Clocking Part 1: When To Clock

This has been one of the mot talked about topic in the tournament scene. People just dont know when to finish the game.


First things first, you may be wondering what it is to clock. Well clocking is a term that the tournament crowd uses that plain and simply mean to end the game while they are ahead in score. They want to use the play clock to their advantage and work it down as much as possible, effectively winning the game. Most of the time when someone talks about clocking they are talking about running the ball.

But when do you clock?
I find that the perfect time to start clocking is when you evaluate your offense, your opponents offense and your defense. You have to be brutally honest with yourself, there is no room for foolish self pride in your evaluations.

Think about if your offense can effectivly work at a slow pace vs his defense. Because if you can than there is no need to hinder yourself if your going to be better off running your normal offense....This is a game by game basis.

Then think if your opponents offense has has a lot of success in airing the ball out. This wont deter your decision to clock but think about the plays that they have had success on and try to mentally lab a defense. If you cant clock and score at the same time you will have to play defense. So get mentally prepared.

Now think about your defense. Do you want to stay in the defense you have been working all game? Do you want to blitz more, thinking that your opponent will want to use deeper passes? Or do you want to play conservative bend but dont break defense? Wanting to contain them to as many plays as possible to score (also wasting clock)....This will defer between games, just make sure you have Defense for all sittuations.

After you evaluate all of the above you want to look at the clock. Some people start to clock with four minutes left on the clock (in a 5-7 min quarter game)....And when you look at the clock think about all of the above. If your clocking offense is lacking than start to clock later (running offense), maybe around the 2 minute mark.

Now the defensive thought from abouve come into play if your clocking offense falters.

To end this part I want you to leave with this. First of all decide IF you want to clock, then when based off of your clocking offense vs their defense. Then prepare your defense for if you fail to clock.

In the next part I will talk about HOW TO CLOCK