First time playing football, how to prepare?

[8BallKoch]

Senior next year, going to play football. Let me give some body details plus lifts and such.
5 foot 7 inches
160 lbs
Roughly 13% bf (obliques no abs)
Bench: 165
Squat: haven’t maxed but I calculated I could get at least 315.
Deadlift: 315
I am a pretty fast sprinter. (I’m running track this spring to increase speed and agility)
Good vert- I can grab rim on basketball hoop(haven’t practiced it but I bet I could dunk with 2 months practice).
I bulked for 6 months from 135 to 160.
I’m running blahas 5x5 making good progress. Here is my workout outline
Monday: Lift & (yoga)
Tuesday: Plyometrics(light) and yoga
Wednesday: lift and yoga
Thursday: sprints and yoga
Friday: Lift and yoga
Saturday: yoga
Sunday: yoga
I go to a small private school and we lost a lot of big seniors on the o and d line.
The best kid in the team plays running back, safety, and kick returner. He weighs like 155 and is 5’9. He avg like 6 yds a carry.
I really want to play running back and posibbly kr. I feel that if I give the game my heart and practice with everything I have and show the coaches my hard work and determine that I could probably start rb. What should I do besides my current routine to achieve my goal. I currently eat in a 500 cal surplus. Any advice would help. Thanks.

[sowilson]

you've never played tackle football? Unless you pick up the game to the point that the coaches trust that you won't get killed (for real) you won't play varsity, JV maybe. Anyhow, lift with your team over the winter and train with them over the summer. If your school has no organized S&C program then follow one like WS4SBv3. You have a lot to learn; an entire offensive playbook (and possibly defensive playbook), how to hit, how to tackle, how to be hit all without injuring yourself. Attend some camps this summer (college instructional and or FBU). If you get through that without serious injury then maybe you have a chance, but I doubt it. There are restrictions regarding contact with players and there is not enough contact time between now and the start of the season to get you in a position to not be a liability on the field.

[lucia316]

you've never played tackle football? Unless you pick up the game to the point that the coaches trust that you won't get killed (for real) you won't play varsity, JV maybe. Anyhow, lift with your team over the winter and train with them over the summer. If your school has no organized S&C program then follow one like WS4SBv3. You have a lot to learn; an entire offensive playbook (and possibly defensive playbook), how to hit, how to tackle, how to be hit all without injuring yourself. Attend some camps this summer (college instructional and or FBU). If you get through that without serious injury then maybe you have a chance, but I doubt it. There are restrictions regarding contact with players and there is not enough contact time between now and the start of the season to get you in a position to not be a liability on the field.

You'll get no better advice than this OP. You're also unlikely to displace "the best kid on the team," having never played before. Anything is possible, but this is unrealistic. Your goal should be to work to get some PT. The coaches will put you where they need you and it sounds like they don't need a RB or a kick returner.

[DCSpartan]

OP, do you want to play football or do you have something against the starting RB and somehow think you will beat him out because you have bigger "heart" than him?

Hint: real life isnt a hallmark movie.

[yoked4women]

you didn't mention one of the most important stats

what is your 40?

edit: you won't beat out the kid who averages 6ypc

[HalfRightFACE]

I mean he could do it, if he completely devoted his life and practiced 16 hours a day.

[sowilson]

I mean he could do it, if he completely devoted his life and practiced 16 hours a day.

No he really couldn't - even if he spent 16 hours a day and dedicated his life. For one, he would fail every class if he did that and would be kicked out of school.

1) Football takes skill, skill takes training. You really can't learn to hit and be hit out of a book. You need to have the basic skills taught to you and then you need to practice them with others. You need someone to train with (to hit you and for you to hit), you also need coaching. Then there are the general football skills (not hitting) regarding following the ball, following plays, tracking the ball down and position specific skills, meshing, hand offs, running, holding the football, catching, running routes, motion, etc.. You expect to master this from soup to nuts in 6 months? Good luck with that.

2) It takes time to learn a playbook. Kids that start by at least 8th grade, learn the process of how to watch film, how to break things down in position groups, how to apply your scheme against an opponent, and the basics of your system. This happens naturally in 9th and 10th grade so that by the time you are ready to be a varsity player you know how to quickly absorb a play book. To come in as a senior with no prior experience and expect to be one of the star skilled players (running back) is foolish. Not only won't he know the basics of the running back position, will not have developed natural instincts needed to succeed in that position, he'll be clueless to the terminology used for the schemes he must know. It's a lot different when you expect to be hit by fast, big, strong, defensive linemen and not play flag football, and then have to know the nuance of a 100 page plus offensive playbook.

3) It takes time and reps for you and your body to come to terms with playing tackle football. This is a sport that the human body can't do for more than 4 months or so before it starts to break down. Yet it demands that you spend your off season building your body back up to be able to handle the pain, the wonderful pain, that only football delivers. HS varsity is real, honest, brutal, football, played by generally well skilled, well conditioned athletes, many of whom are nicely developing their man muscles. The speed is real, the intensity is there, people know how to hit with the veracity to cause real, life threatening damage. Even when you're practicing without pads, watch offensive and defensive linemen go at each other. It's not soft, it's nearly as hard hitting as when pads are on. Your body is heavily bruised, your joint aches, you need ice, you wear a mouth piece otherwise you'll loose teeth. Running backs hit that line and get beat up pretty good, but they love it. They are apart of the brotherhood of pain. When you're done, when you've foamed rolled, when you've spent 20 minutes in a ice bath in an outside cattle trough with your buds in 100F weather, then you get with your brothers in pain, consume massive amounts of food, sleep, and do it again the next day. Or maybe you take a couple of hours off and then go run some 7 on 7 competitions against neighboring schools. You have fun, you run, you accidently hit each other. The gazelles at WR and prima donna QB's get to work on their stuff. The ILB's, DLine, some oline come and watch, sometimes participate in alternate positions and generally talk trash and hang with their brothers. Some get injured (hopefull minor), many will need tape, some bleed. It's all good. You love it. It feels real good. Some will go on to college where everyone in all divisions was an outstanding HS player (most are HS captains, all district, or all state). The film study is more intense, the players are stronger, faster, better, meaner, tougher and you understand that in your 4 years of college you will be injured. But you're ready. You've been lifting since 7th grade. You know how to recover. You know your body. You know football. You work your ass off in the weight room 12 months a year. You wake up early during the off season and work on skills. You're self motivated. You will choose football over sex, over friends, over work, over love. Football is life and life is good because you're still playing the game you know and love. But nothing compares to the Friday night lights of HS. Of leading your team on to the field. On having your schoolmates wear your number on the sideline. And the big cry that comes from the biggest guys when they've finished playing that last game with their HS jersey on. To be a part of that you need to give yourself to the game and the game demands that you put in the work. Something that's not going to happen in 4 or 5 months.

So HalfRIghtFACE it's not going to happen for some senior who's never played football before.

[DCSpartan]

So what you are saying is that he should skip football next year to focus on his D1 walk on?

[sowilson]

So what you are saying is that he should skip football next year to focus on his D1 walk on?

exactly