What a high school kids needs at practice

We like using the "college-style" practice plans. 5 minute blocks with no more than 10 minutes spent on a specific area. Keeps everything up-tempo, and to the kids and coaches, it makes practice go by fast. The key though is being organized (i.e. having the equipment needed for the drill already set up before practice) and having your coaches confident in their knowledge of their position to be able to coach on the run. I have also found that by posting the practice plan and giving each drill a name to the players, that it helps transitioning from one period to another go much faster because they will know where to go.

We use dynamic warm ups by position group with their position coaches. 5 minutes long. For example with my OL, my dynamic warm ups usually focus a little more on hip flexability and then from our dynamic warm ups we go right into stance and starts.

During our group sessions and team periods, we try to get as many reps as we can in the alotted amount of time. We will "coach on the run" and make any major corrections during meeting time, or before/after practice. I have found that by developing "buzz words" and simply saying those buzz words to a specific player after a play, they will understand what they did wrong. Earlier on, you have to constantly explain what those "buzz words" mean to the younger kids but once they get it, its a good deal. We film as many group sessions as we can and every team period so we can coach corrections off of film as well.

As for conditioning. We do not do the ol "ok boys on the goaline" and do wind sprints. Any kind of conditioning we do is football specific. It might be pursuit drill one day, kickoff another, etc.

Anyway. I dont know if it is the right way to do it or not but it works for us. My old high school still does things the "old-school" way and I can count on one hand how many games they have lost in the last 5 years so whatever floats your boat I guess.

I think you need to stick to what you know at first- then if it's not getting the job done make adjustments.

I believe in is a college-style up tempo practice- I've been involved with college-level football in some capacity for the last 13 yrs- beginning as a freshman in college. I know how to operate in this enviornment. To me, this is where I'd start.

I think TDmaker summed it up-

Do what you know how to do- be sure and cover the 5 truths of successful practices.

Remember that the kids won't know but 1 style of practice (your style)- you can't be wrong in their eyes

We are a "small" high school and practice "like a college."

I personally believe that it comes down to what you know. Most of my hs coaches were former hs coaches and they did what they knew-and they were pretty good practices bc we (the players) didn't know any better. By the time I graduated our coaches formed a great relationship with the local college coaches (we have two DI schools within 15 miles and a ton of smaller schools in the area) and they got that much better. On my staff I have 3 former DI players, a D3 player, one guy who could have played in college if not for an unfortunate injury and a former collegiate baseball player. Us DI guys are less than 10-15 years removed from the game and have a good relationship with the same schools that my coaches did in HS. We have adopted the NCAA format for two a days and it has worked really, really well for us.

Bottom line, its all about positive reps; rarely do we waste time rerunning the same play 6-7 times to make sure its perfect-we correct what needs to be done and move on. Also we have found that our players legs are fresher than those of our opponents - maybe its just self fulfilling prophesy but other coaches have commented on this as well.

Great post TD..I would also add that we need to build teamwork, confidence, comraderie (sp) etc. my college coach used to call them intangibles

what is the NCAA format of 2-a-days?

our practices are about 2 3/4 -3 hrs long. we teach sow but when we do team we try to go fast....on defense we can only go so fast because we use the card system to run plays.... what I will do is sometimes give the defensivecall at the last second to "increase" the tempo

When you are installing new things you have to go slower. Think about teaching an elementary kid times tables. Eventually we push it until you get to the point where it is rote and automatic. Now is when you can go race horse.

Can 9th grade go race horse? They will be slower, they may not pick it up as fast. Varsity? Depends on prior knowledge? How much of thier prior knowledge of the game do they have.

So a good coaching would dictate you feel it out. Maybe quickly, but you feel it out. What good is race horse if all the reps are crap? What good is a 3-hour practice if you can do it in 90 minutes?

I guess where we really try and apply the fast paced philosophy is by making sure kids are not standing around waiting in line for reps. Take OL indi for example. With one full time coach and one volunteer we split the kids. Sometimes another volunteer is down there too. Now three groups are doing the same drill and it is rapid fire. So varsity group goes, and then while they are setting up again the sophs go, and then the 9th grade. Then back to the varsity and so goes the cycle. The OL coach can focus on all three groups but the down time is minimized. I think that is key with highschool kids.

You guys who have long practices, 3hrs +, do you find that your players are less focused as the day goes on. Aren't there some studies out there that anything over a certain time period is counter productive?

When I was in HS, our practices were 3hours and we alternated offense and defense. I can tell you that by hour #2 that people were starting to mentally-check out. We were very good (2 state semi appearences losing by a total of 3) but looking back on it now as a coach. So many things could have been done more efficiently. The number 1 thing being that after every play, you have position coaches taking too much time to correct their players on techniue.

We do 3 hour open gyms in the summer and the kids are learning the whole time. Now, its voluntary so not every kid shows up, but those that do, wow are they ever way ahead.