5 man mechanics

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by Mike L

And until now, I don't think I've heard anyone, anywhere think "working back to the ball" is a good way to go.

It's a good way to go...if you want to get tangled in the middle of the play on your sideline.

[JRutledge]

[QUOTE=parepat;690295]

Originally Posted by parepat

I think I disagree with most of the posts here. Assuming both are the official and a player can run a 6 second forty they can cover 10 yards in a second and a half. Thus, if an official is 20 yards ahead of a play and needs to come back the play. He can get within 10 yards of the runner within 3/4ths of a second. However, once a player is beyond you, you will never get closer to the play. One a 50 yard play it is unlikely that you will be able to see a close out of bounds play.

The Back Judge has the goal line, not the wing in that case. All you have is the sideline and if the player steps out of bounds you should be able to see that fact. The Back Judge is closer to the play and expected to. But then again most plays are not 50 yards in the air. They are often 10 or 15 yards ahead at most.

And I have seen an example in our state finals where an official tried to get ahead of the play and was on top of a play near the sideline when the player caught a pass about 10 yards beyond the LOS and then ended up running into the official and the player had to be carried off because of a neck injury by the way he ran into the official on the sideline.

Originally Posted by parepat

THus, I believe that by moving down field, the official has a better opportunity to be in good position for more plays. Therefore, I would have my wings head down 15 yards if not threatened and work back to the ball.

Closer is not better. It never is. To see a catch you might need to have a wider perspective to see the entire play anyway. If that was the case then the Back Judge would want to be right next to the receiver at all times. But that would mean you would be more worried about not getting involved in the play instead of trying to cover the play properly. And also using your logic, you are not going to stay with the players even if you are there next to them. They will beat you down the field anyway. So why be right next to them in the first place. No one said not to move once the pass is made. But you can wait until the ball is thrown. It is not going to hurt you.

You have a right to disagree, but I have seen on tape many plays where officials are right in the middle of plays and clearly miss the catch, no catch or they get hurt because when the player gets knocked out of bounds they have nowhere to go as the players fall at their feet. And then again they miss a spot or they get run over by others running at that player.

Peace

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by parepat

I think I disagree with most of the posts here. Assuming both are the official and a player can run a 6 second forty they can cover 10 yards in a second and a half. Thus, if an official is 20 yards ahead of a play and needs to come back the play. He can get within 10 yards of the runner within 3/4ths of a second. However, once a player is beyond you, you will never get closer to the play. One a 50 yard play it is unlikely that you will be able to see a close out of bounds play. THus, I believe that by moving down field, the official has a better opportunity to be in good position for more plays. Therefore, I would have my wings head down 15 yards if not threatened and work back to the ball.

Two things for you - 1) if you disagree with MOST of the people here on a mechanic, there's probably a reason, and if I were in your shoes I'd wonder why I was doing it wrong. 2) what you suggest is a fantastic way to get caught up in the middle of a sweep, screen, or rollout, and have NO view of the play. A mechanic created so that you have a better view on a 50-yard play at the expense of a worse view on most shorter plays is going to hinder you more often than it helps. The wing does not ever want to be AHEAD of the action (at least not with 5 or greater man mechanics)

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

The wing does not ever want to be AHEAD of the action (at least not with 5 or greater man mechanics)

Wings are not supposed to be ahead of the play in even 6 or 7 man mechanics. They follow the play and they have forward progress all the way to near the goal line in most cases (depending on the location of the LOS and goal line). So what he suggests is not even done at the college or NFL levels with 1 or 2 more official on the field.

Peace

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Wings are not supposed to be ahead of the play in even 6 or 7 man mechanics. They follow the play and they have forward progress all the way to near the goal line in most cases (depending on the location of the LOS and goal line). So what he suggests is not even done at the college or NFL levels with 1 or 2 more official on the field.

Peace

Thanks for the help there... but I'm pretty sure that both the number 6 and the number 7 are "greater than 5".

[With_Two_Flakes]

Gotta disagree with parepat's reasoning.

Most of the times I got into trouble back in the day was being ahead and working back "against the grain". Ditto most of the times guys I've assessed have got into trouble is when they have been ahead and working back to the ball.

[Rich]

I'm a big fan of Matt Sumstine's Aloha Clinic videos. He's the one who really got me thinking about a lot of what we put into our game the past few seasons, including the mechanics we're talking about in this thread -- working with a 10-15 yard cushion behind the ball carrier as a wing, using cross-field mechanics, etc.

The one thing that's "controversial" that I'm a really big fan of is his recommendation of putting 3 (of the 5) officials across the goal line on a free kick instead of the usual 30, 20, G configuration. I was watching his video describing this (and apparently this *is* the state mechanic in places, Arizona being one of them) and the *next day* we had a scrimmage where a kickoff went out of bounds near the goal line on the L's side and there were two officials completely looking away from the 22 players on the field. Time to consider changing things a bit, I think.

It really is easy to start three officials at the goal line as long as the kicks are reasonably deep (to the 20, which they are in most JV/Varsity games) and then all the officials can look through the runner to pick up illegal blocks and the like. Any kick that comes back beyond the 35 can be picked up by the LJ and the BJ and anything that's deep, well, that's covered by the 3 officials just like we would on a scrimmage play.

How many of you (as L) start on the 30 and feel like everything just flashes by you as the kick goes past you?