American Football part 1

Hello and welcome. Today I would like to present you an extraordinary topic for Poles. I would like to tell you a bit about American football.

In this part of my presentation I am going to tell you a bit of general rules which are not so difficult that you imagine, but I would not go into details because it can be a topic of all 3 parts. In the next one I would like to show you differences between American football and rugby. I saw that many of you cannot distinguish both of them.

So let's get started, like Pink said in one of her songs. First thing is a field, but before that I have to say that every measure connected with this sport are in yards or feet, so to give you some orientation, here are conversions:

1 yard = 0,9144 meter

1 feed = 30,48 centimeter

http://pl.wikipedia.org

This is a general painting of a field. American football is played on a field 360 by 160 feet. The lines crossing the field are called yard lines. They appear every 5 yards, and are numbered every 10 yards from each goal line. The next question you can ask is what the goal line is? So near each end of the field there is a line: they are 100 yards apart. You can see it in the picture above. There are the lines dividing two different green colors on the left and right side of the picture.

Some general rules

This rules are very basic and I will not go much into the details because you will may fill a bit confused. But sill, it is not so difficult as you can imagine.

1. The main purpose of the game is, of course, to collect as many points as it is possible. If we are talking about scoring it is now a good place to mention a bit about it:
1. The most important one is a Touchdown. It is worth 6 points. This happens when a player runs with the ball into his opponent's end zone or catches a pass in his opponent's end zone.

After a touchdown we can still score additional points. There are 2 main actions:

i. The first one and the most ordinary is to kick the ball through the goal posts and it is worth 1 point

ii. The second situation is called a two-point conversion and it happens when, again, the attacking team carries the ball to the end zone of the opponent. This action is much riskier and it is worth 2 points

2. There is one more possibility to score extra points. This action is called a field goal. It is more or less similar to 1point action after a touchdown. The only difference is that it is further to the goal posts. Successful action gives the attacking team extra 3 points. What is more in NFL we have a famous Polish kicker Sebastian Janikowski and his 61 yards kick is still one of the best in the NFL.

2. When the game starts the attacking team has to reach a goal line. The general rule is to move 10 yards from the starting position in 4 attempts. The team can do it in 2 different ways:
1. First one is to do a running action. Then quarter back gives the ball to another player from his team and he has to run toward the goal line, avoiding the opposing team
2. Second is a passing action. In this one quarter back throws a ball to one of his friends on the field.

If it does not happen, the teams change their roles and the defending team is going to attack.

3. Every action has to be planned in detail. Before any move quarter back tells his team about the moves they will perform. What is more, he has to look at the time, because between any actions there is only 40 second break to discuss tactics.
4. The action starts when the player from the middle of offensive line (center) picks up the ball and passes it to the quarter back.
5. The offensive action stops when the player with the ball is knocked down or is pushed out of the field.

Difference between American football and rugby.

To be honest it is easier to say about similarities, because there is only one. In both of these games there is an egg looking ball. Everything else is different. The easiest way to differentiate these 2 sports is that in rugby players do not wear any armors and helmets.

http://demotywatory.pl/

This movie found on YouTube shows a bit of differences. The easiest will be to see both rugby and American football matches

Little summary

After this presentation you can feel a bit confused. Firstly I told you only about very basics rules, secondly you have to go and see match for yourself. Best if you have someone who can tell you what is going on on the field exactly in some moments. Do not worry. There are 2 teams in Warsaw playing regularly , but about them and other Polish teams I will tell you in the next part of my presentation.

Hope you enjoyed it. See you later!


Questions:

1. Did you know anything about American football before this presentation?
2. Would you like to play such a game or maybe you are playing already?
The last question was rather directed to man. So now something more for girls.
3. Would you like to be a fan of an American football team and would you enjoy going to match?