The end rusher must get into condition early. Unless he does, he cannot
handle the work that must fall to his share, and the effect of a poor
performance by the end is to produce disorder at once in the proportion
of work as well as the quality of the work of the tackles and
half-backs. This is not well understood by captains and coaches, but it
is easy to see if one follows the play. A tired end rusher, even one who
has experience and a good idea of his place, will lope down the field
under a kick, and by his lack of speed will allow a return; and, against
a running game, while he will, it is true, force his man in, he will do
it so slowly that the runner is enabled to pass the tackle. The first
will surely result in his own halves shortening their kicks, and the
second in drawing his own tackle too widely from the guard. Both these
results seriously affect the value of the practice for halves and
tackles; consequently, the end must be put in condition early. The finer
points of his position can be worked up gradually, but his endurance
must be good at the outset, in order that the others may become
accustomed to rely upon him for regular work. But it sometimes happens
that the captain or coach has no chance to make sure of this. His
candidates may be raw, and only appear upon the first day of fall
practice. In that case there is a method which he can adopt to
advantage, and which answers the purpose. It is to play his candidates
for that position one after the other in rotation, insisting upon hard
playing even if it be for only five minutes at a time. In this way not
only will the tackle receive the proper support, but the ends themselves
will improve far more rapidly than under the usual method. Every player
upon a team has to labor under two distinctly different sets of
circumstances: one set arising from the possession of the ball by his
opponents, and the other from the possession of the ball by his own
side. Many an error in instruction or coaching arises from terming the
tactics adopted under these two conditions defensive and offensive. It
is no uncommon thing to see an end rusher, who has been told that such
and such is his defensive play, so affected by the word _defensive_, as
applied to his action, as to fail entirely to perform any aggressive
work when his opponents have the ball. And a similarly undesirable state
of affairs is brought about by the term _offensive_ when his own side
have the ball. In this latter case, he seems inspired to become
aggressive in his conduct towards his opponent from the moment the men
are lined up, and this very often leads him to make any interference of
his so premature as to render it useless towards favoring his runner.
One of the first things, therefore, for a coach to tell an end rusher is
that the terms offensive and defensive, as applied to team work, have
nothing to do with the aggressiveness of any individual. Then, as a
matter of still better policy, let him avoid using these terms in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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