Installing An Offense

[ACoach 0]

Coaches,

I wanted to learn what steps or tips that you do when you install your offensive plays. For example, do you run the whole play on Air for a bit and/or break assignments into components and go over them? Or do you immediately go to live play and tweak as you go? Thanks for any insights, etc.

ACoach

[rushbuster70 16]

how old are the kids your coaching?

[ACoach 0]

how old are the kids your coaching?

Coach,

I am coaching an 8-9 yr old team. We play 6v6. I also help coach a 6-7 yr old team as well. We play 5v5 (sometimes 6v6) with this age group.

ACoach

[Coach Rob 26]

My mistake early on was creating/adding too many plays. I'd read something on this forum or watch a vid thinking that if I just added that one play to my arsenal it would make all the difference. I was looking like Shanahan with the pretend headset and covering my mouth so the TV cameras wouldn't pick up my call. The teams that do better are the ones who have a handful of plays and execute them well. Just throwing that out there for what it's worth.

I like breaking plays down into key components when teaching the kids. If your plays have similar components they will be easier to learn, making them too complex adds more components to learn. Our kids know what a fake handoff should look like and the QB knows what a fake is supposed to look like. They also know the basic routes.

The other key is emphasizing the fundamentals over and over. Running north/south, not looking down to see if flag was pulled, looking the ball into your hands, don't stop running until your hear the whistle, etc. We emphasize that at every practice, A LOT. You can have the coolest plays and just like the pros, they don't work unless you execute the fundamentals.

[yurirdgz 1]

I work running and passing differently.

Run: I work key players first during pre-season, QB & RB and faking player if involved, I even work with them on different session practice than the rest of the guys, I like doing this because I can concentrate on trying different stuff and things I even like to get a lot of feedback on how they feel with the play, sometimes they even give me better ideas that the original one I thought about, another great thing is that I can custom the play to the Qb/Hb style, for instance last year end around play my Qb was doing really good counter toss faking first to the HB, that same play doesn’t work the same with this year Qb since she does not execute tossing so good, so on these sessions we costumed the play to her style, so it’s the same play but she is dive faking with the Hb. After nailed down we set up the whole thing with the rest of the O.

Pass: It´s a different story, I just draw the play on chalkboard and then execute it on the fly.

Now the most important thing I just recently discovered thanks to this forum is that execution has to be really good, I was struggling with this but just found a workaround. I´m not allowed inside the field during game so in my practices I was calling the plays outside the huddle to simulate game day, I was really struggling, from a month or so I’m practicing inside the huddle and letting the guys look at the play and execution has become much better. On game day I´m sending inside the field with the Qb small laminated cards with the play so they take a quick glance at it, this has been really refreshing to my offense execution.

[jqmoney 3]

We are using wrist bands this season we only have 6 plays that run to the right or the left i have every player on my team do every route we would have ran every route 50 times before we put the entire offense together

[Johnp2 21]

We have two techniques when introducing new plays (and trust me, we have a lot of plays). I know I am in the vast minority here, but we go into each season with the ability to run 30-40 unique plays. Now, we might only call 15 unique plays in a game--but we are all about adding new plays to our playbook and scrapping plays that don't work. Of course--please understand that I've had the same players for 5+ seasons now (and most of them for 8+ seasons)--so it is a HUGE advantage for me as you would be impressed with how the kids are able to remember plays from season to season. Additionally, we can practice as much as we like, and sometimes have 3-4 practices per week. If I had to take on all new players--I'd probably go with 15 plays for the season.

1. First we "learn" the play. I have the players line up--WITHOUT a defense--and we walk through the play. The reason we do it without a defense is because I'm walking the players through the play--the defense will hear it and it's hard to stop kids this age from going right to where they know the play is going, which affects the offense's confidence in the play. Second, it's a distraction for the offense. While "learning" the play--we walk through it enough times to where they can implement it with zero mistakes. This usually takes about five times.

2. After we have "learned" the play--we call the defense over and execute it. Assuming the defense was with an assistant, we go right to that play. If the defense was watching us learn the play--I'll call it in the huddle a few plays later. Regardless, the intent here is to fine-tune the play. I'd say we do this 99% of the time. Sometimes it's simple adjustments to the formations, and sometimes it's having the QB pump fake in the other direction, etc.

The most important thing about all of this--in my opinion--is knowing when to scrap a play. We've had plays that we worked our tail off in practice--but it simply was not effective in the game. Even if we spent half a practice learning a new play--if it does not work after two attempts in a game--I scrap it from the playbook altogether.

I've seen coaches way too often get stubborn with their plays because it looked so good on paper they "know one of these times it will work." I've never been able to understand that. It's okay to have home-run type plays to simply keep the defense honest, but the intent of those low-percentage plays (IMO) is to do just that--so we use them sparingly.

[Coach Rob 26]

We are using wrist bands this season we only have 6 plays that run to the right or the left i have every player on my team do every route we would have ran every route 50 times before we put the entire offense together

Another good point, I like running different options off the same formation, especially in the younger divisions.

We have two techniques when introducing new plays (and trust me, we have a lot of plays). I know I am in the vast minority here, but we go into each season with the ability to run 30-40 unique plays.

I base my "have a handful of plays" on the assumption that most coaches are faced with a one hour practice per week. If a coach has the ability to practice longer and more often, having more plays would definitely be a viable option. Johnp has done an amazing job at incorporating a lot of plays and teaching his players how to execute them.