@Kyle Barnes That’s a good background to build off of. If you’re coming from flexbone, you already understand leverage, angles, and making defenses wrong. Wide zone just lets you do it with more space and stress. On the change from dive to true zone:Don’t think of it as losing the dive, think of it as stretching it. Your “dive” becomes the front side A/B gap depending on flow. The key is getting your line comfortable with horizontal displacement first, then vertical when it shows. For calling wide zone, I keep it simple: - Base wide zone (your bread and butter) - Tight/condensed splits version (forces edges to play tighter) - Open/plus splits version (creates more space, stresses overhangs) - Weak/strong calls depending on how you want to handle fronts - Tags for motion (rocket/jet) to influence flow pre-snap Formationally:You don’t need a ton, just enough to create conflict. - Tight sets (condensed WRs, wing looks) = better angles, crack support, cleaner edges - Spread sets = force lighter boxes, easier reads for the back - Sniffer/H-back = gives you flexibility to insert, sift, or arc Coming from flexbone, I’d lean into: - Slot/wing alignments - Short motion (like rocket) to widen force players - Backfield action that looks like option to hold second level Screen game pairs naturally: - Now screens off your wide zone look - Slip screens when backers overrun - Boot/keeper game off stretch action (this will hit big if they start flowing hard) Big thing on variations:Don’t overcomplicate the scheme, vary the presentation.Same play, different looks, different tempo, different motion. At the end of the day, if your kids understand landmarks, pressing the track, and reading the first down lineman past the center, you’ll be in good shape.

@Martel Goldsmith Love this, Coach. Don’t overthink it. Teach a few things really well before you teach a bunch of things average. Young kids can handle more than we give them credit for if we’re consistent with our language and expectations. The zone game and boot game become a lot of fun once the kids understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. Dive in, ask questions, and steal everything you can from this group. Looking forward to following your journey this year. Go cut it loose. 🚀🏈