Inside football

Preface

All my other Octobers, I thought, had been so unlike and yet so like to this one. The smell of saddle leather was vaguely evocative of that odor of new footballs which sets the memories of many seasons flowing. In the air was the same crisp tang of other autumns, and beneath our feet the rustle of withered leaves. From beyond the hill we could hear the clanking and grinding of artillery. Before us the long hillside fell away to a shining river. Beyond, the far horizon was lit with lightning flashes, not out of heaven but out of an inferno of man's making. And from above rained down the light and radiance of other worlds. It seemed very strange to be so far away from home and fireside, very singular to find oneself present amid surrotmdings so weird, so unreal. It seemed very strange indeed to be directing a squad of cannoneers instead of a squad of football players. Strangest of all, came the certainty that it was very much the same thing after all, that the little problems and perplexities were very like indeed to the old problems and perplexities. * 'Football,'* I reflected, ''is very like warfare, after all, and warfare would be very like football, were there as much intelligence in it. There is more intelligence/' I added, "in one football game,

PREFACE badly though it may be played, however disgusting to the coaches, than there is in a whole war;'' for it seemed to me that of intelligence in modem warfare there was very little, that the music of Mars is a mad music, that his votaries are filled with a certain witlessness, and go blind and blundering into battle like men who know not what they do. Then my thought strayed and roamed among the men around me, the men in olive drab, who had won the headgear and jersey of the other Octobers. I could always pick them out, the football players, although many there were who, never having played the grand old game, nevertheless Jiad plenty of muscular control, good discipline, coolness under fire and cheerfulness in adversity. * 'These men,'' I reflected, "would have made good football players; it is only that they never had sufficient opportunity to play it." I thought of the heavy percentage of rejections from our army and navy recruiting stations, and that very few of the men thus humiliated had been football players. The ex-players, to be sure, were picked men originally; but there seemed to me to be no valid excuse for such a large proportion of downright inferiority. Athletics, and especially football, would have spared many of our young men this shame," was my mental conclusion, and I added: After this war we shall hear a cry for imiversal drill and military preparation; but universal athletics, and especially football, would hit nearer the mark. There is nothing like our football that I know of to make a young man alert and receptive, active and

PREFACE cotirageous; and possession of these qualities is worth, for preparedness' sake, a year's output of the Bethlehem munitions works or a lifetime spent in drilling. After the war," I said, 'Ve shall play a lot of football, and it will not be played in a mollycoddle spirit. We shall have better football, if we can find a sufficient number of coaches who know the game. Many coaches will be needed, and, moreover, we ought to make an immediate effort to restandardize our football; for there is too much confusion among us, too much bewilderment. A consistent theory of the whole art of football, if stated, would have at least the merit of being consistent. If sound, it should aid in the standardization of our football, and if unsound, at least it might provoke a sound and thorough criticism, which leads to the same thing. A book written with this in mind shotild prove invaluable," I decided, *'but I do not imagine that I shall have the opportunity to write it. I shall keep the thought in mind, however."

Contents

Chapter Page

Preface

I Beginning the Season 1

Chapter I

A NEW coach's first talk to a squad is the one which makes the deepest impression on the largest nimiber. This coach will never have a better opportunity to set his pupils thinking on a high plane. They should be reminded that the season beginning at the college or school calls for sacrifice, endurance, the exercise of will-power and pride in bodily and mental improvement, including the maintenance of a high standard of scholarship. The season must be one of co-operation, unity of purpose, concentration, team-work and unselfishness in the commonly accepted meaning of that term. Urge all members of the squad, moreover, to discourage chronic wet-blankets and objectors who have no remedies to offer, whether members of the squad or outsiders. Players with new ideas, moreover, should be encouraged to impart them to the coach. I have sometimes told a squad at the first meeting: **If you are not willing to sacrifice an arm or a leg for the good of the cause — not that any one hopes or expects or desires that such a sacrifice be made — the cause is not sufficiently serious to you, and you ought not to be on the squad/'

It is not to be intimated, or understood, that any coach would be so self-seeking, or any school expect so much, that any man should be called upon to sacrifice the equivalent of a limb. It is not to be presimied that a coach would be so brutal as to take any unnecessary chances with his men. But it is entirely reasonable to require that men of the calibre desired for a football team be willing to make such a sacrifice.

A team should have the do-or-die spirit. If a game of this nature is not important enough to fight for, it would be a travesty on sport to play it at all. Here, then, is the beautiful school in which sacrifice for an ideal is taught, developed and made a part of the man. Strange as it may seem to the fanatics of rest, peace and quiet enjoyment, the large majority of the men who are thus taught come to love the lesson and its teacher.

Keep the players on the field in a serious frame of mind. Contrary to a prevalent opinion, enthusiastic football students can maintain and increase that enthusiasm by sustained application more readily than by a diversion of frivolity and relaxation. The squad should include men of a serious and studious turn of mind, who, even if they are not of varsity timber, will encourage their fellows to bring up important questions as they arise. A one-man

* team is seldom a winner. That two heads are better than one is a good adage, but eleven heads are even better; that is to say, eleven thinkers, not eleven leaders; for there should be only one quarterback or captain, too many frogs muddling the football puddle very decidedly.

While the serious attitude of the players should never be discouraged, there are times at mid-season when the going is hard and men easily become irritable. Under such conditions, the coach should make special opportimity for less serious play, never riotous or risky, but based on forms of light exercise such as all men know. These games may be relied upon to rekindle naturally happy dispositions, in order to build up a mental reserve for the especially severe grind at the end of the season.

Discipline is a very important habit to form early, or it will never become a fact. Before any practice is attempted the men should be informed that they must not and shall not be late to meals or practice. Delay in dressing before or after practice should not be countenanced. A football team cannot become a well drilled and disciplined machine without insistence upon the trifles, so called. The spirit of a squad that gets out early and with snap at the start of the season is always superior.

There should be a preliminary exercise of calisthenics, to loosen the muscles and warm the body (but not for body and arms alone, with the legs in a rigid position). The legs must also be encouraged to work with the mind. Leg exercises, with the legs in a crouched position, have no merit; as it has been historically demonstrated to a convincing degree that a quick man can get a slow, heavy man out of the way.

The main idea should be to keep all the men moving all the time, except when they are listening to instruction; as a busy squad acquires a much more convincing sense of duty well done, with its accompanying mental satisfactions, as well as a keener and earlier awakening to the fact that somebody is taking care of it who knows his business.

The preliminary practice should be conducted in accordance with a schedule, but that schedule should be reconstructed if it is found to be inadequate. No matter how large the squad, every man should be kept occupied, one group tackling or blocking at the dummy, another falling on the ball, others going through signals, others punting or passing. The fundamentals are the essentials. Once positively and firmly grounded, the team, with any reasonable opportunity, will grow and develop.

Everybody is an end and everybody is a pass thrower and a punter as well, for the first three or four days of preliminary conditioning; days divided, if possible, into forenoon and afternoon workouts of short duration, with vigilant watchfulness exercised against overexertion or excessive fatigue. Short tossing of the ball and fielding of the same gives every man a good stretch. These tosses should have a maximum of twenty-five yards, and there should be exchanges of punts at the same distance, with attention to form both in punting and catching. The wearing of very Hght clothing is advisable during these early sessions, often undertaken during one of summer's late revivals; and all candidates should be warned to report fatigue or the slightest lameness in arm or leg.

The players may be divided into squads of a dozen, and sent ambling around the field, throwing the ball from one to another; perhaps choosing sides and making a semi-basketball affair out of it, but always with a sharp eye to exhaustion.

After the first day, pick out any of the possible heavy men who might become centers or sub-centers, and put quarterback candidates behind them. Show the latter the positions to assume with a view to forward passes, while standing in various receiving positions at various distances. Show the Centers how to make passes, including the spiral pass, which cannot, however, be relied upon exclusively, because of its impracticability on muddy days. Then start the handling of the ball, sending ends down imder the resulting passes, which should be so short that they can be fielded without strain, but long enough to develop handling and fielding the ball, and also return throwing.

Gradually increase the distances, both of the forward passing and the punting. Stmimer punters, whose legs are already in fair shape, may begin to get length on their kicks, and the army of *'ends,'' including tackles and guards in the making, will begin to go down under kicks and passes faster, though less frequently, walking back along the side lines to make place for the next set of forwards which comes clattering down under the punt.

The receivers should practice a smart getawayafter catching, but should play it safe, first making sure of the catch. The ball is received on the solar plexus, to bound out slightly against the left hand and drop into the right hand held underneath to complete the pocket. Punt receivers should bind the first two and also the third and fourth fingers together with tape, thus avoiding nine-tenths of the early season finger injuries incidental to punt catching. It is well to remember, incidentally, that a really sore knuckle or toe becomes almost painless if bound to its neighbor for support. Tagging the receiver takes the place of tackling in preliminary down-the-field work, but the punt catchers should begin immediately to practice the use of the straight arm and the use of the free arm by the side to break a man's tackle.

On the fourth day of practice, start the men falling from a standing position on a stationary football contained in a small circle six feet aw;ay; paying special attention to form. After a few days this specialty can be practiced with the man running and the ball in motion. Teach the player to go over the ball straight, after the manner of a down-swooping hydroplane, running lower and 'lower with each stride, until the final plxmge has more of a skimming than a falling motion. The player's body, with shoulders equidistant from the ground, should barely avoid grazing the ball. He completes its recovery by turning over upon either hip, as comes most natural to him, at the same time pulling in the ball so that the upper legs and lower body form a right-angled pocket, which the arms complete.

Players should not be asked to fall on the ball in twos, threes or fours until after the first game, or after a fair amoimt of scrimmage work. Many men seem to reserve all their natural and acquired climisiness for this operation, which to other football players presents no more difficulty than a kitten experiences while at play with a ball of yam. Cltimsy men injure themselves and injure others ; and falling on the ball, although a highly essential specialty to acquire, is watched with misgivings by coaches and trainers, who never know when an accident may occtu*. The risks are apparently heavier than in scrimmage itself, and yet a great majority of natural football players fall on the ball year after year without suffering the slightest injury.

Quick starts and quick stops, both so necessary in football, may be practiced at an early stage in the season. Never give so many starts that the element of speed is lost through fatigue. Rest as often as necessary; but get the genuine snap into both the starting and the stopping. Develop the utmost in muscular response to brain command.

Shadow dodging is another important means of developing rapid co-ordination and bringing out natural dodging speed. For this exercise twenty to thirty posts or sticks should be set up at irregular intervals within a square measuring fifteen yards on each side. Players should learn to dodge by running at speed through this maze of obstacles, avoiding the latter and also one another by complete turns of the body. Accomplished and highly elusive dodgers tend to run with restraint, and should therefore be given at least their full share of work in falling on the ball, and tackling the dimimy.

Begin to use the dummy after three or four days of preliminary exercise. Men learn at the dtmimy how to block in interference, as well as tackling, but it is well to postpone blocking exercises until after the first two or three scrimmages. Heart and enthusiasm make the tackle, but at the dummy he can be taught to watch the knees and lower legs rather than the head. The coach meanwhile should impress his own interest, thoroughness and **pep" on the tackier, arousing as much enthusiasm as possible by his voice — in order to solace the novice for his skinned elbows. The coach should instil also the spirit of rivalry and fight by the voice, by comparisons, and by the trend of his conversation.

From the first day of practice the coach should use a large blackboard for instruction in signals, formations, and plays. Three basic plays, which can be worked on either side of the line, will, with the punt, give him a total of seven plays to serve as the foundation of his working offense. These plays should be explained in full detail to the squad. Each man should learn not only where he goes and what he does, but also the individual assignment of every man on the team. The coach must have in his own mind a very clear and precise reasoning of what each player is to do on every play, and he must know his plays as he knows his alphabet; else, under cross-examination, his prestige will suffer an enormous decline. If the slightest changes are made later in any play, the changes must be explained and learned as thoroughly as the original moves. Further plays should be added to these as fast as the squad can assimilate them. The system of signals which will govern the plays should be expounded in as clear and concise a manner as possible. The signals themselves must be the simplest possible and the most easily changed on short notice. Put the signals on the blackboard, and drive them home with diagrams of the plays. Then, on the field, line up the squad into teams on attack. Let the teams walk through the plays, at first, against a wholly imaginary defense; each man, however, taking out, blocking off or charging back the invisible opponent assigned to him.

Scales, stakes, rope, blackboard and dummy are the principal inanimate devices which new coaches will find most serviceable and necessary in teaching football.

In addition to a setting-up drill at the start of practice, a calisthenic exercise at the end of the day is advisable, especially if the men have been spending considerable time in listening to instruction. The practice should conclude with a sprint to the training house, rather than with a long run. It appears to be a general practice to scrimmage men, or work them otherwise, as far as the men can go, and then send them on long runs. This is a wholly unnecessary hardship. If men, after practice, are still capable of long runs, with no atom of interest in the performance, it seems much more advisable to prolong the instruction in practical football.

Every man on the squad should have a proper amount of work each day, and if there are substitutes who have been of necessity neglected, and if darkness has fallen so that further coaching is rendered impossible, the long run may serve a useful purpose; but players generally regard it as merely a form of torture. The proof is not far to seek. It is only necessary to take a football squad and send it for a mile on the track after an average afternoon's work. Watch the men's faces as they run and their attitude when they finish. Then the next night call the men together at the end of the practice and say: * 'That's all for tonight. Now, then, everybody sprint for the gym ! ' ' After the long run the men were worn out and silent. Tonight they are happy, full of life and off with a live step and a joyous heart for the showers.

Occasionally a coach may order a run as one of the surprises which are such a great element in holding attention, whether always pleasant, or now and then disagreeable. Even the disagreeable surprise will arouse interest, and the long run easily includes itself in a list of the disagreeables. Unless a man's attendance is required for study purposes, he should be sent at once to the dressing room after taking him out of a practice, especially in chilly weather. He can get from his bath, if taken immediately, a snap and a revival not to be expected if his body is allowed to chill in the bitter autumn breezes.

Men on the field, once they start exercising, should be kept busy, and there is always plenty for them to do. They must get accustomed to falling on the ground and to protecting their muscles and conserving their wind and endiu'ance as a matter of second nature, before they are ready for football. It is the trainer's business and the coach's business, meanwhile, to see to it that no man in practice exerts himself to the limit; watching especially the new men who report late, but watching, also, the varying weights of all the men, and turning all suspected cases of organic disturbance over to the physician, before it becomes too late.

Chapter II The Warrior's Armor

In the general sense I am not in favor of heavy, burdensome protective devices. Whatever protection is used should be particularly chosen with a view to strength and lightness. A man can be injured by first becoming exhausted through carrying too many pounds of pads and braces, for even these are insufficient if the wearer's muscles are relaxed from excessive fatigue. In addition to the protection which every athlete provides for himself, no football man should ever go on the field for a scrimmage or a game without a headgear. It neither makes a coward out of him to wear one nor a braver man to go without. If for no other reason, over a span of ten years the headgear will take away from the alarmists many opportunities to cry down football. Many cuts requiring stitches, and other > serious head injuries, are avoided by wearing headgear. There is no penalty of discomfort from wearing this protection and no psychological disadvantage.

Shoulder braces of light, substantial material should be used for the protection of the scapula. Light hip pads for the top of the hip bone afford some

THE WARRIOR'S ARMOR 13 protection also to the floating ribs. These pads are sewn inside the trousers, and protrude above in semicircular shape. Light kidney pads of leather faced felt are similarly adjusted. Thigh pads are fitted into pockets on the front and inside of the trouser legs. The knee cap should be protected by a light pad contained in the roll of the trouser leg and a thin, flat sponge is preferable to a pad. The sponge should be wet, most of the water then being squeezed out. It is very light, but offers remarkable protective resistance.

As a rule, shin guards do not appear to be necessary. They have nearly gone out of use. Yet I would recommend them strongly for occasional men who have supersensitive shins. If a man is more comfortable with shin guards, let him wear them; and the same applies to nose guards. I would specially urge very low cut shoes for all players. Were it not for the ankle bone, I would have them cut as low as the stmimer oxford. Since 1898 until comparatively recent years, when I found an athletic goods house which would make them at short notice as I wanted them, I used to cut down the standard football shoes before they were served out so that the upper would extend no higher than the middle of the ankle bone.

These shoes were intended to protect the ankle, and often reached the calf of the leg. When such a shoe was laced tightly it gave a decided sensation of protection, an impression which the player carried into the game with him. As the ankle worked about in the shoe, the pressure of the laces readjusted itself, the result being increased tightness around the top of the shoe. The wearer still used his ankle as if it were braced, though it now had no brace whatever. The result was an extraordinarynumber of sprained ankles. Cutting the shoe down and lacing it tightly over the instep, giving no brace whatever to the ankle, forced this joint to do its work and protect itself. I cannot recall three cases of sprained ankle in fifteen years of coaching.

Of course, the man who steps into a hidden hole on a football field is liable to a sprain, but nothing will ever be invented to prevent an accident of this kind, if the freedom of the joint is to be considered.

The group photographs in the football guide show not one team in twenty uniformed with canvas jackets; variously padded and camouflaged jerseys being apparently very much in the mode. This fashion appears to me to involve a somewhat thoughtless sacrifice of efficiency. Canvas jackets should by all means be worn, as the jersey is a hundred per cent easier to grasp. If it is a good jersey it will stretch without tearing. An unbroken hold on a jersey by a man of reasonable strength will catch the wearer with one leg in the air and snap him back as if the jersey were a powerful spring.

Within recent years I have seen two touchdowns lost in important games in this manner. In one case the ball was carried to a point directly over the goal line, if not slightly beyond it, when the runner was snapped back without ceremony. In the excite-

THE WARRIOR^S ARMOR 15 ment, the referee either failed to notice that the ball had been actually carried to a point where, under the rules, a touchdown should have been awarded, or else lost his nerve. An3^ay the next lineup took place six feet from the goal line. One finds it difficult to censure the official too severely, considering how difficult it was to believe one's own eyes as to the elasticity of a jersey and the distance the runner's sudden recoil had covered.

The jacket should be tightly laced, with due regard to freedom of breathing. Good results can be obtained by fitting the men to jackets and trousers separately, and then having the garments united by a tailor so that the whole will fit the body perfectly, and give entire freedom of action. Elastic material is generally used to effect the union. If the team's treasury can afford it, have a special shoe for muddy fields, rigged with three long cleats under the ball of the foot, as far apart as possible, so as to give them the least chance to hold caked earth. Place at most two cleats of the same kind on the heel. Drop kickers cannot use these mud cleats, and this is a small point to remember.

I have found it particularly worth while to equip backs and ends with a special light shoe for their important games. These shoes by their very nature are not guaranteed to stand a season's work, but imagination when well directed is a fine thing to cater to, and the extra life and dash exhibited by players thus equipped is positive. Stockings should have white feet — regardless of the college color;

this as a safeguard against infection. Even better, players might wear short white socks under the stockings. Blankets of good quality and generous size should be a part of the team's equipment. They should be used during all long waits, even when the weather is not cold. Chewing gtmi (or equivalents) should be discouraged during practice or a game. Chewing increases rather than diminishes thirst. Do not forget to give the players a swallow of water between periods. Between the halves hot coffee, with or without milk and sugar, is a better stimulant than drug or dram. Bar positively the powerful drugs. A man's future is more important than even football.^

Chapter III The Tackling Dummy

I HAVE watched carefully the charging machine, the bucking strap, and many other mechanical devices, employed to develop football players. In the first place, they are abhorrent to me. They suggest the training of a dog for a dog fight. They cannot by any chance elevate the moral standards of the man. Generally speaking, I have a great aversion for this manner of development. After two decades of observation and experimentation, I am convinced that it is inferior and inadvisable. Work of this sort is drudgery, and tends to deaden the imagination. It is unreal, and just different enough from the actual combat against live forces to raise a question as to its efficacy, even disregarding its other undesirable features.

The charging machine, although novel and astonishing, I have never even considered. There are those who claim that practice upon the charging machine develops rhythm and unity of charge. Undoubtedly this is true, to a questionable degree. But the machine has no individuality, no come-back, stands dead waiting for the attack; and the men charging it, not being interested and soon becoming fatigued, learn instinctively to keep the rhythm and the unity of charge while slowly but surel}^ discarding the most important things, snap and speed. Unless it is absolutely necessary, it is poor judgment to order young, intelligent men to attack an inanimate object, where there is a complete lack of the thrill of personal contact or the danger of prompt and effective retaliation. Signal drills develop unity of charge sufficiently, and this without building slow, heavy muscles.

The man running into a bucking strap springs like an animal; leaps into it, tearing up the ground, and struggles and fights like a trapped beast. If the man has any individuality or the fire of freedom in his soul, he is mentally registering a protest against his degradation. The prayer for these devices is that they develop muscle. But in the various phases of football there is no end to the interesting work that can be given to a football man which will develop muscle as fast as he can put it on, at the same time developing enthusiasm. The only chance one has to retain the respect of the man who is in the bucking strap, and to preserve for him his own, is by the weak and ineffectual use of compliment or flattery; weak especially in this case because the man's physical position, bound up as he is, is too base to enable him to respond to either. There is no element of personal combat. Those who are holding the ends of the strap have an overwhelming advantage if they care to exercise it; and they are not in any sense considered as antagonists by the