What does week of practice look like?

I am a more is less type of guy. I wasn't always - but now realize that the longer practices really do wear on kids. I've found we have been more productive when the kids know they don't have a marathon practice. The shortest I can get things to is 2.5 hours but that includes 30 minutes of meeting / lifting off the field and 2 hours on the field. I agree that 2 plus hour film sessions, kids lose focus. I've done them but think I need to change this up. This is what I am looking at for next year:

MONDAY

3:30 – 4:30 – Lift
4:30 – 5:00 - 30 Minute Review Friday Night’s Film
5:00 – 5:15 – D Game Plan
5:15 – 5:30 – O Game Plan

TUESDAY – DEFENSIVE DAY

3:30 – 3:50 – Special Teams Meeting
3:50 – 4:00 – Film – Opponent Favorite Plays
4:00 – 4:10 – Warm - Up
4:10 – 4:20 – Live Period
4:20 – 4:30 – Special Teams
4:30 – 4:50 – Indy Offense
4:50 – 5:20 – Indy Defense (Include pursuit)
5:20 – 5:35 – Defensive Skelly (DL – Pass Rush and / or Chutes / Sled)
5:35 – 5:50 – Defensive Inside Run (DB's 1 on 1's)
5:50 – 6:00 - Tackle


WEDNESDAY – OFFENSIVE DAY

3:30 – 4:00 – Lift
4:00 – 4:20 – Special Teams
4:20 – 4:40 – TEAM D – Top 3 Pass / Top 3 Run Plays
4:40 – 6:00 – Offense (My OC will break this down further, just giving him a block of time at this point.)


THURSDAY

3:30 – 3:40 – Warm Up
3:40 – 3:50 – Speed Training
3:50 – 4:10 – Special Teams
4:10 – 4:35– Offense
4:35 – 4:40– Tackle
4:40 – 5:00 – Team D

SATURDAY

9:00 – 10:30

Varsity – Run / lift / Stretch
JV – On the Field - TEAM

This is what I would exactly want to do. I'm the HC so I can make this change but my assistants argue that it is little time to prepare. Also, I feel like this makes you prepare for scheme but not technique and our issue is we lose games to technique not scheme. Do you feel as though you are having enough time to prepare with this schedule? How has you team done with it?

Less is more IMO. One of the best things we did this past year was actually follow our practice plan timeline...so if our Indy period ended at 4:00pm and transitioned into inside run, for example, we ended our indy period at 4pm! This was quite a change from previous years, but I believe it helped us (coaches) teach / coach smarter & quicker, kept the tempo up at practice ("Hey guys, we have 2 minutes to finish _______, let's go!). We practice between 2 hours and 2 hours 15 min.

One more thing we encouraged was to get guys out to practice before practice actually began (pre-practice). We did not make it mandatory but the majority of our coaches would be at the field 15-30 min early and the players would work on snaps, kicking, pass routes, etc...good way to get extra work in AND see who really wanted to get better.

I'm not sure how having an actual class makes it different, but each section has their own rules in regards to balls and equipment.

Also-no warm-ups at all. Went right into practice.

Do you feel like you had more injuries by not warming up? How intense was that first passing period?

We have a couple of Weight Training classes during the day which allows us to get our lifts in before school is out.  

Monday (Shells)
3:30 - 3:40  Warm Ups
3:40 - 4:00  Gassers/PIE (Personal Improvement Exercises)  *Stole this from Coach Plaa
4:00 - 4:30  Defense (DC Plans this time)
4:30 - 5:00  Offense

Tuesday (Full Gear) Defensive Day
3:30 - 3:45  Warm Ups
3:45 - 4:00  Sp. Teams
4:00 - 4:30  Offense
4:30 - 5:30  Defense
5:30 - 5:40  Tempo and Finish

Wednesday (Full Gear) Offensive Day
3:30 - 3:45  Warm Ups
3:45 - 4:00  Sp. Teams
4:00 - 4:30  Defense
4:30 - 4:40  Live Period
4:40 - 5:00  Off. Indy
5:00 - 5:10  Tempo and Finish
5:10 - 5:25  Inside Run (WR/DB 1 on 1 and Screens)
5:25 - 5:40  7 on 7 (OL/DL Pass Rush/Pass Pro and Screens)

Thursday (Helmets)
We follow our pre-game script.  We send specialists out first, then skill, then line.  
Team Stretch
Roll Call
Script
Usually off the field by 5:00, sometimes sooner

And the lion usually takes awhile patiently stalking after the prey at a slower pace...carefully selecting the easiest prey...probably with a constant adrenaline build-up in the blood stream anticipating the kill.

On the other hand, I did agree with a HC that explained one of his older assistants pointed out that when he was in Vietnam they didn't exactly take time to "warm-up" when they come under attack by the Vietcong...of course the adrenaline level probably goes way up quite quickly there too.

I need to focus and knock out another Master's project on this snow day because I've spent way more time on huey here than I had planned.

We don't do a static stretch as part of our warm-up, it is all dynamic. If we are going to do a static stretch we do that as part of a cool down, but we typically only do that once a week. I like a dynamic warm-up because I think it allows the kids to work coordination, athletic movements and get warm-up all at the same time. It's also the track coach in me - I would never have the kids do a hard sprint workout without a proper warm-up. This to me is just risking injury. I don't look at football all that much different.