Contact Practices

We only have 20 and have contact 3 days a week.

Got 23 on roster an go full pads and full contact twice a week. Mondays are our film, general defensive adjustment, offense on air day. The Tues and Wed are full blown. I know this opinion will differ with different coaches, and if not going full contact works for some guys then by all means DO IT. However with my kids I have backed off one week last year and didn't feel like we were as physical as other weeks. I feel my guys need the contact and tackling each week. Injuries are a part of the game, I feel like you risk them more if the body isn't conditioned for the contact. JMO

You will find people all over the place on this one. I think contact is something that should be very limited, while others think it should be pretty tough everyday, with many in between the two.

I personally like to have as little contact as possible. It's my job to notice when the kids are starting to play with less aggression or not tackling well, then we will adjust practice based on that.

But scrimmaging (the normal daily practice of youth programs) is very very rare for me. We would rather do drills that we can control what we want to accomplish instead of just having people "pretend" its a game.

To coacharnold, I've found that Olinemen block better if they are older and worse if they are younger. AND, if you have a Oline coach that doesn't know what he's doing, then add youth and you've got a mess on your hands. I don't think it has anything much to do with lack of contact in practice. Olinemen run into each other all day anyway.

But most of the time, teams don't run block well because they are young, and don't know what they are doing. You put a bunch of seniors out there, and they will usually push everybody around. You put a bunch of Soph. out there and they usually don't block anybody.

The team I took over this year was TERRIBLE because the coach they had for the previous 2 years didn't know JACK. So, neither did they. The team had tons of contact and were still sorry as dirt. So, no connection there at all.

OJW

Ours is exactly like tiger and coachsmyly.

Funny you should say that. Our three worst OL who actually saw playing time were all seniors, who we made due with at G because they were the best we had. We had a Jr. LT who was decent, a pretty weak Jr. C, and a Soph. RT who started out bad but improved to become mediocre as the season went on. Overall they were the weakest unit on the team, made up only of the players that nobody else wanted and expected to execute a bunch of new stuff every week.

That was probably the root of our problem far more than the lack of contact, but I have wondered if the lack of full speed contact in practice did affect their utter inability to combo block effectively to LBs or pick up blitzes and stunts. These seniors block about as well as your average midget leaguers.

This team used to be Wing-T for decades, before the HC changed to a spread passing offense about 6 years ago because "we don't have any Gs anymore." We have guys who could probably do it, IMO, but we don't play them there for philosophical reasons/players' reluctance.

But that rant is totally unrelated to the OP's question. Despite our total lack of full pads in practice, we did hit and shed well on defense, and our backs and receivers ran hard on offense.

We also play in a very hard nosed power run conference. 7 of the teams on our schedule based out of the I and wanted to pound it between the tackles with stud TBs, often from double tight and power I sets. Another was a spread-to-run zone team who came averaged about 280 yards a game on the ground. We were 5-3 against these 8 teams. In those 5 wins, we held 4 of them to under single digits in rushing yards.

Offensively, we were spread and our QB led us in rushing with around 650 yards and threw for 2000. We had 3 other backs combine for about 900 yards.

i disagree with 90% of this...respectfully of course. we have several underclassman that do an excellent job. one of our best perimiter blockers is a freshman, and he is out doing most of our seniors. i think there is some merit to what you are saying, but it all comes back to buy in from the players. if you have a freshman make 90% of your workouts, and you coach your butt off, there is no reason he can't be successful. we are of the mindset that seniors shouldnt start just because they are seniors. if an under classman is close to a senior, the underclassman gets the job until he loses it, and they usually don't lose it. now of course, these underclassman have to have to be physically capable of doing the job, i'm not saying that a 120 lb freshman can handle an olb on the perimiter...the only thing you have against the younger guy is experience. but that's the beautiful thing about playing him early. by the time he's a senior...look out. get 4-5 of those 2-3 year starters as seniors, now you have a heck of a season on your hands

AMEN!!!!!!!!!

I am not sure full speed and full practices don't make you WORSE tacklers. Don't get me wrong, we go full speed during spring and summer and about once a week early in the season.

But what happens is your dline just destroys the scout oline and makes everyone look great. You can take improper angles and make a 2 yard loss in practice. And then that comes back to haunt you in games.

Of course this isn't always true - just an observation.

Second that Amen.

One of my favorites, OJW.

To me, if you're not to-the-ground tackling, then you need to make certain that you are teaching them what it means to go "thud" tempo or whatever you call it. Limiting contact doesn't make you soft if you don't let it, but you do need to be vigilant and ready to ramp things up if you're playing soft.

What a great drill - really fun to watch. My only problem or question is that what are the defenders being asked to do? Just shed and make the tackle? Because it sure doesn't look like anyone has gaps or force.