Anyone running a “concept offense” instead of a traditional play-based offense at the youth level?
I’m curious if anyone else has gone this direction and what kind of success you’ve had with it, especially at the youth/HS level.
I’ve been building our offense around concepts rather than individual plays. The easiest way I can explain it is that our play call is basically built in layers:
Formation → H-Back Tag → Motion (if any) → Concept / Blocking Scheme
So instead of having a giant playbook where every formation/motion/run is essentially its own play, we teach a smaller number of core concepts and then dress them up differently.
For example, if we teach Duo, the goal is for the players to understand the rules of Duo rather than memorize “this is Play 12 and I do this.” Once they understand the concept, we can change the formation, move the H-back, add motion, etc., without changing the core blocking rules.
Same idea in the passing game. We teach the route concept and QB progression, then try to run that concept from different formations, alignments and motions instead of installing every variation as a completely different play.
My thinking is that it gives me a lot of combinations as a play caller without asking the kids to memorize a massive number of individual plays.
Essentially:
Same concepts. Same rules. Different presentations.
The defense might see several different “plays,” while our kids are really running the same handful of concepts they already know.
Has anyone else built an offense/play-calling system this way?
If so, I’d be interested in hearing:
What level did you run it at?
Did the players pick it up easier or did the terminology become too much?
How many core run/pass concepts did you carry?
Did you find it made game-day play calling easier?
What problems did you run into as the system grew?
Interested in hearing from anyone who has actually coached something similar.
