What is a Safety in Football? (Complete Position Guide)

By Coach Martin | Football Positions

Safeties have that rare combination of speed and coverage skill of traditional cornerbacks, with the strength, vision, and tackling ability of traditional linebackers.

For this reason, great safeties don’t come along every day.

If you want to be a great safety, you need to work hard on getting strong, building your speed, learning offenses, and making sure you’re a sound tackler.

Click Here to Read This Post

What is a Flag in Football? (Full Explanation)

By Coach Martin | Football Basics

During a football game, you may hear announcers say a referee has thrown a flag.

If you’re new to the game, this may seem foreign and confusing to you, since you almost definitely didn’t see someone on the field throw a big flag during the play.

The flag in football refers to a penalty flag that a referee throws to the ground to signify that a team committed a penalty.

Click Here to Read This Post

What is 21 Personnel in Football? (Full Explanation)

By Coach Martin | Football Offense

Coaches in football give different offensive alignments different names, based on how many players at each position are on the field.

Doing this simplifies the call so that the defense can quickly recognize the type of offense they’ll face, as well as what’s most likely going to come at them as a result.

These are what’s known as personnel groupings, and one of them is the 21 Personnel.

Click Here to Read This Post

Flag Football Rules (Easy Beginners Guide)

By Coach Martin | Football Rules & Penalties

Flag football is becoming an increasingly popular version of the sport, especially at the youth level.

For one, it doesn’t have any of the hard-hitting regular football does, which helps protect younger bodies from the wear and tear of the game.

This is especially important for younger kids, as their bodies are not fully grown and developed yet, and their growth could seriously suffer from major injuries too early on in life.

Click Here to Read This Post

What is the Box in Football? (Full Explanation)

By Coach Martin | Football Basics

There are a number of different terms used in football to signify areas of the field.

You may have heard some of these terms such as the “Slot,” the “Pocket” or the “Box.”

The latter term is often used in conjunction with describing how the defense lines up on a particular play.

Click Here to Read This Post

What is an Illegal Forward Pass in Football? (Explained)

By Coach Martin | Football Rules & Penalties

Every play on offense is one of two things — either a run or a pass.

After the snap, the quarterback usually does one of two things: either hand the ball off (or toss it) to the running back for a run upfield, or pass it forward to one of their receivers.

With majority of teams preferring to run the ball back in the day, the forward pass was a revolutionary change in football more than 100 years ago.

Teams use these plays to advance the ball quickly downfield, taking advantage of various size/speed mismatches that wide receivers, tight ends and even running backs have over their defenders.

Click Here to Read This Post

Pro Set Formation (Coaching Guide With Images)

By Coach Martin | Football Offense

The Pro Set formation was a very popular offensive alignment most teams in the NFL used for a number of years.

The fact that it was so popular in the NFL is where it got its name from.

While the Pro Set isn’t as popular as it once was, some professional teams still make use of it in certain situations — and depending on the skill level of the players.

Click Here to Read This Post

What is a Flanker in Football? (Full Explanation)

By Coach Martin | Football Positions

The basic positions in football are common knowledge to most people who play, coach or love to watch the game.

Mention a quarterback, running back, linebacker, tight end, safety and wide receiver, and many people will know exactly what you’re talking about.

People use these position groups to help categorize players into buckets of other similar players who will have certain responsibilities on the field.

Click Here to Read This Post

NFL Overtime Rules (Regular Season & Playoffs Explained)

By Coach Martin | Football Rules & Penalties

Every NFL game is split into four quarters of 15 minutes each.

The first and the second quarter make up the first half, while the third and fourth make up the second half.

When the game clock ticks to zero at the end of the fourth quarter, the team with more points on the scoreboard is the winner.

Click Here to Read This Post

The 3 Football Stances Every Player Must Know

By Coach Martin | Football Basics

No matter what position you play in football, you’ll need to set up in a specific stance before each play starts.

This stance, or way that you position your body, will help you get started off on the right foot when the play begins.

There are three main stances used in football — used by different players in different situations, as they allow the player to start the play off in the best position as possible.

Understanding these stances and what their strengths are is important so you know when to use them during a game.

Click Here to Read This Post