Football IQ Quiz: Test Your Staff on Gaps and Coverages
Interactive football IQ quizzes drawn on a real field: tap the 3 technique, find the C gap, mark the soft spots in Cover 2. Built from your own playbook.
By Hashmarks4 min readTeaching
A new assistant nods along when you say "we're in a 3 technique to the tight end side." Does he know where that is? A football IQ quiz is the fastest way to find out, as long as it's drawn on a real field and uses the words your staff actually uses. That's Chalk Talk in Hashmarks: interactive tests on gaps, fronts, coverages, reads and blocking, drawn by the same engine as the Play Designer.
Why a whiteboard quiz beats a worksheet
Most football knowledge is spatial. "Where is the B gap?" isn't a multiple-choice question, it's a point on the field, and it moves when the formation changes. Worksheets can't show that. A whiteboard can, but it takes a coach's time for every question.
Chalk Talk asks the question on the field and makes you answer on the field:
- Tap a player or defender. "Tap the 3 technique." "Tap the defender who has the flat."
- Tap spots on the field. "Tap the strong-side C gap." "Tap 2 soft spots in this coverage."
- Pick an answer. "Name the front." "Name the coverage from the drops."
Then it shows the right answer on the same field, with the labels that explain it and a short explanation.
What Chalk Talk covers
Gaps and holes
Tap a gap by letter and side, tap a hole by number, name a marked hole, call the strength, or tap the player who forms the edge of a gap. Hole numbers always follow your team's convention from Settings, so a staff that numbers the players instead of the gaps gets quizzed their way.
Fronts and techniques
Tap the 3 technique (or the 5, 4i, 7 or 6i, 9), name the technique of a highlighted defender, name the front, or find the Mike, Sam, Will, nose or free safety. Techniques are computed from where each defender lines up on your actual linemen.
Coverages and soft spots
Read the pre-snap shell, name the coverage from its drops, tap the defender who owns a zone or who's in man on a receiver, and tap the soft spots in a coverage against a play. Soft spots are worked out from each zone defender's landmark and depth, and from man-coverage leverage. In Cover 2 that includes the sideline hole between the squatting corner and the half-field safety, the deep middle and the curl/flat windows.
It's a chalkboard model: every defender gets to his spot and there are no pattern-match rules. That's the right level for teaching the concept.
Route concepts and reads
Tap the primary read, tap the receiver running the corner on Smash, pick where the ball is most likely going against a coverage, or pick which concept's first read attacks a soft spot.
Blocking
Who the highlighted lineman blocks on Power against a 4-3 Over, what his block is called (Down, Combo, Pull-Kick…), who pulls, who kicks out the end man, and who the QB reads on the Read Option.
Your terminology
Questions use your staff's own names for formations and concepts ("Lion (Smash)"), so the quiz sounds like your meeting room. Quizzes built from your own saved plays are coming back once Chalk Talk can read plays you've flipped or customized.
Answers that can't drift
Every question is built from a real play diagram and graded against the same engine that draws it: the gaps, techniques, aligned defense, blocking and read keys all come from the Play Designer. There are no hand-typed answer keys to go out of date, and the field you see and the grading can't disagree.
Three levels
| Level | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Rookie | 8 common formations drawn to the right; 4-3 Over and Under, 3-4 Okie and Nickel; Cover 1, 2 and 3; names shown, with helper labels; one soft spot to find |
| Varsity | More formations, flipped plays, more fronts (Tite, 3-3, 5-2, Dime) and coverages (Cover 0, 4 and 2-Man); two soft spots |
| Coordinator | Every formation, front and coverage, including goal line, unbalanced, 46 Bear and Cover 6; names hidden until you answer; three soft spots |
Pick 5, 10 or 20 questions. Partial credit counts when a question asks for more than one answer.
Build it into your week
- Daily challenge. Ten Varsity questions, the same set for the whole staff each day. Good for the start of a staff meeting.
- Track progress. Save attempts to see your score by topic and review the ones you missed. Coaches, admins and owners see a staff leaderboard. Everyone else sees only their own history.
- Onboard new coaches. Assign the Rookie gaps and fronts quizzes before a new assistant's first meeting.
- Check the install. After you add a new concept, quiz the room on that saved play.
Everyone on your team account can take quizzes, including assistants and stat collectors. Player questions also have a "Choose from a list" option, and the whole quiz works from the keyboard.
How to do it in Hashmarks
- Request free access, then invite your staff.
- (Optional) Set your hole-numbering convention under Settings → Play Designer.
- Open Chalk Talk from the menu.
- Pick a topic (or Mixed), a level and a length, and press Start quiz. Or take the Daily challenge.
- Answer on the field, read the explanation, and save the attempt.
- Draw your own plays in the Play Designer, in your own terminology.
The Chalk Talk help page lists every question type and where each coverage is soft. New to the terms? The football glossary is a good place to start.
Put your staff on the board
The best staff meetings are the ones where everyone's speaking the same language. Request free access, draw your base plays and let Chalk Talk check that the whole room knows them. See it on the Hashmarks home page.
