Football Center Position - Four Golden Tips in Improving Your Game

The center fielder in the game of football is overlooked as an important character, and yet this position leads the offensive linemen in energy and plays. The center's biggest responsibilities include hiking the ball to the quarterback, and blocking the defense. This articles purpose is to bring out four ways that you can improve your game as a football center. First, understand the importance of your position. Second, increase your endurance with running drills. Third, increase your strength with weight lifting. Fourth, learn and master the playbook plays.

The importance of a football center position

In many cases it is just as important to remember your importance on the field as it is to practice your position. The centers role is vital in starting the play correctly with a good snap. Though rare, a bad snap can totally ruin the chances of a well executed play. Make sure that you are communicating with the quarterback about the snap. Is is a hand off or a NFL snap? Also, once the play begins you are the for runner in blocking the defense and opening routes for the running back. A good center ensures good starts and great blocks. A bad center can cause a loss of yards, fumbles, and quarterback sacks.

Increase your endurance with running drills

Endurance is the name of the game when it comes to football, and running will help you endurance grow. Running drills will help you gain stamina so that you will be able to play to your full extent throughout the game. Even with all of these benefits you will notice that most of the complaints in practice come from running drills. Just remember that in the end it is the fastest that win games. Running has a final help to your team, and that is learning how to push beyond your limits, you will be surprised how often that happens in football, and in life!

Increase your strength with weight lifting

Lifting weights is a fundamental requirement to improve your football skills. Not only will it add muscle to your body and increase your strength, it will also help you to increase your maximum power. Maximum power differs in importance to strength due to the fact that it is exertion during play and not just muscle mass. This exertion will help you as a football player to execute your skills on the field with speed and force. We highly recommend working with a personal trainer when weightlifting to insure that you are doing it properly, and to help you design a program that will fit your position.

Learn and master the playbook plays

Every football team will have certain plays. It will be essential to learn your part in that play to benefit yourself, and the whole team. Because football plays can be intricate, it is important that you understand and follow the coaches instructions. A lot of habits can form in the first couple of practice plays, for this sake it is a good idea to take them slow at the start. Practice is a great time to get some extra help, so if you are struggling with a certain play remember that your coaches are their to help you master the techniques. Always, always ask for the help that you need. Are you done with the play after practice? No way! the best thing that you can do after practice is visualize your plays. Sleep on them, and you will learn them twice as fast.

Conclusion

As you apply these four tips into your position as football center you will find that you have a greater passion for the position, increased strength and endurance, and a well thought plan of action. In the end it is a team that achieves victory, and that team is made up of several positions doing what they do best.

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The Whackiest Trick Play in Youth Football

In youth football sometimes we do things for the long term benefit of the team that may have minimal short term benefits.

One of these things may be the trick plays we add to our football playbook near the end of every season. We will often put in a trick play or two in the last third of the season just to keep the kids interest levels high and to use as carrots for meeting certain football practice goals. We all know the kids get into a groove as the season progresses, which is good, but it can also get monotonous and crush a bit of the enthusiasm we like our teams to have. Adding a trick play in at this point in the season, whether it works or not, or even if you just run it once, is probably the wise thing to do.

You may have seen a “trick” play on the entry highlights of your DVDs that is not in the playbook part of the book. At the clinics I do, I always play a highlight reel before we start and during breaks. That play always seems to get even veteran coaches giggling and pointing.

Here is how we run that goofy football play that the kids love and beg for, the "flap-jack pass". It is a play we borrowed from Jeff Bayeral from the Menominee High School Frosh team:

Lining up in our traditional double tight set we snap to the fullback for what appears to be another fullback wedge play, our blocking back at the snap turns his back to the line of scrimmage and as the fullback passes the blocking back on his way to the line, the fullback hands the ball off to the blocking back. The fullback continues on a fake and plunges into the line. The blocking back once he gets control of the ball stays with his back to the line of scrimmage and just flings the football with 2 bands blindly over his back, end over end and with a fairly high arc. The receiver is a waiting left end that has run about an 8 yard slant. Since the “pass” is blind it needs to have a bit of an arc on it so the left end can run under it, as the pass is rarely right on target. The offensive line just forms a wedge but does not take the wedge downfield. We run this in goal line situations where the other team is expecting a wedge type play and the safety is playing up.

In 2006 we ran this play 4 times and completed 3, they were all extra point plays in games we had well in hand. The kids and parents were all smiles. Most trick plays have lost their uniqueness, they have been done and redone. The flap jack pass is one I really doubt ANYONE in your league will have seen before and unless they are playing your team, will not see again. Here is another youth football teams version of the play: flap jack pass. I have yet to figure out how to upload my own clips to youtube, sorry guys, our kids look better, you will just have to take my word for it if you don't have my DVDs yet.

While I’m not a huge fan of trick plays in youth football, this one served it’s purpose for our team. We do have 2 trick kickoff returns we will run to get a quick turnaround in games, the entire momentum of games often changes with big special teams plays right after scores. While we have trailed in just 6 games in the last 6 years and have not got to use these returns often, of the 12 or so times we have run these returns in the last 6 years, we scored on 5 of them.

150 free youth football coaching tips for you here: Youth Football

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Dave Cisar- Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams that has enabled his personal teams to win 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues at all levels and age groups while retaining 90% of his kids.

Dave is a trainer of youth football coaches nationwide. He has a passion for developing youth coaches so they can in turn develop teams that are competitive and well organized, while having fun and retaining players. His book “Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan” was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His DVDs and book have been used by teams nationwide to run integrity based programs that win championships. His web site is: http://winningyouthfootball.com

Oklahoma Sooners 2008 College Football Team Preview

Oklahoma finished the 2007 season at 11-3 as Big 12 champions. The Sooners averaged 6.4 yards per play on offense, the most for the team since 1987. The offense should continue to thrive, but the defense may be a bit of a question mark at this point in time.

Sooners quarterback Sam Bradford had one of the best freshman seasons in college football history. Bradford threw for 3,121 yards and 36 touchdowns with just eight interceptions. He led the nation in passing efficiency and his 36 touchdown passes stand as the NCAA freshman record. With a talented and experienced offensive line in front of him and an army of weapons at his disposal, Bradford should continue to improve in his sophomore season.

The Oklahoma offensive line is led by future NFL players Duke Robinson and Phil Loadholt. In fact, all five starters are back this season for an offensive line that ranks as one of the top units in the country.

The Sooners also welcome back wide receivers Juaquin Iglesias and Manuel Johnson. Iglesias led the team last season with 68 catches for 907 yards and five touchdowns. Junior Jermaine Gresham steps into the starting spot at tight end and appears to be someone to watch.

Senior running back Allen Patrick is gone, but the cupboard is anything but bare. The tandem of DeMarco Murray and Chris Brown combined for 1,375 yards and 22 touchdowns last season. Murray is just a sophomore, but he possesses great speed and elusiveness. He could very well have a huge season.

The defense only returns six starters, but three of them are along the defensive line. Oklahoma will have to rely on the front four to control the line of scrimmage; at least until the back seven get settled. The front four were equally successful at stopping the run and the pass in 2007.

The linebacker corps returns only one starter, Ryan Reynolds, who has a history of injury problems. The success of this unit could depend on the development of redshirt freshmen Travis Lewis and Austin Box, as well as junior college transfers J.R. Bryant and Mike Balogun.

The secondary returns both safeties from last season, Nic Harris and Lendy Holmes. Both have all-star potential and they'll need to show it because the team will have two new starting cornerbacks this season. The likely starters are junior Brian Jackson and sophomore Dominique Franks. Both played well in the spring, but it remains to be seen how that translates into the season.

Receivers Iglesias and Murray return for the top kickoff return unit in the nation last season. Mike Knall returns as one of the Big 12's best punters, but Oklahoma needs someone to step up and win the kicker job.

The schedule is favorable for the Sooners to make a run at the national title. The one possible roadblock is October 11th when Oklahoma travels to Dallas to face Texas. Bradford should continue to impress with talent all around him. If the defense can hide its inexperience, the Sooners should prevail as Big 12 South champions and make a play for their eighth national championship.

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