also: position letters · receiver letters · skill letters
The letters offenses use to name skill players. Mostly consistent across programs, genuinely not standardized, and shown in our own editor's palette with no explanation attached.
The common convention, stated as a convention rather than as a standard, because it is not one:
**X** is the split end, on the line, usually the backside receiver. **Z** is the flanker, off the line, usually to the formation's strength. **Y** is the tight end. **H** and **F** are the movable pieces, an H-back, wing, or second back, and these two vary most between programs.
What the letters buy is the same thing frontside and backside buy: a name that survives flipping the formation. Calling a route for "Z" works to either side; calling it for "the right receiver" does not.
The important caveat is that H and F in particular are not standardized, and two programs will use them for different players without either being wrong. Establishing a staff's letters is a first-week conversation.
position letterssplit end, flanker and slot, personnel grouping**These letters appear in Playside's own diagram palette with no tooltips**, which means a coach's first encounter with the notation is a set of unlabelled letters in our product. That is the strongest single case in this cluster for writing the entry.
Numbering systems are often used instead of letters at youth level, and the DC Pistol Wing-T numbering that the corpus documents is one example: positions numbered 1 through 6, with formation names generated from the same numbers.