Teaching Flag Football Man Coverage Technique
When you coach an NFL Flag football defense, one of the first things you are going to need to teach is flag football man coverage technique. Why? Well because it is probably going to be what you play on defense almost every snap.
There are some principles involved with the game of football that just don’t change. One of them is that you have to know where your leverage is on man coverage. This means flag football defense too.
To simplify this some it normally means that, as a defender, you need to stay on the inside of the player you are defending. The only exception to this is if you have a free defender playing inside of you who can help you. This defender is referred to as a “Hole” or “Rat” player.
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When you are coaching young NFL Flag football players you are not going to be playing Hole or Rat coverage. You will be playing pure man or man free with your flag football defense. Why? Well there just are not enough players to play an extra defender free in the middle. After all, you rush the quarterback with one player and the rest are locked up in man coverage.
Good Flag Football Man Coverage Defenders Take Away The Inside Routes First
This means that your players want to stay on the inside of the receiver who they are covering. This means 2 Back formations too. This will ensure that your defenders are taking away the easiest routes. Easiest is normally another way to say shortest. Inside routes like slants, drags and crossing routes are the easiest for a quarterback to complete so they should be taken away first.
Good flag football man coverage defenders will take away the inside routes first. More experienced man coverage players can play more head up while a young player should go ahead and line up inside. Your defenders should be take into account the depth that they line up as well. Experienced defenders are going to be more comfortable playing press, however, younger players need to play off more.
Related: What If Your Flag Football Fade Is Covered?
This includes when their receiver goes in motion. Today we have put together a short video that explains why and how you want to teach this important defensive principle. Please keep in mind that this technique can be used with your youth football defense too. You will just need to teach a different man coverage count system.
FirstDown PlayBook offers you plenty of flag football offensive help too. There are 12 different 5v5 Flag Football for you to consider for your NFL Flag offense. Tap on any one of the tiles below to visit the article describing that formation. After reading the article then go join FirstDown PlayBook and get busy coaching your NFL Flag team with the best flag football playbook available!
