Defensive teams that emphasize aligning correctly are always aware of the number and type of formations that the next opponent uses. We need to know not only which formations our opponent uses but the frequency of that use. And as an extension of that information we would like to know what plays our opponent runs from each formation. This information will help us plan our defensive practices.

Along with individual and group time on Mondays and Tuesdays we take one fifteen minute alignment period and one twenty minute period of "live scrimmage" each day. We will also take twenty minutes to practice aligning correctly on Wednesday and fifteen minutes on Thursday during our pre-game practice/walk thru. Adding all that time together we get about an hour of alignment and forty minutes of "live scrimmage" each week. This gives us a chance to align to approximately 100 formations, a hefty number until you consider that we need to spread that out between our first and second team players. The significance of that number declines even more when we consider the fact that formations are more often than not defended differently from different hash marks. Add to that areas of the field; coming out of the end zone, middle of the field and red zone, (going into the end zone) to add even more complexity to an already complex situation. Down and distance tendencies will also need to be considered. We count and keep track of "alignment" drills. These could take the form of three-step full team key read drills, pursuit drills and three quarter speed "thud" drills.

We take our one hundred plays and divide it 75/25, 1st team to 2nd team. Of those 75 1st team plays we'll get 27 on each hash and 21 from the middle of the field. Divide the 27 plays from the right hash to 6 coming out of the end zone, 13 in the middle of the field and 9 in the red zone. Now, regardless of the type and number of formations our opponent runs, we'll get 13 plays from the middle of the field (25 to 25 yard line) on the right hash with our first team, but only five or six of those might be "live" with the other opportunities being found during "alignment" drills.

Here is our "Formation Practice Chart" that we use to help plan and keep track of this during the practice week.

Click here to see our "Formation Practice Chart".

To complete this chart we look at data from this week's opponent's last two games and compare it with our game with this week's opponent last year. We'll use Coach's Video Assistant and create one of the simple shortcut reports called "Formation".

Click here to see the formations report.

You can see from the report that the formation "Power" was used 16% of the time, but over half of those were used inside their opponent's 25 yard line. Inside the 25 yard line the specific play types were split between zone and iso, with only two pass plays.Further analysis shows that when this formation is used in the middle of the field, (-25 to 25) the opponent is just as likely to pass or run a trick play as to run an iso or zone off tackle play. In this case Power is defined as two tight ends and a power I backfield.

We'll use our formation report from Coach's Video Assistant and add 16 instances of Power to our Formation Alignment Chart. Of those 16, 8 will be inside our 25 yard line. We'll want at least 6 of the 16 to be full contact plays from the line of scrimmage.

Thunder formations (two Tight Ends, two Flankers) were used 12% of the time with an equal number on each hash. The biggest chunk of those were found in the middle of the field, from the -25 to +25 yard line. These plays were spread pretty evenly from hash to hash with the majority resulting in running plays of which every one was a zone (outside stretch) play.

The process of filling up the chart, making a decision of what plays to run from which formation will continue until all the slots are filled. We will also consult a separate report named "Favorite Runs".

Click here to see the run report.

This report is similar to "Favorite Formations" in that the highest frequency run play is found at the top and in this case sorted by formation. This really helps us while we fill out our "Formation Practice Chart". When the chart is finished we'll take out our favorite colored highlighter pen and highlight the plays we want to run during "live" team, "goal line" team etc.

As we work the chart during the first three days of practice we strive for 100% accuracy in alignment by the end of practice on Wednesday. Whenever possible, Thursday is a day for confidence building and immediate reactions, not teaching