What is trips formation in flag football and when do you use it?
Trips is an alignment with three receivers on the same side and one or none on the other, usually written 3x1. It beats zone coverage by arithmetic rather than by talent: a zone assigns defenders to areas, and three receivers arriving in two defenders' areas leaves somebody uncovered before anyone has run a good route. Against man it does much less, because man travels with the receiver rather than the space. That is what bunch and stack are for.
Trips, against man. Three defenders, three receivers, and the spacing has cost the defense nothing. Man coverage follows people rather than grass, so the alignment has not created anybody. This is the picture that tells you trips is the wrong call.
Why it works
It is arithmetic, not talent
Three receivers into two zone defenders does not go, and no amount of effort fixes it. That is why trips works for a team that is not the most athletic one in the league: the advantage is created by where players stand, before anybody has to beat anybody.
It tells you the coverage for free
Watch what happens to the defense when you align trips. If a defender travels across with the third receiver it is man. If everyone stays where they are it is zone. You get that answer every single time you line up, and it costs you nothing.
The advantage is on the other side of the field
A defense that fixes the arithmetic by rotating a defender to the trips has just left the single receiver away from it with nobody helping. Trips is often a way of creating a one-on-one somewhere else, which is the version most coaches miss.
What to run from it
- FloodThe concept trips was built for. Three receivers to one side at three depths, and the flat defender has to be wrong about one of them.
- Four VerticalsThree vertical releases from the trips side plus one from the back stretches a three-deep zone until a seam opens.
- SmashA hitch under a corner route off the outside two, with the third receiver clearing the middle out of the way.
- StickThe quick answer when the defense widens to the trips: the inside receiver sits down in the space they just vacated.
How to line up in trips
- 1
Put the outside receiver near the sideline
Widest man on or near the numbers. His job is to take a defender with him and make the field as big as the rules allow.
- 2
Split the middle receiver halfway
Roughly between the outside man and the ball. Close enough to be part of the trips, far enough that one defender cannot cover him and the outside man at once.
- 3
Keep the inside receiver tight
A few yards outside the ball, off the line if your rules require someone on it. He is the one who ends up uncovered when the defense widens, so he should be the easiest throw.
- 4
Put the back on the other side
Away from the trips, not behind it. He is the answer to a defense that over-rotates, and he cannot be that if he is standing in the crowd.
What it gives you, format by format
5v5
Three of your four eligible receivers to one side, which leaves the back alone on the other. Against five defenders that is the whole formation in one sentence: if they put three on the trips they have two left for everything else, and if they do not, the third receiver is uncovered. The backside back is not a throwaway here, he is the punishment for over-rotating.
NFL Flag
The centre is eligible, so trips can be built with the centre as the inside man and still snap the ball. That puts a receiver in the trips who starts on the ball rather than off it, and it is an alignment most defenses have never repped against.
7v7
The format trips was built for. Seven a side is enough width to run a true three-level flood down one sideline, with flat, out and sail inside one throwing window, and enough defenders that the coverage has to declare rather than just outnumber you.
11v11
The base spread set, and its job is information as much as space. Trips declares a strength, and how the defense answers it tells you the coverage before the snap: a safety rotating over the top is one call, a corner staying alone on the backside is another. The single receiver away from trips is the real advantage, because he is now one-on-one with nobody helping.
How the defense answers it
Play man and travel with them
The simplest answer and the most complete one. Man coverage follows people rather than grass, so spreading three receivers out does not create the extra man that makes trips work. If you see man against trips, the alignment has done nothing for you and the play has to.
Roll the coverage to the trips side
Rotate a deep defender over the three and play the backside with one defender and no help. That fixes the arithmetic where the receivers are, and it pays for it on the other side of the field.
Count and match, do not chase
Assign defenders to the first, second and third receiver out rather than to named players. Trips only overloads a zone that thinks in fixed areas; a zone that counts receivers as they release does not have the problem.
Take away the flat and make them throw over it
The shortest route in a trips set is the one that makes the read easy. Jump it, and a nine-year-old quarterback throwing the level above it is a much better outcome for the defense.
When not to call it
Against man coverage
Trips creates an extra man only against a defense that thinks in areas. Man coverage travels, so three spread receivers are three separate one-on-ones and you have given up the whole other side of the field to get them.
When your quarterback cannot see the third receiver
The uncovered man in trips is usually the one furthest from the ball at the moment of the decision. If reading that far across is not yet realistic, bunch or stack put the advantage closer to home.
On the goal line
Trips needs width to create the space it trades on, and inside the ten there is no width to have. A compressed field is where bunch is at its best and where trips is at its worst.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the free play designer, collect them in the free playbook maker, and print wristband play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Build a trips formation
Set the splits where you want them, draw the releases, and save it as a formation you can reuse.
Open the designerRelated questions
What is the difference between trips and bunch?
What does 3x1 mean?
Is trips legal in 5v5 flag football?
How do you beat trips formation on defense?
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Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.