I wanna try out for football next year but I'm a girl

Dear Kaia,

I wanna try out for football season next year. I am a girl and I am worried that next year I will be criticized by the boys. I am also nervous because I would love to do football but I barely know anything about football. What should I do?

Puamana

Hi Puamana,

You want to join the football team, which is great! It’s important that you are one hundred percent committed when doing this sport. Football requires very hard training. You need to make sure you are fully committed so that you can do your best.

The best thing to do is to watch some videos about football. If you are wondering what the positions are, they depend on your body size, mobility, and the coach's preference. Football has a spot for everyone, including you.

Now, if you are big(ger), you will most likely have a lineman position. If you are fast and medium-to-large, you might be a linebacker. If you are small(er) and fast, you probably would be a wide receiver, running back, or corner back. For almost all these positions, you must know how to read your plays and apply them in the game.

You should watch and study these positions or study at least the basics of football. You should also watch football games, whether they are school games or NFL games; watching football will help you a lot when trying to learn it.

And when it comes to you being worried about the boys criticizing, you shouldn't care about what the boys say. When it comes to your tryouts or the training, prove to them that you should be there with them. And if you do the training and find that you don't like it and it's not for you, then that's completely fine.

All in all, study and watch football. It helps if it's your own NFL team or high school team so it gets you interested and involved with what you're watching.

Lastly, don’t let the boys make you nervous or worry you. Just focus on the actual game and training.

Sincerely,

Kaia