Author: Coach Alercio

We ended our Spring practices with a Spring game. No not in pads on a field. Our field is still covered in snow. We broke the players up into 3 teams and played a round-robin of Ultimate Football. It is Ultimate Frisbee but with a football. The competition borders somewhere between structured and unstructured. We give some base rules then just let the teammates play and have fun while our coaching staff observes.
Though largely unstructured, there is a “method to our (seeming) madness.” As coaches, we evaluate gross motor skills (running, jumping, throwing, catching, covering) by observing how they move their bodies in active play. We also evaluate how they respond emotionally to competition. Do they get frustrated or stay positive and encouraging when things go wrong? Our veterans have been taught to be “thoughtfully responsive, not emotionally reactive…” Will they remember? Will they share the lesson with a rookie?

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we observe how they interact with each other as social hierarchies quickly form within the team. Most players fall into one of three categories: competitive, cooperative or solitary. The rare player(s) who can be both competitive and cooperative while maintaining emotional regulations (thoughtfully responsive) are those likely to emerge as team leaders.

As coaches, we gather a great deal of information about the players and look forward to lively discussions at upcoming staff meetings. As players, they are just playing and having fun.

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!

Spring football practices wrap up this week and we will conclude the sessions with a combine test. Similar to the NFL combine which was recently held in Indianapolis, we test our players in a variety of events to gather measurable results. We test the 40 yard dash for speed, the “L drill” for agility, shuttle for quickness, broad jump for lower body explosivity, Medball toss for whole body explosivity, bench press max reps for upper body muscular strength and endurance, goblet squat for lower body muscular strength and endurance along with core stabilization, and pullups for overall fitness. Athletes’ by event results are organized on a spreadsheet that calculates a score for each event of 0-20 points, and then an overall score for each player.

While the NFL combine has been jokingly nicknamed the “underwear olympics” because it just showcases the physical attributes of the athlete and not the immeasurables that are so important in football. But we, like the NFL, have found that there is a strong correlation between combine results and on field performance. With many athletes competing over many years, I can confidently say, our best players are most often those who score the highest.

The other reason for the testing is to see our players compete against themselves and others. There is an old saying, “competition makes a horse run.” That holds true for athletes as well. Players will work to beat their own scores from Training Camp as well as the scores of their teammates during the event. Amongst teammates, one would expect fierce competition at the top of the leaderboard, but it’s often interesting to see some of the fiercest competition coming from those striving not to be on the bottom. We will share the results with every player so that they can see where they compare with their teammates before heading into our Spring lifting sessions and Summer OTAs. Lastly, we trust that it serves as a baseline for comparison and motivating factor in our players’ off-season training. As Peter Drucker, a highly influential management consultant, educator, and author used to say, “What gets measured, gets managed.”

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!

The bonds forged in the crucible of football—bonds we’ve explored throughout the OlineSkills.com journey… continue to fascinate me for their remarkable durability and depth. Last week’s metaphor of the multi-stranded rope illustrated perfectly why teammates bound by shared sacrifice become collectively stronger than any individual could be alone.

In response to recent blogs about teammates and relationships, a close friend forwarded me the following which is attributed to Tom Brady, and was excerpted from The Farnam Street (https://fs.blog/), Newsletter called, “Brain Food”:

Tom Brady (lightly edited) on how the right people in your life double the pleasure and divide the pain:
“Things happen in life that you don’t want to happen—whether you lose a game, things don’t go well at work, or something happens with your child. Many moments in our personal and professional lives don’t go the way we want. How do you deal with them? Do you handle them with class and integrity, with courage and resilience? Are you able to share your emotions with others?

Do you have people in your life who can help you through those challenges? I’m blessed to have had people walk through those moments with me. They always say, “Double the pleasure and divide the pain,” and that’s what relationships are all about. When you care for and love those around you, they give back—and that’s where the reward comes.”

I think “double the pleasure and divide the pain,” captures perfectly what I’ve experienced throughout my football journey but never articulated so well. Those shared victories (on and off the field) with teammates have indeed soared higher in celebration, while defeats and personal struggles diminished in weight when carried by many hands. This is one of the true gifts of this game; such bonds, extend far beyond the field and locker room. My wish is this lesson resonates with our players, staff, and readers alike, as they cultivate the bonds I genuinely hope will sustain them through life’s inevitable triumphs and tribulations.

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!

As I mentioned in a recent blog, I spent Super Bowl weekend in Fort Lauderdale with several of my high school teammates and lifelong friends. On the morning of the Super Bowl, sitting poolside, we watched a church service on the TV at the tiki bar of our Airbnb. Pastor Tom Mullins, a former high school and college football coach, performed the service. Who better to give a Super Bowl Sunday sermon?

Like any good coach, he referenced the importance of teamwork. He quoted Ecclesiastes 4:12 “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” This verse emphasizes the strength found in unity, and interdependence, whether in friendships, marriages, teams, or communities. The “three strands” metaphor suggests that when people come together and mutually support one another, they become much stronger than when they stand alone.

My friends and I have been an unbreakable cord for more than four decades. We’ve been fortunate to celebrate triumphs together, as well as support one another through life’s inevitable tribulations. When I am coaching, whether it be daily interactions with my own players, or those I only work with once a year at my OLine Clinics, I often wonder if (and certainly hope) the relationships they are forging will help them be successful on the field this season and in their lives 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!

As we so often reference, football can be a complex game. The decisions and actions offensive linemen consider and execute in games need to be repeated (practiced) every day to become automatized so they lose complexity and gain simplicity. Automating tasks every day in practice can reduce complexity and streamline repetitive processes, allowing players to focus on the tactical rather than the technical at the line of scrimmage on gameday. We both “train:” plan, practice, and execute a set of actions when confronted with certain conditions; as well as “educate:” observe, orient, decide, and act in non-standard situations.

For example, the Playside Guard on Power needs to identify whether he is covered or not. If he is covered, he needs to communicate the double team to the Playside Tackle, then identify which Linebacker they will double team to. Next, he determines the step, visual target, and strike points to block the defensive lineman with inside leverage in order to establish the inside half of the double team as well as account for the A Gap Linebacker run through. The steps used will differ depending on the alignment of the defender in a 2i or 3 technique. If the Guard is uncovered, he must turn his focus inward to the defender aligned on the Center to identify the step, visual target, and strike points to execute a down block. All this must occur in less than 10 seconds.

For 25 years, we have trained thousands of players and hundreds of coaches the steps, visual targets, strike points, and leverage used on run and pass blocks in Gap, Zone, and Man schemes at the Alercio OLine Clinics. We teach, train, and educate athletes and coaches to help reduce complexity and simplify decisions and actions in chaotic environments on gameday.

Come learn with us this Spring and simplify your or your team’s path to success.

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!

Stories that endure, do so for a reason. When we encounter a myth, legend, or ancient maxim that has survived centuries of retelling, we’re not just hearing an old tale – we’re connecting with a truth that generations before us found worthy of preserving.

I can’t say this story has been around for centuries, but I have used it before because I do find enduring value. I am reminded of this story as the football clinic season begins and we reflect on one of the greatest things in our profession: The willingness to share.

“Two people meet each having a penny. They exchange pennies and walk away still only having one penny. Two people meet each having an idea. They exchange ideas and walk away now having two ideas.”

While Coaches will share more plays and concepts that we can count, I am also reminded that there is no “Miracle Solution” guaranteed to score on every possession, stop teams from getting first downs, turn kick returns into touchdowns, or turn past failures into future successes. The game of football is a complex issue without a simple solution. Everyone would run the same things on offense and defense if it did.

Success requires multiple strategies to address challenges. Just because something worked for one coach or team does not necessarily mean it will work for you and yours. While it may look marvelous in video clips and explanations, we must ensure such ideas fit into your system, so that the schemes and reads can be implemented effectively with your players and their skill levels.

The acronym KISS is often used in coaching football prompting coaches to keep it simple. Another acronym I suggest is LEAP. Keep it Learnable, Engaging, Applicable, and Practical. Plays, schemes, and reads that fit into your system are more easily learned, making them more engaging, applicable, and practical.

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!

Mark your calendar with the 2025 Alercio OLine Clinic dates and locations. There is a saying in football that “games are won in the trenches.” Alercio OLine Clinics has specialized in teaching the technical and tactical skills of the trenches for 25 years. We strongly believe that the true “Skill Players” in football are the offensive linemen. We teach the coordination and execution of learned physical tasks, enabling linemen of any size to achieve both individual and team success.

Football is a complex game played at high speed, requiring quick decisions in a chaotic environment. Our goal is to simplify the process. Mike Kuchar, Co-Founder of X&O Labs.com, summed it up perfectly with his quote: ” The clarity of your teaching simplifies the game tremendously.” Join us at The Hun School of Princeton (NJ) Sunday 13 April, West Orange High School (NJ) Sunday 25 May, and St Johnsbury Academy (VT) Sunday 8 June.

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!