The Problem With Wristbands (I Need Your Help!)

I need your help maximizing my wristbands!

Wristbands are a tried and true way to call plays to the offense, and there are many ways to do so. The NFL model is how I started: only banding the QB, signal the number to the QB, and he reads it to the huddle. I wanted everybody else to have a sort of cheat sheet as their band. The idea was to hear the call in the huddle then check the band for that concept and what their position had. For example, the WRs would hear “Shade,” and the band would list what route each position had on everybody’s band. The biggest issue we had with that was with the play clock. You can scroll through the archives to see why I put a lot of plays on the band, but the process took too long from getting the play in, QB finding it on the band, relaying it to the huddle, and still lining up with a chance to see the defense at all before having to snap the ball.

Once we realized that wasn’t working, we moved to giving everybody the same band as the QB. It quickly ended up being hard for every player to read, so I changed up the format a bit to include the colors and numbers I have now. The column was the formation, and the cell next to the number had the play. My issue there became the players losing their cheat sheets.

All along the way, I had two main goals. One, I didn’t want to keep the same plays every week, just copy and pasting them to different parts of the band. Sure, we were going to run the same schemes, but we needed to dress them up differently week-to-week. Secondly, I didn’t want to have to take the time I was spending watching film and spend it individualizing wristbands by position - only giving the OL the blocking scheme instead of the whole play, WRs only getting their route or the defender they were supposed to block, etc., but by mid-season, that became inevitable.

Once we started individualizing bands, we played a lot faster because we were thinking a lot less. I didn’t have WRs trying to guess what route in the concept they had or the OL trying to mentally cut out everything except the blocking scheme. Look at the band, and do what it says. Some will argue that it’s a disservice to the players by not teaching them the game by not teaching them the whole concept. Here’s the thing - the amount of time it would take to teach everybody an entire concept could be spent practicing its execution. I will also be fortunate to have multiple players on the same team actually play in college. If they want to learn the scheme for fun or to maybe come back and coach one day, I would be more than happy to teach it to them outside of practice, but for the 99.9% that will play high school football and never interact with it again outside of being a fan, I think the best service to them is making their experience as positive as possible, part of which includes winning games. This season, one of the main lessons I learned was the less players think, the faster they play, and they try and think a lot more often than I thought.

All of this led me to my biggest off-season project and where I need your help: an automatic wristband playcall sheet with position-individualized wristbands. These are unlike any you have seen before. Again, I didn’t want to have to recycle the exact same plays every week, just copying and pasting the same calls to other parts of the band. What I have developed is a similar functionality to the other wristband play call sheets I have made. Just like the others, the idea is to fill out the playcall sheet over the weekend and the wristbands create themselves based on how the sheet gets filled out. The difference here is that now, instead of each player getting the whole play, they only get their part of the play, and it happens automatically as the playcall sheet is getting filled out. No more time spent individualizing wristbands!

Here’s where you come in.

This offseason, I’ve developed a tool I truly believe will change how we coach offense: a fully automated, position-specific wristband generator. No more hours spent copying plays or tweaking wristbands for each player—just fill out your playcall sheet, and every wristband updates automatically based on the player’s position.

I built it to save myself time, but now I want to make sure it works for you, too. Before I release it on CoachingShare, I’m opening up a limited beta test exclusively for paid subscribers. Your feedback will help me make sure this works across different systems, not just mine.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Full access to the auto-generating wristband tool (even after the beta test and the official launch)

• Use it for your spring game, 7-on-7s, or early installs

• A chance to shape a product designed to save you hours every week during the season

Next Friday, we’ll replace our monthly clinic with a live debrief session for beta testers—what worked, what didn’t, and how we can make it even better.

The file is already in the premium Google Drive, accessible to paid subscribers. If you’re not a paid member yet, consider subscribing—even for just one month. At $5, it's cheaper than what this tool will cost once it officially launches.

Let’s spend more time coaching and less time formatting. If you’re in, grab the file, sign up for the Google Meet next Friday (below the paywall), try it out, and I’ll see you next Friday.