Slot receiver

[flight]

Hope this is considered the correct forum.<div>
</div><div>I run track and field at a Division 1 university on an athletic scholarship and am walking onto the football team next year to play slot receiver. I played slot and Z in high school but was primarily a runningback on offense, while playing corner and both safeties on defense.</div><div>
</div><div>I am far too undersized to play tailback at this level (5'10", 180lbs) but have good stats that may transfer better to receiver (4.4 40yd dash FAT, 36" leap vertical / 14.5 110m hurdles, 6'6" high jump).</div><div>
</div><div>What I am looking for is knowledge of the slot position, beyond the basics. In depth practices, workouts, strategies, tips, etc. If anyone could lend me their advice, or link me to helpful pages, I would be very thankful! (google didn't give me sh*t.)</div><div>
</div><div>p.s. hopefully this site will like this: i'm white and didn't pad my stats.</div>

 

[snow]

5'10 180 isn't "far too undersized" its a little on the skinny side for the height but wouldn't take much to bulk up at least 10 pounds. Jake Sharp was a d1 tailback with similar weight/height, and many guys in high school that size and find it easy to bulk up once with the football program. I suspect it wouldn't be any different going from track to football. And it might be big enough depending on which conference you are playing in, or if by d1 you mean FCS, then 180 pounds for a 5'10 frame would be fine, especially if you are telling the truth about your other measurable. You are going to get hit just as hard playing in the slot, well depending on what type of routes they have you run, and you will do alot of the dirty work/underneath stuff with none of the credit or glory the runningback has. Work on short area quickness etc and catching in an enclosed area. Some people use port of potties (even pro teams), but you can find a more practical way to do it. You should probably bulk up 10 pounds anyway. Since you are walking on you probably won't any say as to where to play and depending on the college, might wind up as a gunner on special teams.
Edited by: snow

 

[PhillyBirds]

Frankly, as I'm sure someone would eventually say, your best bet is to watch some film of Wes Welker. I've gotten the opportunity to help out coaching at a local high school, so my advice isn't exactly professional. But I can share what I've learned along the way that helped me.

Make your living with your hands. Get a friend to just throw passes to you for practice, hard, and in different places so that you have to move your hands. Being able to hang on to a pass in traffic and make adjustments are much more important than worrying about burning a linebacker in the slot (which it certainly looks like you have the capability and athleticism to do, though).

Put some cones down and practice running short, hard routes. If you're trying just to be a slot receiver, run some good drags and curls, but especially five to seven yard drags. Having someone throw you a pass helps, but the practice just running the routes will do good. You'll be running these in traffic, among big linebackers (especially if you're in DI. Yikes.), so be prepared to take some shots.

Most of this probably seems basic, as you seem like a pretty established athlete in football already. Repetition is the key, and as long as you have the physical tools that you do, which are pretty damn good, you should be looking good if your hands are super reliable. There's little more than a coach could ask from his slot.

Anything helpful I can dig up on my computer I'll certainly toss up here. Hope I helped, if only a little

 

[Electric Slide]

As a former D1 athlete myself welcome to the board flight! There are several other guys on here that do or have played college sports.

snow, one thing to keep in mind is that he is going on the football team totally on his own initiative with no recruiting/coaxing from the coaching staff. While the system is not set up to outright reject guys like this, it's not there to lend him any favors either. The coaches minds are fixated on the athletes they seek, rather than the ones that seek them. That being said with enough drive, determination, effort and performance I'm sure he will be a welcome addition to the team. One thing to look at is in their mind it's probably a lot more believable that a track guy who hasn't play football in a couple years could come in a be a good receiver rather than a running back.

While my technical knowledge of football is extremely limited, I want to add to what PhillyBirds is saying to set up the cones and run them hard, run stadium stairs 2-3 times a week to build up explosive energy and just make yourself tough, and bug your buddies/teammates to throw the ball to you every day.

Obviously you're putting yourself in a much more challenging position than other student athletes by taking on two sports, so you know you'll have to do extra. Ask your strength and conditioning staff what other type of exercises you can do. I'm not sure what your status is but make sure you talk to the receivers coach, OC and head coach of the football team and make sure you let them know what you're doing. Of course let your track coach know what you're doing as well.

Once you're on with the team and doing spring practice, in every instance make sure you are outworking your teammates and have an air of toughness at all times. While it may be tough to be noticed with 130 plus guys on the team in the spring, putting forth great effort will surely allow to start creeping your way up the depth chart. Since the coaches are constantly recruiting and already have their own idea of who they want to play at each position, your challenge is daunting but with the right effort, performance, and a little bit of luck you can get your chance to shine.

Last but not least make sure you're grades are top notch. This is more important now than ever with new NCAA rules and added emphasis by school administrations. If you can manage the athletic part and get on the dean's list each semester, you will get even better opportunities on the team. Of course take advantage of all the extra tutoring benefits you get as an athlete. If you haven't done so make sure you take the student athlete class if your school has one to help your GPA, and use your team sport credit hours as well (I think you can only use this during two semesters!). Take summer classes as well so your final semester coincides with your final season and you only have to take one class to stay eligible. Of course your team's student athlete academic adviser can help you with that.

Good luck and please keep us updated! If you have any other questions for me and managing school/sports you can send me a PM!

 

[chris371]

Testo E.

Just kidding

 

[snow]

As a former D1 athlete myself welcome to the board flight! There are several other guys on here that do or have played college sports.

snow, one thing to keep in mind is that he is going on the football team totally on his own initiative with no recruiting/coaxing from the coaching staff. While the system is not set up to outright reject guys like this, it's not there to lend him any favors either. The coaches minds are fixated on the athletes they seek, rather than the ones that seek them. That being said with enough drive, determination, effort and performance I'm sure he will be a welcome addition to the team. One thing to look at is in their mind it's probably a lot more believable that a track guy who hasn't play football in a couple years could come in a be a good receiver rather than a running back.

Yeah I know, I had mentioned that toward the end of my rant. I guess the point I was getting at is never settle for less, and don't walk around thinking you aren't capable of something, it will only hurt his path to play d1 football. Have the mentality that you can play any position you want. I mean of course he won't be able to play anything other than qb/db/wr/rb with his sizebut he shouldstill have the mentality thathe can do any one of those things, as well as every position on special teams. I guess I am saying, he needs to be a little bit cocky about his ability. If I was a coach I would be more willing to play a kid who had the confidence to play runningbackeven though he was better suited for slot receiver, (unfortunately most college coaches don't feel this way about white athletes, unless you are talking about fcs which may have some more fair coaches), I may not play him at rb but it would help him get playing time somewhere and it will tell me if he really has ambition to achieve his goals or is he willing to settle for the scout team at any position.Work hard and do everything possible to stand out above the rest of the pack, of course it will take a lot of effort to get the attention of the coaches.

and there is more of an uphill battle since he is white, so these things may not help that much. Coaches do like to stickabove average guyson the bench or scout team, even athletic freaks (Hunter Furr), simply because they are willing to accept that role.Not only does it provide more competition for the 1st team defense in practice,in case there aremultiple injuries they have a guy who can play just sitting there. This is the reason why I think so many whites are backups in the NFL, think about it,if they play on the same level as their black counterpart, orslightly better, they can start the black guy because thats what fans will want, but if he goes down, they got a cheap replacement with no dropoff in talent, usually an increase.The same thing with special teams, usually blacks who have above average talent wind up not playing special teams after a few years in the league, if they ever played at all. The white guy with the same measurables is willing to play that role, and special teams is an important part of the game.

He should practice drills for multiple positions because there is no telling where the coach will try him out at. Personally I think it is much easier for a guy that has been out of the game to come in and play runningback, as far as just carrying the ball, pass protection is another thing that takes a little longer. Slot receiver I think it a little bit more complicated, maybe because Inever liked running routes all that much, I dunno. Rb just comes more natural to alot of athletes, which is probably why so many blacks were originally put there when the NFL integrated, since they were viewed as less intelligent and it is a position that is viewed as more instinctual than cerebral. There are somedecent books out there on position drills, as well as information on the net and videos on youtube as well. Like someone else said, watch footage of Welker, download VLC media player which allows you to watch things in slow motion. Unfortunately youtube footage isnt the greatest as its skips a good deal of frames, so if you can download high quality that would be better. I have some I can send online if you want. Like I said, it probably will start off with special teams, like a gunner and then hopefully work his way up from there. Good luck.

Also, high intensity training is another thing you should be doing.Edited by: snow