Defensive Play Installation
Just like when teaching a new offensive playbook, installing defensive plays with a group of young flag football players presents the coach with several unique challenges.
- Different kids have different attention spans.
- Football knowledge varies wildly from player to player.
- Assistant Coaches may or may not be available to help.
- Knowing how much new info is too much new info.
- Limited practice reps makes time management crucial.
Keeping defense simple and installing complications gradually to your 5v5 defensive scheme needs to be a natural progression. One concept translates to another which feeds into the next and so on.
Flag football is a fast-paced, often high scoring sport. You aren’t going to shut many teams out, so the goal isn’t perfection, it’s damage control. Teams that focus on limiting big plays tend to perform better than those that try to play lockdown coverage across the board. This simple install process follows the same framework as our offensive install which gets your players up to speed and playing with confidence quickly.
We call these install best practices Chalk, Walk, Run, Repeat.
Step 1: Chalk Talk – Your classroom on the field.
Give your players the “Why” of your defensive system before every new play introduction. You need them to believe in the play itself and how it fits the overall system to be successful.
We remind our kids that if the offense can’t score, they can’t win. Then we repeat the three main goals of our defense.
We limit big plays. We force mistakes. We do our job.
- Introduce the play you’re installing using a printed play diagram, iPad, or whiteboard (my personal favorite).
- Tell them the play name and why it’s called that to help with retention.
- Explain the purpose of the play on it’s own. How it’s used, what it stops, etc.
- Diagram or show a printout of the defensive alignment and assignments
- Draw up different possible blitz combinations (if applicable)
- Check for understanding throughout by asking confirming questions.
Step 2: Walk the Walk – Take it slow at first.
- Jog the play without an offense to ensure proper zone coverage and spacing. Make sure each player gets multiple reps on air.
- Jog the play against basic offensive route concepts to make sure everyone can execute against an opponent. Emphasize the importance of not getting beat deep (Safeties) or outside (CBs).
- Example: Defensive reps against multiple deep threats, crossing routes, flooded zones, and/or quick passes.
- If you don’t have enough players for a full 5v5, supplement with coaches on the offense to allow defenders to practice passing off routes between zones.
- Make sure everyone is communicating as the play develops.
- “Deep! Deep! Deep!”
- “Cross! Cross! Cross!”
- “Run! Run! Run!”
- When everyone plays assignment sound football (defending their zones and using umbrella tackling rules) move on to full speed.
Step 3: Run it Full Speed – Rep it at game speed.
- Repeat the last step of walkthroughs but this time go full speed.
- If you notice a persistent issue, back up and repeat Chalk or Walk to make the teaching stickier. It is better to move slow at first and eventually get it right than to run everything haphazardly all season long because the coach was in a rush.
Step 4: Repeat the Process – Teach the next defense.
For best results. Use our practice planning tools to maximize your teaching time and get your players ready to perform as quickly as possible.