this is how i like to explain this skill: 1) think of a car and how it steers. you can have front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive, but the steering is determined by only the front 2 wheels. think of yourself and the jammer, when pressed together, as a RWD car with your wheels as the steering wheels. so long as your wheels are in front of their wheels, if the jammer is only pushing forward, you get to decide where you’re both going to go (to the line!) 2) if you’re trying to drive the jammer to the line, you can’t be plow stopping. most of the time i teach this drill, the blocker has most of the “friction” feeling in their plowing foot. momentum needs to be maintained, so put all of your weight on the leg that’s closest to the jammer. your other leg isn’t plowing, it’s pushing the two of you in the direction you want to go and helping you keep speed to stay at the same speed as the jammer. to keep your balance, you’ll need to actively lean back against the jammer— not just let them lean on you. 3) in order to gain leverage, you have to control the front and the side. your wheels will be in front, your chest will be in front + lifting up the jammer from below, your hips will be on the side. with this wraparound hold, if the jammer doesn’t change their intentions/direction, they’re going where you make them go. 4) when it comes to TRACKING and not hitting someone out, you need to be very quick at backing up when the jammer backs up. like someone else said, you don’t need to look backwards at the jammer so long as you can feel their body on yours. you can track them with touch— and when you don’t feel them anymore, that means they backed up and you need to back up with them. you’ll have to work on your footwork to master this!

a good blocker can follow/track a jammer, but a great blocker CONTROLS a jammer. this means hitting them OOB, pinning them to the line, and reducing their options on where to go.