My 4th grade youth football team ran a variation of the Spin Offense last year. The Spin Offense was highlighted in American Football Monthly in 2007, and I bought the videos from AFM after reading the article. (You can find the link to AFM in the right menu column.) The offense is explosive. We averaged 40 points a game on offense. It did not hurt that we picked up two great running backs in 2007 that made it possible to implement the Spin as a 4th grade team. The main picture of the website is a Spin Sweep Right out of a tight formation with the QB under center. We called this tight formation, Speed. QB will Spin deep for the handoff to the motion Wingback #25.
As a 4th grade team we ran the Spin out of a double tight end formation with Nasty splits and only occasionally out of the shotgun. The Spin action of the QB and counter fakes by the fullback sell the misdirection of this offense. The base Spin play is the Spin Sweep and its sister play the Spin Counter.
Spin Sweep Left
In the above diagram, The Spin Sweep Left is out of the Shotgun Spread. The H2 back goes in motion one count before the snap so he arrives at the QB upon the snap. QB fakes quickly to FB and Spins toward H2 back and with his back turned to the LOS hands off to the H2 back and then the QB bootlegs right while the H2 back sweeps left. The QB boot fake sets up several pass plays or a QB keeper for later in the game.
Spin Counter Right
In the above diagram, the Spin Counter Right is run out of the Shotgun Spread. This play is set up by the Spin Sweeps. We run this three times in either direction to get the defense thinking wide, they also start keying the back in motion. We now come underneath with the other Wingback, W3, into the 6 hole. H2 Wingback goes in motion and fakes the Spin Sweep Left, QB does exact same motion as Spin Sweep Left but pivots back around facing LOS and hands-off underneath to the W3 back who then angles toward the 6 hole. FB fakes into line but then turns and traps the DE or outside LB at the 6 hole / 8 hole. We averaged 10 to 15 yards a play with the Spin Counter. The faking WB must sell the Spin Sweep.
I love this offense and so do our players. It’s a lot of fun and we break many long runs for TDs. One area to watch out for with younger teams is both Wingbacks going in motion at the same time. We had to work on this quite a bit, and we added the motion backs name to the play, example, “Spin Sweep Left TyMo”. This let Tyler know he was going in motion.
If you would like more on the Spin Offense, please reply to this post, and let me know what you would like to see. Thanks.
Coach,
Nice article. We run the Single Wing Offense which has been using a spinning fullback for over 70 years. This clip shows you a few plays including some of our “Spinners”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-699579089183056593&q=youth+football&ei=qJQXSOKwGoeQ4wKj-I3uBg&hl=en
This is the first time I’ve come across your web site. The article on the Spin Offense-Sweep was very good. I also read the other articles and they were excellent.
Coach,
I’ve been reading up on the Spin O and have ordered a few DVD’s from AFM. I think I’d like to make a transition to this style of O, do you think you could get into the Spin Tight plays a little more?
We have been running a Pro Set and would like to keep the QB under center for now.
Appreciate any help you can give.
Mahalo
Hey Coach,
You can run all the Spin plays out of Spin Tight and QB under Center. This is the formation we run the most. We call this our Speed formation.
The Wings are set up 2-3 yards outside the TEs and one yard deep. FB is still set up near the QB in the A Gap about 1 yard deep or less.
Your QB must have quick feet to make the deep Spin and hand off. The extra width of the Wings helps with the timing of the QB under center. You need a ton of reps with the Spin offense, but you will love the results. Also your main RB / Wing must have above average speed so you can set up the SPIN Sweep, so everything else works in the misdirection. I will post more on the SPIN over the next few months. Make sure you buy the SPIN video Multiple Formations. I just did and love it.
Coach I was reading a little on this and we ran a little version of this last year. I coach the offensive line and I would like to get some literature on the blocking scheme of this offense to help improve my team. Thank You Coach