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Flexible Formations – Baldwin-Wallace’s offense is simple to learn but difficult to defend.by: Keith GrabowskiOffensive Coordinator Baldwin-Wallace College © More from this issue Having the ability to align in virtually any formation and easily get the match-ups desired are the main components of our multiple spread offense. In order to have the ability to do this, the offense must have a flexible formation system that gains an advantage in the way that it is taught, so that for the players it is easy to learn and align. Yet, for a defense, it is difficult to defend because of all of the possible match-ups and adjustments. This system accomplishes exactly that because it has the ability to get into multiple personnel groupings, it uses varying types of movement, and it can get into just about any formation that can be imagined. This system de-emphasizes the memorization approach. Many systems require that each player memorize his alignment in every formation call, thus limiting the number of formations that can be effectively used. With our new system, players are responsible for learning only the terminology that applies to their specific alignment. Reviewing the playbooks of a recent Super Bowl Champion and a popular college version of the spread offense, revealed up to 78 words used in different combinations to create their respective formation systems. Calls as long as five words were used to create an alignment. We aim to be efficient in the number of words and even syllables in the call. We use only 18 words and ten single digit numbers in our system. When we combine these small pieces of information, our match-ups and alignments become simple for us, yet complex to defend. The system allows for multiple backfield sets, unbalanced formations, empty formations, quads, bunch, and any other alignment that an offense may want to position players. In studying formations and knowing the rules of the game, we know that the offense must employ at least seven players on the line of scrimmage, and most offensive formation systems desire to stretch the defense horizontally or add gaps to defend by placing multiple receivers, slots, or wings near the line of scrimmage. With this in mind, we have identified a common set of “surfaces” in which three receivers (which we label as X, Y and Z) align. From this point on, we will refer to X, Y and Z alignments as a “surface.” These surfaces serve as our starting point for aligning in a formation. When X, Y, and Z hear (or see) the surface, they now have all of the information they need to align. We will have a simple set of adjustments that can be tagged to the surface to slightly vary the X, Y, and Z alignments which will be discussed later. For teaching purposes, because we grouped and named our surfaces, there is a common feature to which our players could link their learning. Again, for us, this is a dramatic change from our previous system which was pure memorization. Our six main surfaces are diagrammed. Surfaces that begin with R/L indicate a double width surface with a TE (See Diagrams 1-4). Slot twins formations are named with compass directions (See Diagrams 5-8). And two tight end surfaces use animal names (See Diagrams 9-12). The remaining two offensive skill players alignments (J and S) will be communicated with a simple number system. The backs and quarterback will assume an under center “I” formation if a number is not added to the surface call. If one number is tagged for the J alignment, then Pistol will become the default set. We prefer the Pistol set because of the advantages it possesses in both the run and pass game. A few other tags will be used for common backfield adjustments to add to the ease of communication (See Diagram 13). Tags: Empty formations: For multiple shifts and motions, a word communicating that movement will be used. For ease of communication, the movement will give the surface and post-movement alignment, and then a learned initial placement and movement rules of the players involved will be executed. Because movement and shifts are used to attack a player or adjustment of the defense discovered during the video analysis of a defense, these movements will be used on a week-to-week basis by game plan. Therefore, the learning of these movements becomes more manageable and easier to execute because they are given the proper repetition during the game week preparation. |
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