Our West Chester Flag Football blogs are to help our coaches and other coaches regarding the game of flag football.
Coaching Tips Practices: Thank you for coaching. Please use the practice time to put in a basic offense and defensive sets. Spend plenty of time practicing different drills to pull flags as it does not matter if everyone is in the right spot, if they don’t pull flags, you simply cannot stop the other team. Have fun, create fun games for flag pulling, if you need help with some drills or anything, let me know. Build on what you worked on and review for the second practice.
Offense: Be sure to put in a couple of plays and explain basic passing routes so the team can react in a huddle for the first game with a play clock ticking down. Depending on the age group, it is usually best to keep things more or less basic and build upon that. Some older groups can catch onto more complex packages early, but basic handoffs, tosses, and passes are a good place to start. Remember, running can be a valuable option over passing at a young age. Be sure to have a play or a set handy to beat a blitz. If a team has a good blitzer, it can make for a nightmare if you are unprepared for it. Make sure QBs know that they can not run when blitzed and have short dumps prepared if he needs help. Short dump patterns will take immense pressure off the QB knowing he has that safety valve.
Defense: As coaches, you will have to decide what defense you will want to play. Will you blitz? How often? Will you play with a safety over the top? Man? Zone? A hybrid? There are many choices. Again, dependent on the age group and the team’s ability to catch on will allow you to be very basic or do more. It is important to teach communication when coaching man-to-man defense. The team will learn they have to be vocal and call out which player they have to be set. You will have the flexibility to put a safety over the top or to blitz when in man coverage. A zone is a great strategy in this league, IF the kids can grasp the concept of staying put, waiting to see what comes to their zone and reacting. This will be especially important with teams that do a lot of misdirection. A 3-2 bubble-zone, or a 2-2-1 are useful in my opinion. In the 2-2-1, the one over the top can operate as a safety or a blitzer. Please remember that only one player may rush and he must rush from the referees marked spot 7-yards away from the football and line of scrimmage). If you have any rules or tactical questions, don't be shy about reaching out.
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