic personalities involved. Caitlin Clark, the likely number one WNBA draft pick, delivered record-breaking performances throughout the year, while Dawn Staley, Head Coach of the University of South Carolina, guided her team to the coveted National Championship.

During the post-game interview, Dawn Staley shared her wisdom on nurturing young talent, saying, “You’ve got to let young people be who they are, yet you’ve got to guide them and navigate them in a way to help them find success.”

We’ve discussed how different generations respond to various coaching and motivation techniques. The tactics that resonated with Generation X may not resonate as effectively with today’s Generation Z (and the soon-to-follow Generation Alpha.)

This weekend, as we gather at the Hun School in Princeton, NJ, for the 22nd iteration of the Alercio Oline Clinic, we’ll heed Coach Staley’s advice and guide our players to the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) they’ll need to excel this fall. We’ll delve into the finer points and nuances of feet placement, body position, visual targets, and strike points while explaining how and why these TTPs lead to success. Furthermore, we’ll prepare, explain, show, observe, and supervise physical execution, as well as teach elements of character, resilience, and mental toughness.

Our program aims to develop both physical and mental tools, offering guidance and a vision for future success both on and off the field for years to come.

Come join us this Sunday! Quite literally, decades of Alercio Oline clinics have proven that players and coaches alike benefit from a day on the field together. With a few spaces still available, you can be a part of this enriching experience, too! (Click here to Download this weekend’s Brochure!)

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the LA Chargers, shared in a recent interview, “The Offensive Line doesn’t need any other position to be good.  Every other position needs the Offensive Line to be good.”  He went on to say “…that makes them the most important position group in football.”  

At the Hun School of Princeton on 14 April, the players and coaches attending the Alercio OLIne Clinic will learn how to maximize the transfer of force and the rate of force development through their steps and strikes.  They will also learn that their collective efforts, as stated by Coach Harbaugh, make them “force multipliers.”  

In the military, a force multiplier is anything that magnifies a unit’s combat power without adding additional bodies. Just like a lever grants someone superhuman strength or hydraulics amplify force over distance, an offensive line acts as a force multiplier in football. Skilled O-Linemen empower their teammates to achieve more with less. They function as a cohesive unit, pooling their strengths and seamlessly complementing each other to create a juggernaut far more potent than any individual player. Operating in the thankless trenches, they selflessly elevate the entire team’s performance with impacts resonating through every successful play.

Come join us at the Hun School in Princeton on the 14^th, and learn how you too can multiply your contributions to your teammates and team.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

Although much of the Northeast Kingdom here in Vermont is covered with a couple feet of fresh snow, Spring is upon us, and with it, all sorts of signs of rebirth and renewal. Humans have for millennia celebrated the changing of the seasons. Fall has been synonymous with festivals of harvest and abundance like Thanksgiving, and more recently, traditions like Football and its associated celebrations and rituals.

This Sunday (the first Sunday, after the first full moon, following the vernal equinox) Christians will come together to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Other cultures celebrate the arrival of Spring in different ways, but for many, this weekend will be filled with church services, family gatherings, coloring of eggs, egg hunts, and baskets full of treats. 

And thanks to the merger of the USFL and XFL, this weekend will also be filled with UFL football games. In preparation for the new league games on both Saturday and Sunday, we should note some rules are different from the NFL, College, and High School.  For example:

• The UFL permits a team to attempt two forward passes on a single play, however, the football cannot cross the line of scrimmage before the second forward pass is thrown. 
• The ball will be placed on the 20-yard line for kickoffs,
• There’s no coin toss. (The home team can choose to take the ball or defer to the second half.)
• After touchdowns, there will be no option to kick an extra point.
  • Teams will have three options: (each attempt must be a run or pass play)
    • They can go for one point from the 2-yard line
    • Go for two from the 5-yard line, or
    • Go for three from the 10-yard line 
• There are some other variations like how the clock will be operated within 2 minutes, and how some penalties will be enforced.   

For well over 100 years, football has been an integral part of the Thanksgiving holiday.  The combination of football and Thanksgiving is intertwined with American culture.  Only time will tell if the same will be true for Easter…  

Regardless of how you may celebrate rebirth and renewal, I’d like to wish you the very best this Spring and wish all those who celebrate Easter, a Happy Easter.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

We wrapped up our Spring practices with a “combine test” and a “7v7” game.  In our combine, we test 40-yard dash, L Drill, Shuttle, Broad Jump, Medball Thruster Toss, Bench Press reps, Goblet Squat reps, and Pullups.  These tests of speed, agility, quickness, power, strength, muscular endurance, and fitness are put into an Excel sheet providing us with a scoring system and a good assessment of each athlete.  We also calculate Force production by multiplying Mass (their weight) times Acceleration (40 / their 40 yd dash time). 

To quote Scott Caulfield, Director of Strength & Conditioning at Norwich University, who recently spoke at the Vermont Football Coaches Association Clinic, “If you are going to test it make sure you include it in your training.”  All those tests were included in our Winter Workouts and we will continue assessments through Spring and Summer training.  

During our 7v7 (a football game-like competition without pass rush or blocking) we incorporated the linemen allowing them to play any position.  One even took some reps at QB proving there is a reason why he plays OLine!  I often tell our OLs that while they may not be able to play the other positions on offense that get to carry or catch the ball, there is no way any of the ball carriers or receivers could play OLine. 

On my way off the field, I ran into a parent who was watching the 7v7 while waiting to pick up her son.  She greeted me with a big smile stating “it looked like they were having so much fun!” 

We came together as a team, worked on our schemes and techniques, developed our brotherhood, and had fun doing it.  Mission accomplished.

Last year before one of my Alercio OLine Clinics, I received the following text from a head coach: 

“Coach I have 3 kids coming up today. Freshman, Sophomore, and Senior. The 6’6” 260lb senior’s name is (Blank). Raw talent and lacking confidence. Never really played football. Show him some love for me. I’m trying to turn him into an Offensive tackle and I told him you were the man to do that.”

I appreciate that coach’s confidence in my ability to coach offensive linemen but he referenced the secret sauce when he made the comment “Show him some love“.  For over 20 years we have begun every Alercio OLine Clinic explaining to attendees what makes them so truly special and how vital their role is to the success of the team and then reinforce it throughout the day.  

Chances are your other position players are being told how wonderful they are in the newspaper, on the radio and in social media. Offensive linemen play a thankless position that goes unnoticed unless they make a mistake.  Make sure you are showing them the love.  I know that coach did and that 6’6″ kid wound up being a starting offensive tackle and helped his team win a state championship!

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time! 

In Vermont, high school football is allowed six practices with no protective equipment between the end of Winter Sports and the beginning of Spring Sports.  Our practices are scheduled Monday-Friday 11-16 March.  Our focus will not be on Xs & Os but rather on the non-position-specific fundamentals of football performed in a fun and encouraging manner.  

We will also reintroduce an acronym we brought here when we took over the struggling program 10 years ago; S.W.A.T.  It stands for be Smart, Work hard, And be Tough.  There is an endless list of character traits you would want for your players but we felt those three were the ones we most needed to emphasize and the turnaround was astonishing.  

Smart.  We want our players to be able to learn, understand, and apply knowledge effectively on the field, in the classroom, and in our community.  This includes practical, emotional, and societal intelligence allowing them to navigate life’s challenges to make meaningful contributions to the team, school, and community.  

Work Hard.  Working hard requires sacrifices and stepping out of your comfort zone.  Players need to put in the necessary time, effort, and energy into achieving both individual and team success.  As the saying goes, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

Tough.  Toughness can manifest in various forms including physical, mental, and emotional toughness.  Physical toughness allows players to push their bodies beyond comfortable limits through developed endurance, strength, and stamina.  Mental toughness allows players to manage stress effectively in high-pressure situations and maintain their determination to overcome setbacks and failures.  Emotional toughness allows players to remain resilient in the face of adversity as well as composed when facing intense negative feelings.  

I feel good reinforcing these points as they are all characteristics of strong teammates while training and playing together, as well as strong adults who will undoubtedly encounter circumstances requiring the same. Cultivating these character traits will allow us to develop players who can use their minds, bodies, and spirit to overcome obstacles and setbacks and refuse to be defeated by adversity while laying the foundations for decades to come.

Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time!