Handout Playbooks?

I have never handed out entire playbooks, but I have handed out playsheet and/or diagrams at times. I have usually done this the day before we were going to go through something new, or as a weekend review of what we did for the week. I'm not sure how effective the handouts have been. I agree that most of the learning is done on the field.

I have done it both ways. I'm not sure how much good it does with the kids. Of course, if it helps even one kid, that's a good thing. When I was a kid, we always had playbooks and I studied mine like a madman - I knew what every player did on every play. Of course, I was nuts, but that's another story. LOL.

Preparing a playbook is a ton of work, but if you already have it, I don't think there is really any harm that can come from handing it out. I wouldn't worry at all about it ending up in the opposition's hands. Unless you have your hand signals or audible/no-huddle calls outlined in the playbook, how much good would it do them to have it? They probably already know all your plays from scouting anyway - the time and energy they'd waste trying to break down your terminology, etc. would be better spent working on their own plays & schemes. JMHO.

I do think it is a good idea to create a playbook for all your assistant coaches, though. It wouldn't be as big of project, b/c you don't have to explain things in as much detail as you would for the kids. It drives me nuts when I work with a staff that doesn't have any written materials for me to look at.

I have never handed out playbooks because they always seem to get lost or left at school. I have in the past handed out our formations and our hole numbering system. We would test the players on the formations and if they knew them they would be able to play a skill position, if they didn't we would move make them wait until they could show us that they knew where they were supposed to be.

I like the idea that coachdoug has presented. Some kids will be fanatical about it and for those kids I think it is beneficial.

Now I am going to be somewhat cynical. Be careful handing out playbooks, unless it is the "I" or 1 back and isn't what the parents see on Sunday on TV. They may question your playbook when you lose.

This is with our 8th grade team and our Frosh team. A few things we use that I think help, chalk talks with Q & A where we make the kids get up and draw the play/assignment, written tests and having kids use 3x5 flashcards to study at home with. The written test's are good because they correlate directly to playing time. Showing film cutups of plays after chalk talking it is a great way to burn it into their memory banks. I know this can be a challenge facility wise, in the old days we brought greaseboard, a inverter, TV and extension cord to the field and had kids huddled around the TV on the field....lol

We do all the teaching on the field and in the class room. When I played we had playbooks but kids today don't study them much.

I also think that teaching the entire team every aspect of the play is important because at the youth level you may not have huge numbers. I know as of right now I only have 18 kids signed up for my team. Numbers that limited means that my FB is only one injury away from being my starting guard. If they know every aspect of the play there will be far less of an adjustment period.

OK, so play diagrams. How important do you think it would be to show the blocking against different defenses? Or where the passes will be open vs. different coverages? Or on defense, how they'll line up against different formations?

I can only speak for how we do it. For us, using the whiteboard and film is a big deal, it helps a lot. It's very important for us to teach the whole picture because our perimeter blocking assignments change based on coverage/alignment when running the option. For the most part, our kids make the calls to adjust blocking on the line and the perimeter based on what they see, so its important they know about defensive structures. When installing schemes, we draw the plays against the common fronts/coverage looks we will see during the season. For us, being mostly gun spread, we see a shaded front 5,1,3,5, a true odd front 5.0.5, or a TNT/bear look, 7,3,0,3,7. WE draw the plays against these common looks, however, as far as our blocking rules, we teach looks, not fronts. Passing game wise, we teach our receivers, backs and QB to pre snap look at the secondary's depth, leverage and eyes to determine coverage and how to attack the leverage with their stem. We teach our players to recognize defensive structures and to understand what the defenders responsibilities probably will be based on their alignments. Our QB's are expected to be able to draw and describe in detail any formation, defensive front, secondary alignment/coverage, blocking scheme, receivers & backs assignments, QB responsibilities, progressions, reads, etc. They are tested and drilled on this repeatedly. Do we teach our kids a lot? Sure. Overkill? Probably....LOL....Lots of people think we do too much, maybe their right but they aren't coaching our team...LOL.... IMO, if kids can learn Algerbra then they can surely learn football....lol I'm sure we could win lots of games doing a lot less, however, I enjoy watching the light bulbs go on, watching the excitement and enthusiasm when the kids learn something new. I enjoy giving the kids "ownership" in the offense and watching them bloom within it. I probably got off tangent there a bit but the things talked about are why we use the methods that we do.

I don't ever, my 1st year I had a kid walk up to us and hand us a copy of an opponents playbook,...that's why

Just out of curiosity, how useful was it to have your opponent's playbook?

What about audibles falling into the wrong hands? Thats about my only worry.

Coach Mike

Everyone on our coaching staff receives an offensive and defensive/special teams playbook.

Players (ages 10-12) receive applicable portions of it on a weekly basis as appropriate. I'm trying to get an animated version up and running using Madden '09 and NFL Head Coach '09, similar to what the US Junior National Team used this summer.

www.usafootball.com/articles/displayArticle/6869/7819

Dave Hartman
CYFL Coach

We gave our kids a 3 pages with 6 plays total. Gave it to them in the morning and by afternoon practice most knew what they were suppose to do. In fact most knew a couple of different positions and terms. We did it in the spring and it did help because we told them we expected them to know it.

Now we would never give them a true playbook with everything in it. Giving them a couple of pages (no more than 3) with stuff on it I think can help. We might try this through the year giving them a few pages with new information on it so they can learn it and be ready for the next week.