O Line Skills

One could cite many benefits of attending the Alercio Oline Clinics. Throughout the Mid-Atlantic states and spanning far up into New England, Coaches and athletes learn “Techniques in the trenches,” like the stance, steps, visual targets, and strike points. Many might not expect a class on Physics, but we dive in on transfer or force and rate of force development, and momentum as an offensive lineman.

While our program, teaching points, drills, and memory aides all leave lasting impressions, over the last 25 years coaches have relayed the greatest value of attending Alercio OLine Clinics, is the shared experience or waking up early on a Sunday four months before the football season, loading into a vehicle with teammates, taking a road trip, stopping for something along the way, going through 4 hours of training, then taking the return trip home.

As coaches, we hope to create a shared sense of purpose, shared values, shared goals, and a shared hope for what we, as a team, can become…

These shared experiences deepen connections among team members, fostering camaraderie and mutual understanding. Spending extended time together in close quarters breaks down barriers and encourages open communication, and breeds interdependence, all mission-essential skills on the offensive line. Lastly, a change of scenery can reinvigorate a team’s energy.

Take the time to build your team’s interdependence and join us this Sunday at The Hun School of Princeton. Get your brochure here or register using the QR code below.

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 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!