Two a days - Getting banged up?

You just described our team! It was like I was reading a report about us. We had about a dozen walking "wounded" but when I reminded them that the ones that did not practice would not go to the scrimmage this week and / or suit up for games before which they had not practiced, suddenly, they were healed. A miracle!!!
I never want to jeopardize our kids' health, I know we have legitimate injuries, I just think that for the reasons you listed, there are some that: 1. might not be tough yet 2. are using a small injury to get out of a little work 3. or both.
Because of depth issues, we will try to minimize uncontrolled contact in our drills but ultimately, it's football and I don't know how to do it without the collisions that are part of the game.

gacoach you are correct IMO!! Are shade said he hurt his knee and was crying around and limping like he blew it out...We have a trainer that comes in from a sports medicine place about every other day and checks our kids out. He said the kid has a bruise on his quad other than that it is fine!! Man it can give you fits, espicially when it is a kid you need on the field and he is just being a big wuss.

I completely agree.

But I would say "are you in pain or injured" instead of "hurt or injured."

I know exactly what you mean, but sometimes kids don't.

We just make it pretty simple. You're hurt and miss anything, you make up all the conditioning. Plus 2 miles for missing the practice. A lot of the "nagging" injuries go away with that. We also have a rule that you miss a quarter of play on Friday if you miss a practice because of injury. Miss more than 1 practice and you don't play at all. It covers our butt from liability and helps to get rid of the guys who like to sit out because they are "injured (tired, lazy,etc)"

My answer: No.


I like coachf's approach, but I would obviously tailor it to exclude "excused" practices. "Unexcused" practices would be ones where the player sits out himself, and therefore require more running/loss of PT. I'm sure coachf has a rule (written or not) to this effect.



What coachf is talking about works. Just yesterday, my starting MLB tells me he "can't" do tackling drills, because he pulled some ligaments in his thumb. I tell him fine, then you are sprint around the field during D-indy. He does one lap, gets back and says "i don't care how bad it hurts, I ain't running". He started going hard and realized it doesn't hurt that bad.


After practice, he thanked me for turning him into a man..........I told him I ain't done yet.

Alright coach. I got that, and I agree with you. Players are softer---they are coddled and told nothing is their fault------we've lost the values of toughness and responsibility.

No one sat out on my team in high school, because the jeering was worse than playing through the pain.........my two best friends as a case in point: One broke his hand (never told anyone just taped it himself) and the other did something to his ankle (we never found out because he refused to go to the doctors----I assume something broke in there)........I was the pansy of the group because I didn't get injured!

Now, (sigh), those days are gone---------this is part of the reason why i coach---------to instill in some young man the toughness, responsibility and work ethic to carry him through life.

IMO, you can have those three things, and live a better life than most.

We only go once a day and we have kids dropping like flies. Lost 2 starting OL in the first scrimmage to a knee injury and a broken arm.

Phantom makes a grea point.

At our school the Trainer is ultimateley involved in making the call. If a kid gets a headache, has back soreness, a hamstring, or a groin they all most always are pulled from the next practice.

We never argue with a trainer.

Next year we are going to run more in June. We lifted and did plyo's but probably did not run enough to avoid all the cramping, shin splint, and back soreness that we are seeing in our heavier kids.

We will make a big presetnation about the issue of soreness vs. and injury during our non cotact sessions. We need to coach up mental toughness and overcoming discomfort. We also need to let the kids know the consequnces of sitting out practices. I also like make up condition sessions.

We have found our second wind! Two days ended yesterday and we looked stronger and healthier in our last practice then we did on Tuesday when I posted this.

We don't have a full time trainer. Only one on Friday nights and Saturday morning.

How do you keep track of that?

It's pretty simple for me; if you are REALLY HURTING (i.e. injured); GO GET CHECKED OUT. If you dislocate your shoulder (happened yesterday); you're INJURED- GO GET CHECKED OUT!
If you rolled your ankle and it's kind of tender but you can run on it; don't bother getting checked out, you're HURT and you practice. One thing you have to explain to kids; INJURY PAIN is DEBILITATING; you can't function. When you truly do serious damage (as a lot of us have experienced), every day life gets difficult; not just football. HURT PAIN is functional; you can still do your job, just suck it up.

Bring me back a note from the doctor/trainer stating what you can and can't do; we go from there. But you damn-well better be doing everything that note says you can do; PERIOD. If not, I won't play you; no matter how good you are. If you're going to sit on the sideline when you've got an OWIE, fine. But don't expect to play for me period.

My starting center has a bruised rib; painful, but not debilitating. Doc's note clears him for all contact but suggests a rib protector. Kid doesn't bring a rib protector, and the BRUISE starts to hurt him worse. He sits out of drills and complains about it; even after I tell him to suck it up. I sank him to the bottom of the depth chart; he's practicing now.

I hear ya there dcohio.


The darndest things happen when you take away their starting spot and tell them they're not playing.

I stopped dishing out extra conditioning for our "Club-Med" kids a long time ago. It wasn't a very good motivator for the kids... The instant gratification of not having to practice RIGHT NOW overwhelmed the though of extra conditioning. BUT- telling them they were going to ride the pine for an entire game sure did help.