How do you practice fast? Make sure your Scouts keep up!
Whether you play at a hair-on-fire pace or simply like to get the most reps out of a practice period, nothing drives offensive coordinator nuts like waiting on the scout defense to huddle up, look at a card, re-look at the card, and get lined up. Sure you can line the defense up and keep them in the same look for multiple plays, but that’s unrealistic and doesn’t prepare you for the various looks and attacks the defense can throw at you. Many coaches therefore view cards as the only answer but, quite plainly, they are a pain.
Our offense runs the gamut of tempos, from huddling up to put the ball down and go. Being a rep-guy, we will always practice our up-tempo offense during the prep period against scouts in order to cram as many plays as possible into what time is allotted to us. To avoid the card dilemma of always having to wait for the defense to align, we’ve gone to a wrist band system for our scout defense. Each position has a personalized band that contains the play number, their alignment, and assignment. Everything is in our defensive terminology so our kids should know what to do.
The negatives of this system are in the initial set-up and the data input. Once the set-up is done, however, it is done forever. After I finalize my practice script, I quickly sketch out each formation and the look I want to see. Unlike drawing cards, neatness doesn’t count so this step only takes about 20 seconds per play. Once done, I’m ready to put my data into the system.
Setting up the Master Template
Using an Excel worksheet, each position is assigned a column with each row representing a play number. To save time, I will never script any more than 20 plays on a wristband (we will run many more than that, but will start back at the top and run a different play from the same formation and look). Table 1 shows what the Master Template would look like:
Linking the Wristband Sheets
To save paper, I will usually have either 3 or 4 wristbands on a worksheet. The only work needed on these pages is in the initial setup because they will be linked to your Master page. For those that aren’t familiar with how to link cells on one worksheet to cells on another, Table 2 shows the first wristband on the worksheet titled “DL”.
In order to link the cells from the Master worksheet to the appropriate cells in each wristband, begin by selecting cell B2 (highlighted) and type in the formula “=(Master!B2)”, which is Stud’s alignment for play 1 on the Master worksheet. From there it’s simple to fill in the remaining cells in the wristband. Reselect cell B2 and expand the outline to cell C2 (the assignment for play 2 should now appear). Now drag both cells down to play 10; all of those cells should now have the appropriate data as well. Select cell F2, enter the formula “=(Master!B12)” and repeat the steps.
Using this system, the offense is able to move as fast as they desire and still get a good, diverse look from the defensive scouts. If the scouts substitute in and out, they can do so seamlessly and not slow down the offensive tempo. I know this system won’t be for everyone, but I believe this is a great tool for those willing to put in the time (and never want to see a darn card again).
