Play by Play Football (Play-By-Play)

Rating:
Summary: A solid introduction to the basic skills of football
Review: The Play-by-Play series introduces young readers to sports such as Figure Skating, Snowboarding, and, in anticipation of the Summer Olympics this year, Field Events and Track. This volume by Jeff Savage looks at Football, which seemed an appropriate choice for today being NFL Draft Day. Savage also took the photographs that demonstrate the various aspects of the game, using athletes from Napa High School. There are a few photographs of NFL greats, such as Bart Starr, Gale Sayers, and Joe Namath, in the history chapter, but that is about it because the point of the book is to demonstrate the basic skills needed to play football.

The first chapter looks at how the game of football got started, focusing on the early pre-NFL history of the game when it was primarily a college sport. The second chapter covers the basics of the game, from the field of play and equipment to the basic moves of passing, catching, running, blocking, and defending. This chapter includes some of the lingo (special terms) for plays, players, errors, and efforts. The next chapter on game time explains the positions on both offense and defense, surprisingly without resorting to X's and O's, the basic rules of football, the game plan, fouls, and playing the game with an extended example of what happens during a scrimmage.

A chapter is devoted to practice in terms of conditioning and drills that players will encounter when they try out for a football team. The final chapter looks at special teams with regards to kickoffs, field goals, and punts (which Savage says usually takes up 20 percent of the game). A glossary of Football Talk can be found in the back of this book, which provides a solid introduction to the basics of the sport. Young readers will be able to learn the moves and techniques they will need to play football. There is a lot more to learn about playing the game (you can devote a book of this length to pretty much every position on the field) but everything kids will learn in the future will be based on the fundamentals covered here.

Rating:
Summary: A solid introduction to the basic skills of football
Review: The Play-by-Play series introduces young readers to sports such as Figure Skating, Snowboarding, and, in anticipation of the Summer Olympics this year, Field Events and Track. This volume by Jeff Savage looks at Football, which seemed an appropriate choice for today being NFL Draft Day. Savage also took the photographs that demonstrate the various aspects of the game, using athletes from Napa High School. There are a few photographs of NFL greats, such as Bart Starr, Gale Sayers, and Joe Namath, in the history chapter, but that is about it because the point of the book is to demonstrate the basic skills needed to play football.

The first chapter looks at how the game of football got started, focusing on the early pre-NFL history of the game when it was primarily a college sport. The second chapter covers the basics of the game, from the field of play and equipment to the basic moves of passing, catching, running, blocking, and defending. This chapter includes some of the lingo (special terms) for plays, players, errors, and efforts. The next chapter on game time explains the positions on both offense and defense, surprisingly without resorting to X's and O's, the basic rules of football, the game plan, fouls, and playing the game with an extended example of what happens during a scrimmage.

A chapter is devoted to practice in terms of conditioning and drills that players will encounter when they try out for a football team. The final chapter looks at special teams with regards to kickoffs, field goals, and punts (which Savage says usually takes up 20 percent of the game). A glossary of Football Talk can be found in the back of this book, which provides a solid introduction to the basics of the sport. Young readers will be able to learn the moves and techniques they will need to play football. There is a lot more to learn about playing the game (you can devote a book of this length to pretty much every position on the field) but everything kids will learn in the future will be based on the fundamentals covered here.