Do Less!

I have to admit that I am guilty of  wanting to be the whiteboard Guru... always wanting to have the last word, always thinking I will be right, always having the adjustment or play that can beat whatever Defense we see... but realistically football comes down to what can you get your 11 offensive players to execute on a given play.  Sure if you could find a way to mix veer, with the deception of wing t, the passing and numbers advantage of spread, the power of DW, the illegality of the A-11, the downhill aspect of the I, the coolness of the Pistol, and the speed of the Fly offense you would be in business.  However it all comes down to being able to teach your kids your scheme, and more importantly how you want to execute/block that scheme. 

My Friend Kunu, explaining the Do Less attitude..."The less you do, the more you do"

I think all coaches are guilty of the following... Man if we could add "this" in, we are in business... or just add "that"... but how does it really fit into your scheme of things? what you teach? what you know how to teach? and what your kids can handle...

We do not have the best off season attendance in the world, it is better than other places I have been/seen but it is by no means perfect like a De La Salle... So we have to do a fair amount of reteaching.  The kids I coach have a very low football IQ, even our kids who played in youth really lacked skilled coaching and therefore do not know what you would think a kid who's been playing since he was 7 would know. 

Because of this, I am always trying to find ways to make things simple, especially for my OL.  This is why i am a huge fan of counter and power blocking schemes.  They can be used with a huge variety of backfield actions, multiple ball carriers, formations, and motions, but it still similar up front for my OL. 
Our screen game is very similar to our guards as they release on bucksweep.  i try to have as many things overlap as I possibly can.  Yes, there are still times when I think a certain play might hurt a team, but if it doesn't fit in with something I already teach my OL, I am 100% against it.

It comes down to the old saying, "jack of all trades, master of nothing"

I never want my offense to be like this, being average or below average at a ton of plays, compared to being very good at a couple.  If you look at winning teams, they do not beat anyone by having a tremendous playbook, they do it because they can execute their bread and butter over and over again, successfully, even if everyone  in the stadium knows the play. 

At one of my previous schools, we were the exact opposite.  We started out as a split back fly team, then our OC wanted to add in I to be "more down hill"... then we added in some spread to "utilize our QB better", none of the things we did married up very well with each other, we were running certain plays only out of one set, it was like having 3 different offenses and we were unable to mix them together in anyway.  So we ran a lot of plays, gave the Defense a lot to look at, but we sucked at running the plays.  We had way too much on our plate, especially the OL, because I had about 20 run schemes to teach them, because everything was a little different depending on what we were in.  I hated it, I was miserable as a coach, and I refused to be a part of anything like that again. 

We added plays on when we were still struggling with what we already had in, absolutely a joke.

This year I absolutely refuse to add on a single thing, until I am comfortable with where we are at in the other areas of our run game.  I do not care if we go into our first game and we can only run Counter and Power... we are gonna be DAMN good at Power and Counter then.

So since we are all preparing our playbooks for next season, remember less = more.

BCS Breakdown

I just set my DVD recorder up for the National Championship.

I will be recording the whole thing so I can further break it down in upcoming posts.

Very excited to see both Offenses in action and look at their adjustments.

This will be my first time breaking down anything off of the TV so I hope everything works out alright, but I think some good stuff will come out of it.

Stay tuned for future posts related to this Game

Some Screen Film

Ok so I finally figured out how to take the video off of our HUDL account and put some up online... 
Enjoy

Jailbreak

Quick Screen

I apologize foe the video quality, I swear it looks much better on my computer.  Somehow putting it up on Blogger turns it into  garbage.

Hope this helps to visualize some of what I discussed in my posts on our screen game.

95% of Coaches should read this!!! - Weight Loss

I want to help coaches in an area more important than Xs and Os, or some drill , I want to help everyone who reads this ADD YEARS ON TO THEIR LIFE.

Everyone makes the new year's resolution to cut back, exercise more, and lose weight but most fail to make the lifestyle changes necessary to reach any long term goals.  Sure you might lose 5 or 10 lbs but then you gain it right back.  I know what it takes to lose a massive amount, the healthy safe way, and I want to share that with YOU.

Football Coaches have to be some of the most unhealthy people around, we preach being in top shape to our players, but the average coach I have met in my life is a good deal over weight.  Even the more "in shape" coaches have at least a pot belly.  We work long hours, either teaching or with an off campus job, we spend a ton of time at practice late or breaking down film and sometimes all we have time for is fast food.   Most of you reading this are married, and have kids, or at least plan on doing so soon.  Now is the right time to start taking your health and weight seriously, so that you can be around to see your grandchildren. 

Meet my ex self, FAT BRETT

First let me tell you about myself, and my life.
I am a shorter guy, I am every bit of 5'8".  My senior year in high school I weighed (give or take a couple pounds) 185lbs during football season.  Once football ended, and baseball season came around i put on some more weight, I was now about 200 lbs when I graduated HS in June 2006. 
First year of college+coaching came around, and i put on the freshman 15 +5 more.  After 1 year of college and coaching I was 220.  I stayed around 220-225 for another year before ballooning up to 245 in April of 2009.  I had completely stopped exercising in every way whatsoever.  I was bigger than I had ever been, I felt like crap, no energy, no confidence, nothing.  245 might not seem like a HUGE number, but at only 5'8" and with very little muscle mass, trust me that is HUGE.

The sad thing is that I didn't even know how big I had gotten, I've never been one to take pictures, so I never really SAW how big I had gotten.  Then one day it hit me.  At the school I was coaching at the HC had taken a bunch of pictures during the previous season and displayed them in a glass case in the GYM hallway.  I was looking through the pictures one day and saw a few of myself... and I didn't recognize myself.  I honestly didn't realize how big I had gotten until that moment when I saw those pictures, that changed my life.  Later that month in April it was my 21st birthday and I told myself my birthday present to myself was to change my life.  I have to add that everyone on my mom's side of he family has type 1 or type 2 diabetes, so I knew the heavier I got only increased my chance of having Diabetes one day.  So that is the moment when I got the ball rolling to change everything...

Now for the PROOF

This first picture is me mid summer of 2009, at roughly 220 lbs, so this is AFTER I had already lost about 20 lbs or so...

The New Brett
Flash forward to today... I am 165 lbs, and I have been holding there (+/- 3 lbs) for the last 6 months.  That's 80 lbs total that I lost in about 14-15 months.  I am stronger than I was back then, in much better shape, I have Ridiculous amounts of energy now.  I don't get tired like I used to.  I feel healthy and fit.  I honestly think I am a better coach for it because I have so much energy at practice I can keep everything and everyone up beat.  It's like I don't have an off switch, I am just jacked all day once I eat breakfast in the morning.
And maybe most importantly, I am getting more attention from the ladies than I ever thought I would.  I wouldn't say I'm Pimpin or anything, but I am pretty happy.  I literally feel like I am a better person in ever regard now, compared to the fat Brett.

Me now...

Sorry I don't ever happen to take full body pics so you cant see the drastic change in my body.  I am trying to locate  a shirtless pic of me from my fat does to juxtapose with a shirtless one from myself now.


So How Did I do it?

Now I will break down everything I did, and most importantly WHY it works.

I didn't starve myself, I eat a TON, I love food.  I don't smoke, drink, do drugs, Food has always been my opiate.  So I still enjoy a good meal, and even fast food, but it is how I do it that saved my life.

1. Don't cut out certain things... Just LIMIT wherever possible.
I absolutely love Taco Bell.  There is one 1/2 mile from my house, with a drive through open til 1AM.  I could eat it just about everyday .  I used to go there and I would order 5 different items. I would mix it up between different tacos, burritos, chalupas, or whatever but I would always order 5 things.  I was stuffing myself just for the sake of stuffing myself, I went beyond full.  I notice a lot of overweight guys doing this.
So I set myself a rule that I follow to this day.  I will NEVER order more than 3 items.  I sometimes keep it to 2, but if I am very hungry I allow myself a total of 3 things only.  So I still get to enjoy the taste, flavor, and guilty pleasure of Taco Bell.  but going from 5 items down to 3, saved me 500+ calories easily.
I do this with every fast food, I limit what I am going to order.  I don't need supper XXXLLL fries.  Small fries are ok.  Do I need 5 mcChickens? or is 2 ok. 
When I make a sandwich or cheeseburger at home, I don't put a gallon of Mayo on it anymore.  I still use some, but less than I used to.  I used to put 2 slices of cheese on every sandwich.burger I ate.  But going with just 1 instead of 2 saves 100 calories. 

These are simple changes you can make and cut hundreds of calories a day. 

I urge all of you, think about your own diet, what you ate yesterday, or today... What could you have done to limit the calories some?

2.  Do not Drink Calories (Or at least cut down)
I must admit this was an easier change for me.  I have always loved water and never been a HUGE fan of Soda.  The next thing I did was decide that I wouldn't drink calories. 
You would be amazed to see how many calories are in the things you drink.  And most people who do read the labels for calories in their beverages fail to realize how many servings are in the container.  It might say 120 calories, but its 2 or 3 servings and you drink it all.  That's 300+ calories that you could have cut out.
I try to only drink water, I cheat occasionally, I will have a milkshake every now and then, or a caramel frapp from Starbucks, maybe a raspberry tea every month or two. 
Look at what you drink, you will be amazed at how many empty calories you drink everyday.  If you are one of those people that HAS to have their coffee in the morning, cut back some.  Limit it to only 1 or 2 cups.  Use low fat/cal cream.
Every now and then treat yourself but try to limit wherever possible.

Now for the drinkers...  I do not drink Alcohol at all.  But if you like beer (as most coaches do) then switch to light or the low calorie options.  Do you need to down a 12 pack? no, you can still enjoy 1 or 2 and save yourself all of those calories. 

3.  Now to Working out
Cutting those calories will help you immensely, but we must have some form of exercise in order to really get the results we want.  I have to admit I hate running.cardio... even now at this size.  It just seems like punishment, so I still very rarely run, just for running sake.
My biggest key to my success has been LIFTING!!!
I am not a body builder, I am not very strong.  BUT when I started all of this I began working out with weight again.  I wasn't doing Power cleans or anything, simple stuff. 
A lot of upper body stuff... Bench, curls, back, tris, shrugs, more chest stuff.  I began doing Upper body lifts MWF, and leg stuff TuTH (Leg presses, leg extensions, hammy curls, calf raises, mostly machine stuff, occasionally some DL or Squats)

I just used a basic linear program, started off with a lot of 3x10 stuff, build some endurance up.  Then Every 4-5 weeks I reduced the number of reps and increased the weight.  I have to tell you this is my big secret. 
When I see people, they always ask What did you do to lose all the weight??? They ask if I got surgery, if I did drugs, If i was taking some crazy weight loss supplements, If I ran mile after mile... etc.

But lifting weights is the best way to burn fat because

• You increase your metabolism for the next several hours after a workout
• You burn calories while your lifting
• As your muscle mass increases, your metabolic rate increases!

This last point is the most important.  The more muscle I got, the more fat I lost simply because my Metabolism increased. 
Quick science lesson
Your metabolism, or metabolic rate is how many calories you burn per day just to keep yourself in your regular lifestyle alive and moving.  So while you sleep, walking around, sitting, on the computer, watching tv, in class, standing at practice.. all of that.  It is how many calories you are burning just to keep yourself alive.  Now if that metabolic rate is increased due to increased muscle mass, you are now burning more calories per day, literally while you are doing nothing.

I have completely changed my metabolism, I burn so many more calories per day than I used to it is unreal.

Once we begin a lifting program, fit in some sort of cardio wherever possible, but make sure it is something you enjoy!!! or you wont do it
For me that is basketball, I LOVE playing.  So i make sure I take basketball class at my school every quarter.  I play for an hour a day, 2 days per week.  Not a ton, but for those 2 hours a week I am running fairly hard and getting good Cardio, but because I am so competitive and love to play I don't realize how tired I am.

This fits for me, but YOU need to find what best fits you.  Maybe it is going for a 30 min walk with your spouse, walking your dog.  Playing around with your child.  Pick up game with buddies at the park... it doesn't matter, just as long as it is something you will enjoy.  We all have some sort of activity we like to do that we can use for some extra calorie burn.

Interesting fact I learned in School

Walking a Mile = Running a mile = 100 calories
Doesn't matter if you walk, run , or sprint a mile, you will burn roughly 100 calories per mile you move your body.  Meaning it is ok to go for a walk if you are not up for a jog.


4. Understand this is a slow process
I think the hardest thing for people to understand is just how much it takes to lose 1lb of fat.  People work out for 5 minutes and expect to see results, it is important to understand what it takes.

1 lb. of fat = 3500 Calories

Calories in - Calories Used= Calorie Score

It is only safe to lose 1-2 lbs per week. 
Anything more than that (unless the person is VERY obese) is generally unhealthy, and requires such starvation that you can risk hurting yourself, or just flat out crashing and binging.

So some simple math shows us that
3500/7 (days per week) = 500

Meaning that we need that calorie score to be at -500 per day in order to lose 1 lb per week.

for 2 lbs per week it would be -1000 calories per day.

So think about all of the food you eat and drink and how you can easily cut out a few hundred calories here and there.  It is a difficult process but it is worth it.

I urge people do not jump on the scale every day.  You will just mess with yourself.  Daily weights fluctuate so much , depending on your hydration at that given time, what you ate last, if you took a big dump or something. 

Instead I say to check your weight once a week.  Pick to do it on the same day, and same time each week so you are consistent.  Set a goal for yourself each week.

Goal setting was HUGE for me.  When I first began, I wanted to be at 200 lbs by our first game (so from April 2009 to September 4th 2009).  I pushed myself hard down the home stretch to meet my goal.  I was ecstatic but I wanted more.  So then I told myself i wanted to be 185 by the end of our football season... And I did that.

I stayed at 185 for a few months, then dropped the last 20 lbs or so last spring through the beginning of the summer. 

Losing weight is possible, if you are willing to follow what I have outlined here.  it will require some hard work, dedication and most importantly will power. 
What I like about my plan is you do not have to give up anything in your life, merely to limit it wherever possible.  You do not have to run miles at a time, you get to pick an activity you enjoy.

I honestly hope that this article hit home with some of you and that my words might change your life.

I swear by the things I outlined here... it is exactly what I have done and continue to do to maintain my weight.  No supplements, pills, nothing. 
Just 100% dedication to that ideal that I wanted to better myself.

Viewers Choice: How Coverage Determines the Front

This Post is in response to the question posed by ABC...
In regards to an article by Steve Axman on how Coverage and front's must relate to each other to be sound.

I am going to simply talk about coverages with a 4 man rush, for simplicity sake, I will leave zone blitzes out of this post.

In the article by Axman he discusses everything out of a 3-4/5-2 defense... I feel pretty comfortable explaining this further because I have even though I have worked with multiple D Coordinators int he 5 years I have been coaching, they have all been 3-4/5-2 coaches.  This whole post will be based on a 3-4 defense but the principles behind it apply, or at least should apply to any scheme.

I want to first make a statement, because ABC wanted to know if this concept is easier to understand when dealing with a 4 man front.  It is easier to grasp in a 4 man front simply because those 4 are rushing every play without change...The DBs and LBs will have different responsibilities depending on coverage but those 4 down linemen will be rushing every snap.

In a 3 man front (whether 3-4 or 3-5)  the down 3 are rushing and 1 more player will be coming on most snaps giving a 4 man rush.  So after the snap it will either look the same or very similar to a 4 man front but the 4th rusher can change depending on coverage.

Coverage Determines the Front

When creating a defensive scheme, one must first start with the coverage they want to run.  This coverage will then determine what front they can get into and which players are available to rush the quarterback. 
It is important to see how the coverage you play correlates with the secondary's run fits within your scheme.  Players need to understand what it means to be a force player, or an alley player, and where they need to be on certain run plays.

COVER 3
I will start by explaining, in my area, the most common coverage around, your standard Cover 3 Defense (Axman also refers to it as Sky in his article)

I will explain things first against a basic pro style formation, just for simplicity sake. 

So we will begin with the deep 3. Corner, FS, Corner

They of course split the field into 1/3s, do not get beat deep!
Typical alignment is for corners to be 7+ yards deep at the snap and staying in their deep 1/3. On a run play they are secondary run support, they should keep all run plays inside of them and just make a sure tackle.  In cover 3, when they are making tackles it is preventing the big plays.
Free Safety should align to the middle of the formation, keying the strong side #2 for his run/pass read.  He has deep middle on pass.  on a run he is the alley player.

In Cover 3 the Strong Safety is in a rolled up position, to the strong side.  He has the flats or curl/flats, on pass.  He is the force player on outside runs.  He is to force all outside plays back inside of him.

Now that we have seen what the DBs are doing, I will illustrate how this coverage dictates the front that we should run.

Some clarifications of my drawing, I used this in a PPT playbook I made up for my self when I took a DC job a year ago. 
D = SS
ILBs = L and R
OLBs = also L and R
I will differentiate by writing LILB or LOLB etc.

Now let's discuss the above diagram. 
The 4 DBs have given us coverage in the 3 deep zones, and the curl/flat zone to the strong side, but now we need curl/flat zone to the weak side.

This becomes the responsibility of the LOLB.  His job is just like the SS, curl/flat zone and force player on run plays.

Because he will be vacating, we need a edge rusher/contain man to that weakside. 
So the natural/simplest answer is to slant the Down 3 DL to the weakside.
By Slanting weak (as shown) we get a contain rusher on the weakside and account 1 player per gap.  Defense is all about gap integrity and support. 

The 2 ILBs have the hook zones on pass coverage.

Now that we have accounted for 3 deep zones, and 4 underneath zones, we have 1 left over defender, our ROLB or the strong side OLB.  He is not needed in pass coverage so we can bring him off the edge to the strong side ( or bring him across the TEs face)

Against a spread look I would adjust like this

Now we are in a spread look. I would call this strong Left because the Back is also to the Left.
This puts our SS (D) to the left side.  Everyone elses job remains the same.  We slant to the weak side (right) to get an edge rusher/contain man to the weakside.
The only actual difference is now that there is twins to the RT side, our ROLB must remove himself from the box, at least splitting the difference in order to cover up the #2 WR and effectively cover his curl/flat zone. My base rule in this defense is for the Weak OLB (ROLB in this case) to split the difference when he has 2 WRs to his side. 
Just a very small change, every one's job remains the same.
The coverage (3) dictates which way to slant our DL, and which of the 2 OLBs will be rushing.

Cover 2
Now I will Explore Cover 2

We will start with the Safeties, positioned on each hash.  They have Deep half and are the alley player on runs.

The Corners are up jamming #1 WR, funneling him inside to the Safeties.  They have Flats on Pass, and now they are the Force players on outside runs.  They must force all run plays back inside.

In Cover 2, the 4 DBs take the 2 Deep Zones, and the 2 Flat Zones.  We are left with the 2 Hook/Curl Zones, and the middle zone.

We will drop the Strong side OLB (ROLB) into the hook/curl zone on pass.

The SILB(RILB) drops into the middle zone.

The WILB(LILB) drops into the weak side hook/curl zone.

Now we have all 5 underneath zones covered, and both deep zones covered.

Dropping the Strong Side OLB (ROLB) means we need a edge rusher/contain man to that side, so we will Slant our DL to the STRONG SIDE in Cover 2

Since all pass zones are accounted for, we are able to bring the WOLB (LOLB) off the edge, giving us our 4th rusher.

Again, the coverage dictated our front and run support.  Playing Cover 2, forces us to slant Strong.

Cover 1  (Man Free)
Now to explore Man Free Coverage. 

Now I must add that playing man Coverage does allow you to bring a 5th rusher, however you lose a lot of your run support because now your DBs are locked man to man, so they can not have their eyes in the backfield providing your run support.

Corners have #1 WR man to man
FS plays Center field, he is the only DB who can have his eyes on the play and he is still able to run the alley.  His job in Cover 1, is to save touchdowns. 

the SS has the TE man to man.  His alignment can be played with depending on his skills and the TE he is up against.  Some guys want to be in his face pressing, others do better playing off.

Both ILBs are responsible for the RBs out of the backfield.

that is it for pass responsibility, and we are still left with both OLBs, so they become our rushers.  Now that we have 5 rusher we can do multiple things up front.  We can slant strong and bring 2 off the strong side edge.  We can pinch our DTs and bring OLBs off the edge, really just about any thing will be ok here as far as a twist or stunt, as long as we have someone assigned to every gap.  In the diagram I have the DL slanting Strong so we can have a defender in every single gap and bring 2 off the strong side if the TE releases. 

Again the draw back of playing Man is that you lose out on those DBs with vision on the play, and therefore lose your secondary run support.  You risk getting beat deep.  That said in the past we have often have better athletes than our opponents so we have played a lot of man to man, figuring we will get to the Qb by bringing the extra man, before we will get beat in coverage.  This has worked well for us a good deal of the time, but we have been burned in it occasionally. 

Coach ABC,
I hope this has helped to clarify the idea of how your coverage will determine what you are doing with your front and how they tie into one another. 

Installing a No Huddle Offense

This Post is in response to my viewers choice post.  I will probably pick another topic to write on from the comments as well but I know a decent amount about No Huddle so I decided (since I have some down time ) to do a write about on some things to consider for coaches who want to apply no huddle to their offensive attacks.

No Huddle is basically broken down to the following

• Wristbands
• Hand/Body Signals
• Verbal

We use wristbands at my current school.  I like it because the players have to remember almost nothing.  It tells them exactly what to do. This method isn't as fast paced, but it is a very effective way of relaying the play into the entire team (all 11 players wear wristbands).  One down side of this is you got what you got, there is no adding a wrinkle, or changing something on a play mid game, whatever you have on the wristband is what you have, so as a coach you have to be very solid in your preparation when you are creating your wristbands.

Hand/body/verbal signals I will talk about together because they are essentially the same thing, a physical way of displaying all relevant play information to all players on the offense.

Every snap you need to be able to relay:

• Formation
• Any Motions
• Play name
• Play Direction (if it's a run)

I think that when using a No Huddle Offense (with signals) simplicity is key.  The more things you want to try to run the more the kids have to remember, therefore don't expect your kids to line up and run plays as fast as Oregon if you give them 100,000 things they need to remember.  There is an inverse relationship between how quickly one can make decisions ( choose what they have to do on a play) and the number of possible choices they have to choose from... i.e. The more more you put on their plate the longer it will take them to react to the signal and understand their responsibility on the given play. 
That being said I think you can definitely get your Base offense installed with no huddle signals without a problem.

Let us consider formations.  You must either stay in the same formation every time so the players can get reset right away, or when you call/signal in a new formation you begin doing it as soon as the previous play whistle blows. 

If you want to align in Trips Left, you better be screaming, or signaling it right away as soon as the previous play is blown dead, that way the kids will pop up and can immediately get set in the new formation for the next down. 

In terms of the actual motion and play calls I have 2 things that I firmly believe in

• Let the kids come up with their own words/signals
• Use a multi coach system to communicate directly with the position for hand signals

This first point is fairly simple, and I used it with my players this year.  If they are the ones who make up the names/signals they have more of a sense of ownership and I feel they will be more likely to remember the names/signals.  It is OK to give them some constraints, and try to group your plays together.
i.e. All runs are Cars, All quick game is Cities, all 5 step pass game are states, all screens are colleges...
It honestly doesn't matter what system you use, just pick something for each so the kids can associate it with the type of play, this will aid them in being able  to recall what it means. 

Now the second point, I feel is very important, for the Offensive Line.
 As an OL coach I do not want my guys ever having to think of formations, motions, what routes any WRs are running.  They know blocking schemes, and protections that is it.  That is all I want them to have to remember. 
Similarly the WRs do not care what my Ol is doing they want to know what route concept they have.

With all verbal calls you really do not need a multi coach system, because the words can tell multiple groups what they need to know.  If you use the same protection on all cities, and you are yelling out Cincy Cincy, then it is relaying the route concept to your skills, and the protection to your OL.

However if you want to hand signal plays in, it is best to do so in a multi coach system.
Your OL stares at the OL - getting a hand signal for protection, or run blocking scheme and direction
You signal into QB entire play because he needs to know it all.
RB coach signals to RB(s) what they are doing
WR coach signals to them what concept they have or if it is a run

You can have some dummy coaches on the sideline to throw opponents off.

You as the OC are the orchestrator, you have to get the play call and relay it to your assistants so that they can relate the important info to their individual position.  I like this because the players need only look to their position coach and they get their job on the next snap.  The players spend the most time with their position coach so they have a lot of time to be together and come up with signals/calls that they can all remember.

Another key to running No huddle, is as the OC you have to always have the next play ready.  If you are standing there mid game, with no idea what you want to do, then all 11 of your kids, and your assistants if they are signaling, are standing around too, doing nothing.
If speed isn't important for you then this isn't bad, but if your goal is to go HYPER DRIVE then you have to always be 1 play ahead.

Benefits of No Huddle
Everyone talks about wearing out the Defense, and limiting substitutions when using No Huddle, but I think the best benefit is not what it does for you in games, it is what it does for you at practice.  Not huddling up between plays at practice allows us to get at the VERY LEAST twice as many plays when we go team as we would be able to do if we huddled up.  Therefore you are getting that many more reps every single practice.  Imagine doubling or even tripling your reps per day, from spring ball in May, all through the Summer, and through the season. 

Final Thought

No huddle really comes down to creating another language... A Language used to describe necessary info to your kids.  It is just a matter of coming up what you and your kids can remember.

The beauty and flexibility of the POWER scheme

"Power" is possibly the most common offensive blocking scheme in football.  It has been used for decades in traditional 2 back, 1 TE sets... your standard "Pro" style play.  Every NFL team runs it.

But I am going to discuss the flexibility in using the "Power" Blocking scheme for multiple looks for a Spread Offense.

By "Power"  I mean, playside blocking down, backside Guard pulling for front side LB, backside tackle hinging, and the defensive end is usually kicked out by the FB.

I am going to explore 3 different ways you can utilize the Power scheme with your OL.

I do not care about the skill guys, I think their jobs are much easier, it all comes down to what your OL can do.  If I can run 3 completely different looking plays, all using the exact same thing for my OL then it is perfect because it increases the efficiency of the time I have with my OL.  I have increased the number of different plays I can run, but I haven't increased what my OL have to know or be able to do.  We can get a ton of reps at the Power scheme. I want as few schemes as possible up front, so to have 1 scheme, that does 3 different plays is huge.

Now I do not know if I will be running these plays this year, I just want to explore the flexibility of the Power scheme.

First... Your basic Power play out of the spread.

This can be done in single back, or out of 2 back gun sets. 

IN single back, it becomes an automatic Q Power run, if in 2 back it can be to the other RB.

Either way you get your playside RB kicking out the DE
Playside OL blocking down (or double teaming to backside backer), BSG pulling around to PSLB

Pretty simple play, but what I love about it, is that out of 1 back, your are overloading the defense to the playside.  QB Power overloads the defense, if they cover up all your WRs and keep a deep safety. You get a hat on a hat and everyone has a good angle.

The Next Concept I want to explore using the Power scheme is commonly known as "Flash"

Tog from Coachhuey has been using this Flash concept with veer blocking for a few seasons now, but I like it with Power blocking, solely because its nothing new I have to teach.  We do not run veer, but we will install Power every year, therefore there is nothing new to teach, my OL never need to see or hear the word Flash, their wristbands would only say Power Rt/Lt.

Flash is an inverted veer play.  The OL of course block power... you will see in this play there is no one to kick out the DE... instead the QB must read him.  This is one of the staples of Auburn's offensive attack with Cam Newton this year.  They use their speedy backs for the edge threat and try to pound newton inside on this.

Basically the QB is reading the DE.  If he crashes down with the tackles down block, then the QB gives the ball to the RB. 

*The RB must run a wide path so that the DE can not close down, then pursue him and make the play, when repping this in practice you have to set up a path of cones that the RB must run around every time so he gets used to the path he must take.

If the DE widens for the sweep then QB pulls it and gets up inside now.  He should be right on that pulling guards butt if he keeps the ball.

One thing I have seen that I love on this play is having the QB shuffle towards the DE on the mesh.

When watching Auburn run it, I think to myself I love it, but I am a little worried about a quicker DE who can widen at first, slow playing the QB, then crash back down as soon as QB pulls it. 
I believe I found the answer.  I was watching the Arizona HS state championship online a few weeks ago and i saw a team, Saguaro HS using the flash concept.  What they did that I loved was as soon as their QB caught the ball, he took 2 shuffle steps to the playside, this gave him longer to read the DE, and once he did decide to pull the ball he could get straight down hill.  Those 2 shuffles slow the mesh up just enough to force that DE to make a decision.

The last play I want to explore using the Power Scheme is Florida's "Crazy Option"

Power Scheme up front of course.

Q and F are running speed option off of the force player.

The H back is coming underneath for the shovel pass.

This is a triple option play.

If the DE widens, Qb will glide outside then shovel underneath DE.  H catches the shovel and turns up inside behind pulling guard.

If the DE crashes down then the QB keeps the ball, running outside and then will attack the pitch man OLB/SS and either keep or pitch to the F

FLEXIBILITY
So as you can see we have 3 completely different plays all used with the Power Scheme

When you consider that flash is a double option it is really like 2 plays. Crazy Option is a triple option play so it is like 3 plays in it self.  Plus the fact that you can run a standard Power out of 1 or 2 back gun sets (making it 2 different looking plays itself)

You can see that the power Scheme has given us 7 different looks/plays
Flash = 2
Crazy = 3
Power = 2

This is truly a very simple, flexible scheme that really has some bang for its buck.