The heavy technique is a way to cancel out 2 gaps with one technique. It’s a great addition to teams that base out of 4 down defenses and want to still play 2 high or a light box.
In this article, we’re going to show you what the heavy technique is and how you can fit it into your defense.
Coaching The Heavy Technique
The heavy technique is a great way to cancel out gaps and do more with less. Below, we’ll show you how to coach the heavy technique and implement it into your defense.
Alignment
The base alignment for the heavy technique is when the player’s nose should be aligned with the outside shoulder of the offensive lineman. This can change on the offensive guard or on the offensive tackle, depending on where you are playing the heavy technique.
Rules
From this alignment, the defensive linemen have 2 rules:
1. Face To – If the defensive lineman sees the face of the offensive tackle, they will rip to their inside gap. This is great for inside zone or any runs to the inside, you will immediately have inside gap presence with your defensive linemen.
2. Face Away – If their face goes away, it will be a gap block. That often means a puller is coming to kick them out. Get hands on the OL, close space and spill, box or dent the football.
The alignment when running the heavy technique is key because if they line up to the inside of the offensive lineman, they will be collected in any gap scheme runs. We want to make sure we’re not involved in their rules of “gap, down, backer”.
Examples Of Heavy Technique
Over/Under Front
The most common type of heavy technique is from a 5-technique. Teams can play a heavy 5 technique to close the B gap bubble in over and under fronts.
Teams will often try to attack the B gap bubble with Iso or inside zone blocking schemes. However, the defensive end ripping to the inside once he gets the face of the offensive tackle will immediately close the B gap.
3 & 5 Techniques
The best way to close both B and C gaps is to run what’s often referred to as “Jimmy/Pony”. This requires both a heavy 3 and heavy 5 technique. Both players will close out the A and B gaps when they get the face of the guard and tackle. If they get down blocks, they will surf and spill the football.
Inside our membership vIQtory Pro, you’ll find exact instructions and tutorials on how to turn average defensive linemen into run-stopping and pass-rushing terrors for the offense.
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