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Hard Work Leads to Dreams

No Excuses

By Chris EldridgePublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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Dedicated to the hard work my son put in.

Not everyone can be a pro football player. Not everyone can become a college player. Not many play high school, even being a part of a high school team. It takes hard work and dedication just to have that first act of playing high school football to become a reality. Off the field you've got to hit the books and not fall to peer pressure. But on the field, you must let your talent speak for you. You got to have the mindset of a man working to feed yourself. You may play in different positions in any game. You may not play but a few games in a high school career.

My son started out his football career with no type of formal football training. He never played football until his sophomore year in high school. He had seen it on TV. I played and knew he wanted to play college football. How he would get there in class was easy for him. He was an honor student, had high SAT and ACT scores. But was missing the skill set and training to make to a college football team. But he dedicated himself to getting better on the field by working hard in practice and away from practice. My son went from playing center his sophomore year to playing middle linebacker and offensive tackle his junior year. His senior year he played every position on defense except safety. His senior year was cut short due to injury. With simple home workouts he improved well enough to play for years of college football.

Kids that participate in football have trainers, big time former athletes that work with them. But what about those kids who parents can't get that trainer and can only work out at school. There are many drills you can do to improve footwork and make you faster at home in your back yard, front yard, local park, that cost you what you spend on bottled drinks.

During the week everyone has more than five water bottles, twenty-ounce soda bottles. Right? Those five bottles have now turned to five cones. And now you have the shuttle drill. Box drill. And if you had three to five more bottles you have a speed ladder.

Here are few more drills you can do with the bottles: run, shuffle, run, or add another bottle run, shuffle, run, shuffle, L drill, five -ten-five, and/ or any drills you see may see on you tube, or coaches have you doing during off season. Stairs at home are good for speed drills. Five-pound weight can be made from one gallon water jugs with sand sand in them, in each hand running the steps. Box jumps on the steps with the weights. One leg hops on the stairs at home. The only thing you may have to spend money on is a speed rope. Theses drills are not in reps they are in one-minute sets. The total work out last about fifteen minutes. With five minutes being spent on rope jumping.

Now theses simple home drills helped my son in such a short time. His get off at the snap of the ball got quicker. His forty times went from the mid fives to the below five to a four seven. It increased explosiveness in tackling and taking on blocks. It also worked on his hip flexibility.

Any sport is about dedication of the kids that participate. And the work is not easy, but the reward is bountiful.

Being the father of a football player, I know the cost. Being a coach, I know what happens if a kid does not have away. So, I try to share things I did with my son.

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