In the movie Forever Strong (2008), Coach Larry Gelwix tells one of his players, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; practice makes permanent.”
Just like a golf swing, a jump shot, or a soccer dribble, our football mechanics are physical skills. They’re built through repetition until they become second nature. The problem is that whatever we practice, whether good or bad, becomes permanent.
If we don’t sky the flag at the line of scrimmage, give incorrect or incomplete signals, or incorrectly blow our whistles, those habits harden into muscle memory just like anything else. It’s no different than a golfer grooving a bad swing. Once it’s ingrained, it’s tough to undo.
Examples of Mechanics We Must Practice:
- Learning and applying presnap routines.
- Skying the flag (instead of tossing a flag from chest-level to the ground) to signal a dead-ball foul or live-ball foul at the snap.
- When signaling a dead-ball foul at the line of scrimmage; smoothly throwing a flag, blowing the whistle, giving the stop the clock signal, and moving onto the field.
- Giving a strong whistle (instead of “chirping”) or giving a “tweet, tweet, tweet” whistle when the ball is dead after tossing a flag.
- Watching the blocks ahead of the runner instead of locking in on the runner.
- Reaching the line to gain or the goal line ahead of the ball.
- Squaring off to mark forward progress.
- Turning and facing players behind or beside.
- As a referee, giving strong, crisp signals.
- Systematically performing penalty enforcement steps.
Each of these habits is learned, but only through intentional practice.
In games, we don’t have time to think about form. We just react. If our habits are sloppy, our reactions will be too. But when we’ve practiced with purpose, hundreds of small, consistent repetitions, our body knows exactly what to do.
We can’t just “practice” our mechanics on the field during the game. That’s testing, not training. We must purposefully carve out time between games to rehearse the small details; throwing the flag, giving signals, blowing the whistle, marking forward progress, or getting to the goal line.
It may feel awkward to stand in your basement and blow a whistle, throw a flag in your backyard, or practice signals in front of a mirror. But that’s exactly how we make good mechanics permanent.
Don’t just practice. Practice the right way. Because whatever you practice—right or wrong—becomes permanent.
Quiz
Read the quiz stem and then choose the best answer.
1/10 from the B-15. B28 intercepts A19’s pass in the end zone. B28 fumbles the ball as A87 pulls him to the ground by the facemask. The ball leaves the end zone and goes out of bounds at the B-3. Enforce the penalty for A87’s foul from the ______________.
- goal line
- B-3
- B-20
Review Rules 2-13-2 and 10-4-7-5c