playing varsity

Question
I am a jr at a large football school....last yr our team won the district championship.  I have attended camps and earned the top 30 spot two years in a row....my question is that this yr I have not yet been put onto team 1 (so called varsity) and instead I am team 2 and starting on jv as a strong safety.  I want to play college football and am wondering if this will be possible if I do not get to start as a varsity player in my jr year.  I feel pretty certain I will get a starting position next yr...thanks for your help.

Answer
Dear Ryan:
If you are going to start on the College level you are going to have to improve your over all skills. You will need to improve your speed, agility, and strength. Let's start by getting you in shape. And then we can work on your defensive skills.

REMEMBER ONLY A DOCTOR CAN TELL YOU IF THE PROGRAM YOU ARE STARTING IS TOO MUCH FOR YOU. You need to get your PARENTS, your COACH, and your DOCTOR involved.

1. GET YOUR PARENTS PERMISSION AND ASK FOR THEIR ADVICE. THEY CAN BE OF GREAT HELP TO YOU.

2. TALK TO YOUR COACH HE IS THERE TO HELP YOU. HE WANTS YOU TO SUCCEED. HE CAN GET YOU STARTED ON THE RIGHT PROGRAM.

3. BEFORE YOU START ANY PROGRAM MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR PARENTS PERMISSION AND YOUR DOCTORS OKAY.

REMEMBER ONLY A DOCTOR CAN TELL YOU IF THE PROGRAM YOU ARE STARTING IS TOO MUCH FOR YOU. IT IS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN TO BE SORRY!!!!!!!!!!

You want to be quicker than everybody else. Try basketball it will help you get into football shape. It will teach you how to run back, forth, and side to side without thinking about it. Basketball will also help your coordination, quickness, conditioning, and improve your foot work. This type of workout is especially good if you want to play half-back, defensive end, and or defensive back.

You also might want to add handball to your workout schedule. Just like in basketball, handball forces you to run back, forth, and side to side without having to think about it. You just react to the ball much like in football. Handball can be of great help, to a football player, for all the same reasons as basketball.

Try playing these two sports, as part of your routine workout, and you will get into fantastic football shape. You will also improve your coordination and reaction time. If you do not want to play basketball or handball try some running.

You want to be fresh in the fourth quarter when everybody else is exhausted. Start by running a 1/2 lap around the football field everyday. Be sure to sprint the last 100-yards of your run. This way you work on your wind sprints and long distance running at the same time.

After a week or so, when you feel up to it, add a half a lap to your workout. Keep adding a half a lap, every week or so, until you reach 3 or four miles per workout. Only workout once a day, you do not want to over do it. You want to build your body up not use it up. Be sure to drink lots of water, you will need it. And do not do all three work outs together. Just pick one and do it.

By the time you start football camp, you will be in the best shape of your life. TAKE IT SLOW. Do not push too hard and make sure that you get checked by a Doctor first.

DO NOT DO THIS WORK OUT IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN WORKING OUT REGULARLY.THIS WORK OUT WILL CAUSE YOUR MUSCLES TO CRAMP UP FOR A MONTH IF YOUR BODY IS NOT READY FOR IT. I AM NOT KIDDING.

You need to get your PARENTS, your COACH, and your DOCTOR involved.

1. GET YOUR PARENTS PERMISSION AND ASK FOR THEIR ADVICE. THEY CAN BE OF GREAT HELP TO YOU.

2. TALK TO YOUR COACH HE IS THERE TO HELP YOU. HE WANTS YOU TO SUCCEED. HE CAN GET YOU STARTED ON THE RIGHT PROGRAM.

3. BEFORE YOU START ANY PROGRAM MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR PARENTS PERMISSION AND YOUR DOCTORS OKAY. REMEMBER ONLY A DOCTOR CAN TELL YOU IF THE PROGRAM YOU ARE STARTING IS TOO MUCH FOR YOU. IT IS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN TO BE SORRY!!!!!!!!!!  

Try Hundreds it is a muscle blaster to the max. The way to do hundreds is to lift 1/4 of what you normally would lift for 100-reps.

For example if you normally lift 200 pounds on the bench press you would cut that amount to 50 pound more or less. Your goal would be to bench press 50-pounds 100-times. Your first few reps will seem easy but before you get to a total of 100-reps your muscles will give out. Rest for only a minute or so and then continue from where you left off.

Lets say that you were only able to do 25-reps before your muscles gave out, then you would need another 75-reps to finish your workout.

You want to have a total of 100-reps.You do not want to count sets you only want to count reps. Do as many sets as it takes to reach a total of 100-reps.

You can only do hundreds on two major body groups at a time and never on the same day. Try this workout.

Do your chest workout on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only. On Tuesday and Thursday workout you back. Rest on Saturday and Sunday.

Do one exercise of 100-reps a day (only) and you are done with that muscle group for the day. NO MORE! You DO NOT WANT TO OVER DO IT.

This is a major wake up call for your chest, back, or what ever muscles you want to work on. You can do the same type of work out for your other body parts. For example, try working out your biceps and triceps together or quadriceps and calves. Do not do all these work outs in one day because it is too much for the body to recover from. You will need plenty of rest to go along with your workouts. Remember that your body needs to rest in order to build muscles. Your muscles grow when you give then time to recover.

Short (45-minute) naps during the day are great to help the body grow. Drink lots of water, get lots of sleep, and do not over do it. Remember your body needs time to recover from the workouts. And this is also the time, during which, your body grows.

If you have any questions on how to do your work out just let me know. I will be more than happy to help you in any way I can.

Reading the Defense
If I were you I would work on my pattern reading. Here is a simple system you can use to add pattern reading to your defense.

1. Spend some time looking at the game film of your next opponent and learn his play book.

2. Make a list of your opponents pass plays, and place the pass plays into five sets, short passes, medium passes, long passes, inside patterns, and outside patterns.

3. Now make these groups even smaller by dividing them into sub-groups that include passes by formation, downs, tendencies, inside patterns, outside patterns, and distance. This will give you an idea what to look for in every situation.

Here is a simple tip if you don't want to work that hard to read the offense. The biggest tip I can give you comes from the receiver himself. Watch the receiver carefully on the game films. A lot of the receivers make the same mistakes. When a receiver is running an inside pattern he will release inside shoulder of the corner back. When a receiver is running an outside pattern he will release outside shoulder of the corner back.

Here is where knowing your opponents play book comes in handy. Let us say that it is third and 10. And let us say that the receiver takes an outside release. You know that your opponent has three pass patterns they like to run to the outside. They like to run a 3-yard hitch, a 5-yard out, and 12-yard flag pattern. Can you guess which pattern they are going to run? The hitch and the short out pattern will not give them a first down but the 12-yard flag pattern will.

Now that you know all this you can play the percentage game. The odds are now in your favor to make the big play. Here is where the pattern reading comes in.

Pattern reading is nothing more than a combination of landmark dropping and reading the receivers routes. In fact, defensive backs must know their landmark drops before they can move up to the pattern reading level.

A pattern reading is a simple read of the second receiver from the sidelines. For example, many teams, on the high school level, usually have their tight end run a short pattern while the slot-back will run a deeper route. By reading the tight end's pattern, you will have a good idea of what the slot-back is going to do. The same goes for the two receiver set. One receiver will usually run a short pattern while the other will go deep. If you know what combination patterns the two receivers run, by doing your homework, you will be waiting for the ball when it is thrown.

The information I gave you is gold and I hope you guard it well. I presume this answers your question. If not, please let me know and I will do my best to help you.

Your friend, Coach Louis