Basics Of The 3-5-3 Defense

The 3-5-3 Defense gives you a very powerful defensive scheme. Offering you 4 different defensive fronts you will find it effective against any offense you face, whether it's the Triple Option or the very popular Spread Offense.

In the first two seasons the Georgia Military College switched to the 3-5-3 Defense, they had tremendous success, producing 8 All-American Defensive players and playing in two NJCAA national title games.

In 2001, Georgia Military had a prefect season, producing the Defensive Player of the Year. While winning the NJCAA Championship, they held their opponents to a NJCAA record setting 61.7 yards per game.

In this article we will discuss the first front: Basics Of 3-5-3 Defense.

We will start with the alignments and position names.

.........................End...............Nose Guard...............End

...Corner.............................................................................Corner

.........................Left Dawg........................................Right Dawg

.........................Left Bat..............Mike................Left Bat

..................................................Free Safety

The diagram above is the 3-5-3 Defense alignment in The Basic Front, featuring 3 down rushers.

1. The Nose Guard lines up square with the center, either hand is down.

2. Ends line up square with the tackles, inside hand down, keeping the outside arm free.

3. The Dawgs (safeties) line up 3x3 behind the ends.

4. The Bats (linebackers) line up behind the ends, 5 yards deep, with their noses off the ends outside hip.

5. The Mike Backer lines up 5 yards deep directly behind the Nose Guard.

6. The Free Safety lines up about 10 back behind the Nose Guard.

Disguising the Point of Attack

The 3-5-3 Defense requires a lot of movement. Disguising the point of attack begins with your player alignment.

Your 2 ends are lined up directly in-front of the tackles and the Nose Guard over the center. This prevents the quarterback from getting a read if your point of attack is a straight ahead, strong side or weak side rush.

Have your ends place the inside hand as the down hand. You want the outside hand free whether he is going inside or out.

Ends using the same down hand every play prevents the tackles from reading your angle of attack.

Having the Mike, Dawgs and Bats lining up behind the ends and Nose Guard prevents the quarterback from reading your defensive back strategies.

The Basic 3-5-3 Defense gives you 4 different defensive fronts and alignments you can use to attack the offense and keep them on their heels.

Each of the four fronts and alignments gives you the ability to do zone or man to man coverage. You can run a cover 1 or a cover 3 defensive schemes, run stunts and blitzes.

The Four Fronts of the Basic 3_5-3 Defense:

1. The Basic Front

2. The Solid Front

3. The Under Front

4. The Tough Front

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