Читать книгу Football 101 - Michael Ashley - Страница 23

The Rules

Rules of football

In the words of Big Baby “All rules apply”

Football, like life, has rules. Break the rules lose the game. Before you can play by the rules, you need to know the rules. They include The Twelve Commandments for Coaches and and the Ten Commandments Players. There is also a set of rules each team is run by. Each position on a football team has a job. Each coach will establish their own set of rules. This book applies to our rules. If the team follows the rules, and everyone does their job. Winning just happens. Here are the rules we go by:

Coach’s Twelve Commandments

First Commandment

Build the Offensive Line First.

With a great line you can control the ball on the ground and have plenty of time to pass. All the speed in the world will do you no good if it can’t get out of the backfield and the best QB can not operate if he is running for his life. The Redskins have won 3 Super Bowls with 3 different QBs and running backs, but one great O line.

Second Commandment

Good players make coaches look smart. Bad players make coaches look dumb.

Great players have strong character traits and get stronger as the season progresses. Players with weak character traits are a cancer to a team.

Third Commandment

K eep It Simple.

The player responsibilities need to be simple enough to perfect. The number of plays can only expand to the level that you have the capacity to perfect.

Fourth Commandment

Dance With What Brung Ya.

Teams should focus on doing what they do well and improving their weakness. Success comes from perfect execution.

Fifth Commandment

You are Only as Good as Your Back Up Guards

Success is about redundancy. You need to have back ups at everything. If the water boy pulls a hammy, the back up water boy takes over. This goes for every position and every coach.

Sixth Commandment

Take Away What the Other Team Does Best.

Make them beat you with what they don’t do best.

Seventh Commandment

Turn your weaknesses into strengths.

In big games the first thing teams do is take away what teams do best. Make sure your weaknesses (and weakest players) can win you championships.

Eighth Commandment

Focus on Fundamentals.

Football is about blocking and tackling. The team that blocks the best and tackles the best usually wins.

Some people try to find things in the game that do not exist.

Football is about blocking and tackling.

Vince Lombardi

Ninth Commandment

Know Your Enemy.

Key players, plays and defenses help coaches build their game plans and set the agenda for the week of practice. There should be no surprises on game day.

Tenth Commandment

Inspire and Have Fun.

Joe Namath was going to quit his high school team until his coach said “he saw something in him”. The rest is history. Inspired players will run through walls for their teammates and coaches.

Eleventh Commandment

Manage the Game With a Calm Confidence.

Players get emotional, coaches need to stay focused on managing the game and the clock. When I die, I want to have two time outs left!

Twelth Commandment

Discipline and Focus Beat Bigger, Stronger, Faster.

Disciplined teams eat bigger faster teams for breakfast. Know who to hit and how to hit them.

Thirteenth Commandment

Show Class in Victory and Give NO Excuses in Defeat.

Coaches with class, attract players and parents with class. Giving excuses for losses shows a lack of class.

Fourteenth Commandment

Extra Points Win Championships.

Ask any coach that has lost a championship by an extra point.

Fifteenth Commandment

Communication is Key!

It doesn’t matter what you know if you cannot communicate the plan to the players and coaches. Parents will eat you alive if you can not communicate with them.

I didn’t run over, I evolved.

It’s like the old saying: When you wrestle with a gorilla, you don’t stop when you get tired, you stop when the gorilla gets tired.

Story Behind The Third Commandment

Thou Shalt Keep It Simple

In 2006 we were stacked with experienced, talented players. Jimmy Boone at QB Darius Smith at WE and Ronnie Cooke pounding guys as our FB/MLB We expanded our playbook and went places we had never been able to go in the past. We were undefeated and about to take on the other undefeated team at Waters Field on a Saturday night. They were very good and had a QB who would later be the All Metropolitan Player of the Year for the entire Washington DC area.

They came out and executed as we knew they would. For some reason we were not clicking on all cylinders. In fact, we sucked. We were “throwing up on the field”, which is a term for a team with information overload who can not even run their most basic plays. We had broken the Third Commandment.

“Oh, we played like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon.”

- Spike Dykes/Texas Tech

Luckily there was a photographer there that night, and we got a good look at the problem. The other team’s defense was where we thought they would be but our linemen were blocking the wrong people, our backs were going to the wrong hole or our QB was turning the wrong way.

We went back to the beginning, back to the basics. We worked on basic dive, ice and bam plays. We practiced simple dump passes and flag routes that have been a staple of our program.

We met the team in the playoffs. They were the #1 seed with a 7-0 record. We started running our basic plays. An Ice up the middle that required the center and guard to block away from the open A gap. Ronnie, the fullback, would lead the 2 back through the gap and crush the linebacker. They ran it to perfection, 8-0. When we got the ball back we ran a dive play to Ronnie. This time the MLB stepped out of his way, only he had the ball. 50 yard TD, 16-0. 4th and 2. The linebackers are crowding the line trying to stop us. Jimmy throws a dump to Darius, 24-0. By halftime we were winning 32-0. We ran probably 4 plays out of different formations. We dominated them by “Keeping it Simple”.

Story Behind the Fourth Commandment

Dance With What Brung Ya

In 1982 our high school team was ranked #1 in it the Washington Metropolitan area by George Michael, America’s best sportscaster. They were playing another powerhouse in the regional playoffs. In the pouring rain, the team was behind by 4 and driving down the field 6-8 yards per run using two running backs that would both play at D 1 colleges. When they got to the 12 yard line, with 1:30 to play, the team began to pass. After 3 pass attempts, it was 4th and very long. Needless to say the team lost the ball on downs, the game on points and the confidence of the players and fans.

Even the greatest team in a school’s history can be brought down by breaking rules.