Utilizing the Hitch Passing Concept Effectively-Implementing the Close Tag

Whenever receivers cross in their paths DBs have to adjust and determine who is defending who. This inevitably slows the defenders down a step.

One of the things we discovered was one of the simplest route adjustments I’ve ever seen. We simply used our Close tag on our all hitches route. The result, one of our most efficient plays and several touchdowns that resulted from the route and DBs trying to jump it.

We have several tags that we use with our passing game. The result is that we are able to take a small number of plays and adjust them to open up our playbook while really having the kids only learn a few basic plays. One of our passing concepts, and probably one of our favorites, is our Hitches concept. On this all receivers run a simple hitch. It’s a really easy throw and catch for the receivers and can force the defense to cover the whole width of the field.