Summer football - Q&A

We met four days a week Monday through Thursday from 9:30 to 11:30. Generally speaking, it was the first hour in the weight room and the second hour on the field. Most of the time, though, it was about 45 minutes on the field due to the weight lifting running over a bit. We were never in pads for these sessions and rarely came together as a whole team. The skill guys were running routes and playing 7 on 7 while the lineman were down on the other side of the field doing indy drills.

Are all your coaches there?

We go Mon-Thur 9-11. 30 min on the field, 1 hour in the weight room. We take a break in between when the kids change shirts and shoes and grab water in the AC.

We have a staff of 7 and generally speaking, 4 of us could be there each time.  One coach was first-year teacher, so he needed to work a summer job and then the other two aren't teachers in the district and couldn't be there in the morning but normally were able to make our 7 on 7s if they were in the evening.

4 days a week. Lift run and practice for about an hour each. 8-11 am. Can't hit each other. This is in NC

Summer is open season here,kind of . We lift MWF, do speed work some too. TTh we work 7-7, part of that is skill work. No pads/contact, but we can use helmets to prevent head to head collisions. There is no limit to the number of day/length of time you can do this.

We can go 7-7 vs another team(s) for a total of 10 days in the summer. Again there is no time limit, just the number of days. No limit to the number of 7-7 teams you can go against in a single day.

There is a dead period with no contact/practice/weight lifting for a week before the preseason starts.

In Texas we can Meet MTWTH and we can have a weight program for them. But we cannot do any football drills or organized practice with coaches present. We can't even coach the 7on7 teams. I'm amazed that some of the things listed that you can do in other states!

We go Tues, Wed, Thurs, in June from 6-8:30 pm. Weights for an hour then drills/conditioning for an hour. End with 30 min of 7 on 7 and Line in indys. In July the state has a mandatory week off for all sports, not just football. After the week off we go Mon-Fri for 2 hours wench day. We Can only have 5 days in pads and must let state know before Memorial Day when those will be. This is in Utah.

What does install look like? Film room or field work?

For comparison, my section (CCS) has never allowed padded practice/scrimmages EXCEPT at camps, which was always vaguely defined.  This lead to some programs going to 3-4-5 different team camps, which got expensive, or lead to some poorly run team camps so that teams could get their scrimmage time in before the season.


I like it, I'm with coachbdud that the demands on kids during the summer are getting ridiculous and this should help.  Get some weights, some speed work, some 7s, that's plenty.

I agree. If I ever become a HC, my team won't do any padded work in the summer even if we're allowed to by state regulations.

I actually like shoulder pads in the summer and hit quite a bit. Pretty physical in the summer actually.

We do this b/c we want to see who can hang in terms of upcoming juniors as well as maybe some seniors who maybe couldn't cut it the year before but worked in the off season. To me the summer is evaluation time and in our style of play physicality is important.
I especially like being a bit more physical in the summer than maybe most b/c our kids have a ton of time to heal up before the season starts. This is where we differ.

Where I think we are similar is that once we hit the season and I think it has been established that our kids understand "what it takes" to play varsity football, then we scale back a ton. Usually by about the 3rd to 5th week (old school guys get ready to clutch your chests, lol) we actually rarely go more than shoulder pads and helmets anymore.

I think this is about the time that we need to start worrying about being healthy and it also seems to lessen "the grind" of the season for the kids. I find that this has actually helped us be more physical on Friday nights b/c our kids seem to feel better. Not as banged up through the week. 

Different strokes I guess. I can see it both ways. We are a smaller school so I would rather get the physical work in early so we can evaluate early on and then stay healthy during game weeks.

I'm in California too (NS) we have only been allowed 10 days of contact. We do a 5 day full contact camp, 7 on 7 June & July. Lineman workouts 3 X a week. Once we get into August it's full go. Just read the release from the NS commissioner on this rule. Seems pretty cut n dry on Zero contact camps. However didn't see anything with coach - player contact or 7 on 7.

Most places Ive been at have been similar to others, M-f 1 hr wt room or running; then a couple days a week an hr on the field. No more than 8-10 hours a week.

Last year, our head coach had the kids going on average 20 hours a week in the summer. It was asinine and blew way past getting positive returns, most of the time spent was wasted and as a coach I found it insulting (not that I put in the hours, I am used to that; but that I was forced to be so inefficient. If it takes you 20 hours a week in the summer you are not coaching right).