As children football players grow up, they tend to either leave the game of football behind, or pursue it further in hopes of becoming good enough to one day take it to the next level, then the next, until finally they have made it their profession.
It takes hard work and dedication to do that, coupled with many years of training, observing, studying, and staying healthy.
It doesn't just happen overnight.
It takes a large combination of things in order to "make it"...
or make it very far.
Even as soon as Junior High School, football teams have constructed some pretty complex plays on offense and defense, meaning that nowadays, it isn't solely about sitting in the gym or on the field for every waking hour that you are alive.
You can be as big and strong as you want, but if you don't know what is going on around you, the types of plays or what you are supposed to do...
you WILL get beat.
It's as simple as that.
You have to know the game.
You have to study the game.
Rules change and teams that you will face are different so you have to be prepared.
This basically means that your learning and studying will never end.
You can't forget about everything and study the game for a few months and never study it again.
Sure, you will have good knowledge of what is going on right then, but other teams that do study will quickly catch on to that and catch you off guard...
and ultimately beat you.
We are past the "dumb jock" stage of football with complexity.
There are a few tools that can help you.
Game film is one of them.
Generally, teams will exchange game films of prior games against other opponents in order to prepare for the upcoming event.
With these, you can see which players are more dangerous, who is quicker, who is stronger, the general offense and defense that they play, and much more.
All the things that you will need in order to prepare to face them are right there on that film.
But is that enough? No.
Other tools you can use are football coaching books.
These are not solely for football coaches.
Some of them have different types of plays, different coverage schemes, and many other things that can teach players how to prepare themselves for a future in football.
There are many different styles of these books and sometimes they can come in the form of video, or DVDs.
What you need to do is basically find the style that you are attempting to achieve, and the book that has the things that you need to know, and go with that.
It never hurts to have more knowledge about the game.
Even if it is a simple book of the league rules, it could help you out.
There may be legal blocks that you were uncertain of, that now you know and can truly help you out in game time.