Understanding the Zone Scheme to maximize performance.

The most skilled athlete will have little affect on the outcome of the game if she does not know how to play or does not know the rules of the game. It is the leader’s or coach’s job to teach players how to play and the rules of the game and then to fine-tune their talents to mesh with the skills of the other team members to provide a well-oiled fully functional team.

It is now time to talk about some common strategies in the game of football. From an offensive perspective, there are a couple common run game strategies. One strategy is power-oriented.

Power teams want to punch a hole through the defense. It is a straight-ahead downhill approach. If you encounter a brick wall, this approach would entail blasting a hole in it.

Another strategy is the zone scheme. This is more of a speed and finesse approach where you make the big strong obstacles run and pursue, rather than use their size and strength to plug a hole.

The zone running attack makes the defense the whole width of the football field. The offensive line players with more of a lateral approach, they double team or attempt to power defensive players off the ball. Zone scheme lineman are lighter and quicker than power teams. It is important they can attack defenders aligned outside or inside of their zone, rather than right in front of them.

With the offensive lineman playing lateral, it forces the defense to stretch with them. As the defense expands to cover the width of the field, a separation occurs between defenders. This separation is what the running back or ball carrier is looking to attack.  It will create enough space for the ball carrier to attack and gain valuable running yards.

If the defenders do not expand the zone scheme, the ball carrier will circle the defense with the opportunity for a long run!

Life will sometimes attempt an end run or throw us for a loss as well. It is how well prepared we are for most anything life can throw at us that will help keep the rest of our team strong and able to fight to win.