What's the best way to "call in" the plays during a little league football game ?

Question

I am coaching an 11 & 12 yr old little league football team. I am needing suggestions on ways to call the play to the QB to call it in the huddle. Right now, I have 2 ideas. # 1 - Myself and the QB have those wristband playbooks,and have each play numbered,and after each play,have him come close to the sideline where he can hear me call what number play to run. I would send in 2 plays at a time, so we would half way be running a "no huddle". We would only be huddling every other play. My second idea would be to send the plays in with my tight ends. I would give two plays to the tight end,he would tell the QB, they would run the 2 plays,and then I would send my back-up tight end to go get the starter out,and he would give the QB the next 2 plays.

Answer 1

my teams have always used the switch in/out w/ wrs, but as long as your qb is competent the wrist coach is a much better idea

Answer 2

I coach HS football and won't do the 2 plays at a time. The kids need to be focused on the play right now. There have been situations at the end of games where I didn't have a timeout and called 2 plays in the huddle, but it was after our last timeout and I was in the huddle.

You've given them 35 plays, but how many do they "really know". 35 plays in 3 days is tough for a high school team to learn.

My preference is always to have the QB come to me directly and get the plays every play.

I've never coached any team younger than freshman in HS. We run a version of the Wing, with a million formations and motions but only a handful of plays.

I only like the wristbands in the spread offenses....

Answer 3

i think your first idea is good except for the idea of giving two plays at a time. 2 plays always confuses my team. i played a football game today and our quarterback takes plays from the coach with the numbers one at a time and it works out great. i would definitely use the wristband idea. hope this helps =]

Answer 4

First, I would have a game plan with no more than 7 plays.   Let the manager flash a number between 1 to 7 to signal the play.    

Answer 5

My one season I coached I ran what is known as the Deleware T.

Everybody thought that this was too complicated of a systen for 11 and 12 yr olds to learn, not alone for a program that was struggling for years with terrible record. The Deleware T, REQUIRES zone blocking scheme for the offensive line men, kids arent dumb, treat them like such, they'll behave like such, I simply took the terminology of each play, include which hole to which back using the numberering system then used names of different types of preditor type animals mostly cats

to tell the offensive line which zone blocking scheme to run, example

3-4 defense, I would call a 22 tiger.

Didnt do the no huddle though, team won 7 of 8 regular seasons games, losing in the semi-finals to the team that beat us earlier in the season in fact, they had our number, but it beats what they normally do which was win an average of 2 or 3 wins a yr, when I told those kids I wouldnt be back next year, they cried , it broke my heart

tears rolled out of my eyes too, but my new job required that I relocated. I would use more than your tightends, Im hopeing you have other tailbacks and running backs, this way you might increase your plays to three at a time, send in your normal tight ends for the two consecutive calls then another running back for the third consecutive play, wouldnt go to far from that, even though Im a firm believer kids arent that dumb, they are still kids after all, and dont want them out haveing to think too much,that could take away the things they have about each one that simply cant be coached, but over coaching them can. Good luck to you.  My offense had

approximately 40 plays, actually we ran a very basic version of the Deleware T, I went with this because their local highschool coach just hired a year earlier installed the Deleware T for his highschool, man was he pleased about that. Also the coaches and I would script about 10 plays each game, we simply run through those 10 plays to give us an idea as to which area our running game and which zone blocking scheme works the best , you know, take what they

give us. You see my center had 4 addintional plays to call

himself. Numbered 1 thru 4. On that 22 tiger , the line knows

tiger is basically a trap block with some pulling to take away the outside linebackers from the middle. If he see's that the

d-fense linebackers are pulling in or the saftey running up to assist he simple calls out 4, all he has to say. Yell 4, then offensive linemen now knows that the zone blocking schemeis the tiger, but with a twist, within that tiger zone blocking our tackles now take on the linebacker, the center pulls or traps the other linbacker, and the other guard pulls

to take out the other linebacker giving my running back that lane with a guard leading the way to pummel that saftey, the other tackles now do a misdirection to pull the other linebacker away from the middle giving my back a nice running lane. Todays spread is basically the old wishbone,

mainly types of blocking, inserted with the Deleware T, along with the type of blocking scheme but include more of zone blocking scheme ( this makes or breaks the spread one that want to run succesfully), along with the 2 man Pump,  locations of the back or backs in the spread, with the run and shoot mainly, no tightend formation along with slot and reciever formation location of course the qb in shotgun all

combined. This is why its so difficult for the d-fense to stop .

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