Motion
What it is
Moving a player before the snap to change the formation, or to make the defense show what it is playing.
Why it matters
Motion does two jobs and a coach should always know which one he is buying. As information, it is the cheapest coverage indicator in football: a defender who travels with the motion man is playing man, and one who adjusts and stays is playing zone. As leverage, it changes strength, adds a blocker to the play side, or arrives at the snap with speed the defense has to account for. Only one player may be in motion at the snap and he must be moving parallel to or away from the line.
Also called
Programs call this motion, jet motion, orbit, shift, fly motion or motion to check. The Coach answers to any of them.
Related
This entry is authored, not generated. It is one of 205 in the index that the AI-ssistant Coach retrieves from, and that Film Study tags clips against.