What makes great football players, coaches, and teams? Lots of things. But one of the dark arts of success in football is that the best teams from youth to pro all have in common is communication.
I am not talking about press, parent - coach (although that is important and the subject of another dark art special), department/league, etc. I am talking about inter-team COMMUNICATION! Communication between players on the field.
To many times players are coached that only the QB and the lead Linebacker communicate during the game and pre-snap. This makes some sense to a degree in that you don't want to many players confusing each other. On the other hand, look at any outstanding winning team and you will see everyone communicating.
Communication is on purpose. Not for the sake of talking. Communication on the field should be coached and have a specific purpose. Let's take the offense. The QB will be...presumably, making pre-snap reads to adjust the receivers spacing, running back's alignment, and the line protection and will IN A COMMANDING VOICE make those call outs and adjustments.
However, having the center and/or a designated lineman i.e. the left tackle call out adjustments, identify defensive keys, etc. is just as important. In fact, many times the linemen have their own conversation between themselves to make adjustments i.e. picking up blitzes, double teams, needing help with a double team, watching for coverage disguises that hide the blitz package, shading alignments, TAG/COG adjustments, etc.
This kind of conversation is critical between players. Yes, at the youth level it may be to much granularity or even hard for them to comprehend. But you as a coach should encourage the center to call out keys to get in the habit of doing this at the youth level. But at the high school AND definitely at the college level this should be done and is definitely done at the better D2 college programs... and certainly D1/high level Juco teams. I would also argue, long snappers should engage in communication as well. Special Teams is no exception.
Defensively, this should also happen. While the defensive captain, presumably the ILB, will be calling the defense scheme and coverage, everyone should be communicating offensive adjustments and alignments. These types of communications may change the coverage, DB/LB, shading, alignments, etc.
Further, its helpful for key players....ideally ALL players, to know the situation AND down and distance. This may impact how they execute their assignment and know where players will ultimately be i.e. if I am a DB, and its 3rd and long, is the receiver on the numbers, top of the numbers, in motion, looking at where he running, looking down, am I in press, man, zone, blitzing, did they just change formations or is there now power to one side, etc. I need to know where my receiver/responsibility is going to try and be so that will affect how I defend him or execute my responsibility. I may need to let the safety, OLB, etc. know some of this information because it effects their responsibility, etc. How many times have you seen a TD happen because of blown responsibility or mis-communication? To many right?
A lot of this stuff is rudimentary, but is not coached up. Not nearly enough. Communication is a dark art of the top teams and players. As we have all heard...football is a thinking mans game. The better the team thinks, the better they play. When they play and execute and reduce penalties, they win.
Coaches, incorporate purposeful communication into your practices and film review. Teach this both off season and in season. This should become second nature for team, players and coaches. The more your team communicates the more they will execute and more importantly reduce dumb penalties and mistakes. You can't win football games if you spend more time going backwards than you do going forwards.
Lastly, set up effective, positive and clear communication with your players when they come off the field. They are smarter than you think. Encourage them to share with you what they are seeing. Even minute details like "hey coach, their center always adjusts the ball differently when they pass versus run". This can be helpful to come up with a code word the nose tackle or DT calls out to adjust the alignment, etc. Or your WR may notice something the safeties do every time they blitz, etc. Your players, if coached up can be watching for keys and tendencies which can be clearly communicated to the coaching staff to make adjustments during the games. I have won so many games because my players picked up tendencies and keys during the game we as coaches missed or couldn't see in game film. Why? Because I coached them to analyze and communicate.
I am reminded of a game we were in against our biggest rival. We were up 1 TD, less than 20 seconds left on the clock, we were on defense in a goal line stand, 4th down, last shot at scoring for the opposing team and my players picked up the key for the opposing teams QB lead play they excelled at. My team started yelling and communicating amongst themselves that THAT play was coming and made the right adjustments. Can you guess what happened? Yup. Stuffed 'em and we won the game. A great game at that. Thought I was gonna have a heart attack! But thanks to my team know the situation, their ability to communicate and adjust, we won a tough game for an undefeated season.
Communication needs to be coached in practice and pre-season so its second nature in the game. You can take this to all kinds of levels. But be careful. You don't want to over burden your players where they get caught up trying to analyze everything and not execute. However, if this is incorporated early and you find the right balance for your team, it will pay dividends and ultimately result in wins!
There are many reasons why good football teams win and why other teams lose. Communication AND mis-communication are one of those reasons. Learn the dark art of communication and you will win more than you lose. Finally, this applies to both flag and contact but more so to contact because there are more moving pieces and complexities. But it never hurts to communicate.
Hope this helps! Now LFG!
Coach
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