With the simple theories of attack and defense well understood, and the pristine awkwardness of the new material overcome, the coaches are ready to get in their best work teaching the fine points of individual offense and defense. The burden of this sort of instruction is happily removed from the shoulders of the head coach of a great university eleven, albeit he at all times keeps an eye on the coaches under him, making suggestions and giving advice out of the fulness of his experience, while in the case of a small college or a school the individual as well as the broader team instruction falls to the lot of one man. It is in this matter of individual technique, indeed, that the larger and older institutions are so thoroughly equipped and have so great an advantage over their lesser and younger rivals.

It is right in the scrimmage line that individual technique bears perhaps the greatest fruit, and there are hundreds of able tutors of the backfield in the country. East and West, to one capable line coach. I believe I am safe in saying that in the whole United States there are fewer than a dozen really fine line coaches.

Granted that at any institution at anytime there has been an unusually capable line coach, it too often happens that the technique taught by him is lost in a few years through the promotion to positions as line coaches of forwards who have been the stars of a season or two, rather than of men who have had to learn in the sweat of their brows all they know about line play and so the better 109 equipped for service as instructors. Genius is a poor schoolmaster, in football as in many other things. It is natural, therefore, that the older institutions should know more about the technique of line play, since, in the slang of the field, if they "have lost the dope," they may turn to several old-timers for its recovery. And the greatest of them have to revive this line technique from time to time.

One of the greatest guards who ever stood upon a gridiron was called back one year to coach. While he was illustrating to one of his pupils the proper position to take on defense he was approached by the master line coach of them all. "What are you going to do, Jim," the latter asked, "if your man comes past on your right side?" "Oh," replied the active tutor, "I just stick out my right arm, like this." "Ah yes," retorted the Old Master, "but did you ever stop to think that that is the only right arm in the world?" The star was passing on one of his own pet devices, which no one not endowed with the same physical equipment could hope to master, and not the technique which he himself had learned and which is in the main fitted to all sorts and conditions of line material. It is in this transition process that the old, fundamental, sound technique is frequently lost.

It is impossible to coach a line on paper, and it will not be attempted here, but certain established rules of individual play, ripe with age, for both line and backs, may be set forth. It is safe to advise the line man on defense, "Use your hands all the time," and on both attack and defense, "Carry your man upstream." It is safe, too, to advise the back on attack, "Keep your feet, never run back, and when certain to be tackled be sure you go straight into your tackier." On these are founded all the law and the prophets. It may require an entire season to drive these principles home to the players, but if the men are ever to learn football they must master these simple fundamentals.

"Broken Field" Running

The runner has shifted the ball to the safest possible position, and has left free one arm with which to meet the tackier. He is in good position to make a long run.

To take up the work of the backs first, which, so far as individual technique is concerned begins with the snapping of the ball and ends with the whistle announcing that the ball is down. There is, first, the preliminary position, which should closely resemble the crouch of the sprinter and which should be exactly the same every time, regardless of the direction or the ultimate objective of the play. The back must remember that he must get instantly into action in any one of five directions straight ahead, right or left, and right or left oblique. His eyes should be on the ball from the instant he takes his position until the ball is snapped or until he gets the starting signal, if one is used. Not so much as the flicker of an eyelash or the tautening of a muscle must be allowed to give away the direction of the play, and above all the back must guard against giving away by any sudden tenseness the approach of the instant when the ball is to be snapped.

If he is to go into the line at any point from tackle to tackle, carrying the leather, he need not worry about the ball, for it will be tucked into the pit of his stomach by the quarterback, who is there for that purpose, and all he need do is get up speed and fold both hands over the ball when he gets it. If he is going through guard position or through center it is a safe plan to keep both hands on the ball until he is free of the line of scrimmage, but if he is making a wide tackle or end run he should shift the ball to that side of the body that is away from the line, and get ready to use the "straight arm" on the first tackier that drives at him. It is no uncommon experience even at a big game to find the back carrying the ball on the wrong side. This is inexcusable. It is impossible to overestimate the value of a vise-like grip on the yellow egg, and this grip is not only easy but comfortable once it is learned. The important grips, when the ball is carried at one side are the two ends. One end should be cared for by the palm of the hand and the fingers, the other end by the arm-pit or the arm just above the elbow and the soft part of the side of the body. The arm will protect one side of the ball, the soft part of the body below the ribs, the other. And the ball should be kept low, for once it is brought up against the hard part of the body it is often easy to knock it out of the runner's hands.