Pass Protection Punch Drill: Hand Placement and Timing
Updated · Fact checked
Your feet get you in front of the rusher. Your hands are what actually stop them. The punch is a short, sharp strike to the rusher's chest that slows them down long enough for the quarterback to throw, then the hands come back ready to strike again.
This drill trains the timing on a bag first, so you learn to strike when the rusher reaches you, not before. The demo is from a drill series presented by USA Football and the Green Bay Packers.
How to do it
Set up
Take a pass set stance in front of the bag: heel to toe stagger, knees bent, head up, hands up and close to the chest.
Wait for it
Let the partner push the bag toward you. Don't reach for it; strike when it arrives.
Punch
Strike inside the edges of the bag with both hands, thumbs up and hands tight, without dropping your head.
Reset
Get the hands back up, give a short step of ground if needed, and punch again on the next push.
- Sets and reps
- 3 sets of 5 punches, 30 seconds rest.
- Equipment
- A hand shield, heavy bag or punching bag, A partner to hold the bag, A sandbag or medicine ball (optional, for punch throws)
- Muscles and skills
- Chest, Triceps
- Used in these 440 plans
- Offensive Line
Coaching cues and common mistakes
Coaching cues
- Strong stance, eyes on the rusher's chest
- Thumbs up, strike inside the numbers
- Reset the hands quickly
Common mistakes
- Lunging and dropping the head
- Wide hands
Where the hands go
Keep your hands close before the punch so they land inside the rusher's shoulders. Wide hands are one of the mistakes 440 calls out on this drill; some line coaches even loop a band around the wrists during punch drills to keep the hands tight and inside the opponent's frame. Strike with your thumbs up, from a bent-knee stance.
Don't lunge. Lunging and dropping the head are the other mistakes 440 calls out. Greg Colby's pass blocking teaching warns against bending at the waist with your chest tipped toward the ground, because it wrecks your balance. Keep your head up and let the arms do the striking. Arkansas line coach Christopher Browne coaches a violent punch from the chest and triceps, with the hands kept up after every strike.
Punch, give, punch again
A pass block is not one hit. In Greg Colby's teaching, the blocker gives a little ground after each punch to get balanced again, then punches again when the rusher comes back. That rhythm is what you train here, along with resetting your hands quickly. Rick Trickett's double-punch drill adds a second bag holder who comes late from the inside, so you punch one and then the other.
440 pairs this drill with the kick slide drill, so the punch lands on the right step of the set. The full plan is on the offensive line training page.
FAQ
Where should an offensive lineman punch in pass protection?
Aim at the rusher's chest, with your hands close together so they land inside the shoulders, thumbs up and elbows in. Keep the shoulders back as you strike so you don't lunge after the rusher.
Should you lock your arms out after the punch?
Coaches differ. Former Pro Bowl lineman LeCharles Bentley teaches a slight bend at the elbow rather than fully locked arms against a bull rush, because arms pushed far from the body take your center of mass with them. Christopher Browne's three-punch drill at Arkansas finishes the third strike by anchoring and locking out the hands to create space. Either way, strike and get the hands back up.
More offensive line drills
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Build my position planSources
- Three powerful blocks to stop the opponent (excerpt from Football: Steps to Success by Greg Colby), Human Kinetics
- Offensive Line Goal Post with Rubber Tubing Punch Drill (Glazier Football, August 3, 2021), Glazier Clinics
- Skills & Drills | Christopher Browne, Arkansas | OL Drills (April 11, 2025), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA)
- Pass protection drills (excerpt from Complete Offensive Line by Rick Trickett), Human Kinetics
- Three ways to handle the bull rush (LeCharles Bentley, 3/24/2016), USA Football
- Green Bay Packers punch, punch run by drill: Offensive line (YouTube description, uploaded 2015-08-12), USA Football (YouTube)
Program numbers (benchmarks, sets, reps, loads, protein targets) are 440 Football's own prescriptions. For athletes 13 and older; check with a physician or a registered dietitian before major training or diet changes.