Dum Coach

"Now if you run a 23 and then reverse formation it to a 24 do you consider that one play or 2? A lot of it is the same, but the line could get confussed.

It is not uncommon at the younger ages to not use the hashmarks but to always bring the ball back to the middle of the field. If this is the case in your league, "flip" is an unnecessary call and you would skip it entirely and ALWAYS line the SE up on your left. This is done because youth defensive coaches will load their talent to your right (They will usually divide up their studs so that there is one more to the right of your center than to your left.). By lining up in the base formation with the TE right and the SE left, you can virtually guarantee they'll make this adustment and overplay the TE side. This is to your advantage because your formation is set up to sweep left with your fastest player - or away from their best players. You're preserving the wing T philosophy of running "where they ain't".

If you do play the hashmarks, it's still not necessary to "flip" the formation just because you changed hashmarks. This is because the SE is basically the same distance from the QB as the SE. "Flipping" the formation doesn't effect your balance like it does a "pro" team. "Flipping" only changes the alignment of the opposing DE. So you would call "flip" only to move him - or what is called "making your formation fit the field" in the playbook. So, if you called "Flip" it means you're on the left hashmark. And it also means you plan to run either the "5" hole ("35 Toss") or the "8" hole ("48 Speed") to either go "inside" or "outside" the DE you just moved. Otherwise, "Flip" serves no other purpose. There is no need, for example, to run "23" and "24" and then call "Flip" and run "23" and "24" again. You gained no advantage by doing that. It's the same plays, with the same blockers, and with the same outcome. You just made everybody do something extra on the call for no reason (And thereby creating possible confusion.). So limit "Flip" to just two calls. One to the "5" hole and one to "8". Next, these are not "extra plays". Having "47 Speed" and ""Flip 48 Speed" is not two plays. It's two formations running the same play. If you're running a 12 play offense, they count as "one play" and not two. You can also think of "23" and "24" as one play. Also, "TE Over 33 Quick" and "HB Over 34 Quick" are one play. Everyone has the same "sum total" of learning. So, while the defense has seen 6 plays come at them in my examples here, you only taught 3. However, "Pass Left" and "Pass Right" count as TWO plays because everyone had to learn two different pass blocking schemes. So now you've taught 5 plays and have 7 left to go. But with those five, you can throw 8 different passes, and run one play to each back to both sides, giving the defense 6 runs to stop. That's 14 different plays and ball carriers to cover from the defensive view - but only 5 plays taught from the offensive view. Now if we add "36 Toss" and "47 Speed" and add "Flip", you've taught 7 plays but the defense must stop 18. And you still have 5 plays to go. These 5 plays could very quickly become 28 plays to the defense and, with "Over" calls, you could easily have 36 different ways to hit the "D" but while only teaching 12. This is why I stopped suggesting teaching 6 plays. Adding more creates an "exponential" attack. Everything just multiplies - Not just for you, but for the defense. To demonstrate, let's say your opponent scouts you. He might record 6 of your 36 different ways to hit him - And just to do that, he's going to do a lot of writing (And possibly need to bring extra paper.). So he'll be preparing to stop one out of every 6 plays you can run. Big deal. That's nothing. Come Saturday, you're going to beat his head in 30 different ways. He taught his guys 6. You taught yours 12. Exponential math. He can't keep up.