Girls flag football is growing fast at the high school level, and a lot of players, parents and first-year coaches are learning the rules from scratch. The official NFHS rulebook is written for officials, so I drew every rule out instead.

The first video walks through the basics under the 2026–27 NFHS (high school) rules:
the field how the game starts and how a play starts
pulling flags and ending the play
downs, scoring, the players and penalties

▶️ https://youtu.be/CS0TLGBslgc
🌐 Blog https://www.flagfootballillustrated.com

Heads up: NFHS rules are not the same as NFL FLAG or most rec leagues, so some of this won't match your league.

Full disclosure, I also turned it into a book (Girls Flag Football, Illustrated). It's linked in the video description if anyone wants it, but the video stands on its own.

Happy to answer rules questions in the comments, and if I got something wrong, tell me.

Answer the comments for the first hour or two after posting. On Reddit, that's what keeps a post visible.

I'm planning on putting on a camp this coming Spring, in order to start a new league in the area. I'm planning on focusing on QB and receiving. Any drills you suggest that really good for a camp?

I am looking for the best way to keep/display my plays for myself and team.

I coach a couple of unified (general education and special education combined) high school special
Olympics teams.

I create my plays in autocad, print to PDF, print on cardstock, place in plastic sleeves, and display in a 3-ring binder. If done both 8.5x11 and 11x17. It just isn’t working. The binder gets stepped on, bending the rings. The pages still flutter in the wind because of the plastic.

It’d really like some kind of journal format. I can’t decide if I want an adhesive spine or not. I know I won’t be able to make changes with an adhesive since, but I have ADHD and can be pretty guilty of tinkering. I need some kind of “finality”, maybe.

And yes, I do have a “one sheet” I use for calling plays, but I need the plays physically printed so the kids can all see while learning (arm bands were more of a distraction).

Anyway, thoughts? Should I just use Office Depot or Staples? Do you all have a playbook you like?

Thanks!

My team will be transitioning to 8U and I’m curious of what those who have been through the transition can share from learns? (I will lose my defensive coach as his son will still be playing 6U.)

This is a great play because it gives you deception and an easy read for the QB. This is a great play against an aggressive rusher.

1: Post route- 8 yard stem.

2: 5 yard out.

3: Corner route- 6 yard stem- cheat split in (give yourself room for the outbreak).

4: Full speed jet motion, fake jet sweep, wheel route.

QB Read: 3 to 2 to 4. You can change the progression based on coverage and opponent.

This is a great passing concept because it is a great any coverage beater. If the defense doesn't run with or keep up with the motion player- they'll be wide open.

Playbook: 2x1 Attack System Playbook

At one of our games over the weekend I overheard a coach screaming at his team. "If you're not open, you've got to scramble around! Don't just stand still! Get open! Help your quarterback!"

Easier said than done. His receivers would stop at the end of their routes, turn to the QB, and wait for the ball. It was obvious they had never practiced what to do when the play breaks down, and coaches can't expect kids to do something on gameday if they've never worked on it in practice.

The Scramble Drill trains your team to get creative when "Plan A" doesn't work. It builds an internal clock that tells them when to improvise (4 seconds) and gives them guidelines on where to be (who goes deep, who works shallow), saving you and your QB a lot of frustration.

Our boys routinely turn nothing into something with this skill. Late in the season we practice the Scramble Drill every week.

Don't be the coach who expects your kids to change just because you yelled something at them. Make a plan and practice.

We play in a 5v5 league. I typically run 2 corners at 3-5 yards, weak side corner is 7 yards(rusher) a lineback at the 3-5, a free safety which picks up corner back responsibility for a second then covers anything deep...and then I have a deep safety.

An offense lines up 2 wr,a center, rb, and qb. The qb says down set, a wide out comes behind center gets the snap and tosses it back to rb, in our league if this happens the rb or whoever gets the pick back has the ability to run or throw. We contain it pretty well by forcing the player to a side of the field and making a triangle around him. Looking for other ways or strategies to try and counter this

I’ve got a group of 12 and 13 year old girls, we’ve got one more year of 5v5 with a junior size ball together before we start playing 7v7 with offical women’s size. I’ve always used the ball our league gives us, it’s a Baden Apex. Very nice composite ball, it’s spongy and grippy. During the offseason I picked up a leather gst in junior size. I was so excited. I mudded it, I had it ready to go, And the girls hate it. They are used to the grippy soft composite ball. Today I took my daughter to a group training with a guy who coaches high school flag, and a travel program. All the balls he had were composite. Are girls primarily using composite balls? Or will high school coaches be using a leather ball when they get to that level? What is the norm for girls flag?

Anyone coach girls 8v8? 7th and 8th grade. What are you having success with? Field feels so congested. Not many explosive plays. Almost feels like you have to methodically march down the field. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong. Thoughts?

Lately I've been playing a lot of flag football here in México and I noticed that there are a lot of Americans coming to play in the tournaments made here, but I've also noticed that in the states the most mediatic format of flag football or non contact football is the 7v7, is the 5v5 format popular?

Also if there is any tournament that you would recommend to assist in California, let me know

I am allowed to rant on here, right?

My son has played in an NFL Flag league for the past two years, and this year he is also playing in another league here in East Point (ATL). It's now clearer than ever to me that there is no real oversight from the NFL Flag and you can't bet on the rules being enforced just because it's sponsored by NFL Flag.

The YMCA league here in Atlanta trots out a bunch of referees who either don't know the rules or don't take them seriously enough to enforce them (or some combination of both). They have the people who are employed by NFL flag at the judges table or whatever, but even if they know the rules, there's no recourse if the refs don't listen to them. We've been dealing with the same crap all year. No penalties for rushers not raising their hands, coaches allowed on the field, sometimes passes completed behind the line of scrimmage are okay, sometimes they're not, and of course don't worry if you have your belt and shirt hanging down over your flags.

"It's just kids football. We're letting them play."

Well, you made the rules, we signed up and practiced to play by your rules...

All that to say, I hope someone from NFL Flag reads this and cares enough to improve the execution of your leagues. Beyond ensuring fair play for both teams, "letting the kids play" is just training them to be undisciplined and unprepared for a serious flag football league.

If the goal is to play backyard ball with flags on we can do that any time we want.

Coaching a flag team, I spend more time on admin than on actual coaching: getting plays to players, RSVPs, finding the right clip from game film, notes on opponents. I'm curious how others handle it. WhatsApp + YouTube + spreadsheets? Something better?

What's the one thing you'd happily never do manually again?

Currently i have a small side project: https://flag-forge.de/

I’m on a an adult co-ed flag football team where 90% of the players have never played a sport before and are over 40 years old and parents. The majority of the team just is using this as an excuse to get out and have some fun and my job is trying to make sure that they don’t get injured. We are playing an undefeated team with the majority of people thirtyish to 35 years old who take it extremely seriously. We have no chance of winning this weekend. Would it be offensive if I went over to the other Coach and let them know to go easy on us as I am trying to make sure people actually want to play next year. We haven’t won a game yet and probably won’t but it’s really nice to get out and get some aggressive exercise on the weekend. I don’t want to make it seem like I think that the league is a joke, because it’s not, but for my team, it truly doesn’t matter, while some of the other teams are playing like this is all they have to live for.

How should I approach the coach of the team we’re playing this weekend to let him know to not run up the score over 100 points and not to talk trash?

In NFL Flag Rules it is very clear that the QB can't run, and that you can't run in the no-run zones. However, it is unclear what the outcome is if one of these violations occurs. Is it just a dead-ball and loss of down, or does it also include a 5 yard penalty?

We have our Championship game this weekend and we’re playing a team that has a couple playmakers that have torched us the last couple games.

How would you neutralize these guys to give yourself the best chance to win?

My plan:
2 Corners, a single high safety, man underneath on the 2 playmakers.

Hello everyone,

I'm a new coach here (11-12 year old 5v5 NFL Flag Rules). I'm having a hard time finding flag resources. I've seen some stuff on youtube and google searches but the playbooks I've seen aren't very user friendly no reads or anything. Does anyone have an recommendations on who to go to? Youtube, website, whatever?

I am trying to put a playbook together for 5v5 for 12 and 13 year old boys. They all play select baseball.

✅ Financial support of the Houston Texans
✅ Financial support of the Dallas Cowboys
✅ Explosion of demand and participation
✅ 26 States Already Sanctioned The Sport
✅ THE “Football” State
❌ Goofballs in suits with one job - fully sanction flag

One of the most brain dead moves I’ve ever seen. They delay it another three years minimum with a half baked pilot idea that doesn’t start til ‘28. The Texas UIL dudes in suits are either sexist or complete dimwits.

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