[quote]Yogi wrote:
[quote]theBird wrote:
[quote]Sutebun wrote:
[quote]theBird wrote:
[quote]Yogi wrote:
dude, you really can’t see how having a good squat would make you better at American football?[/quote]
Like I said, I don’t want to start an internet war. I was just trying to make the point that for younger high school athletes, I think that practicing their actual sport and relevant skills is more beneficial than spending heaps of time in the weight room. Although I do agree that been that little bit stronger would help performance on the sporting field.
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You’re probably just comparing the needs of American football too much to soccer and or have different assumptions about the players and logistics. You said skill work > weight room, so here is some food for thought directing that point:
Some football players (positions) simply require size. Technical skills won’t mean too much if the other guy is just plain bigger. I bet you could compare it to lacking conditioning as a soccer athlete. Your feet skill with the ball won’t matter too much if you can’t keep up on the field.
Football players don’t tend to play year round. Quite a few at my school did some wrestling after the football season, and then some even track in the spring. Off-seasons is a chance to lift weights and add more mass as well.
And they aren’t spending heaps of time in the weight room even if they are spending some. The 80-20 rule is quite applicable here. Spending 100% of your time on skill work won’t be as beneficial as taking a small amount and dedicating it to other training to enhance your athleticism. My school also offered weight training classes (even one as a “zero period” class from 6:30 am!), so it is likely that they could be very dedicated and simply doing more work on top of their skill work.[/quote]
Thanks for pointing that out to me.
I thought all positions in American Football would require a high level of skill.
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I’m sure they probably do, but you still need to be big and strong[/quote]
Yes. American football players going into College, and even to a large degree into the pros, are judged on metrics. The Combine is a great example of that. There are both skill-based drills and simple drills that measure physical ability. Athletes do a 225 bench press for max reps. I’ve heard of athletes being recruited to play college football who never even played in high school, simply because of their physical gifts.
So Bird, the real answer to your question is that both strength and skill are important in American football. Linemen on both sides of the ball HAVE to be very, very strong. Receivers and DB’s are skill-players who can get away with not being very strong. RB’s have to have very powerful legs, and they have to be skilled at cutting… unless they would prefer to be used as battering rams. Then they can just be powerful. I could go on, but you get the point.
And as to the original question of the thread… I looked like this when I graduated high school. I weighed about 125. The first time I touched a weight was in my last semester of high school, and I didn’t actually start a weight lifting routine until College.