Flag Football Receiver Routes

Here's a coaching tutorial to help your Wide Receivers learn and practice the basics.

Principles covered:

• Catching the ball: Diamond & Pinkies
• Stance
• Lining up on the line of scrimmage
• Route running
• 5 Routes to perfect
• 1. Post
• 2. Quick slant
• 3. Out
• 4. In
• 5. Fly

Practice these principles consistency to improve WR technique and to boost receptions. Catch for more yards, more first downs, more touchdowns, win more games, and have tons of fun!

Help your players become star wide receivers.

Perfect Your Team's Skills with Our Flag Football Receiver Routes

Do you want to elevate your team's flag football plays to the next level? Become the best coach you can be and perfect the skills of each and every player in your team. Any receiver on your team should have key fundamental skills and it is your job as their coach to ensure they reach their fullest potential.

We understand that there are many elements to coaching a flag football team and rest assured we are by your side every step of the way. With our flag football routes, you can maximize your player's skills and create meaningful plays that can be translated into game time.

Everything You Need to Know About Receiving Routes in Flag Football

Learn from Coach D himself, the flag football equipment that you need to use, the best receiver routes and the skills you need to look for in a player in order to achieve success. Let's break these down:

Equipment

The main goal for the receiver is to catch the ball and get the first down or score a touchdown, avoiding being caught by the defense. In order to catch each and every pass, a quality pair of gloves is needed. This piece of equipment is non-negotiable and will give your player the grip to catch the ball and keep hold of it throughout their route.

Routes

From basic, fundamental routes to longer, complex routes, it is important for your players to have a wide selection in their repertoire. Save time, patience and stress by enlisting the help and support of Coach D. Providing you with a range of ideas and outlining the importance of each one, you are able to create meaningful routes. Surprising the defense and scoring has never been easier.

Skills

From speed to agility to hand-eye coordination, there are many skills that are present in a good receiver and can affect the route they run. A change of direction can be a fantastic move during a game to catch the defender off guard. With our guidance, you can maximize your player's skills and run routes that are guaranteed to win the game time and time again.

Get Comprehensive Flag Football Route Training Materials From Coach D

Alongside our fantastic flag football receiving routes, we have a range of other materials that can be utilized to deliver quality practices. Help your players to become the best flag football players that they can be with Coach D by your side. From practice schedules to flag football drill packs, and wristband-ready printable plays to versatile equipment, we have you covered. Achieving greatness has never been easier.

Perfect Your Wide Receiver Football Routes with an Agility Set

A big part of being a wide receiver is managing your momentum. Wide receivers often have to stop very suddenly and brace themselves for a pass from the quarterback. They might need to redirect in a split second to make the intended route and swing past the defenders without being deflagged. They might need to make small adjustments to their speed or footwork instantly while holding the ball to throw off the defense. Basically, wide receivers have to have seamless footwork to get in position for the perfect pass.

With that in mind, you can't go wrong with incorporating a wide receiver football routes & agility set into your training for the team. An agility ladder helps players balance their speed and their footwork; that way, they can move precisely without losing momentum. With cones, you can direct your players through sharp and difficult routes that test their ability to change directions while under high pressure. Receivers are constantly on the move, always shifting gears; you want to give them an exciting and engaging way to refine that skill over time.

Build the Ultimate Team Today With Coach D's Flag Football Route!

As a coach, it is your responsibility to lead your team to excellence. Sharpen the skills of your players, create new formations, perfect your receiving routes and elevate your team to the next level. But rest assured that you are not alone. With Coach D by your side, you can become the Complete Coach. Browse our packages, Complete Coach Bootcamp, and equipment today or get in touch for an expert flag football coaching tips, questions, and advice.

 

Transcript:

 

Hi everyone, this is Coach Dwight here with another awesome tutorial. This one's for the wide receivers. Now, as a coach, here are three key principles we're going to be talking about today.

Number one: catching with your hands. Number two: effective stance and where to line up on the line of scrimmage. And then three: effective route running.

Now, number one, for any coach or parent working with a player, a wide receiver, anyone who's going to be catching the ball, I recommend you get yourself a pair of these. These are wide receiver gloves. Now, it should go without saying that any wide receiver should absolutely have these. They will stick to the ball, but you as a coach should also get yourself these. This is Target, this is Walmart—they're like 20 bucks; it's super simple to get them.

Now, how do I catch the ball? Where are my hands? When do I catch with the diamond, and when do I put my pinkies together? All that. Now, principle number one: you have to catch with your hands.

Now, most of the time in flag football, especially when we're working with youth, you'll see them catch with their body, catch with their arms—they're going to catch all over the place. So the first thing we want to teach them is the diamond. Anything above my waist is going to be caught with my diamond.

Now, I don't care if it's over here, I don't care if the ball goes over here, down here—anything above my waist is going to be caught with the diamond, okay? And if I have the football, the football is going to go right in between my fingers, okay? The nose of the football should always land here. And what I like to do with any kind of drill or practice is I have them pause when they catch the ball and have a staring contest, because another key is I always want to watch the ball with my eyes go into my hands.

So if they're catching with their hands, boom, I want them to stop and realize, okay, how did I catch that? What does that look like? What does that feel like? It comes into my hands—I stop, I stare at it. Stop, stare at it.

Now, look, most of them are going to be, especially on the side, they're going to be catching with their arms, okay? When they're running a route that goes side to side, most of the time you'll see them put their hands out like this, and it'll hit their arms. This is incorrect form. The reason is because this could easily come off of my hands, this could easily jump over my arms, this could easily go in between.

So effective catching on either the right or the left, doesn't matter, is to have your hands out like this and to do that diamond. Now, it may feel like tedious work, but what I want you to do is practice this for hours, okay? And start with them in a stagnant position, just standing here and putting their hands out over here and putting their hands out over here. And what you'll find is, okay, they might have this side, but on this side, they still keep on doing this. And it's going to take hours and hours of practice for them to start automatically moving to this, all right?

And then the next level after that is I want you to start having them run, and you throw it to them, and then run this way, and you throw it to them, over and over and over. It takes hours, okay? So that's above my waist. Even if it's over here and it's below my waist, I'm still going to catch with my diamond, okay? The only time that I don't catch with my diamond is if it's right in front of me and it's below my waist. That's when I interlock my pinkies like this. So I put my pinkies like this—I cross them over, okay? And I lock it up. This is what I say: lock it up.

So I'm going to catch the ball down here with my pinkies interlocked, and the nose of the ball goes right in between, right in my palms, right in that little socket right there. So no matter if it's coming over here or over here, over here—it doesn't matter. If it's below my waist, I'm catching like this, because obviously going down for a diamond like that doesn't make sense.

Now, another time that I'm going to catch with my pinkies like this is, guess when? That's that over-the-shoulder—you can feel it, all right? So over-the-shoulder means if I'm on a fly pattern, which I'll show you in just a minute, and it's going over my head, I'm going to put my pinkies together. I'm going to put my arms as close as I possibly can together, because if I don't—see that hole right there?—that baby will go right on through. So I want to lock up my pinkies, and I want to put my arms together. What I'm trying to do is not catch with my forearms; I'm trying to catch with my hands. So that's going to go right in here, same position, remember? Okay, the nose of the football goes right in there.

Now, this takes a lot of practice. I'm running, I'm running, and boom, okay? Don't just practice one side, because they might get it on one side, and you're like, okay, we're done. No, you've got to do it on the other side as well, okay? If that defense knows you're always running on the right side or the left side, you've got to make sure that you switch it up. So make sure they're able to catch on this side and on this side, okay? So that is how you effectively—principle number one—catch with your hands up top, below the waist, and over the shoulder.

Enjoy that.

Now, when I'm lining up—principle number two—when I'm lining up as a wide receiver, the first thing I want to do is I want to have my dominant foot in front, okay? When I have my dominant foot in front, now if this cone is the line of scrimmage and the ball is down just like this, right in front here, what I want to do is I want to have my foot just behind the ball, okay? Just behind the line of the ball, and I'm watching the ball. I'm watching that ball so I can move at the same time, because one of the keys to getting wide open and to beating your cornerback or your defensive back that's guarding you is to get off the line of scrimmage fast.

So I'm going to have my body down like this, my back is flat, my butt's out, my knees are bent comfortably, and my hands are usually just hanging down like this, and I'm ready to go. I'm looking at the ball. I'm not turning in, so if I'm running a route this way, I'm still out like this, okay? No matter what, I'm lining up as if I'm running straight ahead. Even if I'm going to go this way or if I'm going to go that way, I still line up just like this, okay?

Let me tell you something—that is very uncomfortable for a young five-year-old, six-year-old, 10-year-old, 12-year-old, okay? So have them practice this form, ready to rock. I am ready to just jump off the line, okay? I'm not putting my hand down. I'm just ready to rock, okay? Boom.

That is principle number two.

Principle number three, and probably one of the most important, is route running. Now, there are five routes that I want you to learn like the back of your hand and make sure that every wide receiver on your team gets down.

The way that I do it is I put out all my cones to show the routes, okay? So I actually have five different routes out here. Now, what I've done—the blue are the actual route, okay? And then the orange is where the ball is going to hit them, alright? Where the ball should be hitting them.

So, number one is a post, okay? Let me show you that. So I line up—my yellow cone is the quarterback—I line up here, down said hike, I go one, two, three, and then I, boom.

Now, in order to be effective as a wide receiver, you have to get open. In order to get open, you need to shake that defender. Now, what that means is you need to have hard cuts, okay? Hard cuts, jukes in your route, and they have to be super crisp. What that means is I'm not going to run my post like this. I'm not going to run my post like this. No.

Coaches, I want you to be very, very, very, very strong on this. That route has to be crisp. Let me show you. So whenever you're cutting, you kind of want to act like you're going to move one way, and then you go another. Watch this. I go out, and then I go up, okay? But if that helps not only your wide receiver but your quarterback understand, okay, where's the ball coming? When do I throw the ball? Boom, orange cone.

Post, number one.

Number two is the quick slant. Check this out. Remember, I'm going to line up as if I'm going straight, okay? As if I'm going to run a post, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to clear all the way across right in front, and I'm going to get open right over there. That's my quick slant. So I stay in my position—down said hike, boom.

It is so fast, it is so quick, and the defensive back is sitting there like, where is he? Right? That needs to be so fast, right away. Let's show it again. I'm just going to clear over here—down said hike, that's it. So that's that quick slant.

Let me show you an out pattern. Now, you can see I have it lined up. I've got my green—my blue cone comes out here, and then the quarterback is going to hit me right here. Let me show you how that works. Yeah, when I get here, I don't just turn, I kind of make a—right. So right there is what I'm faking out. I'm going to fake out my DB, my defensive back. I'm going to act like I'm going in, but I'm going to go out. Watch this.

Down said hike. Now, right there, if you're not catching with your hands and you try to catch like this, I'm just telling you, that's where you practice this over and over. You have them run that route, and you boom, boom, boom.

Let me show you an end. This is the same principle. Boom. This is a short, short completion right in front of that quarterback. Quarterback sees it—boom, right there, okay? And then you see the fly pattern. I'll do it one time for you.

Down said hike. Ball is thrown about right here—I start looking, I put my pinkies together, okay? And that's a wrap. Now, the quarterback wants to throw it in front of me so I can keep running and catch it at the same time. Then what you do is you move it to the other side so they can practice both this side of the field and catching on this side of the field.

Last principle when it comes to route running: let's say I've run my route, then what? And the quarterback still has the ball, and he's looking for a wide receiver that's open. Here's what I want you to do—I want you to make a fast cut. Teach your people—teach your wide receivers to make a fast cut to the sideline. Let me show you.

So if I do an in, one, two, three, and everybody's covered, am I just gonna stand here? Heck no. I might go like this, right? I'm gonna make a quick move, I'm gonna make a quick cut, and I'm gonna head to a sideline, okay? Get away from like the middle of the field where there's a bunch of people. Watch this.

If I'm doing a quick slant—hike. Right. The tendency is either just stand there and like, I'm hoping, I'm open, I'm open, or to just go down the field, go as far as you can to the end zone. Don't do that. Stay close, okay? Stay close so that you can keep within the arm strength, right? You stay there, but don't just do this. Right, make that quick cut right here.

Alright, cool.

So those are your key principles as a wide receiver. Number one: catch with your hands—diamond up top, okay? Over the shoulder, pinkies. Down below, the waist, pinkies, alright? Number two: get that stance right and make sure you're not lined up off the ball. Comfortable, ready to go, flat, alright? And number three: perfect it. Perfect those routes, okay? There's no loop-de-loop route—it's a lot of hard cuts, alright? Whether it's a post, we learn the quick slant, we learn the out, we learn the in, and the fly pattern.

Hope you enjoyed this video. I'll see you in the next one.