Wide Zone is Just Too Expensive...

…may be something you have heard other coaches say in the past or possibly even said yourself. The idea of an “expensive” play comes from the amount of practice reps needed to achieve proficiency at the scheme and the need for that to be in alignment with the number of times the play gets called in the game. No coach wants to spend half of their practice time on a play they call 5 times in a game. It’s a waste of precious time. If Wide Zone is half of our play calls on a Friday night and we spend half of our practice time on it, that is a successful exchange.

Why should I run Wide Zone if I have to spend so much time on it?

Wide Zone has so many built-in answers for what a defense can do. The zone run game in general is better-equipped to handle defensive multiplicity than most gap schemes because at the end of the day, you can always “run your track,” and block the first defender that shows up on it. Instead of having to have a specific play to attack each gap and practicing them individually, an offense can be extremely proficient at Wide Zone and 1-2 other, less-expensive plays, and still be able to attack every gap of the defense.

So why Wide Zone instead of Inside Zone? I love Wide Zone because not only does it have the ability to hit multiple gaps like Inside Zone, those gaps move. A linebacker may be responsible for the B gap, but by the time the B gap becomes the point of attack, it may be 10 yards away from where it was pre-snap, whereas on Inside Zone, the gap isn’t really moving. In my experience, Wide Zone provides more stress on gap integrity than Inside Zone because of that moving gap.

In my opinion, the zone run game is worth the “investment” because it has the versatility to adapt to nearly any front, and Wide Zone from the zone run game specifically being worth the investment because it puts the greatest stress on a defense.

What I don’t believe is that it has to be as expensive as it is made out to be, and tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 PM Central time, I am going to be speaking at Coach Ian Tatum’s free YouTube clinic on How To Make Wide Zone “Cheaper.” We are going to cover what current coaching points make it so expensive and some things I do differently to help reduce friction for the players. I am honored to be one of many amazing speakers at this all-day clinic, and it is totally FREE! If you’re interested in watching the clinic, you’ll be able to find it here tomorrow!

Paid subscribers are going to have access to my favorite drills that we run to rep our “cheaper” version of our Wide Zone scheme!