Real-Life Communication
Football is all about making plays. If you don't know your
position and your plays, you won't make a good professional football
player. These play sheets and charts have to be studied and often committed
to memory.
"There are charts and diagrams that football players have
to read and understand," says Eric Stansfield. He works for a professional
football team. "You need to be able to read your play book no matter what
language it's written in. That's important. You have to understand
what is written there."
In addition, football players need to be able
to follow written instructions, and commands from coaches. This means understanding
the vocabulary for all types of passes and plays. Following your last game,
your coach wrote down a few tips for you.
This is what he wrote:
It
isn't a good idea to throw the ball to a receiver running the same route
more than two times in a game. The first time you make the throw, the receiver
has a chance of completing the pass. By the second time, the defense may anticipate
enough to tip the pass, and the third time the defense will probably be in
position to intercept the pass.
Practice your release
technique. If the defense is able to block the receiver so that he can't
leave the line of scrimmage, this will be the end of your passing game. The
receiver needs to be able to release from the line to an open route on the
field.
Lay off the backward pass. This pass is risky because it can
easily become a defensive touchdown, if the defense decided to pick up the
ball, rather than fall on it. A better idea would be to run the same play
with a forward behind-the-line-of-scrimmage pass. In some cases, backward
passes can be useful if they are picked up and your team is able to run with
them.
Note: the referee seems to be mistakenly whistling our dropped
backward passes dead. It would be a good idea for you to tell the referee
that we are planning to run a play with a backward pass. Then, we will run
the play early in the game.
By answering the following
questions, see if you understood what the coach was telling you.
- What will happen if you repeatedly throw to a receiver running the same
route on the field?
- Why is the backward pass risky?
- What pass might work better than the backward pass?
- How can the team stop the referee from interfering in the backward pass
play?