What does "team" look like for you?

Four team sessions at 15 plays each. First session: inside run/PA. Second session: outside run/boot. Third session: pass/draw/screen. Fourth: all.

This is our defensive team schedule. Defense isn't supposed to be on the field for 60 plays in a row or until I see what I like. Each team session is followed by an individual session to fix what we saw and prep the next period. We start with 20 minutes of fundamentals and a 15 minute tackle circuit. Practice takes about 2 hours including conditioning. We're low on numbers too. We have 25 frosh/soph and 25 varsity.

Like fantom we do not platoon and have kids playing 3 ways (O,D,ST) this year due to roster size! Doing everything each day is counter productive as he said as well. We do an O day and a D day during the week, but on O days we start with 20 mins of team d and do the opposite on D days. Gotta break it up and let them focus on on side of the ball per day or it gets too crazy.

We also have an offensive day with a tackling period of about 5 minutes or so by position followed by about 10 minutes of team D. On defensive day we have a short Indy O followed by team D for about 10 minutes.

Team is short, usually 10-15 minutes depending on what point of the season we are in. Indy is supposed to be long, thats where you are teaching the kids what to do; team is just a practice test to clean up mistakes. From my perspective (DC) 1st D will face scout O for 6 plays, then 2nd team for 6, I'll bring back 1st team for probably 4 more (pending time). All play calls for both sides are scripted so everyone's position coach knows what to watch for.

Defensively we'll do Inside Drill (6 with 1sts, 6 with 2nds) and 7 on 7 or Team Pass (also 6 1sts, 6 2nds). Offensivly, we're similar except we add a half line perimeter period and there are a couple more plays. Each of those periods are scripted. 

We have on average around 90-100 out, we are sitting at approx 80 9-12 this season after attrition. We platoon with a certain few who help on both sides.
We have a 10 minute period for O and D. We try to get as many plays in as we can and coach on the fly. On Monday we also have new plays/scout period, Tuesdays we have inside run and skeleton, Wednesday we have blitz pick up, and skeleton.
We also emphasize different parts per day during the team period. Monday is general overall, Tuesday has a heavy run emphasis, Wednesday we have a passing/screen emphasis. We polish on Thursday and hit it on Friday.

Depending on the day it could be 1on1's, perimeter blocking/block shed.

Because we attempt to provide equal time to both sides of the ball every day, saving team O or D until the end of practice on that particular day, the kids are just smoked by the time that period arrives. Basically its a marathon practice and one team session is the last leg of the marathon. Therefore, execution is down, tempo is poor, and instead of scripting must-see plays or scenarios, we just run plays until the period is over. There is no goal to get 6 plays or 10 plays or whatever. Its just 25 minutes or so of team, and everybody just slops through it. 

gdn - our numbers are similar to yours. We will alternate what we start with practice each day - offense or defense). It essentially comes to 50 to 60 minutes of work for each side of the ball on a given day. On defense we do 5 Mins pursuit, 10 minutes tackle, 10-15 minutes indy. My remaining time I will work in a combination of inside run, 7-on-7 and team.

What I have done to try to get more competition and our goods on goods (huge dropoff in talent from 1 to 2 for us this year especially) is the following:

1/2 Line Inside Run. - I separate Varsity and JV for this. So at varsity we have about 20 kids. We work strong side and weakside separately in the same period. I bring the DBs over as well. We cross train our CBs and Safeties so I will play with my two safeties so they can see their run fits. Need about 16 to 17 kids for this.

7 on 7 - I keep JV and Varsity together and have a split squad. The strong side of the Varsity D will be out there with the weak side and vice versa. The scout players on the strong side are varsity guys and the scout on the weak side are JV guys. So I get better looks.

Team - We separate for this, but this is basically a glorified walk through for us or a pressure segment. I put down agiles for the OL and use scouts for the backs and receivers. We cover my calls and A & A.

I get nothing out of 11 on 11 for a defensive segment. Offensively, we go about 1/2 and 1/2 between Indy and Team. My OC really likes team periods. We push the sled, and do chutes two to three times a week and that is outside the offensive segment. We use this instead of an Oklahoma type drill because we are paper thin in terms of depth.

We generally go 15 minutes of team offense (sometimes 20 early on) with a script and we go fast. We will get more than 30 reps in a 15 minute period. It's intense, no nonsense, focus up and get it done right. Quick coaching on the run, if a kid needs something more in depth, we sub him out and coach him up. Occasional slow down for something that is for the whole group---but still get our 30 or more in 15.

I have no problem with team at the end (I bet 95% of the teams on this board put it at the end of practice).

The lethargy, poor execution and tempo, etc. is NOT due to tiredness, it is due to a lack of planning.

Organization, not fresh legs, is what leads to a successful team period.

We have a couple of ideas to that end......

1.)  Game Script starts EVERY Team during the week.  We have a 5-7 play starting script of looks we need to see, and we also want our kids to have confidence on Friday night when we open on offense.

2.)  Move the football as yardage is gained or lost.  Creates a goal oriented emphasis ("what are we trying to accomplish?"), and you get a chance to work situational football (conversion and short, 3rd and long, GL, etc.).  In the past, we would even get the chains out to track our down and distance.  I LOVE how some teams actually treat TEAM like a game and bounce from O to D with special teams in between.

3.)  Scout wristbands.  It use to take 45 seconds to show the play, explain the play, and run the play for our scout team.  Now, we just call "play 22" and the wristband has the individual responsibility for each position.  Has made our Blitz Pickup amazingly productive.

Coach, with the scout wristbands, how are you setting them up?

We really teach it just like we teach them to run our stuff.

We call the formation, and then we call the play off the wristband.  We have a list of plays on a laminated insert.

Our scout team coordinator (who I swear one day will give the best clinic talk on this) plays QB for us, because that is the position where things can get really screwed.

Especially when you are prepping for the wing-T.

Anyway, he calls out "Play 3", and our kids check their wristbands for the 3rd play.

Let's say it is "Power Rt.".

We align in Pro-I, and the wristbands have the responsibilities for each player.

So, there is a "Right Guard" wristband that says "double with OT"..........the Center's wristband says "Block Back" and so on.

We can run plays as fast as we want.

We do the same with Defense, and it makes it easy for us get the right blitz looks.  AND, if you script, it is so efficient to make sure you get that one blitz you want to see versus that one play.

The other thing that helps with scout O, in my opinion, is to remove the QB/Center exchange.  We just take the ball off his back.

1.)  It eliminates the bad snap (wasted time)

2.)  It speeds up the mechanics and makes it tougher on our defense.