Advice for 1st full pads/contact practice, drills?

We didn't go "full throttle" hitting wise, till everyone learned how to do at least the very basic stuff "safely" and "right".....thats tackling.....blocking/block shedding.....and running with the football....what drills you use to accomplish this, should really depend on your personal preference and the style of play you use....the drills we used for tackling were like the chest to chest style of tackling, if you prefer shoulder tackling, you should use those drills......we taught a combination of both hands blocking and some shoulder blocking techniques, but more hands than anything.....again, whatever you prefer....we played a 61 defense with head up techs/2 gap at the interior positions, so our d-line drills reflected that....same with ball handling/security.....assorted stances....etc....what we taught and used may not be what you guys will use....while some stuff is fairly generic to all football, many drills are specific to the offense or defense you'll play.....depending on the mix of players you have, learning how to do these basic things safely, might take a couple weeks or more........we didn't hit anything but dummies and pads the first week in full equipment......second week was more fit/form part speed or very close qtrs stuff.....maybe by the 3rd week, we went live on most of the drills.....but even then, if a kid couldn't tackle, block or run with the ball properly.....like, lowering their head or using some other poor form, that could hurt them or someone else....they didn't get to hit "live".....the key thing is don't mismatch players......try to keep the groups or one on one matchups with players of equal size/ages/skill levels......while its exciting to get started back in football, and easy to get "amped up" we need to try to remember we're teaching these kids how to play, the fundamentals and basic rules of the game and for many of them, learning contact courage....it takes a while for many kids to enjoy full speed contact, even after they know how to do things right......watching them smack into each other "full throttle", at this early stage of the season, may defeat the purpose?.....I'm not trying to be condescending here, so don't take it that way......just trying to give you the benefit of some of my past mistakes, lol.

I didn’t find it condescending at all! This is my first year as a head coach and I appreciate the advice. We probably won’t do anything more than hitting dummies and pads outside of some of the experienced guys doing some close contact stuff.

I’ve got a handful of first-year kids that won’t go full-contact until they’ve been clearly taught and can demonstrate safe tackling techniques.

I’m already sensing from a few of them that ‘contact courage’ may be an issue based on their approach to running the gauntlet, so we’re going to ease them in slowly before we go full-speed.

We’ve been spending significant time on fit and form already, so I’m glad to hear someone with more experience would go that route. That along with the other evaluation drills we’ve employed is starting to make clear who appear to be good fits for specific positions, but we’ve still got work to do.

Thanks again for the advice!

I start small...I generally use a 10 minute period of the first day, to get the jitters out.

I start small...have guys line up across from one another on all fours, and hit shoulder to shoulder, matching age, size, and talent, of course. After that we move to contact 1 yard apart, from a 3 point stance... At that point, 5 to 10 minutes we have gotten rid of the jitters and cobwebs, and we are ready to go into full conact practice.

I no longer advocate hitting drills for the sake of hitting. I love hard hitting, but I prefer to do it in the confines of the game or drill, that is designed specifically to compliment our offense and defense.

Hamburger drills, man makers, and bull in the ring are injuries waiting to happen.

Oklahomas, on the other hand, are an effective tool in working multiple sides of the ball in the same drill, while working on technique, in an individual or small group setting.