Need Help With Basic Plays

[lonestardiablo 1]

I am new to coaching flag football and have a group of kids that have not played before. We are competing against some teams that are very experienced in flag and full contact football and got ripped this past weekend. The plays I have drawn up seem to be effective (execution is poor) against teams that do not stay home on defense, but the team we played last was very disciplined with their responsibilities and it resulted in very few positive plays. Misdirection plays didn't work, reverses didn't work, dives didn't work, and passes were intercepted repeatedly.

I have devised an armband system by which each offensive position has a unique color. The plays are drawn on flash cards (each position color coded) and each player looks at the play and follows the movement. I tried tomake this simple, but it seems that even with this they get confused with where to line up and what to do.

I would appreciate any suggestions on the following:

Plays that work against a disciplined zone defense.

Drills that help with running routes, understanding defensive responsibilities (staying home)

Anything that is helpful for kids with no expereince.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

[yurirdgz 1]

I faced the same problem the past seasons where we faced very well trained teams with experienced players and coaches. I also tried misdirection plays, reverses, options and all sort of stuff that didn’t work because off D aggressiveness.

By half season I found the way to move the ball and finally got the wins, What I mostly did on running is really fast direct hand offs, pass faking with delayed hand off to the RB and counter faking and delivering to the opposite side.

I´ll describe two or three plays for you specially designed for 10&11 yr kids facing 2-1-2 D:

1) Direct fast hand off to the RB in between the CB´s & middle defender (LB or NT), I kind of call it an Off Tackle running play, there is huge gap in between these defenders on a 2-1-2 so I mainly attacked this gap, it a strange play because Qb actually has to run a couple of yards parallel to the LOS and hand off to the RB (Qb hands the ball half a yard away from LOS). You can run it either side and after they are all mad about & have tighten their CB´s you can add the reverse, this reverse is really special because Qb is the one running to the WR (who starts on a delay) and not the other way around, you can ad the fake reverse and fake hand off then pass to the sideline guy.

2) Back drop your Qb with pass intentions, send your WR´s on deep and then after 3 secs Qb suddenly turns around and hands off to the RB who is just sitting there waiting for the ball, I called this a delayed dive. I love this play but before using it you have to show passing capabilities, it works great because D picks receivers up but forget about the delayed singleback.

3) Counter fake the dive with your HB & deliver the opposite side with you WR´s on reverse, or do the other way around, counter fake the reverse with the WR´s & deliver off tackle to the HB. This second one is awesome play, it’s like the first play I described for you but Qb stars on counter faking and then runs the like 5 yards to the off tackle Hb who started on 2 secs delay.

4) On the passing side fast passes on drags rest of the guys overload opposite side. Or Go rout on one guy and rest of the guys on short patterns. But the really killer on passing was I always used my singleback formation even on passes, so HB always started his rout on delay after backdrop, so D picks up the receivers and forget about HB which always ended up uncovered on short escape patterns.

I leave you a couple of these play progresions to one side.

sample plays.pdf

[ACoach 0]

Coach,

I feel your pain and frustration. We have been the door mat of our league this season and are now 0-6. We are playing against teams that have been together for at least 1-3 years. Our team was a grab bag of whoever wanted to practice on Mon. nights, with many not having any experience in flag football, and me agreeing to coach after the original coach bailed right before the season started. We have a wide range of talents from good to mediocre to challenged. I believe we are finally gelling together, and am actually looking forward to the next two games.

In our last game this past Sat., we finally made a D-stop to get the ball back after failing to make one in the past two games, and on O we scored three TDs and all the PATs. This after two games in which we only scored 1 TD. As my Asst. Coach says, our talent is about the same as everyone else, but our execution has been horrible, plus many of our miscues on O come on ill-advised high slow arcing passes ripe for the picking back to the house. And we cant seem to make a tackle if our life depends on it. It got so comical in some cases, as the Ref blew the whistle believing that the tackle had been made, but in fact there was no tackle. The flags were just slipping out of our kids hands. So basically our team has been hapless on D and O, neither side of the ball helping the other get going.

On O this past week, we made adjustments by only throwing on wheel routes to our RB, or on quick hit passes to WRs. We had good success in telling the QB to keep looking one way, and then reverse back to throw to either the RB or the WR. We scored one of our best TDs, as well as any that I had seen this season, when we did that and flooded one area with QB looking that way the whole time, then pump-fake, and then reverse pivoting to the opposite side to throw to our wide open WR, who was advised on seeing the pump-fake to cut back the opposite way, and with a laser throw and just a slight stumble with no real loss of momentum the WR scored a TD. A very nice play.

So, in your situation, I like what yurirdgz adivses, and will also take that advice for this weeks game for myself, and would recommend training your QB to keep eyes focused one way to develop the pass play, employ pump fakes, and then zip it to opposite side of the field. As I have heard in other cases, but havent developed myself, is that if the D does one thing--in this case stay home, then there's got to be another avenue of attack--in this case got to hit the gaps as yurirdgz suggests. Also, work on screen/pick blocking assignments. If the D wont move, then try to set the blocks that open the gaps up for the RB to run. Good luck.

ACoach

[Orange 26]

On O this past week, we made adjustments by only throwing on wheel routes to our RB, or on quick hit passes to WRs. We had good success in telling the QB to keep looking one way, and then reverse back to throw to either the RB or the WR. We scored one of our best TDs, as well as any that I had seen this season, when we did that and flooded one area with QB looking that way the whole time, then pump-fake, and then reverse pivoting to the opposite side to throw to our wide open WR, who was advised on seeing the pump-fake to cut back the opposite way, and with a laser throw and just a slight stumble with no real loss of momentum the WR scored a TD. A very nice play.

This is what I strongly recommend. During my first season as coach of a flag team I sat in a coaches meeting looking through the rulebook. The one thing that struck me most vividly was the fact that each team started their possession on their own 5 yard line OR in the case of an interception, wherever the ball was advanced. At that point and for every season going forward I designed my offense to avoid interceptions. We use something more akin to a west coast offense. Or as one opposing coach said, "you guys dink and dunk the ball all the way down the field." My basic offensive philosophy is that we should place the balls into the hands of our kids and make the defense pull flags. We only throw downfield when we get the defense cheating up to stop our attack and to keep them honest. And don't forget to run the ball, that accomplishes the same thing, places the defense in a position where they have to pull flags. I don't care what level of play, defenses miss flags. The more shots you have of going downfield, the more chances the defense will miss.

Edit: Let me add a note. Using a west coast style like I did takes discipline. You will go through series where you only move the ball a few yards. Don't get into the mindset of this isn't working, let's throw it long. You have to keep hammering away and eventually break off a long play. Facing 4th and long where most coaches would throw long, I'll run a drag or wheel and hope to bust a bunch of yards after the catch. Be patient and rely on your defense.

[Orange 26]

Last year we ran into a team that utilized a very different offense to a certain amount of success. In my opinion they had average athletes but their style was so unusual they ended up beating most teams. We played them the final regular season game and barely won. Then in the playoffs we had them figured out and blew them out.

They did two things that I liked.

1) They liked a delayed drag over the middle behind the rusher. This was an effective very short pass with little chance of interception. It would hit a speedy kid around the los after the defense got all stretch out.

2) They used picks better than anyone I'd seen. And not just the usual flood play picks, actual in your face picks: Here is an example: Trips right. Ball is snapped and two of the receivers go forward and form a little wall directly in front of the defender. The pass is immediately thrown to the third receiver behind the wall. The receiver then goes left or right around the pick if the defender made a move or he might stutter step one way and go the other. It happened fast and was pretty decent. Their better play was a three man pick they'd run right over the middle. They'd line up two receivers on either side of the center and the last receiver would come in motion and set up to the right of them. At the snap they'd all go forward and form a little wall in front of the middle close defender. The right receiver would drag behind the wall and catch it and go flying around the side.

[Coach Rob 26]

What age group are you coaching?

I am new to coaching flag football and have a group of kids that have not played before. We are competing against some teams that are very experienced in flag and full contact football

First off, good on you for taking this team of inexperienced kids. It's easy to coach kids who have loads of talent or experience. Keep this in mind as you go along, don't get too wrapped up in the W's and L's, focus on the improvement of individual kids and your team as a whole.

Offensive plays: I'd only go with a handful of plays with variations off the same formations. I'm more in the camp of making sure the kids can execute a handful of plays really well rather than having tons of plays.

Listen to Orange, that is solid advice. Throwing it long with a group of inexperienced kids is asking for multiple interceptions. Playing a bit more conservative and crunching out the yards is the route I'd go.

Fakes - I like the pump fakes and looking one direction, then firing back to other that AC talked about. Also, teaching your kids to be very good at executing fake handoffs will help (rolling their shoulders and not looking back at the QB). I'd stress the importance of fakes, go over it in practice and let them get it down. Use your best "fakers" on play action or misdirection plays. Set up those plays with handoffs first, watch what the other team does.

Flag pulling - No real secrets here other than looking at belly button area, scraping not using a bullfighter approach, and swarming. Using drills like the Gauntlet and Sharks/Minnows will help. Practice, practice, and more practice on flag pulls. Reward them in games for most pulls or X amount of pulls as a group. Maybe add one of your better players as the roaming safety to help against long runs.

Rusher - If your league allows a rusher, teach them to pursue the QB forcing them to their weakside. No overpursuing.