Moon's Minute: Fundamentals Are Key

One of the NFL's all-time greats, Warren Moon will be contributing a weekly column to NFLHS.com this season. An outstanding quarterback at every level, Moon played 17 years in the NFL and six years before that in the CFL. He owns the NFL record for most passes completed in a season (404, 1991), is second in NFL history in passing yards-per-game (527, vs. Kansas City, Dec. 16, 1990), and stands third in the NFL record books in passing attempts and completions. The 1977 Pac 8 Player of the Year for the University of Washington and an All-American at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, Moon is not only a leader on the field. He was named the NFL Man of the Year in 1989 for the tremendous work he does with numerous charitable organizations.

I'm a big proponent of the fundamentals of football. I think any player at any level Pop Warner, Junior High School, High School, Junior College, College or Pro has to perfect his or her command of the fundamentals of the game. The things that I was taught at 10 years old, and the things I was doing at the age of 40 in NFL, were basically the same. Any player that is involved or wants to get involved in playing football has to somehow build his or her fundamental skills up to a certain level to succeed.

Depending on what position you want to play, there are different techniques and skills that go along with each one. There are also other things that you can do to better yourself as an athlete, for instance plyometric exercises (see some examples below) to quicken your feet. Football has become a game of quickness not so much speed, but quickness. You can get away with not being the fastest guy in the world, but having quickness will help you succeed at any position you play.

The type of exercises you should try to do to help yourself are quickness and agility drills things that will help quicken your feet and your hand-eye coordination, and also drills that will help you get better at your chosen position. If you're a quarterback, work on your three-step drop, five-step drop, and seven-step drop; if you're a wide receiver, you can work on perfecting your basic out-routes, curl-routes and in-routes; or if you're a defensive back, work on backpedaling, planting and driving towards the football.

If you aren't in a football program right now, or if you're already a member of a team but want to get more tips and instruction, there are a lot of books and videotapes for sale that have coaching techniques and tips and drills that you can do on your own.

But if you are on a team already, even if you're doing drills in practice, I think it's still important to do more drills on your own. The more repetitions you have, the better it's going to make you. You'll never get to the point of perfecting any skill, but you should strive at perfection in all of them.

If you can get to the point where you're fundamental skills are solid, if you have any athletic ability, then you will be able to make plays. But if you don't have that much athleticism but you know the fundamentals, you'll still be competitive. The fundamentals are the basis for success.

Plyometric Exercises: Take a 12" or 18" bench and do different exercises jumping on and off the bench: with both feet together, on one foot, taking turns (left foot up and down, then right foot up and down), or doing faster or slower repetitions. In these drills you can time yourself and then try to beat your previous times when you do them next. If you can do the same number of repetitions in less time, you know you're getting faster.

Come back next week for more from Warren Moon!

Previous Articles:
Warren Moon: A Lot to Think About
Warren Moon: De La Salle - Poly Preview
Warren Moon: Improving Your Athleticism