American football . on hand, but also when heis ready to receive the ball. One of themost common of these signals has beenplacing the hand upon the centres leg 84 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. or back. A pinch would let him knowwhen to snap the ball. In spite of thismethods having been used by oppo-nents to fool a centre, it has been, -andstill is, the most common. One of thebest variations of it has been for thequarter to put his hand upon the centreand keep it there until he is ready forthe ball, then take it off and let thecentre snap the ball, not instantly, butat his convenience. Should anythingoccu
American football . on hand, but also when heis ready to receive the ball. One of themost common of these signals has beenplacing the hand upon the centres leg 84 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. or back. A pinch would let him knowwhen to snap the ball. In spite of thismethods having been used by oppo-nents to fool a centre, it has been, -andstill is, the most common. One of thebest variations of it has been for thequarter to put his hand upon the centreand keep it there until he is ready forthe ball, then take it off and let thecentre snap the ball, not instantly, butat his convenience. Should anythingoccur making it advisable, for some rea-son, to stop the play, the quarter putshis hand upon the centre again at once,and until it is once more removed thesnap-back understands that the quarteris not ready to have the ball come. Al-most any amount of variation can bemade in the signal of the quarter to hiscentre; but in arranging this it shouldbe constantly borne in mind that thesignal should not be such as to give the. ALEXANDER THE QUARTER-BACK. 85 Opponents the exact instant of the play,because it gives them too close an ideaof the moment when they may start. The speed of a quarters work de-pends upon his ability to take the ballclose to the snap-back and in properposition for a pass. In merely handingthe ball to a runner, one might supposethat there would be no particular posi-tion in which the ball should be held ;but in that he would be in error, for aball so handed to a passing runner asnot to settle properly in his arms orhands means in many instances a disas-trous fumble, or at best a slowing-up ofthe runners speed. In giving the ballto a passing runner, it should be heldfree and clear of the quarters body andslightly tilted, so that it can be takenagainst the body, and without the useof both hands for more than an instant,because the runner must almost imme- 86 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. diately have use for his arm in goinginto the line. It is impossible to gi
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcampwalt, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1894
