Why Blocking Must Be Reframed as a Special Strength
At Lineman Special Strength, we reframe blocking—not just as a skill, but as a special strength. That doesn’t mean blocking isn’t a skill. Blocking is a phenomenon that requires both. But by recognizing that linemen must generate high-magnitudes of strength repeatedly, we reach a simple conclusion:
The lineman must train for strength and practice for skill.
Our system starts by bucketing development into two solvable problems:
Strength Problems
Skill Problems
Strength vs Skill: Two Buckets, One Correct Solution
Both buckets contain solvable problems. But if you treat a skill problem like it’s a strength problem, you’ll never solve it. To produce linemen who can repeatedly generate violence, you must first identify what kind of problem you're looking at. Only then can you prescribe the correct work.
The Lineman Skill Problem
Our visual of blocking as a special strength (see above) makes this clear:
Blocking—what we call Lineman Special Strength—is skilled force output.
If the film shows flashes of violence, but the lineman keeps getting outmaneuvered, it’s most likely a skill problem.
You walk into the weight room and ask the strength coach, “Is this guy strong?” If the answer is, “Yes—his training max is 650lbs plus green band tension in the box squat, and his dynamic effort and reactive strength work is pure violence,” then (absolute) strength isn’t the limiting constraint.
The neurological network of absolute strength is there.1 This is a behavioral constraint. He can output violence. His neural network just can’t organize his biology when it matters in that special way that leads to the strength we see on film. The block breaks down—not because the lineman is weak, but because he cannot express special strength in very specific positions.
That’s not a strength problem. It’s a skill problem.
Solving the Skill Problem
Once the limited constraint is correctly bucketed in as skill, one of the ways we solve it with this simple sequence:
Film → Positional Identification → Special Practice
Film gives us the static position where expression of LSS is breaking down. We prescribe positional isometrics and the coach the lineman through the scenario so that he must express force to solve the blocking problem.
As the problem gets solved statically in practice, it will start showing up dynamically on film.2 That’s when the lineman becomes dangerous—not just strong, but skillful. Our positional isometrics is where strength and skill converge.
Solve the Skill Problem at Scale With Us
If you want to solve the skill problem across your program, we built the infrastructure:
LSS University – The full course on elite lineman training systems
LSS Programming – Follow the exact training we use with pros
Not sure what kind of problem you’re dealing with? Schedule a 1:1 consult. We’ll help you bucket it and give you the means to do so with our LSS Ebook + Recovery Templates.
Questions about today’s topic? Click the button below to leave us a comment.
