Football Advice from a Ball Girl

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Gillian Borseth, Student Writer

Football season has ended, but that does not mean you have to put stop working on your skills year-round. Many players are currently hosting off-season practices and training after school to keep up with their athletic abilities as their sport is on hold. If you are a football player, here are some tips to improve your playing skills.  

Kickers: Let us start off by getting into the gym and hitting a leg day. If you are a kicker, your legs are your most important asset, so take care of them. Before you begin any type of training you are going to want to start off with a short warmup such as a 10-minute walk or two minutes of jump rope, after this comes dynamic stretches, but not too much stretching as that increases the risk of injury. Exercises such as box jumps, and front/back squats can be very effective.  

Lineman: All right big boys you already know what I am going to say, let’s get cookin’. No literally, get on that bulk. If you are not eating 10,000 calories every day, what are you doing? We need you to be big! However, you still need to hit the gym and run (or try to) at least 10 minutes a day, this will help you. As well as working on explosive movements you can quickly and easily body your opponent. As a lineman, it is important to work all the muscle groups in your body, for example doing exercises like deadlifts, bench presses, as well as rows.  

Quarterback: You pretty boys don’t need any advice, just you know, don’t dislocate your shoulder. Kidding. As a QB you must be a leader, if you are not being a role model for your entire team, no matter who it is, nothing, absolutely nothing is going to work correctly in your plays. As for physical improvement, and I know they suck, lateral (lat) raises increase your shoulder strength which is helpful when it comes to throwing.  

From an actual player: “Organize groups of your receivers and I want you guys to train once every week, throw the full route tree from hitches to goes. At home I want you to study the playbook for at least 1 hour every night along with watching film,” said River Lien.

Receiver: If you’re not running a sub-4 and catching balls in your sleep, nothing is going to go your way in the upcoming season. When you’re a receiver, you want to be fast, so if you work on sprints and train legs, specifically hamstrings, you’ll see great progress by the time the next season starts.  

From an actual player: “Any chance you get to hit the field with friends and go one-on-one with each other is worth your time. Try to study other people’s routes and footwork techniques and replicate them on the field,” Carter Mecey said.

From an actual player: “Hit the weight room and work on speed and agility. You also want to do ladders and other things to improve releases,” Healy said.  

Tight End: Just like everyone else, you’re going to want to start going to the gym more, however, it might be a little more difficult for you. As a TE you want to be at least six feet tall, >180 pounds, and extremely muscular. If you’re tall with the lowest amount of muscle it takes to play football, you are going to have a very hard time playing this position. As for workouts, legs, and upper body is going to be your best friend.