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Six-Man Football
Six-Man Football
Six-Man Football
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Six-Man Football

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This little book will teach you everything you need to know about six-man football, a variant of American football. A comprehensive guide to the rules, techniques and strategies of the game providing knowledge for anyone that wants to play the game or want to coach the game. Chapters include: Stance and Charging, Blocking, Tackling, Kicking, Passing, Offense, Defense, Training and Administration.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 31, 2013
ISBN9781473383043
Six-Man Football

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    Book preview

    Six-Man Football - Ray O. Duncan

    Index

    CHAPTER I

    SIX-MAN FOOTBALL

    IF FOOTBALL IS GOOD for the boys in the large high schools, it is good for the boys in the small high schools. It seems to be a well established fact that football has educational values; otherwise, we should not find it included in the programs of over 8,000 of our American public high schools. However, there are more than 18,000 public high schools in the United States playing basketball. There are over 24,000 public high schools in the United States, and 70% of them are under 200 enrollment, while 47% are under 100 enrollment. Consequently, school administrators in these small schools justifiably contend that football is not feasible for them because of a lack of sufficient boys to maintain a team. Small schools which struggle along with barely enough boys to play eleven-man football are compelled to use boys who are too young and too small to be competing on an equal basis with the larger boys. Such a situation has frequently resulted in injuries and disappointments in many of the small high schools that have tried football.

    Most American boys like to play football. When the crisp October days arrive and the leaves begin to fall, nearly everyone begins to think of football. You can go into any community and see boys out on some vacant lot passing and kicking a football. Every boy who wishes to play football should have the opportunity of participating under proper supervision and with adequate protection. That is the purpose of the six-man game.

    In 1934, Stephen Epler originated the game of six-man football at Chester High School, Nebraska. Mr. Epler was coach at the high school at that time. The first game was played September 26, 1934, and the growth of the game has been phenomenal due to the fact that it is football made practical for small high schools. There were over 3,000 high schools playing six-man football on an interscholastic basis in 1939, and there were probably 5,000 teams playing the game on an intramural basis.

    In writing this book, I have considered primarily the problems of the coach in the small high school. In many cases where six-man football has been adopted in a school, it has become necessary for someone to coach the sport who has not had much, if any, football coaching experience. I am assuming that most of the readers of this book know very little or nothing at all about football; consequently, I am stressing all of the fundamentals just as I believe they should be taught.

    THE RULES

    The greatest weakness in six-man coaching is probably that insufficient time is put upon conditioning exercises and fundamentals of football. The offense has a natural advantage in six-man football due to the fact that there are only six tacklers even if no blocking is done. Due to this fact, effective blocking is often slighted. Another reason for poor blocking is that players, who should block, are more interested in getting in position to receive a lateral pass. The popularity of six-man football is due to the fact that it is football. There is a tendency among some of the six-man enthusiasts to take the game on an excursion of its own and to forget that it is football. I believe in keeping six-man football as close to the regular game as possible. The reason for most of the changes, which remove some of the elements of football from the six-man game, is safety. I am in favor of making all sports as safe as possible, but we should remember that living is dangerous, and we do not want to take the football out of the six-man game in order to make it safer. Such a tendency will turn the game into outdoor six-man basketball or something similar. Vicious tackling, hard running, and good blocking are the main fundamentals of the six-man game, and we should keep the game that way.

    Due to the fact that the rules are subject to change, I do not devote a chapter to them. I explain them throughout the book as they apply to the various fundamentals. Official rule books may be secured from A. S. Barnes and Company, 67 West 44th Street, New York 18, New York, or National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations, 7 South Dearborn Street, Chicago Illinois."

    There is no conflict between eleven-man football and six-man football. The six-man game is for the 16,000 small high schools in the United States that do not play eleven-man football. Six-man football is real football. The fundamentals are the same as in eleven-man football. The only football maneuvers not found in the six-man game are the two-on-one blocking and the off-tackle smashes which are prevalent in eleven-man football.

    About four-fifths of the six-man rules are exactly the same as for eleven-man football. The major differences are:

    1—Six players.

    2—15 yards must be made in 4 downs.

    3—The field is 100 yards long and 40 yards wide. (80 yards between goal lines)

    4—The goal posts are 25 feet apart and the crossbar is 9 feet from the ground.

    5—A field goal scores 4 points.

    6—A try for point after a touchdown scores 2 points if it is a successful goal from the field.

    7—The length of the quarters are 10 minutes.

    8—The game ends if a team is 45 points ahead at the half or at any time during the second half.

    9—All players are eligible to receive a forward pass.

    10—The only free kick in six-man football is the kick-off from the 30 yard line.

    11—A forward pass that does not cross the line of scrimmage in flight is treated the same as a backward pass.

    12—A clear pass must be made by the receiver of the snap before the ball can be advanced across the line of scrimmage by running. A clear pass is not necessary before a kick or forward pass.

    13—A clear pass is one which is thrown by the receiver of the snap and which travels a clearly visible distance through the air and then touches a player other than the passer.

    14—A fumble, a backward pass, or clear pass may be recovered and advanced by the defensive team—even after the ball has touched the ground.

    15—At least three players of the offensive team must be on the line of scrimmage when the ball is snapped.

    The following rule changes were made for 1945:

    1—Substitutes no longer need to report to the umpire or referee. They must, however, report to the scorer.

    2—Any kick which crosss the receivers’ goal line becomes dead and is considered a touchback.*

    3—Penalty for intentionally discarding headgear is now 5 yards.*

    4—Any kick from scrimmage touched by the receivers beyond the scrimmage line and recovered by the kickers is an automatic first down regardless of whether the recovery is behind or beyond the line.*

    5—The kick-off is now the only free kick in six-man football. All kick-offs including those following a safety, start from the 30 yard line.

    The common formations in six-man football are the T, single-wing, punt, short punt and double-wing.

    The common defensive formations are 3-2-1, 4-2, 3-3, and 3-1-2.

    * Same as eleven-man rules changes for 1945.

    CHAPTER II

    STANCE AND CHARGING

    THE STANCE

    Assemble the entire squad and divide them into two lines facing each other about five yards apart. The coach can work in between the lines and thus observe all of the players. Have everyone assume a comfortable standing position with his feet well spread, parallel to each other, and with one foot slightly in advance of the other. The toe of the back foot should be opposite the middle of the forward foot. Players who are right-footed should have the right foot back.

    The players should now assume a squatting position with the weight on the balls of the feet. If the right foot is back, the right hand should be placed on the ground in front of the right knee. The left arm should rest upon the thigh.

    To get ready to charge, the players should raise their hips slightly and put a

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