Fielding Yost

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Work for the center, quarter back and all the other men. 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”