Game Plan Basics

[Mitch-Oilers]

As noted in the PPP rules, there is a requirement to include certain play categories in your plan. There is also a minimum requirement of plays you must include for each play category. However, how you determine which plays to include in your plan can be a mystery.

Game planning

There are many different methods coaches use to prepare for their opponents. I recommend using the WinLog or Logger utilities to build a practice PPP based on your opponent's tendencies and preferred play calls. Once you have the practice PPP built, you can practice multiple sets of plays against your opponent and determine which plays work best for your team.

Stick to the minimum required plays

While game planning, you may discover several plays from a single play category that you believe work well against your opponent. You may be tempted to include all of them in your gameplan. I recommend you narrow those plays down to the required minimum plays for the category.

Let me show you an example of why narrowing your plays down is important:

During your scouting and game planning, you find 8 PML plays that look good to use on 1st down. Combined, these plays avg 10 yards per pass. However, 4 of these plays avg 15 yards per pass, 1 play avg 10 yards per pass and 3 plays avg 9 yards per pass. This means 50% of your PML plays avg 15 yards per pass. Now, let’s say you have your profile set to call PML plays at 50%. This means you have a 25% chance that a 15 yard per pass play is called. However, if you narrowed your game plan down to only 5 PML plays that included the 4 plays that averaged 15 yards and the 1 play that averaged 10 yards, this increases the probability of calling a 15 yard pass play to 40%.

This logic works for both offense and defensive game plans.