There isn’t a list of ingredients you have to have in a playbook. 

 

A typical, complex American Football playbook has these sections:

  • Objectives for the playbook (“suitable for kids 10-12”

  • “Concepts” to be discussed with coaching staff

  • Terminology

  • Landmarks on the field of play

  • Player positions with names and requirements

  • Formations and numbering of players, holes, ball-carriers, defenders

  • Personnel sets and their designated signal

  • Routes to run, with names, description, adjustments

  • Plays 

  • Series of plays and movements, often as diagrams for various formations

  • Rules and instructions for every player from every formation for every play

  • Protection schemes and their names, descriptions, and adjustments

  • Play signals and cues, coaching points

  • Audibles and variations

  • Possible combinations of all the above

There are many examples on the internet. You can even find (old) playbooks from professional teams.

 

If you look at some of them, you realize how much teaching and learning has to happen for coaches and players. To use all the plays to their full intent takes time and practice!

 

My template is a lot simpler. It starts with the Tactical Model and explains some essential concepts. Then it lists a very limited number of plays. Each play includes graphics containing only essential information. Two thirds of its pages are actually filled with installation plans. Those are details for practicing, and activities and drills for learning the plays.