Hey,
Right, living in the uk and going off to start university in september. Never had the opportunity before but now its open to me im going to be joining the university football (American football) team. I’ve followed the NFL for the past 6 years so im pretty confident with the rules and such.
Im looking at trying out for defense, at either linebacker or defensive end and was just wondering if anyone who had played before could give me any tips and bits of advice that could help me out.
Thanks, Chris
Take steroids… and lots of them…
j/k, I never played organized football so I cant help you… sorry
Hopefully Ill be able to watch you on Sunday’s 
I’m assuming you played a contact sport like rugby union or league in the past. Which position did you play?
[quote]bulldog24 wrote:
I’m assuming you played a contact sport like rugby union or league in the past. Which position did you play? [/quote]
yeah i’ve played rugby union for the last 8 years, played flanker and no. 8, and a little bit of inside center
The parallels between flanker and outside linebacker are about as close as it gets between football and rugby. That being said, it’s still a lot different. And if you’re 6’4, the coach will almost definitely put you at DE anyway.
The main difference in tackling I found is that in football tacklers often use their head (helmet) to make first contact.
Also, since you already know how to tackle, one of the main things you’ll need to learn is how to take on and shed blockers. The goals and technique will differ depending on your position and defense’s scheme, so there isn’t a whole lot you can do to prepare ahead of time.
Get used to running around with 10-20 pounds of equipment on. 20 pounds may be pushing it actually. I don’t know.
[quote]bulldog24 wrote:
The parallels between flanker and outside linebacker are about as close as it gets between football and rugby. That being said, it’s still a lot different. And if you’re 6’4, the coach will almost definitely put you at DE anyway.
The main difference in tackling I found is that in football tacklers often use their head (helmet) to make first contact. Also, since you already know how to tackle, one of the main things you’ll need to learn is how to take on and shed blockers. The goals and technique will differ depending on your position and defense’s scheme, so there isn’t a whole lot you can do to prepare ahead of time.[/quote]
alright, thanks for the info man
I might try LB first, depending on your size and weight. It’s a more instinctive position than DE, so your lack of experience might not be as much of a detriment.
LB, WR, and RB are positions that a lot of athletes can take to pretty naturally, broadly speaking. i.e., “Tackle the man with the football” is pretty easy for most beginning LB’s to understand. “Catch the football and run like hell” is pretty simple for most beginning WR’s.
QB, CB, and OT take an shit-ton of practice before most athletes are even remotely proficient. The rest of the positions are kind of in between.
Note that all of this depends very heavily on the type of schemes your team is trying to run, your weight and height, and whatever God-given abilities you’ve got.
Lift your ass off, and continue your running and sprinting.
Not so much on the running, but lifting and sprinting for sure. Explosiveness is what matters in football. If you know how to hang clean, do it 1-2x/week. If you don’t, teach yourself how…
Read the Westside for Skinny Bastards program here and everything on Joe DeFranco’s site: