Football for Player and Spectator/Chapter 9

The first requisite to the development of a football team is a study of the entire season's campaign. The successful working plan of former elevens is not a safe rule in the preparation of a new team. Although the games may be played against the same old opponents, an entirely new set of problems will be presented for the coach to solve. These problems may spring up in the gradation of games on the schedule or in changes in the class or coaches of the rival elevens, but the main problem is one of men. The coach must not only know the physical abilities of his players, but he must divine early in the season the character and traits of the men whom he will have to trust with important positions when the strain of late-season games taxes strength and training to their limits and calls out the reserve forces of grit, original head work and moral stamina.

Even in the mere mechanical drills, both the amount and kind of work depend upon the individual player. It is unimportant whether any such thing as a team appears on the football field during the early practice. In fact, too much attention to team work too early in the season may ruin the opportunities to develop a good team later. If the coach or trainer will spend his entire time preparing each man, as a mechanic finishes up the separate parts of his creation before putting it together, the various positions can be fitted into each other in a short time, to make a smoothly running, accurate and strong football machine.

In preparing these cogs of the football mechanism it is proper to have ideals, yet the materials offered for the construction of a football team are never all that are desired and, as for ideals, seldom does even a single candidate on an entire team come up to the mark set in the coach's mind. There is constant danger that the existence in the mind of the coach of an ideal team may actually injure the eleven in actual process of development. To escape this difficulty the coach must continually remind himself of conditions, not fancies, and make the best possible out of the material at hand. One means to attain this end is the constant habit of taking an inventory of the men. A study of abilities and weaknesses that develop from day to day, and the observation of peculiarities in build and temperament will quickly show how players can be better fitted into the team where their muscles and brains will count most in making it stronger. Very likely the final assignment of positions may not be the ones which the coach would best like to see the men playing, yet it makes a stronger machine.

It is not the amount of football knowledge a player may have, but rather how much of the theory he possesses that can be put into practice, that wins games.

If the practice is not interesting enough to burn an indelible impression of every rudiment of football into the player's working knowledge, it is wasted. The coach can best instruct his men by putting on his football suit and illustrating exactly what he wants done, not only in fundamentals, but in team play. Confidence of the members of the team, one in the other, and constant interest in how each comrade is developing will in time form a team spirit, a factor quite as potent in carrying a pig-skin as an extra hundred pounds of muscle. The main requirement all the time is work--hard work--not the bruising kind, either, but such as develops and quickens the men. Along with this ambition to work, the player must have a goal, some such aim, for example, as to repeat each play a thousand times in patient, daily practice, and never to repeat it,--no matter how old a story the play may become to him,--without doing better than before. Half-hearted repetitions are useless in football.

THE FIRST WEEK TO TEN DAYS

The time for the preparation of the individual parts of the team is the first week or ten days of training. Persistence and patience ought to show the general abilities of the men in this period and enable the coach to select very nearly the places they can play on the team. The earlier the choice of a team can be made, the greater will be its perfection in the season's height. This preparation period ought to be free from any work such as regular scrimmage, in which the men may be injured. To get into fair condition should be the first general aim. Passing the ball, starting, kicking, catching and the work in squads of four, together with other work given under "Rudiments" in this book, will develop and harden players till their first scrimmage is without danger. Still, even this same easy-going program of daily drills, unless carefully watched, can be pushed beyond the limits of the best team's endurance. The distribution of preliminary work is very like the plan of campaign--a matter of discovering the needs of the individual. It is especially advisable to keep men who are slow on their feet working hard at starting practice and those who handle passes poorly busy at kicking and punting.

PRACTICE IN KICKING

The first two weeks of the season, before the stress of the real work begins, give a golden opportunity to discover invaluable punters, place kickers and goal kickers. The best way is to use, for a few days, the American idea of an equal opportunity to everyone. The most likely candidates, no matter how superficially unpromising some of them really appear, should then be selected for special kicking practice daily. Sometimes the best kicker develops where such ability was least expected. He may even be a veteran who has played seasons without discovering the power in his kicking toe. Great care is necessary that these men do not work too long. The early practice is designed entirely to learn form, for this quality, so hard to define because it is the most difficult part of kicking, is the key to both distance and accurate direction.

As soon as the good kickers begin to forge ahead, practice should be concentrated into kicking from behind a scrimmage line, where all this work is done in the game. Men who can kick 70 yards in the open often cannot punt 50 consistently while facing the charge of an opposing line. Not merely one, but three or four good men, should be developed in the punting department.

There is still another indispensable set of kickers, who need not necessarily be on the punting squad. They are the place-kickers. A drop kick or one from placement from the field may be the deciding factor in the important game of the season. On the majority of football teams the best place kicker will not be a good punter, for usually the large men make the best place kicks. Also, they are likely to be in the best condition after the exhausting work required to make a touchdown and therefore, having steadier nerves and muscles than light men, are more accurate. Furthermore, a tall, heavy man makes his goal by the sheer weight behind the swing of his leg and is not compelled, like his lighter comrade, to disturb his aim by the hard swing of his toe against the ball.

INDIVIDUAL DRILLS

To fill in every spare nook and cranny of the time between the different periods of team instruction with drills which perfect the individual is not only a time-saving policy, but may often result in altering the fortunes of battle on some hard-fought field later on. One such drill which men must practice by themselves is the art of falling on or around the ball. An accurate style of launching the body at the ball, while it rolls on the ground, and of pinning it fast, will save many a fumble from becoming more serious when the time comes for the actual competition. The ends especially need to know this branch of the diving art. Every man on the squad has a few spare minutes which he can devote to this work under the eye of an assistant coach. These few minutes, if faithfully used throughout the season, will make the men proficient in a trick which requires infallible judgment of the eye and a quick leap. Work with the tackling dummy can be done in the same manner, although the dummy teaches no more than the form of a dive, while the effectiveness which makes the players a stone wall on defense can be learned only by tackling live, dodging runners. A particularly important phase of the tackling is daily work in sending the team down the field under punts.

A group which requires small groups of players at a time is the charging machine. From five to ten minutes of this work daily, especially with the forwards, will effectually strengthen the straight-arm work of the linesmen, and will quicken the slow men until the entire line springs into action as one player.

FORMATIONS OF FOURS



In the early season, before such a thing as a team exists, its place can be, to a great extent, filled by a division of all the material into squads of four. These are little, rudimentary teams consisting of a center, quarter back and two halves. All the men who appear fitted for center can play the position on these squads and the quarter back material can pass the ball. Every other position on the team will fit into the half back work of these squads of four. Of course, in this formation, the center learns just how to stand, how to pass the ball to the quarter and how to charge when passing it. It is also obvious that the quarter backs, especially if there are several likely candidates, could receive no better work. The three other men line up so quickly that the quarter back's practice is nearly doubled, while he can reel off signals for all ordinary plays until he is able to think far faster than an entire eleven could execute his commands. He can use these backs for imaginary plunges through the line, as well as for runs around the end.



But a still greater value of the squads of four is the benefit to the linesmen. In many a season which starts with doubtful prospect, the winning shake-up which gives the coach the title of "Wizard" is nothing more than the application of the half back lessons, taught through the squad of four. The guards, tackles and ends receive as much benefit from playing the half back positions as the regular halves, for, first of all, this work increases the speed of every man. It is often good policy to place a fast and slow man together on a squad, where, instead of retarding the speed of the fast man, the slow player develops as much ginger as his speedier companion. Wind and endurance, which fit men for the strenuous work later on and which may even be the foundation for producing the fastest eleven of the season, are certain products of this squad drill. The team which is picked from such preliminary formations has an entire set of linesmen, familiar with the duties of the back field positions.

The inevitable result of placing men with such training on the line is to give the offense great variety of attack. Whenever these same linesmen, later in the season, are called back to carry the ball, they are at home. They know what to do and exactly how it should be done. These linesmen will thus be enabled to take their share of the offensive work off the shoulders of the backs, who, in many elevens, are required to do more than any man's strength can endure. Many linesmen will prove to be ground-gainers of the highest ability and effectiveness. Frequently the men playing in the line, though they may have been tried out, have not sufficient practice in ground-gaining tactics to become successes, whereas, had they received one-half the opportunity of the backs in practice of advancing the bail, they would develop into offensive players even more valuable than the regular occupants of the backfield positions.

Even after linesmen prove to be of little use as ground gainers, as some of them undoubtedly will, their training behind the scrimmage line will be of wonderful value in the performance of their regular duties.

SIGNAL WORK

The drill which makes an effective unit out of an eleven; which enables it to strike fast and hard, time after time, as one man; in short, the making of the football machine, is signal practice. To start together and stay together is the first law of this drill. The plays here are run off much faster than in any game, since there is no necessity of waiting for the lining up of a defensive team. The men learn to fall instantly into their proper places, to shift with mechanical precision at the quarter back's command, and when, by this process, enough plays have been graven on their minds, they will learn new formations as if by instinct.

Two or three plays a day will not be too many. The rule of "hurry" must be universally applied. The slowest man must realize that he is holding back the play until he is in place and ready for action. Substitutes must be as thoroughly trained as the regulars in the positions they are expected to fill, for the entire eleven is no faster than its slowest member. The speed developed by the signal practice is speed both of action and of thought. Without one of these qualities the possession of the other is a useless asset.

INDIVIDUAL POSITIONS

The work of each man in playing his position is shown in the chapters on Offense and Defense. As the season progresses, each individual should be studied, not only to discover his capabilities in his own position but to teach where, on certain shifts of the play, he can be used to best benefit the team as a whole. Sometimes it is best for the team that an offensive half back should play a defensive end, while the offensive end plays defensive quarter, half back or perhaps defensive full back. This study of individuals will help make a team uniformly strong. Especially on defense will it strengthen the weak points, which, if not fortified, the opponents will be sure to discover.

OFFENSE

An offense can be finished only by scrimmage work. As early as the men are able to stand it, about one-quarter of each day's work ought to be devoted to scrimmage practice. The first two weeks of formation and signal drills are sufficient to put the men into condition for the rough wear of scrimmage. In completing an offense the coach must not only give every man on the team a thorough preliminary drill in offensive tactics, but, if he hopes for a strong, varied attack, he must allow each man a thorough trial in carrying the ball during actual scrimmages. No rules can be laid down for building up an offense. The attack will never be alike in any two years, unless the very same men compose the team. The peculiarities of the men will determine how the attack should be arranged. Games cannot be won without a strong, consistent offense, yet the time devoted to its development will be comparatively little in some years, while in others it will remain the all-important problem up to the very end of the season. It is poor policy to interrupt the work of two scrimmaging elevens solely to correct individual faults. Remember these lessons and impress them upon the football candidate at some other time.

DEFENSE

Too often the time devoted to defense during a season is all too short. Frequently teams do not have a full second eleven on the gridiron and in many colleges there is never a complete reserve team at any time during the year. But, even without stopping the rushes of an offensive eleven, much can be learned in drills at tackling, charging and breaking through. When a full quota is not available, these drills can be made quite thorough by the use of smaller opposing squads, corresponding very nearly to the squad of four formations. A special defensive drill for kicks, punts and blocking place kicks should occupy at least a quarter of each day's practice. In the defensive instruction, as on offense, the faults of the individuals, in nearly all instances, are best corrected in private, either after the practice or early next day.

ASSISTANTS

"Too many cooks spoil the broth" in football as in any other realm of endeavor, and the probiem of assistant coaches is a very serious matter. Assistants are invaluable if rightly used, but if they are not they will ruin the best team. The one principle never to be forgotten in portioning out the assistant's work is that no player shall have the style of his coaching changed during the season. The assistants should never be permitted to coach the regulars. One man ought to have complete charge of that, or, if a staff of coaches has the regular team in hand, then the work should be so divided that the man who coaches the forwards has entire charge of the linesmen; the head coach of the ends should be absolute in his position, and the opinion of the coach for the backs should be final in his department.

Early in the season the coach should study and decide on the best style for coaching each player, and then stick to it.

It is well to have the assistant coach keep the reserve team in shape for scrimmage with the regulars, for the individualities of his coaching will make the plays of his eleven a little different from that of the first team and will furnish the regulars, in a measure, an opponent whose style they do not know, which they must solve while in action. Some of the very best assistants are veteran players who are either still in college or are residents of the college town.