Call it

We run an OddStack defence. 3 Linemen, 3 'backers, 2 Hybrids, 2 Corners and 1 Safety. For us its all about a 6 man box and being Gap sound and creating Pressure with 4 players.

Given that we have 3 down linemen this allows us to send another Player from the second level to create the 4th Rusher.

This is the large benefit to the OddStack that I prefer over Even Front Defences, the Offence has a difficult time reading where that 4th rusher is coming from; the second benefit is that I can create different fronts by implementing Games with the DL and sending pressure.

Although we will align 4-0-4 on 1st and 2nd level every down as a Base, we can go to Over, Under, Eagle, Bear etc by Playcalling the required combination of Formation, Game and Pressure.

In our league clarity is often overlooked for complexity and latent aggression. In our Defence I have made an attempt to keep the Playcalling to a minimum and to keep it quick. At our level of Football this gives us that Edge regarding execution. The question is:

"How do you communicate the Play?"

There are many ways to communicate plays and in my opinion none of them are bad. This is the system that I have found to give me the most flexibility and also be the most intuitive for the Playcaller. My Playcalling system has been dynamic over the years and is now made up of a 4 Digit sequence.

1. Formation (Numeric)
2. Game (Numeric)
   
3. Pressure (Alphabetic)
   
4. Coverage (Numeric - not in order)

Keeping the Numeric system limits me to what I can put on the Wristcoach. This ensures that I am minimising time for the Playcaller to look through his matrix and find the Calls. All numeric calls start with 0 and ascend.

This doesnt work for Pressure though. I have a total of 24 Pressure calls, from 0 pressure, Dogs, Combos and Sell-out Blitzes. Pressure starts with A and ascends.

In order to streamline the thinking process of the players I have used a system that was shown to me by a previous DC.

For each Dog we simply use positional names to represent a blitz. For Combos we use the two letters for the involved positions. For Sell-Out pressures we have individual names.

For example, take the following Combo Blitz:


We use both the M and W to create the name for this pressure. We call this WaM, we can tag this with a Cross call to switch the assignment of both 'backers. The name of the tag is not important but the sound of the tag is. The required sounds need to be pronounced within the tag itself to make them easily distinguishable. It is for this reason that every Position has its own name. Another example that highlights this is SySTem. The Sam and Stud are the Pressure for this tag.

For all Combo Pressures that are coming from adjacent Alignments we can Cross the pressure by using the Alphabetic code. This holds true for Linebacker and Hybrid pressures.

This may sound like alot at first glance. However, we install the WristCoach very early in the Pre-Season and use this every practice. The WristCoach rarely changes during the Season, we do not add or remove entries unless we have made alterations to our Game Strategy that is not supportet by our WristCoach. So by the time the Season arrives our Playcaller is well versed in what he is looking for.

We also teach 4 players how to playcall. We have 2 Coverage Players and 2 Box Players that we decide will call the plays. We also give them a priority of who calls the plays in the huddle, this allows us as Coaches to be prepared for all eventualities, like holidays, sickness, or injuries.

Be Responsible for Success

Why is Ego such a bad thing in a team?

A player needs to be feel confident and proud and brush off bad situations in order to perform at a high level. A Coach also needs to be confident and proud and bounce back from set-backs. But that is not the type of Ego I am talking about here.

The Ego I am referring to is the negative "Me, Me" type. The Ego that pulls team efforts down and teams apart. The mentality is the "I" do not make mistakes, "I" had to overcompensate for someone else's missed assignment, "I" was held on the play, "I" was not accountable for that. This comes from Players as well as Coaches.

But the purpose of this post is to examine the impact of negative ego of a coach upon his team.

What I have noticed in my short time as a Coach is that the majority of negative Ego comes from being ill-prepared and/or over-burdened.

Being ill-prepared as a Coach is the cardinal sin. If a coach cannot set an example to those that look up to him how will he maintain their respect? If the Coach does not adequately learn the Language, Theory, Philosophy, Drills, Scout Report and Strategy of the Program how will he be able to teach it?

Being prepared is to a large degree organizing a Practice Session. In order to organize a Practice session we as coaches need to understand the Language, Theory and Philosophy of our Team. If we do not the outcome will be wasted hours of practice teaching technique that will not add to the performance of our Athletes and further down the line actually reduce the performance and potential of our Program.

The feeling of being over-burdened is, most likely, something that we have all experienced as Coaches at one time or another, especially in the formative years of our careers. Unfortunately, this period continues for many Coaches and recurs for others. Being over-burdened is a trust issue. It displays a lack of trust in the Coaching staff of the program you are involved in and to a lesser extent the players. The burden comes from the administrative duties a coach needs to perform, the Video analysis, the Practive Organisation and much more.

A common factor that I have picked up on in my career is ignorance.

Ignorance is and should be a temporary problem. Ignorance must not neccesarily be seen as a negative. If it wasnt for ingorance I - and certainly many others - would not know what I know today. Now we are not going into the conscious/unconscious competent/incompetent discussion but it is important that we see ignorance as an opportunity to better ourselves.

Ignorance causes us to be ill-prepared and leads to a feeling of being over-burdened. But this need not be the status quo. Ignorance ought to be the catalyst that propels you forward. It is the ignorance that tells you:

"Be accountable for your success"

Being accountable for success must therefore mean accept your failures and learn from them, they will add to your success in years to come. It is ok to err, we do it every day. Though it is the desire to reduce the errors and maximise the success that moves us forwards.

If we accept our own shortcomings and actively try to reduce their impact then we are assuming responsibility for our own success.

This season there have had been some major set backs for us and at every level of the team. We started with 10 Coaches and 68 players. We now have 3 Coaches and enjoy a participation of maximum 30 players (thats a very good day). 2 weeks before our 5th game (we where 2-2) I had 5 of my starters leave our Defence. They do not believe in the Philosophy of our Program and couldnt justify running the risk of injury. Up to this point morale was extremely low and there was massive dissapointment and confusion within the Coaching staff and players. So it did not come as a big surprise to me when this happened.

I spent the 1st week going through all denial phases and being angry and generally not being accountable for the success of our Defence. I blamed others for our position and lack of direction until I spoke with my better half and she bluntly said: "Whats the point your making? Your just complaining." She was right!

So I speak to our HC and ask for a little leeway in organizing Practice and review the Video of our next opponent again. I sent emails to the defence with the challenge of stepping up and being accountable, I spoke to our Team at the end of training and laid the options out for them: Be accountable for individual success or add to the discontent, either way we stand or fall together.

Boundaries where pushed and there was a little hand slap after the events but come gameday the Players where fired up like it was a State Final and they assumed responsibility. This alone allowed them to maintain a higher level of performance and the team never crumbled.

For us it got the ball rolling in the right direction again. The team has started to believe in itself again and you can see the effect of taking responsibility for being successfull.