Everyone knows that the tempo of the no huddle offense forces the defense to play at your pace.

What some people aren’t aware of is how effective and high-level communication can stress the defense in more ways than just manipulating the pace of the game.

That’s why today we’re going to talk about how we use hand signals to communicate formation tags with our players that allow us to stress the defense in unique ways using the no huddle offense. 

Learn how to master every aspect of the no huddle offense in our latest release: The Complete No Huddle Playbook

How We Use the Flip Tag to Create Mismatches

One of our go-to formation tags is what we call “flip.

Flip switches the position of the RB with the position that is tagged in the call. 

We communicate this to the players on the field by having our signaler stick their right arm stretched straight out in front of them with their palm up, and then flipped upside down.

Above is Trips Rt X Flip Fresno. This details the formation and play as well as the tag of switching the X receiver and the RB.

This creates a great personnel mismatch where we can usually get a talented receiver on a LB out of the backfield while the RB is working on the perimeter.

What makes this so great, is that by combining the use of tempo with the formation tag, we force the defense to scramble and try to fix their matchups which creates frequent mistakes and blown responsibilities on their end.

In addition to flip, another one of our favorite formational adjustments is the “flex” tag which is signaled by simply flexing the right arm.

The flex tag changes the formation by having the Y line up in a WR Stance on the LOS, thus separating him from the offensive line.

This is how we get one of our largest and most athletic playmakers on the field matched up with someone who is slower (a LB) or much smaller than them (a DB).

These are just two of 15+ formation tags that we have easy to remember signals for in our no huddle offense!

In The Complete No Huddle Playbook we go into more detail about formation tags and high-level hand signal play calling!

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