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American football · Australia · Tactics

🏈 Tactics board · American football · Australia

Build your formation, draw your movements and sequence your steps. Export to PNG or GIF, share with one link. How does it work?

Football play designer — draw it, animate it, hand it to your team

~12 min read

Free playbook maker

If it works on the whiteboard, it works here.

GIF

The playbook software that costs nothing

Most playbook tools run $200 to $1,100 a year and hide behind installs, seats and subscriptions. This one opens in your browser, on any phone or laptop, with no account. Drop a formation, draw your routes and blocks, and the play is ready to teach.

The notation is the one your staff already reads: O's for the offense with a squared center, triangles with position letters (E, T, N, M, W, C, F, $) for the defense, solid arrows for runs and routes, dashed lines for passes, ⊥ T-blocks for the line, shaded rectangles for zone responsibilities.

Tackle 11v11 Flag 5v5 Animated GIF Wristband export

Animated play

Chain the steps, export the whole play in motion

A still diagram shows where everyone lines up. An animation shows when — and timing is the entire play. Build your steps like film frames: pre-snap motion, snap, route development, the throw.

Export the sequence as an animated GIF and drop it straight into the team chat. It autoplays on every phone, needs no app, and teaches a 12-year-old more in six seconds than a whiteboard speech.

▶ Play the sequence⤓ Export GIF

Storyboard · 4 steps▶ GIF

Pre-snap motion

Snap & protection

Route breaks open

▶GIF
ready to share

Export

∞steps per play

4export formats

1link to share

0 $forever

High school staff

Install week, without the license

Draw the install, drop a scout-team front against it and share the link with your position groups. No seats to buy, no film subscription required.

Scout cardsInstallGroup chat

Youth & flag coach

A parent volunteer with eight plays

You inherited a flag team on Tuesday and play Saturday. Pick a flag formation, animate the routes so the kids see them, print the wristbands, call numbers from the sideline.

NFL FLAG 5v5WristbandsNo jargon needed

Player

Learn your assignment, not the whole book

Open the link on your phone in the parking lot. Your route, your block, your read — animated. Ask for the GIF and watch it until the timing is muscle memory.

Mobile firstNo accountRoute tree

Fan & creator

Explain the play that decided the game

Rebuild Sunday’s touchdown in a minute, shade the blown coverage, export a story-format GIF and settle the group-chat argument with a diagram instead of an opinion.

Story formatCoverage shadingShareable link

Why free changes what a small program can do

Play design has been a paid privilege for two decades. The tools that coaches actually love — a library, an animation, a printable wristband — sat behind budgets most youth and flag programs never had.

The market

A barbell with an empty middle

At the top, desktop suites built on Visio and PowerPoint that NFL and college staffs run at around $1,000 per license. At the bottom, a swarm of mobile apps at $7 to $29 a month.

Between them: nothing that is free, instant, web-based and finished. The one serious free tool is funded by an army recruiting budget — and still demands an install and an account.

The real output

The diagram does not live on a screen

Football is the one sport where the drawing ends up on paper: a wristband insert, a laminated call sheet, a printed scout card. Whatever you build has to survive a printer and a sweaty quarter.

That is why the exports here are sized to the real thing — a 5.25×3.25 in play card and a 4.5×2.25 in wristband window at 300 dpi. Print, cut, slide in, call numbers.

The growth story

Flag football is rewriting the coaching pool

Eight million players in the United States, girls flag sanctioned as varsity across a growing list of states, and the sport joins the Olympic program in Los Angeles in 2028.

That means thousands of first-year coaches, most of them parents who never called a play. They do not need a 35,000-play library. They need eight plays their team can actually run.

The board

Six tools, the whole grammar of a play

Every mark on a football diagram means something specific. The board only ships the ones that do — nothing decorative, nothing you have to explain to your staff.

Route

Solid arrow — a run path or a receiver route, drawn freehand so the break lands where you want it.

Pass

Dashed line — the ball in the air, or a pitch, hand-off and pre-snap motion.

Block ⊥

Solid line ending in a perpendicular bar — the point of engagement for the offensive line.

Zone

Shaded rectangle — a coverage responsibility: two halves for Cover 2, three thirds for Cover 3.

Motion

Wavy path — a player moving parallel to the line before the snap: jet, orbit, shift.

Text

Call the play by its name, tag the down and distance, mark the read — right on the card.

Route tree

The numbered routes, 0 to 9

0 · Hitch: Quick stop at 5 yards, turn back to the QB. The chain-mover against soft coverage.
1 · Flat: Immediate break to the sideline at 1–3 yards. The hot read when the blitz comes.
2 · Slant: Three steps, then a sharp cut inside. The highest-percentage throw in football.
3 · Comeback: Push 10–12 yards, snap back to the sideline. Timing throw — the ball leaves before the break.
4 · Curl: Push 10–12 yards, turn back inside to sit in the window between linebackers.
5 · Out: Hard 90° break to the sideline at 10 yards. Beats a defender with inside leverage.
6 · Dig (In): Hard 90° break across the middle at 10–12 yards. The Cover 2 hole-shot classic.
7 · Corner: Break at 10–12 yards toward the pylon, away from the safety. The flag route.
8 · Post: Break at 10–12 yards toward the goal posts. The shot play against a single high safety.
9 · Go (Fly): Straight down the field. Wins with speed — and sells every short route you run after it.

Coaching week

One play, five stops, four printed artifacts

The same drawing has to become four different things between Monday and Friday night. A tool that produces all four from a single source is the one that survives your season.

Game plan

Watch the opponent, pick your answers, draw the plays that attack what they do. Save each one with a link.

ScoutingDraw

Install

Teach it in the meeting room. Animate the steps, share the GIF, let the players study on their phones.

MeetingAnimated GIF

Practice

Script the reps and hand the scout team a card showing the front and the coverage they must run.

ScriptScout cards

Game day

Print the play card and the wristband inserts. Call the play by number from the sideline.

Call sheetWristbands

Halftime

They took away your best concept. Redraw it in a minute on a phone and show it before the second half.

AdjustMobile

“

Consistency beats style: every coach on your staff has to read the same diagram the same way.

The rule every playbook guide repeats — and the reason this board ships standard notation by default

What are you actually drawing this week?

Six situations, six cards to build

🏈

First & 10

The play you can always call

A base run and its play-action twin, from the same formation and the same first two steps. Draw both, animate the fake, and the defense has to be wrong somewhere.

11 Inside zone↓ Play actionPA Same look

Personnel11 or 21

⏱

Third & long

Beating a Nickel front

Five defensive backs, two linebackers, pressure coming. Drop the Nickel preset, shade the coverage and find the window your route combination opens.

5DB Nickel→ Hot readHOT Dig + curl

Down3rd & 8+

🎯

Red zone

The field just got shorter

No more deep routes — the safety help is standing on the goal line. Draw picks, rubs and corner routes into the space the defense can no longer defend vertically.

+20 Bunch× Rub↗ Fade

Ball on+20 and in

💪

Goal line

Two yards, eleven bodies

Jumbo personnel against a 6-2. This is where ⊥ blocks matter more than routes: every lineman needs a name on his assignment.

22 Jumbo 22⊥ 6-2 front2yd Blocks ⊥

Ball on+2 and in

⚡

Two-minute

No huddle, numbers only

The clock is the twelfth defender. Number your plays, print them on the wristbands, and call them from the sideline without a huddle.

∅ Empty№ Sideline routes⏱ Wristband

TempoNo huddle

🚩

Flag 5v5

Saturday morning, eight plays

No line, no blocking, a rusher starting seven yards back. Everything is timing — which is why the animation matters more here than anywhere else.

5v5 Trips7yd No-run zone🚫 Rush 7 yd

FormatNFL FLAG

Offensive formations

Eight sets, each with its personnel grouping

First digit backs, second digit tight ends, receivers fill the rest. Call “11” and your staff hears 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR — that is the whole language.

Shotgun Spread

11 personnel

Shotgun Trips

Overload one side

I-Formation

21 · downhill

Singleback Ace

12 · balanced

Pistol

11 · shotgun vision

Bunch Right

Rubs & traffic

Goal Line Jumbo

22 · push

Empty 5-Wide

10 · declared

Defensive fronts · one tap

4-3 Over

Four down, three linebackers — E T T E with Will, Mike and Sam behind.

▶

3-4 Base

Three down with a nose on the center, four linebackers and edge pressure from outside.

▶

Nickel (4-2-5)

A fifth defensive back replaces a linebacker — the modern base defense against spread sets.

▶

Dime (4-1-6)

Six defensive backs, one linebacker. Obvious passing downs, two-minute drill.

▶

5-2 Youth

Five linemen controlling every gap — the youth football workhorse.

▶

6-2 Goal Line

Six down linemen when the offense only needs two yards. Nobody moves.

▶

Concepts & coverages

The eight ideas every game turns on

Each one is a diagram before it is a word. Draw it once on the board and it stops being jargon for your players.

Cover 2

Two deep halves

Corners squat on the flats, safeties split the field. Soft in the deep middle.

ZoneDig beats it

Cover 3

Three deep thirds

Two corners and the free safety take thirds, four defenders play underneath.

ZoneFlood beats it

MAN

Man

Chase the man

Motion is the tell: if a defender travels with the receiver, it is man.

Match-upsPicks beat it

BLZ

Blitz

Five or more

Trade coverage bodies for pressure. Every blitz leaves a window open.

PressureHot read

Play action

The pass that lies

Fake the hand-off, freeze the linebackers, throw behind them.

Two stepsAnimate it

RPO

Run-pass option

The line blocks a run, a route runs behind it, the QB reads one defender.

One readTwo branches

SCR

Screen

Let them come

Invite the rush, then throw underneath it with linemen out in front.

Blocks ⊥Timing

MOT

Motion

Ask a question

Jet, orbit or shift — it identifies coverage and moves a defender before the snap.

Pre-snapJet sweep

Flag football play designer — 5v5

Flip the board to Flag 5v5 and the field itself changes: 30×70 yards with real NFL FLAG geometry — shaded no-run zones (five yards before each end zone and around midfield), the 7-yard rush line dashed in front of the quarterback, and midfield as the only first down.

Formations

5 spots, no line

Five spots — QB, an eligible center and three receivers — with flag-native sets (Trips, Spread, Bunch, Twins Stack, Split Backs) and flag defenses (1-3-1, 2-2-1, 3-1-1 zones or Man + Rusher). No linemen, no blocking: pure routes and timing, which is exactly why the animated GIF was made for flag coaches.

Game day

Wristband numbers

For game day, number your plays and export each one at wristband-window size — print, cut, slide into the wrist coaches, and call plays by number from the sideline. With flag football joining the LA 2028 Olympics, half your league’s coaches started this year; this board is how you look like you did not.

Exports

One board, every format your team uses

The play has to become a chat message, a study loop, a page in a binder and a strip of paper inside a wrist coach. All of it from the same drawing.

Animated GIF

Team chat

Autoplays everywhere

Play card

5.25 × 3.25 in

Print & laminate

Wristband window

4.5 × 2.25 in

Cut & slide in

Story

1080 × 1920

Reels & TikTok

Square

1080 × 1080

Instagram post

Shared link

Any phone

No app, no login

Football tactics

Answers to what everyone asks

The vocabulary of the game, explained by the diagrams that define it.

Is this football play designer really free?

Yes — the board, the formations, the defensive fronts, the animated GIF export and the shared links are free, with no account. It runs in the browser on any device, which is exactly what the $200-a-year apps do not do.

What is a blitz?

A blitz sends five or more rushers instead of the standard four, trading coverage bodies for pressure on the quarterback. Draw it with a solid arrow from the extra rusher — usually a linebacker (M/W/S) or the slot defender ($).

What is a safety — the position and the score?

Two meanings: the position (free safety F and strong safety $, the deep last line of the defense) and the two points awarded when the offense is tackled in its own end zone. On diagrams, F and $ are the triangles deepest from the line.

What is the football route tree?

The numbered system (0–9) every receiver route comes from: odd numbers break toward the sideline (flat, out, corner), even numbers break inside (slant, dig, post), and the number rises with the depth of the break. The full tree with depths is above.

What does a tight end do?

The tight end (TE, drawn as Y) is the hybrid: attached to the line to block like a sixth lineman, or released as a receiver over the middle. Personnel groupings count them — “12” means two tight ends on the field.

What is an edge rusher?

The defender aligned outside the tackle or tight end (the E triangles) whose first job is to bend around the corner to the quarterback. In a 3-4 the role belongs to the outside linebackers.

Cover 2 vs Cover 3 — what is the difference?

Cover 2 splits the deep field between two safeties and keeps corners low; Cover 3 drops three defenders deep and defends the flats with four underneath. Shade both with the zone tool: two halves against three thirds.

What are Nickel and Dime defenses?

Sub-packages for passing downs: Nickel replaces one linebacker with a fifth defensive back (noted $ or N over the slot), Dime replaces a second one with a sixth. Both are one tap on this board.

What is play action?

A pass dressed as a run: the quarterback fakes the hand-off to freeze the linebackers, then throws behind them. Animate it in two steps — fake first, routes second — and the GIF teaches it better than any speech.

What is an RPO?

Run-pass option: the line blocks a run while a route runs behind it, and the quarterback reads one defender — hand off if he drops, throw if he crashes. Diagram both branches on one card, a solid arrow and a dashed one.

What are audibles and a hard count?

An audible changes the play at the line after reading the defense; a hard count varies the snap cadence to draw rushers offside or reveal the blitz. Neither needs drawing — but the looks they respond to do.

What is motion, and why use it?

One player moving parallel to the line before the snap (jet, orbit…). It identifies man coverage, moves a defender out of the box, or becomes a jet-sweep threat. Draw it with the wavy tool, then snap on the next step.