Coach Tom Bass brings more than 30 years of coaching experience to USA Football. Along with answering youth coaching questions, he also receives emails from young players. You can email the coach at NFLAskTheCoach@aol.com.
Matt had the following question:
I am a freshman in high school and have never played football. I really want to play next year. I am 5-foot-8, and I weigh 150 pounds. Do you think it's too late to start, or do you have any suggestions of what I could do over the summer to get ready? What position should I look into?
Hi Matt,
It is really great that you have an interest in playing football and it is never too late to start. The lessons you learn in football like teamwork, dedication, overcoming obstacles, meeting difficult challenges and pushing yourself everyday to learn and get better will be lessons that will help you all throughout your life.
The first thing you should do is contact the coaches at your high school and see if they have any type of summer program that you can participate in with the rest of the team. This will help you to become part of the team, get to know your teammates, become familiar with the coaches and prepare for fall practice.
If there is not an organized type of summer program, then it will be up to you to start on your own program of preparation. Most football players are self-motivators and quickly become accustomed to being committed to an off-season workout program that they can do on their own.
Football is a game of running and being conditioned to run is vital in your preparation. Each week of the summer, set aside a definite time when you will do your running. It can be early in the morning or late in the afternoon but make a time and stick to it to the best of your ability. Try to run three days a week, alternating between doing sprints on the field one day and then distance running the next day.
On your speed days, sprint 10 yards and then walk 10 yards. Try to work up to where you can do this at least four times the length of the football field. As the summer progresses, you should increase the distance of your sprints by 5 yards each month.
On your distance days, try to find a place where there are hills that you can run. Power drive up the hill and run as fast as you can down the hill. Set a goal of being able to run at least a mile without resting by the end of summer.
On the days you are not running, schedule in time to do strength work. It's great if weights are available, but only use them with supervision. When weights are not available, you can still create a workout by doing sit-ups (start with three sets of 15 and add five more to each set each month). Do the same with push-ups (start with three sets of five if you can and then add one more to each set every week). Do the same with pull-ups.
The position you play will be determined by your coach, but I would think in terms of being a defensive back or wide receiver. The key is you must prepare yourself for the difficult early fall practice sessions by working hard, either with the team or alone, during the entire summer.
Matt, try to keep a good diet and stay hydrated, eat good snacks (fruit, nuts and sandwiches) between meals and before you go to bed. I wish you all the best and I know you will always remember your days playing football and being part of the team.
Coach Tom Bass
Jimmy had the following question:
I am playing corner in the upcoming football season and telling the run from the pass is very hard in three steps. Is there an easier way?
Hi Jimmy,
The key to recognizing a run from a pass is to understand which player to look at and then focusing on that player. When you are on the tight end side of the formation, the tight end will usually be your best read and will give you a clue in your first three steps. You will quickly see if the tight end is blocking (run) or releasing up the field (pass) and you can react accordingly based on your assignment for the defense called.
When you do not have a tight end on your side of the formation, you can look at the uncovered offensive tackle for your key and see if he fires out (run) or sets back off the line (pass).
How you react will depend on your assignment on that play. If you have a deep zone, you will not be affected by the key and will stay back until the ball carrier crosses the line of scrimmage.
When you are a support person, you must come up if the run shows to your side and turn the ball carrier back to the center of the field or force him to run out of bounds. If it is a blitz and you have man-to-man coverage on a wide receiver, you cannot leave that player until you see the ball carrier cross the line.
Many times defensive backs get into trouble because they try to look at the entire offensive backfield and get fooled by a play action pass where they charge the line of scrimmage allowing the receiver to get behind them for a long gain or a touchdown.
Understand your responsibility on each play, focus on one player for your initial run-pass read and remember it is much easier to come up late than to try to catch a receiver running deep behind you.
Coach Tom Bass
David had the following question:
I have played defensive back for four years on our youth team, and I often hear the word "banjo" used on television when talking about the defensive side of the formation. What does it mean?
Hi David,
Banjo is a defensive term usually used in the secondary that says two defensive backs are going to cover one offensive receiver and will react to the pass route the receiver runs on the play.
As an example, you might have a corner and free safety assigned to banjo the split end. They can have outside-inside coverage or they can have short-long coverage on the offensive player.
In the first instance, both defensive players would drop deep, the corner outside the receiver and the free safety inside. When the receiver breaks on his route the defensive player on the side of the route will take the coverage (out route = corner coverage, post route = free safety coverage) and the other player will continue to drop deep.
For the second type of coverage, the corner will roll up on the receiver and get a collision at 5 yards, interrupt the timing of the pass and run with the receiver on any pattern, knowing that he does not have to worry about any deep pattern because the free safety is back deep ready to help him with the coverage on a post, up or corner route.
The first type of banjo coverage is effective on a second or third and more than 7 yards situation while the second type may be used when shorter yardage is required for the first down. I hope this helps,
Coach Tom Bass
Morgan had the following question:
I enjoy reading your responses to others' questions, but I have one myself. I will play wide receiver and a little running back for my JV team next year, and I wanted to know if the receiving gloves actually improve your catching or do people just wear them to look nice when they are playing?
Hi Morgan,
Wearing or not wearing gloves seems to be more of a personal choice by receivers rather than anything that can be proved to be best one way or the other.
A lot of receivers have the opinion that they have a much better feel for the ball when they do not wear the gloves. It would seem to me that if you have success catching the ball without wearing the gloves then you would play without them. T
You might try catching with and without them during the next few weeks if you think it might help your productivity. Certainly wearing them to look good is not a good reason to wear them, but I think you knew that already.
Coach Tom Bass
Tanner had the following question:
I'm going to be a sophomore next year. I play fullback in an offense that passes a lot. It is rumored that this upcoming season we will play out of a shotgun with me in the backfield helping out the line. I was wondering if there was any sort of trick or stunt I could pull to successfully block a 220 pounder running at me because I'm only 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds and kind of inexperienced.
Hi Tanner,
Pass protection blocking for a running back is all about positioning yourself properly at the snap of the ball. Based on your assignment, you need to move to a spot that puts you directly in the path of the offensive player and the spot where the quarterback will set up.
When you are blocking an outside rush man, you need to take a step in with your inside foot, then swing your outside foot around so that you are facing the sideline. This positioning takes away the inside pass rush lane from the defensive man with your body and encourages him to rush wide to the outside. As he moves up the field to the outside, it becomes very easy to step forward and strike his shoulder pad with your inside hand and drive him up and past the quarterback's location.
When blocking an inside rusher, you start the same way with an inside step but then your second step squares you up with the line of scrimmage. You want to stay on the inside of the rusher. If he goes to your outside, use the same technique that you used for the outside rusher. If he goes to your inside, step back with your inside foot, make contact with his shoulder pad with your outside hand and drive him across the formation to the other side.
Blocking for a pass play requires patience and knowing that your only job is to redirect the rusher away from the quarterback. Try to keep your hips over your feet, block only one side of the rusher, and never cross your feet or lunge out at the defensive player.
Coach Tom Bass
Coach Tom Bass, the technical writer and advisor for USA Football, is a 30-year NFL coach who has also authored several books, including "Play Football the NFL Way" - the first "how to" book ever authorized and published by the NFL. Coach Bass is happy to personally autograph his books to you. Book ordering information can be found on http://www.coachbass.com/.
