First Down For Safety (1950s)

whether you're playing or watching football in action you cannot help but realize that this is a rough-and-tumble sport with many chances of injuries and yet they can be minimized as a player there are certain preparatory steps that you can take to make it a lot safer game and the same is true of many sports in these scenes of the Pittsburgh Steelers in action in a regular-season game you can see the charging power of the players and the hazards of the action but today in the public interest BlueCross of western Pennsylvania presents this film which will show you three big steps to be taken to make it a much safer game at school and college levels so let's visit the Steelers as we join them in a try for first down for safety with us today is coach Bill Austin of the Pittsburgh Steelers to talk about the big steps in a first down for safety the proper physical conditioning a knowledge of the basic football skills and the use of proper equipment first of all coach Austin how important is proper physical conditioning physical conditioning is highly important in football it is a game of moving on your feet if you are unable to move on your feet then you will not be a good football player well now your professional football players you've got to expect them to be in condition but how about high school and amateurs do they go through a more rigorous thing what would you recommend for them well I think the importance of the high school athlete the amateur athlete to be in shape to play is just as important as it is in our business we find the people that aren't in shape tend to get injured much more readily than the person that is in shape he is not able to do the things properly because you cannot move to do them properly now I know you have a what is a rigorous schedule that a Steeler goes through anyway even though he's in condition what is which they like as far as getting in condition and keeping in vision well we start our practices sessions out running and we end our practice sessions running we go through a rigorous calisthenics some people do calisthenics for loosening up exercise we call our calisthenics conditioning calisthenics such as brass drills and various other forms of conditioning exercises in the calisthenics part of it push-ups and things like that push-ups sit-ups we have a good one called grass drill where you're running in place and the coach says up down up down and you hit the deck hit the ball bounce up and running in place and on index down on the ground several several times the question comes to mind now the average high school student and amateur athlete all went along is watching television or studying and he has much less of this physical conditioning is there something they should be doing all year round they should be doing some sort of physical exercise all year round we find that people who do exercises are much more alert people most of the time what would you prescribe and then what would be a minimal thing that they should do well we find that handball volleyball tennis swimming or any form of athletics in that manner will keep reporting as a person alert and mentally fit certain amount of walking and running every day walking and running jogging is excellent and I guess this would hold true even for older people I mean if you want to really keep in trim all through life I think so I myself trying to do some some type of exercise 2 or 3 times a week coach Austin I've heard about the exa genie could you tell us about that and what it does and how you use it the actual genie is an expensive piece of apparatus it was developed by somebody in the West Coast that is a combination of isometrics and weightlifting at the same time I believe in weightlifting and it's much more than isometric is a machine that the Rope goes through and you custom adjust the machine logos one side comes out the other side you can just adjust the pressure so different types of exercises you can do with the machine and I think so I'll ever thought about my life one and she she daily uses it you have suggested many things that we might do in training the conditioning for the average high school students hard conditioning starts around the middle of August what about earlier in the year what could he be doing to be getting in shape well the basic thing I think he could do to get in shape is run jog jog jog for a while run hard for a while jog again run 200 yards and keep building yourself up to 4 or 500 yard sprint and professional football the Steelers we do a lot of 20-yard hard running sprints to keep the boys and shake and get them in shape we find that the long long long sprint such as the miles of our although they are good we think the quickness is the greatest advantage that we have we do many many 20 yard Sprint's are there any exercises that develop alertness and the use of hands and and like we do a form of energy bills during training camp we had this agility drills in the morning and the pad to work in the afternoon now in this period of the year we do the agility drills on Tuesday morning and we find it easier that Joe drills all for quickness and conditioning what's in the agility drill all such as a we have a high knee action drill at the players lift their knees high directed by a coach and on the word gold and they sprint for seven yards afterward on the way back they do they face the opposite direction of the coach and under will lift the knee action high and then they are told of tarnish but come on sprinting we have another one we call the wave drill well they're not crossing the feet they're giving directions going back and forth and then they come out of the drill on a run we have another one called the crab or on all they go left right left right forward backers and at the command they come out with sprinting we have another one we call a Carioca where the side would bill you step out with one foot the other foot goes behind step out again never goes in front we think this is a good good for agility everything you suggest is a combination of arms and hands and thinking and I guess everything else is not well that's right we feel it the arms and legs are interconnected than the faster we can move the arms the faster the waves go moving aside from conditioning which seem vitally important in football I want to talk to you about it and the importance of the knowledge of the basic skills of football I think this is especially true of the amateur whether he be a player or watch her let's talk first of all about tackling what's the proper way to make a tackle well we think the proper way to make a tackle is to drive your shoulder through the opponent with your head up it's been proven that you cannot injure your neck with your head up the only time you can injure the neck is when you put a block or tackle with your head down and that's because it's forced down further if he hit him that's right you can you remember I won't say never but you could very seldom injury never going back you can't injured but with the head going down so we try to teach the head up after all you have to see the opponent so that's the basic skill of the in tackling you've talked about going through with the shoulder how do you mean going through is that a mental way of thinking if you're gonna drive all the way through well we think if you keep your head shoulders Square and your drivers shoulders through the through the into the opponent's midsection we'll say and you try to drive your shoulder right through the midsection and drive through with your feet and we feel that it's a much better way to tackle I'm not sure away and again less injury let's look at that a moment and while we do let me ask you to briefly summarize what you've just told me how to correctly make a tackle because you I think I've hit on two points the head up and going through the shoulder is that right that's right we think if you drive to the opponent with a head up then you'll make a much more sure tackle plus you lessen a chance for injury I think it might be interesting to coach Austin to look again at this in slow motion because I know many people get more out of seeing it in slow motion and while we're looking at a tackle made properly in slow motion let's talk again about some of the don'ts what are some of the things not to do when you make it tackle you said don't keep your head down because you might snap your head forward and get hurt what else should you watch out for I should watch out for a rounded back you should always keep your back straight and level and driving through your opponent if your head goes down then the packages be round and movement of the legs and follow-through with the tackle deliver the blow I sort of received the blow is this not like learning to lift a weight properly in other words you keep your back straight and you use your legs to do the lifting in that case and here you're suggesting straight back and hard drive with legs right that's very true there's a proper way if you lift weights properly you can't injure yourself if you don't use the proper technique and there is a possibility of injury now let's get on to another basic skill of football it's important to know how to block properly well again we think the importance of the head being up lessens the chance for injury also the head being upper we can strike our opponent unlike some people we teach the striking opponent with the worthy forehead we think that that is the proper way and also with the nose guard there's no chance for injury in the face we think no upon football standstill unless you hit them if you aim the head for the belly and they take a position to the right then you'll pick them up on the right shoulder is this a little hard in the neck sometimes no but that way we don't feel it's hard in the neck if you keep your head up we also have various exercises to strengthen the next so a person who wants to injure the neck what type of exercise the empathic well such as the old wrestlers bridge will you look lying on the on your back a lot of players think it's silly but there is a purpose for it and the coach knows the purpose and he asks his players to do the wrestlers bridge now another basics pillow I'd like to talk about how about faking this must be a big thing in pro football and I'm sure would be 4 meters to do it properly well thinking is is an art a lot of places are designed and are successful because somebody has faith with the ball you have to be somewhat of a good actor to be a good taker and go full-speed good fakers and football will be tackled by the opponents and whilst their tackles if he is tackled by the opponents then the man with a ball carrier that's carrying the ball usually makes yards for you and are there any tricks any little things that you want to bear in mind if you're trying to pay not so much no tricks just run hard and keep your head up and and know where you're going and know why you're doing that now the basic skill important to know about is how to cut properly any thoughts on that well one thing in cutting is the use of the high knee action and bringing one leg over another or planning a foot and cutting back to the inside dropping the shoulder when you've cut if you drop the shoulder and while you're cutting if you're hit at the moment of cutting with a lowered shoulder again you're less than chance for injury coach Austin we talked about two of the steps in a first down for safety the proper physical condition the basic knowledge of proper football skills now let's talk about proper equipment how important is the use of proper equipment do you think that we have to have the best equipment that are available everyone should have the best equipment to play the game of football now let's talk about amateur players in high school like what specifically should they use number one they should have a proper headgear and a nose guard as possible mouth guard excellent shoulder pads an excellent hip-hip has many people try to play the game of football without hip pads and fans five has and in the end they're sorry because they get injured without a look when they don't use them how about a picky or something is it important to have any equipment in that I think more so important that they have different and these pick up games off Fuel activities like that they there is a great chance for injury so I think it's very important to have good equipment you mentioned the mouthpieces as used by high school players in particular I know they're not used by the pros but why are they important players that must be well quite often they do get a jar in a head they don't leave the teeth or quite as strong as he as he professional football player we do have a lot of professional football players wear them we do not require it but I think it's very beneficial and wise that the schools require the high schools to wear of mouthpieces coach Austin football equipment has changed a lot in the last few years and why is that it has not changed as far as the protective part of it it always has been good and protection the thing that has changed is the weight of it they're doing things with the new materials out today that they didn't think they could do before and they're making the player lighter with his full gear and they they were in the past do you have any suggestions about even further changes that might be helpful no I've just the research that's going on in the game of trying to make the equipment lighter and still just as as as protective coach Austin I want to thank you very much and again wish the Steelers a lot of success thank you for helping us out on the subject of proper conditioning on the subject of knowing the basic skills of playing football and also the use of proper equipment in winding up this film on a first down for safety presented in the public interest by blue cross of western Pennsylvania the community's own Hospital care plan remember these three points proper conditioning learning the basic skills the do's and don'ts and the use of proper equipment