Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-02-23
QUICK START IS BIG
ASSET IN FOOTBALL
Early Cridiron Practice Should Also Include Passiur
and Handling Pigskin-Constant Drilling viii
Develop Average Player Into Expert Kicker
BY GRANTLAND RICE

A MONG the queries that pop in from
"A time to time we happened to
stumble across this one
''Iu the next few days we are to start
spring football training for our squad.
II you were in charge of spring train
ing just what system would you outline
and followf'
We have in mind very definite idea
of what we would do: One OF the hrst
points would be to establish a system
Of quick starting. There is no more
valuable asset for forward or back
than ability to get away at top speed.
It's the quick start rather than the
fancy sprint which COUNTS. Heston :
going at top speed. Heston developed
this to the point Of being able to beat
| Archie Hahn for forty yards.
And Il Is remarkable how much speed
can be acquired through practice. We
have seen it tried. We have seen slow,
| numbering starters built into quick
starting cogs by hard practice.
So each man on the squad would be
forced to practice quick starting for
several minutes each afternoon. Within
| four or five weeks it would be easy to
see the vast improvement in carly speed
and general alcrtness. In football early
spred Is essential. The slow starter
who can travel swiftly when he gets
| under way is not nearly so valuable as
the fast starter who is no part OF
sprintcr.
Handling the Ball
THIS practice in quick starting would
i open the matinee. One OF the next
points would be to develop the art OF
pnssing and handling a football. SO far
| the advance in this department. has been
very slow and crude, with the smaller
colleges showing better results than the
larger universities.
To pass and catch football properly
requires long, hard training. 1T ism
knack to be picked up in ten or fifteen
minutes. The football player who ex-
poets to give his best to the game
should take every open occasion to pass
and receive the pass. We know OF two
great passers who frequently slipped
away for an hour together, throwing the
ball back and forth upon the run until
both could hit a flying target and either
could take high or low pass that the
ordinary player would never touch.
The only way in which the forward
pass has failed has been through lack OF
! ability on the part of the player to make
the most out of it, And it would be oi
great assistance If each player took q
football home through the summer vaca e
tons to acquire that knack.
The Kicking Game
|ONE of the most important features "a, res
~ of spring practice should be the
kicking game. Three or four or ever
four or five of the best puntcrs SHOULD
be given a daily drill when conditions
permit and then all be given footballs
for the summer practice.
Probably they won't practice. Charlie,
Brickley did every summer-and 70,
may recall the results.
One year Leach, Of Tennessee. al
ordinary puntcr in the fall, began t,
practice kuicking that spring. lie tool
three or four footballs away with hin
and worked from one to two hour
every day that summer. We happenc,
to officiatc in the first game Tennessee,
played-against the University Of Nortl
Carolina-and Leach's long. twisting
we'll placed punts broke UP the battle
His improvement through this constan