How to get off the bench? My personal story…

This is an area I am very passionate about as I have experienced this myself. I do not believe anyone can prescribe a cure for something they himself have not been a victim of. How can they help restore you or help you believe that what they are saying can happen for you as well? I guess that is why social proof and testimonies are so effective. I started playing football when I was 8 years old with the neighborhood boys. We grew up in apartment complexes in Miami and Hollywood, FL where football is a very popular sport.

In fact, pick up football was mostly what we played as kids. I could feel the anticipation of scheduling match ups of our apartment complex vs other apartment complexes. Our bragging rights at school was why we practiced at the complex almost every day and had us timing our 40 yard dashes. How accurate were those times? It did not matter as long as everyone was improving and we had our game plan by game time. Anyways, many of the neighborhood kids went to the same schools and kept up with each others’ football careers.

You could imagine how painful it was to sit the bench on the JV team trying to be a RB at 5’0” 92 lbs. I still remember when Torrance hit me so hard in RB blocking Drills I flew 5 yards. He later went on to win a national championship at a D1 school at LB. It made me feel better to know I was not getting clobbered by someone that was not any good? But the pain of practicing as hard as I could everyday and not playing much was tough.

My mom, my brother, and I moved to Broward County my junior year. This was a new beginning, but I transferred after the football season. You guessed it…I did not play football my junior year. I think that hurt my recruiting big time. My senior year I went back out there, but was given the alternative of playing cornerback. It was not what I wanted, but we had two great running backs. It became a position I started to like the more I played it.

Again, I was forced to sit the bench for most of my senior year. But my weight room coach, which was also our DL coach thought I should be a starter. He asked our head coach to allow me to play our best WR’s man to man. I did very well in man to man coverage and I started the last four games of my senior year. It allowed me to make all-conference and we beat our rivals. It almost landed me a D1 scholarship, but they decided to go with a much bigger DB. I hope that you can learn from my time on the bench and draw encouragement from the tips I have listed below.

Tip 1: Go the extra mile
You must do more than the other players are doing to get noticed. It might be running every interception into the endzone, finishing first in sprinting drills, or watching extra game film. You are behind, so you must so your head coach that you want to do what it takes. Lift hard in the weight room and always be on time.


Tip 2: Don’t complain
Complaining never helped anyone. In fact, it will just make you more mad as you will just keep reminding yourself you are not playing. Speak well of yourself and steer away from those that do not help you move towards your goal.

Tip 3: Improve physically
If you come back more muscular, faster, and stronger you are going to improve your chances of getting on the field. That means eating differently than all your peers, maybe getting a job to pay for a strength & speed professional, getting more sleep. A coach cannot argue with numbers…it will not be an easy process, but stay focused on why you are doing it.

Tip 4: Make more plays
The eye in the sky does not lie. If you are making plays someone will take notice. I took every play on the field as a chance to impress the coaches. It is not about making friends and taking plays off.

Tip 5: Talk to your coaches
Don’t assume anything. Ask your coach what he expects of you in order to play more. Your coach will be more involved if he sees you are more involved.