HOW OFTEN DO THEY NEED WATER?

Depends on a lot of things...heat, humidity, workload, full pads vs. shells, etc, etc.

I think we run as hard of a practice as anybody. Are policy is the water station is on get it whenever you want.will also send them over at shits in practice ( o to d indy to team after tackiling circuit) have never felt players abused it or it interfered with things.

I always tell position coaches to just build water into their drills and Indy/group periods. If its really nasty out we plan for more stoppages and let them cool down. Honestly we let kids get water whenever they need it. We also have water bottles on the field we keep filled and that way they can grab a quick drink in the back of the line too.

Whenever they are thirsty. I always get a new staff member every now and then who asks why we do not make them wait for water. Who cares? Treat kids right and it will come back to you. this is not the Junction Boys, times have changed. Trust me it has not made our kids soft; we are fine.

I'm in Florida. I use the expression "head related issues" and I take it very seriously. There's been a few deaths from heat related issued in Florida within the last 10 years. I can't think of a bigger tragedy than a kid dying at practice from something that is easily remedied.

As the season wears on and it gets cooler (well in the Florida kinda' way) we have less and less breaks.

But I try to have a water break written on the schedule every 20 minutes if everyone is working. There are a few times where I have it after 30 minutes, but that's rare. We don't spend time standing around the water coolers though.
I put the water breaks in writing for legal reasons. I also put on the bottom of every schedule "Coaches, please remember that players are allow water anything they want it." Then I file a copy of every practice schedule for everyday with the AD.

We also have one of those "heat meter" things and we follow that too.

I have a kiddy pool full of water from a water hose in case I have one of those over heated Olineman issues I've read about.
I've never had one, but I've read about them in Florida.

I do everything I can to not put my school, my staff, and myself in a position to be blamed for a kid getting hurt with a heat related issue. While we cannot stop every situation, we can certainly we aware and do the best we can do.

We have water available at EVERY station and EVERY drill during practice. CYA and make sure that everyone knows they are recommended to drink water between every drill and every rep they are not in the live drill.

We budget so that every kid has their own water bottle for practice. The expectation is that it is filled on their own at the start of practice so they're not poaching from the jugs. Once they're out, they can refill.

Like others have mentioned, we tell kids they can have water whenever they need it. To cover our arse, I write in italics at the bottom of the practice plan that "athletes can have water at anytime during practice."

If you think about how often I kid can get water during a game, it only makes sense to make sure that they can get just as much water during practice. Unless you have a player who goes both ways and is on every special-team, they probably can get during every 8 plays or less during a game. We have mandatory heat timeouts in the middle of every quarter during the month of September.

Players should have about 20 oz. of water about an hour before practice starts. So it's an educational process: Educate parents, Educate players to avoid heat concerns. We have scheduled water breaks built into practice. Water, Water, Water you can't enough. We also keep track of the heat index which will dictate practice intensity, equipment prep ect. One final thought, have a written practice schedule documenting your water breaks and an emergency plan in place.

Ditto. This saves a lot of practice time too. My first year, the kids decided that grabbing water mean f- around until we started screaming at them. They'd need more water right after the water break because they'd get their a--es run for being lazy.

So, we had water available at every single station this year.

Whenever they want it.

coach, you are hearing from a guy that played in the late 70's and college in the early 80's...our water break was one piece of ice halfway during practice, one.....my advice is this, in this day in age lawsuits are multiple plus it just makes good sense to take care of your kids and make them feel special....policy has always been to have water available all around the field and i tell the kids to get a swig of water anytime you want as long as it does not mess up your rep or ind, group or team.....we do the same thing about using the restroom, do you as a coach need to be in charge of potty duty, no, our policy has never been abused and we have never had a problem with our kids being dehydrated....our kids are plenty tough on friday night plus they feel empowered by a little freedom to get water and take a crap or piss when they want to....does not make you soft..,.it is a very small way to show they that you care....we are a no huddle team and our practices are very fast paced so do not think we take our time...if you have ever had one fall out on you or die on you while under your care it will change your perspective...advice is only worth what you paid for it