Courtesy of www.thesportsource.com.
The question, "What does it take to play college football?" is asked of college coaches across the nation on a daily basis. The answer may be as broad and vague as the question.
To compete as a college football player, a student-athlete must be focused, dedicated, and opportunistic. However, to play college athletics, you don't have to do it at the Division I level.
Speed and strength are the primary components that distinguish a Division I player from Division II, Division III, and NAIA players. The faster and stronger that a player is, regardless of position, the higher the level that player may play. Each year, a selected group of college football players are given the chance to play professionally. Many of these players are selected from the NCAA Division I ranks. All football fans have seen impressive displays of this type of speed and strength. So if you have these types of attributes in your game, you may be able to play football at the highest levels. If you don't, you still may have the fundamentals, mentality, and toughness to play in college.
A quality college football player typically has a clear repertoire of attributes to bring to a college team. A player needs certain fundamentals, field sense, physical abilities, and psychological traits to compete at the collegiate level. It doesn't take a person long to find a player that has won a national title or a Super Bowl that didn't fit the mold of the prototypical collegiate or professional football player. You may be this type of player. But, what you do need is some kind of balance. Be rest assured, it is critical to be extraordinary in at least one area. Then you will have an impact. If you have world-class speed, you can have an impact. If you are a psychological rock, but have limited field sense, you can still have an impact.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
When you are competing, you measure your capacity to take physical risks, your capacity to push through pain threshold, and your capacity to not back down psychologically from someone. Those defining moments are constant in contact sports. If two players are running for the same destination, the one with the weaker psychological dimension is going to time it so he gets to the defined point late. In other words, he is going to time it so he misses the confrontation with the other player. That's the defining moment of that battle--who is going to slow down and who isn't.
Football is a physical game. Therefore, your physical abilities are paramount in football. A lot of this is inherited--your quickness, your speed, your agility, and your strength. But some of it can be developed. You can improve your quickness, your endurance and, to a certain extent, you can develop speed. This is done through weight training, speed training, and plyometrics. The player who works the physical dimension of the game is the one who has an intelligent and consistent work ethic to improve all the physical qualities.
TECHNICAL THE FUNDAMENTALS
TACTICAL FIELD SENSE
What does it take to play college athletics? The answer is, "What do you want from your college experience?" If you have the psychological, physical, technical and tactical tools to play at the Division I level, do you have the time and dedication? If you would sit the bench for a Division I team, wouldn't you be happier playing for a Division II, III, or NAIA program?
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt of The Sport Source Official Athletic College: Football.
What Do College Coaches Look for in Players?
In The Sport Source Official Athletic College Guide: Football, you will find hundreds of football programs. Is there a program for you? Yes. Can you walk into any program and compete immediately? No.
College coaches receive letters and phone calls every week from high school players, coaches, and parents claiming that they have a player that can play at that school. The college coach's first question is always, "Have you ever seen my team play?" and "Do you know what our level of play is like?" Too often they don't. They have only seen youth and high school games and are not aware of how fast the game is played at the college level. It is very important to honestly assess your football strengths and weaknesses to find a level that is right for you.
This is the capacity to be able to deal with all kinds of adversity. It is also the capacity to be so tough that in your battles with opposing players, you are not intimidated. In great battles, there are defining moments. There is the moment when you get a sense of the other person's toughness. It may be a physical risk issue or a fitness issue.
Most people don't have the understanding that all these things work against each other. For instance, the process of developing strength can actually retard speed and agility. Most young football players are so worried about getting bigger and stronger that they don't work on improving their speed and flexibility. Please take the time to consult with professionals to learn how to develop a program that will improve you physically in all areas, not just size. Remember, your physical abilities can be the determining factor in your ability to play in college. So, take the time to work on them and work on them correctly.
The tactical requirement needed to play football is something coaches call "field sense." Field sense is the ability of a player to realize and react to different situations before the ball is snapped and when the play is in progress. This requires a player to have vision, understand situations, and know and recognize tendencies of the opponent, on both offense and defense. Field sense also requires players to react to situations during play and new formations. Another important aspect of a player's field sense is the ability to help his team manage the clock effectively. Remember that field sense is important for all players, regardless of position. It is just as important to play "smart" football as it is to play "strong" football. A player with excellent "field sense" can help a team do this.
The Sport Source has a mission "to provide the perfect link between a student-athlete, a specialized sports program and a well-rounded college education." Since their inception, The Sport Source has developed numerous strategic alliances with high schools and national/international youth sports organizations that have encouraged them to introduce new services and continue to help improve college guidance and scholarship opportunities for students.
NCAA Division I is the most recognized level of college sports. There is also NCAA Division II, Division III, NAIA, and Junior Colleges. At all of these levels, players and coaches put in long hours all year to insure success and development. These hours (12 - 20 per week, depending on the team) are in addition to college classes, individual study, and social activities. The time commitment of a college football player is likened to a full-time job which thousands of players line up for every year.
PHYSICAL
The college choice questions can be researched in the pages of this book. The answers to questions ultimately lie in your abilities and aspirations.
The great players, obviously, are extraordinary in more than one area, and the greatest players are extraordinary in all areas. It's based on a mix of all these different qualities. One of the most important of all these qualities is your psychological strength, because the quality that separates winners is the ability to constantly reach down to find something deep inside them to make the commitment other people are not willing to make. With that in mind, here are the four areas that are necessary to be a successful college football player.
Assessing Your Abilities as a High School Football Player
Having proper techniques means having the proper fundamentals. If you are fundamentally sound, then you will be able to play the game well. Having the proper fundamentals means that a player can throw, catch, block, and tackle correctly. This also includes proper footwork and the ability to cut and turn. Being fundamentally sound is a very important key to becoming a better player and one that will be attractive to college coaches.
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