American Football Part 6

Dinner may be far more varied than is usually allowed by the trainer's "system." Any kind of butcher's meat, plainly cooked, with a variety of fresh vegetables, may be taken, with ordinary light puddings, stewed fruit, but no pastry. A good time for dinner is one o'clock.

An American athlete, when thirsty, ought to have only one drink--water.

The climate and the custom in England favor the drinking of beer or claret; but, beyond question, the best drink for a man in training is pure water. After dinner, rest, but no dozing or _siesta_. This sort of rest only spoils digestion, and makes men feel slack and "limp."

Supper, at six o'clock, should not be a second dinner; but neither should it consist of "slops" or gruel. The athlete ought to be in bed by ten o'clock, in a room with open window, and a draught through the room, if possible, though not across the bed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: E. C. PEACE.

Princeton.]

The American football captain or coach should bear in mind, when reading these various systems, that the use of ale and port seems to be much better borne by those who live in the English climate than upon this side of the water.

Also, that stiff exercise before breakfast has not been proven advantageous to our athletes except as a flesh-reducer, and then only in exceptionally vigorous const.i.tutions.

Also, that tea is not as popular with us as with the men who train in England.

SLEEP AND CLEANLINESS.

To come to the third agent of health enumerated some pages back, Sleep.

As a rule, it is not a difficult matter to see that members of a football team take the requisite amount of sleep. There are occasions, as in college, when some society event of unusual importance tempts the men to sit up late, but with such exceptions as these there is no great difficulty experienced in making the majority of the men keep good hours. And this is growing more and more simple as athletics become more general, for they take the place of much of the dissipation which was formerly the only outlet for the superabundant animal spirits of young men. In the case, however, of the occasional candidate for the team who comes under the captain's eye as inclined to late hours, there must be the strictest kind of discipline shown. Such a man is the very one whose stamina will be affected after a while by lack of sleep, and that too at a time when the rest of the men are nearing the perfection of condition.

Thus he will be found falling off at the very time when it is a most serious matter very likely to fill his position with a new man. Eight or nine hours sleep should be insisted upon, and that sleep should be taken with regularity. In fact, not only the sleep, but the meals and the exercise, should all be made as nearly regular, regarding hours, as possible. Men should have separate rooms, and particularly when off upon trips they should not sleep together. Plenty of fresh air should be admitted to the sleeping-room, but draughts are to be avoided. This is not because every time the air blows upon a man he is liable to contract a severe cold, for the chances are against this, but because there are times when he is particularly p.r.o.ne to such an accident, and if he is in the habit of sleeping without regard to draughts it is not likely that he will take precautions then. If a man has, for instance, played an especially stiff game and upon a muggy and exhausting day, he will undoubtedly turn in thoroughly tired out, and perhaps still somewhat heated. Now if he, when in that state, sleeps in a draught, he will probably find himself very lame in the morning, even though he escape other more serious consequences. Just one more word of caution regarding sleep, and that is in the matter of obtaining a good night's rest just before the important match of the season. To insure this is to do much towards securing the best work of which the men are capable from the team upon the following day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: W. HEFFELFINGER.

Yale.]

First and foremost, they should not be allowed to talk about the game or the signals or anything connected with football during that evening. If possible, they should do something to entirely divert their minds from all thought of the game. Nor should they be hustled off to bed an hour or two earlier than usual. Rather ought it to be a half-hour later, for then the chances are that the men drop off to sleep immediately instead of tossing about, thinking of the exciting event of the morrow.

Finally, as to overtrained men, and that restlessness and inability to sleep that almost always comes with the worst cases of this kind. There is but one thing to do with a man when he "goes fine" to this extent, and that is to sever his connection with the team for a time. If it is early in the season, there is some chance of his recuperating rapidly enough to still become serviceable. If it is late, there is no hope of this. In either case he must neither play, eat, nor spend his time with the members of the team. He can do almost anything else; he can go and watch the crew row or the ball nine play; he can study or read; he can, and in fact should, do everything possible to disa.s.sociate himself from football and violent exercise for a time, and, unless the trouble has gone too far, it will only be a couple of weeks before he will find himself coming out of it all right, and among the first signs will be good, refres.h.i.+ng sleep.

To pa.s.s now to the fourth of our agents for health, Cleanliness. It is fortunately seldom necessary to argue the advantages of the "tub" or "sponge bath" to our football players, because they are usually accustomed to it. A daily splas.h.i.+ng has been their ordinary habit. It is well to mention also that a fortnightly warm bath may be indulged in to advantage. But with the present understanding of all these advantages, the wisest remarks that can be made are cautions as to indiscretions in the use of baths. In the first place, one bath a day is enough, and any other should be a mere sponging and rubbing. Men who indulge in a tub in the morning and then spend another fifteen minutes in a plunge after practice in the afternoon get too much of it. Again, the habit of spending a long time under the shower every day is a mistake. It feels so refres.h.i.+ng after a hard practice that a man is tempted to stay too long, and it does him no good. The best and safest plan is to take a light, quick sponge bath in the morning immediately upon rising, and then, after practice in the afternoon, to take just a moment under the shower, and follow it by a good rubbing. This, with the fortnightly warm bath, will be all that a man may do to advantage.

A CHAPTER FOR SPECTATORS

To those who have never played the game of football, but who chance to open the covers of this book, a short explanation of the divisions and duties of the players will not be out of place. For these this chapter is added.

The game is played by two teams, of eleven men each, upon a field 330 feet long and 160 feet wide, at either end of which are goal-posts with a cross-bar.

The ball, which is like a large leather egg, is placed in the centre of this field, and each team endeavors to drive it in the direction of the opponents' goal-line, where any scoring must be done. Goals and touch-downs are the only points which count, and these can be made only as follows:

A goal can be obtained by kicking the ball in any way except a punt (a certain kind of kick where the ball is dropped by a player and kicked before touching the ground) over the cross-bar of the opponents' goal. A touch-down is obtained by touching the ball to the ground behind the line of the goal. So, in either case, the ball must cross the end of the field in some way to make any score. The sole object, then, of all the struggles which take place in the field is to advance the ball to a position such that scoring is possible. A firm grasp of this idea usually simplifies matters very much for the casual spectator.

The object of the white lines which cross the field at every five yards is merely to a.s.sist the referee in determining how far the ball moves at a time; for there is a rule which states that a team must advance the ball five yards in three attempts or retreat with it twenty. If they do not succeed in doing this, the other side take possession of the ball, and in their turn try to advance it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: R. M. APPLETON.

Harvard.]

There are certain rules which govern the methods of making these advances, any infringement of which const.i.tutes what is called _a foul_, and entails a penalty upon the side making it.

Any player can run with the ball or kick it if, when he receives it, he is "on side"--that is, between the ball and his own goal-line. He may not take the ball if he is "off-side"--that is, between the ball and his opponents' goal-line--until an adversary has touched the ball.

Whenever a player running with the ball is held, he must cry "down," and a man of his side then places the ball on the ground and snaps it back.

This puts it in play, and is called a scrimmage, and this scrimmage is the most commonly recurring feature of the game.

For the purposes of advancing the ball or repelling the attack of the opponents it has proved advisable for a captain to divide his eleven men into two general divisions: the forwards and backs. The forwards, of whom there are seven, are usually called rushers, and they make practically a straight line across the field when the ball is put in play on a "down." Next behind them is the quarter-back, who does the pa.s.sing of the ball to one or another of the players, while just behind him are the two half-backs and the back, usually in something of a triangle in arrangement, with the last named nearest the goal which his team is defending.

The following definitions will also aid the spectator in understanding many of the expressions used by the devotees of the sport:

A _drop-kick_ is made by letting the ball fall from the hands, and kicking it at the very instant it rises.

A _place-kick_ is made by kicking the ball after it has been placed on the ground.

A _punt_ is made by letting the ball fall from the hands, and kicking it before it touches the ground.

_Kick-off_ is a place-kick from the centre of the field of play.

_Kick-out_ is a drop-kick, or place-kick, by a player of the side which has touched the ball down in their own goal, or into whose touch-in-goal the ball has gone.

_In touch_ means out of bounds.

A _fair_ is putting the ball in play, from touch.

A _foul_ is any violation of a rule.

A _touch-down_ is made when the ball is carried, kicked, or pa.s.sed across the goal-line and there held, either in goal or touch-in-goal.

A _safety_ is made when a player, guarding his goal, receives the ball from a player of his own side, and touches it down behind his goal-line, or carries the ball across his own goal-line and touches it down, or puts the ball into his own touch-in-goal.

A _touch-back_ is made when a player touches the ball to the ground behind his own goal, the impetus which sent the ball across the line having been received from an opponent.

A _fair catch_ is a catch made direct from a kick by one of the opponents, provided the catcher made a mark with his heel at the spot where he made the catch.

_Interference_ is using the hands or arms in any way to obstruct or hold a player who has not the ball.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The _penalty_ for fouls and violation of rules, except otherwise provided, is a down for the other side; or, if the side making the foul has not the ball, five yards to the opponents.

The following is the value of each point in the scoring:

Goal obtained by touch-down, 6