Thoughts on Pre-Snap Motion

CoachLanc

CoachLanc

Six-man pro
Supporter
Grew up playing sixman and coached it early in my career and never saw a ton of it. Spending the last 4 years at the 4A and 5A level, I've seen motion used pretty close to every other play or so with either our offense or the opponents. After getting my new job and watching a lot of film from teams around the state, I'm still not seeing a lot of motion in the sixman world. Coaches, is there a reason you either like or dislike using motion pre-snap?
 
We use jet, orbit pretty regularly actually starting last season. Kids seem to enjoy it. It’s given us some good looks so planning on keeping it a part of the offense.
 
I used it quite a bit. Not just as part of the play, but to overload one side of the field to see how they adjusted. If they followed, I was typically interested to see if it opened the middle, or if they slid someone outside to help with containment. Most of my motions were used just to see what matchups we could try and exploit.
 
We don't use it motions a lot, mainly because we are boring and stay in one formation, lol. At times, we do motion our FB around to gain a number advantage, blocking angle, or match-up advantage. We've toyed with jet sweeps, but getting the timing down is pretty expensive in practice, and I didn't really like to spend that much time on a play that I might not even call.
 
Pre-snap motion could set up the opponent if it is shown one or two times early in the game with the ball going to whoever is motion. Show it at crunch time and throw it somewhere else. Possibly the center.
 
I was a 11 man coach all my life. This was the second year of coaching 6 man and I see motion as an advantage to getting more blockers in front of the runner. It also sets up teams who over shift to your motion to come back the other way. We use motion on about 80% of our players just for the above reasons and also to make the defense have to think a bit more before the snap.
 
When I was playing at Blum from 2012-15, we used motion a lot and it worked well for us. Whether you are using it for blockers, jets, or misdirections, it works well when you have the players for it. We ran spread 85% of the time during that time and I would say at least half the plays had motion in them.
 
Motion in 6man, in my opinion, gives away the play. If you're a coach and study film, usually the motion guy will be on a jet sweep/shovel, or come in and block. Defense knows the keys and it should be easy to stop with the right defense. 11man the motion guy usually signifies a man or zone defense. If the man follows the motion guy, then you're in a man defense, cover 1 or cover 3. It can be disguised but you're still in a man 1 or 3
 
Not a coach and never been a coach. My “opinion.” If a man in motion goes parallel to line away from center, I would think that someone better follow him. If the ends are flanked out already, I would think they would already have defensive men on them. In this case it would be three on three. Put a Taron Smith in the backfield with the ball being pitched to him from the QB. If they try to cover the first three with two men, someone should get free. QB and center can try to get open. OK everyone on three, prove me wrong. 1, 2, 3.
 
The man in motion almost guarantees he will have a step on most defensive players. Being able to turn up field while in full stride definitely places stress on defensive coverage. Whether a pass is thrown in that direction or not creates opportunities. Throwing in some misdirection plays will certainly muddy the defensive alignments. Then pitch outs up the gut become a little harder to defend. Fun stuff.
 
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