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There are so many different ways to play the game of football. Over the past ten years FirstDown PlayBook has expanded our knowledge into new areas. 6  man football, 8 man football, 9 man football and 12 man football has been a large part of this. We group these together to make our 6/8/9/12 man football section. With each of these slightly different versions of football comes nuances that make your preparation slightly different. While at the same time gap control is gap control and an option is an option. Here at FirstDown PlayBook our goal has been to initially provide 6/8/9/12 man football coaches a base to work with. This way as we grow we can become more complex and provide a deeper menu of plays, defenses and special teams schemes. The important thing to remember is that you can edit each and every play in FirstDown PlayBook. This means that you can always adapt a play to fit your needs from this vast library . The other thing to remember is that FirstDown PlayBook provides age based plays for 6/8/9/12 man football too.
The FirstDown PlayBook All 22 Plays section is pretty straightforward. It is where we draw up some of the weekend’s best football plays in the fall. Every week across the country we see unique schemes or well executed plays that deserves to be highlighted. There are others who do this but here's the difference. FirstDown PlayBook coaches are able to drag these plays over into their very own playbooks. They can then edit them if they want to use these plays. Every week you can expect to see a play or two on our Coaches Community website that we have installed into FirstDown PlayBook. Of course if you are a FirstDown PlayBook member you get the editable version too. If you have an All 22 play that you want us to draw just let us know. We will take suggestions for NFL and college plays. We will also draw up high school football and youth football plays too!
FirstDown PlayBook opens up our vast network of professionals so that you can benefit from their experience. Our contributors come from several different backgrounds. The great thing about this page is that we can archive them so that you always have them at your fingertips. You will find help with being a sports parent, mental training and even help with strength and conditioning for your young football player. There is a lot more that goes into being a football parent or coach than the X' and O's. This page will offer you a home for quick tips about how to lift your young player when they are down. It will also help you with tempering the enthusiasm as they find success. So we are exciting to have this contributor page up and running for you. We also want you to know that if you feel that you have something to offer, please let us know!
Finding defensive football help on the web that can actually help you is a rare feat. At first glance it looks like there is an abundance of resources. Scratch beneath the surface and you find that there is nothing but the surface. Defense is rarely addressed correctly on the internet. The internet is a pretty easy place to coach football. There is no pressure to get your call in on time. You normally draw one play, defense or special teams scheme up and you do it vs a good look. Coaching on Friday nights and even at practice is not quite like that. Ask any experienced defensive coach and they will tell you getting lined up in a sound defense to all of the different formations is the biggest challenge. This is not to mention all of the trades, shifts and motions that offensive coordinators like to throw at you. When we draw up your FirstDown PlayBook defensive football help we try to keep all of this in mind. We take all of this into consideration when we design the FirstDown PlayBook varsity and youth defensive sections. We get great satisfaction when we show this to a high school or college defensive coordinator and their eyes light up.
FirstDown PlayBook consists of football coaches who have worked in the NFL for many years. We understand the importance of football drills & fundamentals. Yes, we have taken a different approach by starting with plays and schemes but there is an endgame. One that you will like. FirstDown PlayBook is adding Coaching Tools to your “Find a Play” area on the website. We are going to be filling you in with much more about this over the course of 2022. We just wanted to point it out to those of you who are becoming accustomed to the “Find a Play” dashboard. Coaching Tools is an area that will open up many areas for you and us on FirstDown PlayBook. This area will be used to branch out into tools that you need as a coach. We are now offering an area where you go to for offensive templates as well a defensive templates. This will also be an area where we begin to share drills by position with you. The reason we are mentioning this here os that from time to time we update you about this right here. The FirstDown PlayBook Drills & Fundamentals category will keep you updated on our position drill installs.
One of the biggest things that sets FirstDown PlayBook apart is that we have not forgotten the football. Yes, we provide you with the best playbook technology available. However, we also provide you with regular FirstDown Playbook installs that are relevant to coaching your football team. The installs have been a regular part of FirstDown PlayBook now for a decade. We have adjusted how we alert you to them over the years. One of the best ways to keep up with them if you are not a member is to follow your Coaches Community website. We will give you a taste of what the FirstDown PlayBook coaches are getting each week there. If you are a FirstDown PlayBook coach the installs will show up in your dashboard. We will also add an install tag so that they are very easy to find. So keep your head on a swivel because FirstDown PlayBook is always adding new ways to help your football team.
With the rise of flag football's popularity over the past few years, there has been a growing need for pre-drawn flag football plays and tools specifically designed for flag football coaches and players to help them elevate their game. Fortunately, FirstDown PlayBook is here to help! Our Coaches Community site provides invaluable flag football coaching advice, and our Flag Football Play Library & Drawing Software gives coaches the tools they need to get ahead in this increasingly competitive sport. Easily search our play library to find flag football plays that fit your team's offense and/or defense perfectly! We have hundreds of editable 4v4, 5v5, 6v6, 7v7, and 8v8 flag football plays drawn up by professional coaches, with detailed coaching notes included in each one. You can also find printable flag football playbooks, wristband sheets, and practice schedules, or create your own! In combination with the advice offered in our Coaches Community, our online play drawing & playbook tool will change the way you look at flag football plays and playbooks forever.
High school football coaches are at the core of what FirstDown PlayBook does. Yes, we serve all of the coaching communities. No doubt about that. However, we understand that there is a degree of pressure on the prep coaches with little to no pay in return. We offer high school coaches advantages in many ways. The first obvious way is a football playbook tool that saves you time and helps you coach better. FirstDown PlayBook did not forget the football when we were developing this tool either. There are over 35,000 football plays in FirstDown PlayBook. This gives a high school football coach a big head start when it comes to getting ready for playbooks and weekly installs. We have also added practice scripts, practice schedules, text wristband sheets and FirstDown PlayBook also is the only football coach reference site out there that offers high school football coaches help every day. We do this on the Coaches Community website every day. Here's the kicker, at no charge. Why? Because FirstDown PlayBook is for coaches by coaches.
This FirstDown PlayBook category will house any and all blog posts about offense. The style of offense may vary as we serve many different versions of football. However, the mission here remains focused on offense. There will be run game help that will include the various run categories like trap, sweeps and of power run game. The numbers may vary too as we include, not just 11 man football but also other versions like 8 and 9 man football. FirstDown Playbook has always been the industry leader when it comes to the passing game. This will never change. We will provide a lot of help in this area for coaches at all levels. This includes 7on7 coaches too.
The passing game is one of FirstDown PlayBooks cornerstone areas. It is actually where we started when we founded the company. Why? It is probably the most vast and diverse area in our game. The passing game is one of the most complicated areas who it comes to game planning. FirstDown PlayBook understands that being an offensive coordinator can be a lonely job on Sunday nights when it’s time to begin putting together the game plan. This is why we have set FirstDown PlayBook in a way that makes it very easy to find ideas as you game plan by yourself. You can look at what you are currently doing and find ideas that are similar. The Coaches Community website will keep you updated on anything we have installed in the passing game. What makes it easy is you just go to the passing game category and it's all detailed out for you. Don't fall asleep on the help FirstDown PlayBook offers a 7on7 coach either. When you use this resource you have an NFL coach (or 30) on your staff.
The FirstDown PlayBook Coaches Community would not be complete without a category devoted to the run game. When you look across the levels of football it is hard to argue that the most complicated part of the game is how to block the run game. FirstDown PlayBook devotes so much time to this on our PlayBook site. It just makes sense to highlight it here as well. FirstDown PlayBook blocks up every run play vs multiple defenses. If you are a high school coach or older, we block up the defenses you are likely to see. If you coach youth football and your 8 year old quarterback cannot throw the ball well yet, we take that into consideration too. We block our youth football runs up against heavy run stop youth football defenses. This is what you are going to see at the youth level. So the run game category is a place where you can get a run play pointer or two. You can also keep up they the latest run game installs on FirstDown PlayBook!
We receive a lot of compliments about our Special Teams section on FirstDown PlayBook and it's not surprising. Oh we know that the Special Teams section is not why most coaches sign up but once the season gets going and the bullets start flying, that's when this comes in very handy. In fact we had one head coach who told us that his staff is using FirstDown PlayBook as reference tool and his offensive and defensive staffs really found it useful. Then he went on to say that in his opinion the real plus for his staff was the Special Teams section. This does not surprise us. During the thirty some years that I coached I would always visit with high school or college coaches in the off season and one common request was "Coach, do you have any good stuff on Special Teams?" I would always try to spend time on it but that's the problem. There is only so much time. That's what makes FirstDown PlayBook's Special Teams section so great. It is essentially a Special Teams clinic on your laptop, tablet or smartphone.
FirstDown PlayBook has drawn more football plays than anyone else on the planet. (any challengers?) However, the technology part we cannot take credit for. We have been drawing football plays for the better part of our adult life.  That's why we are pretty darn good at it. It's also why we were so dissatisfied with the drawing tool technology that was out there in past years. Fast forward to today and you will see that we obviously decided to do something about it. When you use the FirstDown PlayBook technology you immediately see how easy it is, not to mention how it makes you look like you have spent some time as an NFL quality control coach. This category will help you keep up with the latest technology installs to FirstDown PlayBook.
Coaching a youth football team is hard. It requires a lot of time before, during and after practice. FirstDown PlayBook™ understands that coaching youth football is about more than just plays. We know that the proper fundamentals and techniques must be taught to insure safety and success. Fortunately, our Coaches Community site provides you with everything you need to get started. Check out some of our youth football coaching articles below, or head over to our Youth Football Play Library & Play Drawing & Software to quickly and easily find the best youth football plays for your team, and then edit them to your liking! (Our youth football plays were drawn by real NFL coaches, and include coaching notes and player assignments!)