Wall blocking has been the one constant in my 20 plus years of coaching youth football. It is the most simple scheme to teach and is effective at all levels of play. I have even used wall blocking in flag football with 5-year olds.
The easiest way to teach wall blocking is to use very tight splits with your offensive line, and on the snap of the ball have the lineman step together, maintaining a tight row. You can have them block either right or left, but the key is that the entire line moves in the same direction and at the same speed. You want to avoid any linemen from getting out too far in front, or falling too far behind as this will form a gap, or a “hole in the wall”. I explain to the kids “we need to make sure there are no holes in our wall”. If there are holes in our wall, we will leak, meaning defenders will get through. Our goal is to keep a tight moving wall in one direction.
Some of the main advantages of wall blocking include:
- Easy to teach
- Works against any front
- Makes blitzing ineffective
- Is bi-directional (left and right)
- Effective with all age groups
- Effective with all different skill levels
- Creates great lanes for the running game
Wall blocking will always be an important blocking scheme taught to every team I coach. It is usually the first scheme added since I know how effective it will be regardless of the offense I am running this year.
