There are some great ideas here. Some you will need help for unless they run the offense very slowly or you are really good. Bring along another coach or coaches and give them specific things to watch. Maybe older ex players can help. You can't get too in depth without film so don't try : base formations, plays, best players, specials, coverages and fronts, right/left handed - field/boundary type tendencies. You should be able to see if they have weird subs like changing the qb for certain plays and if they mass sub mprs.

Steve Belichick's scouting book is antiquated technology wise but is the bible of scouting. Every new coach should read it. It can be found for cheap or I believe for free if you have Kindle Unlimited. KU has a bunch of good football books btw.

There are some great ideas here. Some you will need help for unless they run the offense very slowly or you are really good. Bring along another coach or coaches and give them specific things to watch. Maybe older ex players can help. You can't get too in depth without film so don't try : base formations, plays, best players, specials, coverages and fronts, right/left handed - field/boundary type tendencies. You should be able to see if they have weird subs like changing the qb for certain plays and if they mass sub mprs.

Steve Belichick's scouting book is antiquated technology wise but is the bible of scouting. Every new coach should read it. It can be found for cheap or I believe for free if you have Kindle Unlimited. KU has a bunch of good football books btw.

You'd be surprised how in depth you can get if you work quickly.  Shorthand, man.  Shorthand.

When I was up in the booth and doing this real-time during HS games, I would create a scouting sheet with columns to speed it up.  I'd type it, triple space, and then I'd have columns going across:

Spot  D&D/Hash  Formation  Play  Ball Carrier  Result

A line on the sheet might look like:

-22  1&10    13T (Trey set--Trips with TE as #3)  T-r (short for Trap Right)  34    +6

It wasn't as much as it looked like

For defense I had another one:

Spot  D&D/Hash  Off Form.  D. Front    Covg.  Blitzers #?

A line there might look like:

+42  2&6 M        Pro I          Ov.          3        X (for none)

Put a bracket around each quarter's worth of plays in the margin so you know whether the sideline is to their right or left.  You can use that to chart tendencies towards their sideline.

Statisticians can keep this much info in real time, it's not that hard if you use numbers and abbreviate and if you record D&D as soon as the play's over.

We'd do this at halftime in the days before sideline HUDL and use it to chart tendecies.  Did I miss some stuff?  Sure.  But I kept it together.

It helps to have a partner to help with some things, though.

There are some great ideas here. Some you will need help for unless they run the offense very slowly or you are really good. Bring along another coach or coaches and give them specific things to watch. Maybe older ex players can help. You can't get too in depth without film so don't try : base formations, plays, best players, specials, coverages and fronts, right/left handed - field/boundary type tendencies. You should be able to see if they have weird subs like changing the qb for certain plays and if they mass sub mprs.

Steve Belichick's scouting book is antiquated technology wise but is the bible of scouting. Every new coach should read it. It can be found for cheap or I believe for free if you have Kindle Unlimited. KU has a bunch of good football books btw.

Thanks for the info. I will have to check out the books on Kindle. I took 3 helpers with me to scout on Saturday - ages 8, 7, and 5! I do think I was able to get some info that will help up prepare this week in practice. In short, they have one stud player who they rely heavily on on both sides of the ball.

She was the president of the club.

My wifes a different breed. We've been married for almost 25 years, we met at the Nascar racetrack where I was racing. she loves racing, football and basketball (in about that order). she loves to cook and she believes there is a big difference between men and women and she doesn't try to change me. I am truly a blessed man.

Back to the originally scheduled thread  ;D

No worries - I've got one of those wives as well! She makes a highlight tape for the boys after the season is over.

Thanks for the info. I will have to check out the books on Kindle. I took 3 helpers with me to scout on Saturday - ages 8, 7, and 5! I do think I was able to get some info that will help up prepare this week in practice. In short, they have one stud player who they rely heavily on on both sides of the ball.

Pretty easy then. Stop that guy and run away from him.  😛

You'd be surprised how in depth you can get if you work quickly.  Shorthand, man.  Shorthand.

When I was up in the booth and doing this real-time during HS games, I would create a scouting sheet with columns to speed it up.  I'd type it, triple space, and then I'd have columns going across:

Spot  D&D/Hash  Formation  Play  Ball Carrier  Result

A line on the sheet might look like:

-22  1&10    13T (Trey set--Trips with TE as #3)  T-r (short for Trap Right)  34    +6

It wasn't as much as it looked like

For defense I had another one:

Spot  D&D/Hash  Off Form.  D. Front    Covg.  Blitzers #?

A line there might look like:

+42  2&6 M        Pro I          Ov.          3        X (for none)

Put a bracket around each quarter's worth of plays in the margin so you know whether the sideline is to their right or left.  You can use that to chart tendencies towards their sideline.

Statisticians can keep this much info in real time, it's not that hard if you use numbers and abbreviate and if you record D&D as soon as the play's over.

We'd do this at halftime in the days before sideline HUDL and use it to chart tendecies.  Did I miss some stuff?  Sure.  But I kept it together.

It helps to have a partner to help with some things, though.

You need to have a log with columns and be good at a shorthand for sure. Don't forget that your experience and knowledge is higher than most here, at least based on the content of your post. You most likely see things faster than the op(no offense to the op btw). Tendencies don't have to be found right away for a future opponent so don't bother. You can figure that out when you get home. But the right info needs to be recorded. Some things will become crystal clear through the simple act of writing it down. Youth teams almost always have at least one of these 3 tendencies: right handed, run towards their sideline, run to the field. So if you want to find those out you better record that stuff. I could usually scout a youth team pretty quickly and not need to get into too much detail to figure them out. Against really good teams, we got silly deep into it. But we could film and we got as much as possible. Putting it all into a spreadsheet and using the sort tool or some of the functions can be enlightening. When you think about it, many youth teams run just a few formations and under 12 plays. Pretty simple to chart that.

You need to have a log with columns and be good at a shorthand for sure. Don't forget that your experience and knowledge is higher than most here, at least based on the content of your post. You most likely see things faster than the op(no offense to the op btw). Tendencies don't have to be found right away for a future opponent so don't bother. You can figure that out when you get home. But the right info needs to be recorded. Some things will become crystal clear through the simple act of writing it down. Youth teams almost always have at least one of these 3 tendencies: right handed, run towards their sideline, run to the field. So if you want to find those out you better record that stuff. I could usually scout a youth team pretty quickly and not need to get into too much detail to figure them out. Against really good teams, we got silly deep into it. But we could film and we got as much as possible. Putting it all into a spreadsheet and using the sort tool or some of the functions can be enlightening. When you think about it, many youth teams run just a few formations and under 12 plays. Pretty simple to chart that.

Thanks, and you may not necessarily need these things, but I was just pointing out that you can look for them if you want them.  It's pretty easy to see who a teams stud(s) are and how they want to get them the ball over and over again.  You can easily just jot that down as a couple of quick notes and move on.