If reading 600 words about the importance of line splits is not your cup of tea, by all means skip this post. Wait, don’t -- splits are really important! This seemingly minor detail could make a world of difference in your running game.
During my first year coaching, we scrimmaged several of the stronger teams in our conference after two weeks of practice. The results were troubling. Play after play was stuffed by opposing defensive linemen and we struggled to generate anything positive between the tackles. Before our first game we tightened our line splits from fingertip-to-fingertip to fingertip-to-shoulder. Over the course of that season we had pockets of offensive success, but it typically came with outside runs and against physically weaker opponents. During your time coaching you will almost certainly encounter times when you struggle to block the opponent’s front seven or eight players. Resist the urge to address this by tightening your line splits.
The rules of the conference in which our teams compete restrict line splits to no more than fingertip-to-fingertip, and that is how we align our center, guards, tackles, and tight ends. The reason is simple: to create the widest possible running lanes for our backs. My younger son is 10 years old, slightly above average size. His arms are about 24 inches long. Assuming our linemen are a similar size, with fingertip splits our holes at the snap will be 4 feet wide. With two tight ends attached to the line, that is 24 feet of holes available for our run game.
Take the opposite end of the spectrum, fingertip-to-shoulder splits. Using simple math, we know that holes are now just 2 feet wide, and we have just 12 feet of total holes to work with from tight end to tight end. That is a huge difference! In addition to smaller running lanes, tighter splits naturally bring more defenders closer to the ball.
To be sure, tight splits work effectively in certain situations. They lend themselves well to plays and systems based on misdirection and deception. Tight splits are also a solid strategy for teams that may not feature much speed but hold a significant size advantage over their opponents. There is no simpler way to move the football than with brute force, pounding it up the gut 3 or 4 yards at a time. But if your inclination is to tighten splits to account for struggles blocking, think twice and consider different methods of addressing the problem. Obviously you continue to work with linemen on their skills and techniques, but there are ways your scheme can help your blockers. Build in double teams to help struggling linemen. Overload a formation to create playside numbers advantages. Or leave defenders unblocked and read them instead.
Be vigilant about insisting your linemen align with the widest splits allowable. If you have watched a youth football game you have likely seen linemen approach the line of scrimmage with their arms outstretched to help guide their alignments. Even with this easy-to-use physical aid, linemen still align improperly -- a lot! The most common mistake is arms bent at the elbows, which if allowed cuts down on the space between blockers by a foot or more. The amateur psychiatrist in me thinks that this is a combination of sloppiness and kids’ natural inclination to crave being part of a group and not isolated on an island, where their potential mistakes are easier to spot. But if you choose to employ wide splits, reinforce it in everything you do: warmups, offensive indys, team offense -- everything. Paired properly with a scheme that takes advantage of the resulting running lanes, wide splits will create a better environment for your team to run between the tackles.
A final splits-related note: when calling plays, you need to be disciplined enough to accept plays that yield 3, 4, 5 yards at a time. Do not fall into a trap of calling tosses and sweeps to your fastest back repeatedly. This may work against weaker opponents but almost certainly will not against stronger ones. Fullback dives for 3 yards are beautiful!
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