I have had a few questions since Coaching Football’s 4-2-5 Defense eBook came out about the proper way to wrong arm a trap block. I have talked about this before, but wanted to add a little video to illustrate the idea.
The wrong arm is the most effective way to defend against trap blocks. The defensive linemen are bending down the line of scrimmage when they are unblocked, rather than getting up field and getting kicked out by an on-coming trap blocker.
The wrong arm refers to taking the defender’s outside arm and ripping through the upfield shoulder of the trap blocker or kick-out (if it is a fullback).
That will turn the body of the blocker, and the defender. The defender is now in the hole, right where the ball is intended to be run – right off the butt of the kick-out block.
While these are not the greatest examples, they give the idea.
In one clip, the back tries to run his course and is tackled for a short gain because there is no hole.
In two clips, we get a great wrong arm from the defensive end or Sam linebacker but either a missed tackle or blown contain assignment – defense is a collection of parts, not individual players!
Finally we get a shot of a Defensive End who bends sharply, somewhat whiffs on the wrong-arm, but manages to (barely) make the tackle when the back studder steps.
In these clips we were running a 4-3 Defense, but wrong-arming is a necessary technique in most defenses today. The old way of defeating a trap block was to squeeze the trapper, attacking with your inside shoulder and closing down the gap.
It isn’t wrong, but when you want to use smaller, quicker defensive linemen, they will have a tendency to get kicked out by larger offensive linemen with that technique.
