As we know by now the best vantage point from which to shoot a game is elevated and centered, whether that's high up in the bleachers or preferably above the press box. Well, sometimes you get to a field and there's neither you show up and there's no press box and no bleachers, and you're forced to shoot from the sideline. So in this video, I'm going to show you a couple of points that might help you when you're forced to stand on the sideline. Now, of course, we can't be elevated. We also can't be centered when we're shooting on the sideline because the team takes up the 50 yard line, and probably 20 to 30 yards beyond that. So you're probably going to be forced to shoot from somewhere around the 20 to the 25 yard line.

And therefore my first point is to ditch the tripod. Okay, I said earlier, the tripod is the most important thing you can use, not when you're shooting on the sidelines and here's why. When you're shooting from the 25 yard line, if the teams are on the other goal line, you're 80 yards away. So without the tripod, you can pick up and move to the other side of the field and be close enough to the team so that it always looks like you've got a 50 yard line shot as you can see here. The next tip I want to show you about shooting from the sideline is to minimize your zoom. One of the basic elements of shooting is that the more zoomed in you are, the more likely you are to see shake.

So if you keep your camera a little bit wider, it's going to minimize the chance of you shaking. To keep your camera steady. You've heard me talk earlier in the accessory section about a monopod. And we showed you that earlier, this is a case where you can use a monopod you still have the ability to pick up and move, but you also have the ability to study your camera. But along those lines, I can also help you minimize Shaykh by showing you the proper way to position your body when you're shooting on the sideline. And if you're out here with your hands and you're trying to go left and right, you can see how the cameras moving all over the place.

So what I want to help you do is put your elbows against your chest like so brace the camera as if it were on a tripod, and when you pan you're going to pan with your hips, not with your hands. So if you watch what I'm doing here, as the ball goes left and right, my hips are what's turning, not my hands that will give you a smooth pan. Along those lines. We can talk about your footwork Most people point their feet directly at the play, I suggest turning your feet a little bit in the direction of where the offense is going. Because if you're standing straight ahead and it's a long game, you're going to twist your body all the way around, you're going to have to move your feet and that's going to cause a shake. So if you start a little bit angled, if the ball does hit a big gainer, if they do go down the field, you're turning and even 2030 yards down the field you're still straight on, you're never going to get your body twisted.

So use those guidelines to help you shoot steady. As for the rest of sideline shooting, we're going to try to follow all the same rules we've learned before. We're going to use that Tic Tac Toe board we mentioned and try to keep runners in that center square and not much larger than that. When someone is throwing a pass. We're going to start them on the left and right side, we're going to anticipate when the ball is going to be thrown. We're also going to follow our important in camera editing rule.

We're going to roll five or six seconds before the snap and we want to hold at the end of the play so we can see who made the tackle and let each play breed. So all those points come bind should help you be a better sideline shooter, implement them, practice them and hopefully you'll be able to handle sideline shooting really well.