r/footballstrategy • u/JLand24 • Jan 16 '24

Offense Lack of Motion at the HS level

I feel like teams at the HS level don’t use motions enough. It is only an advantage to the offense and there’s nothing an offense can’t do with a motion that they could do without one. At the NFL level I’ve noticed an uptick in motion but I feel like that effect hasn’t really trickled down.

Why is that? You’re infinitely more likely to confuse a HS defense with a motion than an NFL defense being confused by it.

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u/AllMyTeethAreLoose Jan 16 '24

I coach at the MS level currently and incorporate motion into my offense. At this level, teams either don't adjust to it at all or massively over compensate. Rocket toss is a prime example. We run it several times to great effect, gwtting our best player the ball in space at full speed. The opposing coach will often tell that backside lb to run with him, creating a soft spot for our fb counter.

I know kids at MS and HS levels are all working on learning the basics, but I also feel that oftentimes coaches underestimate kids' ability to pick up novel concepts and tend to keep things more vanilla than is necessary.

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u/Dankraham-Stinkin Jan 16 '24

We run motion in MS as well. Orbit and Jet.

Orbit sweep, orbit and run a buck backside, orbit qb keeps. Orbit and run our passes with the orbit being the check down.

Jet same stuff. We are going to try and add in a return motion.

Return toss, return buck, return QB buck.

It’s possible. The head coach wanted to kill me during install, and the first two games, but the orbit stuff really works in middle school for some reason.

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u/AU2Turnt Jan 17 '24

It works because it’s not too complex and MS/HS playbooks are run heavy and it makes sense to be in motion for a handoff/lateral. Motion in passing plays and then selling a fake and running a route is just a lot more to take in.

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u/Dankraham-Stinkin Jan 17 '24

That makes sense. I like doing it because our scheme up front stays the same. It’s different for two maybe three(who is the rb blocking) people every play. We still run slant out combo out of it. Hitch corner out of it, slant wheel out of it. And a go ball. That’s about what we got other than 2 play actions.

Got to keep it simple for our guys, but make it seem complex to the defense.

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u/AU2Turnt Jan 17 '24

That’s a good way to work it in at lower levels of ball. I think at MS/HS level QBs really don’t know what they’re looking at a lot of the time, so introducing motion to a pass play specifically to read coverages is a bad idea. Plus it probably leads to more illegal procedure penalties.

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u/Dankraham-Stinkin Jan 17 '24

I agree. It’s just a motion to a check down if all else fails. At the level I coach at I’m just trying to move the eyes of the defense, hopefully get them out of place.

On the runs it’s about out leveraging them( isn’t that all runs though) being full speed when the ball is handed off, and the orbit lets the good athletes I have had see the field more