How to signal in offense ?

Our coach has a play sheet set up in grid form he has made from excel and they are either numbered or colors. He then calls the play in via the colors or numbers and then the quaterback looks at the coordinating info on the wrist coach, it can also be sent in via another player if you wish to do it that way too.

I would let two back up qb's signal in the plays. one live, One dummy. However, this means you need to make sure you call the play quickly, and confidently.

Hey Coach,


It really depends on how much you want to learn and how much your kids can learn. I coached a a division III college and they had signals for all the formations that the back up quarterback would signal in and then the head coach signaled in the play. One thing we did was have the recievers also responsible for looking for the formation so the QB could consentrate on the play from the head coach that way there was no confusion. The plays the coach signaled in were on a wrist coach that the QB would have on.

I am currently coaching at a small high school and I am the OC and we use wrist coaches for a no huddle type offense. Each player has a wrist coach on and I have a cahrt created in excel with coloumns and rows. I have usually 14 rows and 3 coloumns so I can get a total of 42 plays on one wrist coach. Soem fot heplays I can have going either left or right. The top of each coloumn are three colors. I signal in the color and the number of the play and then everyone looks at thier wrist coach and runs the play. This year I am thinking of signaling the formation in and have a wrist coach with just plays without formations so I can have more plays or variations and then just change the formation. This is something I need to practice witht he kids this year and see if it works better or if I should just continue the same method from last year. Hope this helps.

depending on the number of formations, I tend to use few, I signal the formation, which everyone is responsible for getting, then certian body parts or locations represent plays, right of left determined by leg touched at the end...
ie.
horns (like UT hook 'em sign) means 2x2
hands together like praying means IZ
touch left leg means play going left

Hard part is for QB to relay to the line if OL cant see the call...we use the old stand by code names...
Zebra/Zion = InsideZone Target/Taco = Trap.... etc.

Not sure if they are being stolen and don't really worry about it to much...at a higher level I would have dummy signals from other players or coaches but coaches we go against have a hard enough time getting their kids lined up right to worry about stealing signals

As far as wrist bands...I dont like them...used them in college and felt like I was studying for a eye exam every week...If you do use them make sure the kid can read it plus be sure they are water proof...

I had the same dilemma about five years ago...wanted to go to a signal system as opposed to shuttling the plays in. The first thing we did was ditch the numbers in our play calling. 22 Iso (2 back, 2 hole, Iso blocking scheme) became Iso Right. I know not everybody agrees on this, but to us, numbers became unneccesary words. Very few players (IMO) actually break a play down into its parts anyway...22 Iso simply becomes that plays "name". Plus, 22 Iso has 3 signals, Iso Right has 2. We still have the ability to audible, even without numbers, although we mainly switch from one side to the other.

As for how we do it: I used to have dummy signals, and another coach/backup player would signal in other calls, but we stopped doing that after a few games. I agree with fbairattack, I don't worry about other teams stealing our signals. To my knowledge, people aren't stealing our play calls. This allows us to keep things simple. I signal in the formation first, then motion or adjustments, then the play. Plays that go to the right are signaled with my right hand, left to left. Our signals are simple to the extreme. I sit down with our QB at the beginning of the season to we go through signals. Sometimes he chooses the signal, sometimes I do. We always go through the play sheet the day before the game to make sure there is no confusion. Also, if you're going to do this, make sure you practice using the signals. During team drills I use signals to practice.

We started last year signalling in plays. The OC tells me the play and I send it in to the QB. I signal formation, motion, play and some plays even the blocking. We have not had a delay of game in the past two years since we started this. Myself and the QB made up the signals. This is very important because he is the one that needs to know them.

We signal in plays on Wednesday during practice. By the middle of the year most of the skill position players also know the signals. We have never had a signal stolen that I know of. We have signals for the formation and motion and then the numbers on the body. For example the head is 0 and 1 depending on which hand touches it. The ear is 2 and 3 and so on. We work our way down the body until we get to the knee which is 8 & 9.

I coach at a 1A school in Texas and I also use this with my JH teams and the QBs can pick most of it up pretty easily.

we run a TE in if hudling

in no huddle, we use wristbands

signal a color (body part) hat is black, chest is red, leg is white etc.

numbers are done with fingers

we use
1-2-3-4-5 with combinations of these numbers
(so I can do it with one hand)

Example Hat 51 (Red 51) was our base of tackle play. Numbering system is arbritray, all players find the coordinates on their wristband.

Worked okay for us, but we used it at practice to get more reps as well, so that helped.