Practice Organization

Now try that with only three days of practice instead of four, and you are in my world...

I'm not used to having so little time on individual stuff. I'm at a new school so I am going to have to adjust. I'm used to 15 min. individual drills, 10 min. pass individual drills, 10 min. play review and then 20 inside and 20 team. Gotta get used to it is all.

dgs,
that is what we do. we call it a group and b group. a group is the varsity kids for O/D, and b group is the JV. when a group is on offense, b group is on defense, and vise versa. our head coach has been doing this since the mid 80's i think.
our practice generally goes something like this:
a group offense / b group defense individual 20 minutes
b group offense / a group defense individual 20 minutes
defense inside runs/pass skel 15 minutes
team defense 15 minutes
offense inside runs/pass skel 15 minutes
team offense 20 minutes to infinity

Our players go both ways but we'd never try to get by with 10 minutes of fundamentals.

Tog, I agree that by the end of the season 10 minutes is all you need most of the time but that is even the way it is going to be in two a days. They were successfull before I got here so it will be interesting to see how it works out in the wash. One good thing is that there are two of us with the o line.

As a normal rule, we have 24 5 min. segments. As coaches we only work one side of the ball. If the varsity is on offense, the JV is on defense. Then after 12 seg. we switch.
Our defensive staff sits down as a group at the beginning of the season to see how we will organize our workouts on a general basis. Then each day we plan the next day's specific workout. HOw much time we spend on each part, indy, group, team, is determined then. Early in the season we spend more on indy, team. As the season advances, we usually cut back on indy, and increase group work.
During 2-a-days we do very little technique work with our front 7, other than read drills. Until we put pads on, we feel players will tend to develop bad habits. We really concentrate on special teams during this time of the year. We work 15 minutes a practice, just on punt return. With our 9th & JV, it will be closer to 20 minutes.
We also will try to get a lot of our team stunts, games, etc. put in during this time. We work a lot of formation recognition and adjustments during this time.
After we put the pads on, then we really start to get after technique work.
We never practice past 6:00 pm. We usually start practice at 4:00. However, regardless of when we start, practice is over at 6. If we start after 4 pm, the number segments are adjusted accordingly. At least 1 of the segments will be for a water break. So, we actually get 11 segments with each group; 55 minutes.
BTW, we do NO conditioning work during or after practice. We do all strength/conditioning during the athletic period.

kw,
I assume the "coaches allow them to develop bad habits" statement was aimed at my post about limiting defensive technique work until we put pads on. We teach our TNT that the first thing that strikes that offensive lineman is his face mask and shoulder pad. It is pretty hard to do that without pads. We teach the concept, but it is pretty hard to actually do it. As a result, without pads the first thing that will strike the offensive lineman are the hands. Our TNT is a slant, penetrate technique, which means basically a dip/rip technique beginning from a 4-point stance. Since we cannot have any contact equipment, except helmets, during those 1st four days, I feel we are better teaching other things and waiting until we put pads on to get serious about that technique. We do 1st step read drills and lber scrape drills every day with our front seven.
BTW, our coaches work their tails off teaching the techniques we want taught, so I would appreciate your not make negative comments about people you don't even know. We all have different ways of teaching the same thing. Our way is just as right as yours.
Thanks.

we are looking at some ideas for our double day practices. We will run 2 morning sessions. Basically we will have the kids from 6 am - noon. Let's hear what other guys are doing.

20 minutes seems like a long time to spend in team. i am of the opinion that the majority of teaching/coaching takes place in group settings. in a 12 period workout we may only use 2 maybe 3 periods (rare) of team. 4 to 5 periods minimum are some type of hull or group. 3 to 4 spent on ind. ol has more ind than others. qb's have the least. qb's split "ind" time with group settings with rec and/or group settings with rb's.

I've used a master board to plan all practices. We meet as a staff after every practice and review the day's practice plan. The review and where we are during the week and the season help us to plan our next day. As we make our plan I fill in the time blocks and who is doing what. This way, each coordinator and every coach has input into what we are doing, the head coach is the final word. Another advantage is that each coach knows what every other coach is doing and how everything fits together. They go home after the meeting and they can mull over in their minds what drills the want to use the next day and how best they will teach what we are going to be teaching. Coaches are expected to coach their players, so I give them the time that they need to do what they need to do to satisfy my expectations of them.Sometimes I have to get on someone, but I do it in a respectful manner so that they see where they are as far as what is needed from them...that's just being a head coach.

Every position is required to have certain positional characteristics as determined by the positional coach. For example a linebacker would be expects to know what we call A,H/S,T,P,C...agility, hit and shed, tackling, pursuit and coverage. We expect our positional coaches to utilize drills for these areas whether or not we are in shorts and shirts, half pads, three quater pads or full pads. Each coach has a way of teaching for his position whether we are in full pads or shorts and shirts. We teach some aspect every time of the year, How much time we spend on each aspect will vary depending on the time of the year. In fact, we have adjusted our lifting to include aspects of teaching, now our player performance development program includes position specific lifts and drills.

Our practices look different from one point in the season to another. When we go to the play-offs, we practice differently from when we are in league, which is different from when we are in pre-league which is different from when we are in two-a-days. The basic fundamentals are the same, but the time commitment to each aspect of player development will change.

Our daily practices vary as well. If we play on Friday night, then Thursday is of course pre-game, Wednesday is our last day of full live hitting and we only hit live for maybe 10 minutes at the most on Wednesdays. Wednesdays are also regular down and distance days...the ordinary downs. We work on our offense and defense that we expect to use on ordinary downs. Tuesdays are our "Tough Tuesdays"...we do most of our hitting on Tuesdays and we taper off after that because we want our players fresh and healthy for the game on Friday night. Tuesdays are short yardage days (my favorite day of the week, how can you tell ?) We work on third and short situations offensively and defensively, as well as goal line situations and the occaisional fourth down situation. Mondays are long yardage days. We work on our blitzes and blitz pick up, screens and draws, hot reads for the week... all the usual long yardage stuff. Everything is scripted every day so each coach knows what is coming so they can watch for certain things and then coach their positions. This also helps us get in many more reps that when we used to do it without a script. Drills are tailored to fit the day's plays, situation and schedule.

Saturdays we meet as a staff and break down the film and grade the players, then the players come in and we check for injuries, review the game film and do game film analysis with the team and some light conditioning and lifting(we also lift one other day of the week for in season maintenance). Afterwards we meet as a staff and again look at the film. By Ten AM, each coach will have looked at the film at least four times, once by himself, once with the team and twice as a staff. The first staff viewing is where the head coach makes his comments about each coaches position, reviews the previous weeks practice plans for how it worked out for the game and what we need to say to the players when they see the film. The second staff viewing is when the staff decides what went right, what went wrong, does self-scout and begins planning for the next week.

On Sundays after church, the staff meets and breaks down the opponents film, makes preliminary notes and discusses what we think will work against the week's opponent. We plan the initial scouting report and each coach has an assigned area of the scouting report that is issued to the players no later than lunchtime Tuesday. Monday's practice is planned and each coach takes home a copy of the opponents game film for further review at his leisure.

All special teams work coincides with the day; punt is on long yardage day, field goal/PAT is on short yardage day, etc.

Naturally, we aren't limited to just that aspect of the game for that day, we can adjust anyday we need to adjust. One great advantage to this system is the sense of urgency that it builds into our people. Our coaches know that we need to cover the material for that day so they get their positions to work hard because they know that we need to move on the net day and that conveys the sense of urgency to the players...which inevitably filters through to the parents and then to the community at large.

As the week goes on, we're usually removing items from our play list, we never add them.

I know that this is long winded, but I got started and got into it and couldn't stop myself. If it's boring then you've probably stopped reading this by now.

Good luck on the upcoming season.