Grouping Calls into Family words

Boy names, girl names, cities, states, candy bars, automobiles---sometimes the kids come up with their own names

Whenever possible, I allow the players to come up with play calls because, I have found, players tend to remember the play calls better that way. Plus, it creates ownership.

Do the kids have any idea who those people are? 

He may have had some "Splainin'" to do.

Mandatory viewing for all kids in between the first two a day practice haha

I was asking from defensive POV. But these offensive guys are slick with these word families

I’d have no issue going just numbers, I think number and word is redundant/extra. Number is no different than going “fire/flame”

words help for if you are just saying it at the line or calling it out from the sideline, we also tie our pass pro into the word call...no reason numbers couldn’t work though

1/2 is a run right or left etc
11/12 are quick passes
21/22 dropback

etc

Our defensive coaches use word families as well.  I'm sure there's some reason that kids remember the word families better than numbers 

Has anybody ever done a controlled test of these systems, showing that players decode these things correctly when they hear these signals once they're breathing hard and looking at something? In one test, players would have to decode the fact that something's a color, a geographic location, or whatever; in the other, the details would be spelled out completely by the call without such decoding.

Absolutely not!

If you let kids name plays, do you change them from year to year when Seniors graduate?

Do you let your Sub-Varsity kids call them something else?

Kids can call it whatever they want, but they have to talk to me in my language. Especially if you do “traditional” install. And we do.

We’ve done this a few different ways.

Families: we have used general categories with no definitive term. For example any sports team in Pennsylvania told the OL it was pass protection. Any superhero was power. We had to add directional indicators

Word association: Indianapolis starts with I so Colts is inside zone. Once again you need a direction indicator unless you do something like the popular city/mascot or whatever. Colleges mean one thing Pro means another and so on.

What we are going to try is a combination of numbers and words. So all “10” calls like 11, 12, 13, etc might be IZ along with a couple of words. I think it’s easier for a defense to put together a play calling change that is just words opposed to hearing a series of different numbers. I know of a pretty successful coaching group that uses 2/3 for gap scheme 4/5 for zone. So for example they just say 2 Smack and off they go.

One thing we do is we don’t teach players the traditional names. So we don’t say this is Power and the code names are this. It adds a level of decoding. We also make sure we use the same terms on defense. If the team runs GH counter we say they run jets in this formation.

As far as categories go there is a massive amount you could use.

Organs/Body parts
Fast Food
Food
TV/TV characters
Movies/Movie characters
Songs/singers/bands/rappers
Word association like Lock: chain, Key, Bolt
States
Cities
Mascots: Coverdale used opponent mascots at times
Video Game references
Teachers
Things in the community
Cars/makes/models/types of transportation
Colors

I don’t know the technical term for this but when you use words that parts of the word is used a memory reference. Like Hag for Hitch and Go. DOT drag with an Outside Two. Swag Switch And Dig.

We use numbers, but words are also needed for specific things that a number cannot communicate. Someone listening to our play call will recognize the Wing-T style of call, although we are not a Wing-T offense.

When a word is needed we try to use one that makes relative sense. For example...for a screen pass, the word is "door". For Counter, the word is "sink". For Draw, it's "bridge". Since we use SAB (super angle) track blocking for Power, so the word for Power is "Angle".

Since we call audibles at the line, we use odd numbered holes to our right, and even numbers to our left. Defenses know that the #1 hole is the left A-Gap and the #6 hole is off tackle to the right. We don't have a #4 hole or a #5 hole.

Our "1/31 Broom" is Sweep Right (right D-Gap). The counter-trap off of that is "3/28 RAT" (rat trap) hitting the left A-Gap.

Another word (as a base) we use is BEAR. There are brown bears that go to the right...black bears go left, and polar bears just smash up the middle.

We try to use words of few syllables. The more guttural they sound the easier they are to "Bark Out", rather than "sing". "HUT" is better than "HIKE", at least in our dictionary.