Hand-to-Hand Combat in the Trenches: The Art of Pass Rushing

by Edweirdo
posted on 2005/05/23

Have you ever wondered what a football scouting report meant when it said that a pass rusher doesn't use his hands well? This article discusses the hand techniques that pass rushers, such as defensive linemen (DL), use to defeat blockers, such as offensive linemen (OL).

Before we get to that, let's review pass rush moves you're probably familiar with. As a generalization, these involve the legs instead of the hands:

So what does a pass rusher use his hands for? Two purposes:

  1. To keep the hands of the blocker off his body
    If the blocker gets his hands locked onto the pass rusher, the result is usually a successful block. NFL referees almost never call holding on a blocker so long as his hands are between the shoulder pads of the defender. Also, an OL may hand punch the pass rusher in the chest to slow him down and maintain separation. So the pass rusher must protect his body with his hands. Raiders DE / OLB Tyler Brayton demonstrated good hand technique when knocking away RT Steussie's arms in the 2004 TB@OAK game.
  2. To attack the blocker to get past him
    A pass rusher can leverage his hands/arms in a variety of moves, including:
    • Club move
      For this move, the pass rusher swings an arm like a club and strikes the side of the blocker. It's purpose is to shove the blocker aside
    • Rip move
      For this move, the pass rusher makes an uppercut from a crouched position, except that the target of the uppercut is underneath an arm/shoulder of the blocker instead of his chin. If successful, the pass rusher lifts the blocker, gets underneath him, and wins the critical battle of leverage. At that point the blocker is toast. Former Raiders' DT Rod Coleman is a master at using this move to rip under the shoulder of an OG and then blow past him
    • Swim move
      For this move, the pass rusher raises an arm over his head (the arm closest to the blocker) and spins it in a windmill forward motion. This looks like a freestyle swimming stroke. As the pass rusher's arm comes down, it knocks aside the blocker's arm. WRs also utilize the swim move to break the press at the line of scrimmage

These moves are often combined. Hall-of-Fame (HOF) DE Reggie White often setup an offensive tackle (OT) by faking as if he was going around him, waiting for the OT to begin sliding to the outside to mirror him, then suddenly clubbing the OT with his inside arm and beating the OT to the inside. This "hump move" worked so well for White because he was a legitimate edge rush threat, he had tremendous strength, and he timed his club perfectly, right as the OT was shifting his weight to his outside foot. As a Raiders fan, it's interesting to note that White picked up the hump move from Raiders' HOF DL Howie Long. Dwight Freeney uses misdirection by starting with an outside pass rush, but instead of using the club move, he spins back inside to beat the OT. This double-move is effective for Freeney because he has incredible quickness and balance.

The master at using his hands was Howie Long. Long developed phenomenal hand-eye coordination and quick hands from boxing (he was a collegiate champion), and those skills served him well as a pass rush threat in the NFL. Some of his team mates said it was almost impossible to get a glove on him, because he would knock away any arm that came near him.

Defenders also use their hands when playing the run, to prevent blockers from holding them, to protect their legs from low blocks, and to stack and shed blockers.

Effective pass rushing at the NFL level is all about using the hands. Check out the following quote from Cardinals defensive end Chike Okeafor on his beating Raiders right offensive tackle Gallery twice in a preseason game:

He's definitely a strong guy. It was just moves I made. If you get the proper technique and the right hands, it doesn't matter how strong you are.

Reader Comments

If you have feedback / comments for this article, email me at edweirdosraiders@gmail.com. I may add them to this page.


khanman (2005/05/24): one thing that i might add concerning howie long. the thing that made him so phenomenal as well was his ability to get down real low to the ground and then lift up his arms right into the neck and throat of the blocker thus knocking him off balance and getting around him. i have watched howie many times do this and have studied film on it and he was a marvel to behold. he would even take on a double teams this way to get into the back field. very strong and very powerful arms and arm strength


West Side Pirate, columnist on RaiderNews.com (2005/07/05): This really spells out the skills taught to Defensive Lineman and is accurate stuff. Allow me to add some tid bits you only learn from time in the trenches.

I was fortunate enough to be coached up in these techniques in high school by a good coaching staff and I led my high school team in tackles from Defensive End. That is almost not possible, but let me share some secrets I learned from starting in the trenches. A dominant Defensive End can completely disrupt an Offense because he often only has one man to beat, the Offensive Tackle.

A tactic I used every down was I went head up with my opponent. Every down I went helmet to helmet with my opponent in what is a head butt. I would not be satisfied unless I had some of his helmet's colored paint transfer on my helmet at the end of the game by going helmet to helmet. This was my physical evidence that we called " stick marks" and it proved I got in my opponents grill and a piece of his big A$$. He would not be sleeping well that evening, which was my mission growing up watching Jack Tatum. So what did this accomplish? Only all these objectives in these trench wars:

  1. From the first quarter on I am wearing him down, like a fighter working the body, I am seting him up for a big fourth quarter by wearing him down. ( Most Tackles are not known for their Cardio stamina.
  2. By coming with my head butt I am making my Tackle blink and close his eyes. I am going to beat this guy because as he closes his eyes I am now applying a combination of club, rip and swim moves and he can not even see how I am varying these techniques while defeating his hands; because this poor slob keeps getting smacked and stunned with helmet to helmet pops as he is blinking. His blinking as a result is making it hard to see my various techqniques that keep changing.
  3. Good teams can keep a game close and it can come down to the fourth quarter, by now I got this guy sucking wind and putting his hand on his sides because every shot is taking a little wind out of him like a boxer. O.K., now that head butt he was getting every down, now I feign a fake one man, and his big butt is still blinking while I go for a straight speed rush on his A$$. The quarterback and MVP is mine baby, because I am completely disrupting that Offense and tattooing the Q.B. The coaches' from the other team are yelling " Stop # 59, " but they can't man. The other players are looking at each other and hateing me and the girls, they all want to talk to me after the game and it don't get much better than this.

Yeah for sure those are good techniques, which become great techniques as you get into your opponent to defeat him with consistent hard head butts and contact which make them all work even better. (You don't see this in the NFL anymore as the game and it's players get bigger and bigger and more passive and passive. ) They are fined if they really even hit some one now and they can barely even tackle. They are good athletes yeah, but football players?????

The Raider 2005 season will depend on how well our defensive line brings it. If they do bring it and get to the quarterback, it will be a good year. If they don't, well, it will be another long season.


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Updated: $Date: 2008/04/28 03:38:39 $